trip01: Planning a Journey
An excerpt from a PATREON post from SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
Since March 2022, I have been planning a 3 week journey to Sápmi by way of Finland.
I will fly out on October 5th (MSP>KEF>HEL>OUL) and return on October 26th.
To start, for those that don't know, Sápmi is a region of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The Sámi/Sami/Saami people are the indigenous people to/of this region and suffered in similar ways to Native Americans under the rule of the Swedish crown, Russia, and ultimately Norway and Finland as well, as they gained their own national independence. Traditional cultural practices were lost or went under the surface for several hundred years at the hand of assimilation to church and state in Nordic countries and in the United States among immigrants. I will refrain from going too deeply into a history lesson here, but it is important to know that I am continually researching the history of my ancestral region in order to understand what my ancestors lived through and how that still plays out today. If you have any questions, I am happy to try to answer them.
Just as my artwork is tied to my searching, this trip is centered on following the thread of my grandfather Helmer's grandmother Wilhelmine. I have long mourned the void of growing-up without my grandmothers and Helmer filled more than his share as the only grandparent I knew growing-up. We had a connection - I was born on his birthday. He came to Finland for the first time in his life the same time I was in Oulu as an exchange student in 1995/96. He was there, searching for information about his mother's parents. In the later years of his life, he found connection with his mother's father's family - the Stjerna family is large and expands out from the Holmes City/Alexandria, MN area. I have now met three Stjerna cousins who are the holders of their family's ancestry. Helmer learned, as I am learning now, that the Stjerna's descend from a leader of the Maanselkä Siida (siida = Saami community)(see the location on the map below) in the Kuusamo region of Finland who is noted in court records as legally defending men from his siida who were charged with not converting to Christianity in 1668. A
I don't believe he learned as much about his grandmother Wilhelmine's family, though I learned last year that he used to share a story about his Grandmother’s reindeer often enough that my mother was able to relay it to me when my ears would ponder what it meant.
Since hearing the story in early 2021, I have been pulled towards Wilhelmine. The story also awakened my blood to the fact that I am not 100% Finnish as I believed growing-up. The more I learn about the Sámi experience, the more I feel my real feelings - and they are complicated. So complicated. Even as I write this, I feel waves of imposter syndrome crashing over me. The inner dialog of whiteness. I was not raised with Sámi culture, but I have always felt "different" from who I felt I was supposed to try to be. I also see my Finnish culture differently - especially as I learn about the ways that nation-borders impacted culture - not only of the Sami, but also of ethnic Finns in the Torne River Valley that was divided by the Sweden/Russia-Finland border. (Russia took Finland from Sweden in 1810 and Finland gained independence from Russia in 1917.) For months I have been searching to prove that Wilhelmine was Sámi (or mixed) and not simply Kven. Just yesterday I may have discovered a jackpot of information about this very thing. Time will tell.
With the help of family knowledge, Ancestry dot com, my Norwegian speaking friend Julianna, and by taking a non-linear path of keeping my senses open - I have crafted half of my trip around Wilhelmine's lineage. Returning first to her birthplace in the Kvænangen Municipality. I will be staying in a small village called Kjækan where Julianna believes (from the 1865 Norwegian census) she lived with her parents and younger brother. I’m inquiring on regional Facebook groups to determine if any relatives still live in Norway. Mostly, though, I want to simply spend time in her birthplace - on the sea coast of mountainous tundra and fjords and let that place sink into my body memory.
From there I will visit the birthplaces of her parents - Kaunisvaara in the Torne River Valley and Vettasjärvi - both in Sweden. Her (great) grandparents come from Purnu & Ullati in the Gällivare area. Each of these places are dots on the map, not even quite villages but simply places where people live (-or- the land they used to pay taxes on so their reindeer could roam.) Through the information I discovered yesterday, Wilhelmine's great grandfather *seemed to be established* in the Sjokksjokk siida (refer back to the siida map above) which would indicate they spoke either Lule Sámi or North Sámi. (There are 10 different Sámi languages) I'm hoping that I have even more clarity about my ancestors in this region of Swedish Sápmi by the time I leave, but the learning and knowing is fluid. (Which means, I reserve the right to be wrong about anything I have claimed here, if I learn more in the future!)
Additionally, I will be visiting with known cousins on my paternal side. For the very first time, I will stay on the Matti family farm in Turtola - which is still operational and has been operated by the Matti family (my dad's mother's family) for the past 250 years. It sits right on the Finnish side of the Torne River. I will also return to the Salmela farmstead in Simo with relatives that I met back in 1995/96. My cousin will be hosting me in Oulu on the front & back ends of my driving journey up north. It feels wonderful to have these real-life, present-day, family relationships there.
I will end my trip spending time with my best friends who live in Tampere and then with my host sister who now lives in Espoo.
October is not usually a popular time for people to visit the North - cold and dark - but it was much more affordable - and I'm made for the climate. The darkness has its perks: I cannot wait to take in the Northern Lights! Generally speaking, I am so excited ... and a little nervous, but that's required on an epic journey, right?
