Upcoming in May 2023, the Greifswald-based festival Nordischer Klang again offers a fulminant and diverse cultural programme with music, literature, films, exhibitions and lectures on the Nordic countries and the Baltic Sea region. The full programme can be found here.
With support of the IRTG “Baltic Peripeties”, this year’s Nordischer Klang puts a special focus on Sámi cultures and history to mark the anniversaries of the Sámi parliaments in Finland and Sweden: a double concert evening with the Sámi bands Áilu Valle & Boogiemen and Tundra Electro, a screening of the film “Eatnameamet – Our silent struggle” by Suvi West, and a panel discussion with archaeologist and researcher Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, the producer of “Eatnameamet” Emmi Nuorgam, and IRTG “Baltic Peripeties” doctoral fellow Paul Kirschstein.
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Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle (FIN 2021)
Tuesday | 9 May 2023 | 18.00 | Lecture Hall, Wollweberstr. 1
Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle is a political documentary revealing the Finnish government’s assimilation and colonisation policy towards the Sámi people. The Sámi people are fighting for their existence and their uncertain future with political acts. Eatnameamet is a pamphlet and a cry for help for the future of the only indigenous people of the European Union – through the voices of the Sámi people themselves. (more info)
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Sámi Sessions: Tundra Electro (N/FIN) and Áilu Valle & Boogiemen (FIN)
Tuesday | 9 May 2023 | 20.00 | STRAZE, Stralsunder Str. 10
Tundra Electro combines the traditional vocal style of the Sámi with electronica, improvised music and elements of classical Indian music. The duo was founded in 2016 by Sámi singer Ingá-Máret Gaup-Juuso and Norwegian musician and composer Patrick Shaw Iversen. Patrick Shaw Iversen arranges the music, while Ingá-Máret Gaup-Juuso’s singing combines more than 100 years old yoiks with new yoiks and her own lyrics. (more info)
Áilu Valle is considered one of the first rap artists in a Sámi language. The now 37-year-old hails from Anár (Inari) on the Finnish side of Sápmi, and raps in Northern Sámi, Finnish and English. His solo album Viidon sieiditt is an acoustic representation of the Sámi’s relationship to their environment. Using various sounds recorded directly from nature – birdsong, wind rustling, wolves howling, mosquitoes buzzing – Áilu Valle reckons with colonialism, environmental threats and climate change. He comes to Greifswald with his accompanying band, the trio Boogiemen. This Sámi formation is strongly influenced by hard rock and was founded in 2013. (more info)
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Panel Discussion: Sámi Cultures, Sámi Challenges
Wednesday | 10 May 2023 | 18.00 | Alfried Krupp Institute for Advanced Study Greifswald
The panel addresses historical and current aspects of the Sámi’s struggle for their rights, and especially includes issues important for Sámi identification such as preserving cultural heritage, protection from assimilation policies and dealing with the challenges of climate catastrophe. To kick off the event, Eeva-Kristiina Nylander from the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin will provide insights into her work on one of the most important Sámi collections outside Northern Europe, as well as central questions of provenance research and restitution of Sami cultural property. In the panel discussion, Eeva-Kristiina Nylander will be joined by Paul Kirschstein from the IRTG “Baltic Peripeties”, whose doctoral thesis at the University of Greifswald deals with the construction of the Alta Dam in northern Norway in the 1970s and the resulting Sámi protest movement, and the Sámi activist and producer of the film “Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle” Emmi Nuorgam. (more info)