In Underfoot, Holmberg asks what prevents an industrialized nation-state from achieving its desire to extract maximum resources. 

His answers are people and their connection with land. Writing in Northern Sámi, he creates a world of symbols to enact the challenges of maintaining an immediate relationship with land in the midst of ongoing settler colonialism and displacement. 

Specifically, Underfoot summons readers to return to their feet because that’s where we’re constantly in contact with the ground. The book’s antagonist, the shoemaker, markets comfort and warmth. The moment that we put on the shoe is when we offer ourselves to capitalism and mechanization. That’s when we replace our values of sustainability and communality with egoism and individuality. 

The poetry is interwoven with illustrations by Sami artist, Inga-Wiktoria Pave.