COPENHAGEN, Denmark — An artist from the indigenous Sami community in Norway’s Arctic region is drawing attention to the country’s policy of culling its reindeer population.

In a display outside the country’s parliament in Oslo, Maret Anne Sara has hung a curtain made of 400 bullet-ridden reindeer skulls.

To protest culling reindeer herds, Maret Anne Sara poses by her artwork of 400 bullet-ridden reindeer skulls near Parliament in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday. Associated Press/Heiko Junge, NTB Scanpix

She told Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Wednesday that the government’s reindeer-reduction policy is “totally wrong and unfair.” She was not immediately available for comment Thursday.

The policy aims to prevent overgrazing on the tundra where Norway’s estimated reindeer population of 220,000 live.

She is supporting her brother, Jovsset Ante Sara, who has twice successfully legally challenged an order for him to kill 41 of his 116 reindeer. He said he can’t make a living with that scale of slaughter.

The government is appealing.

According to The New York Times, Norway’s Sami minority is best known for its traditional practice of reindeer herding. Reindeer herders across Norway are required to kill a percentage of their animals as part of the government’s reindeer-reduction policy.

The Sami claim the reduction policy is arbitrary and unnecessary.

The Sami have their own government, but it is mostly subservient to the Norwegian government.

“It’s a shame and a pity that you have to drag along 400 heads around the world to get the word out there about our reality, to find a voice,” Marat Anne Sara, Jovsset Ante Sara’s sister, told The New York Times.

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