trip07: Vettasjärvi
Excerpt from a PATREON post from OCTOBER 21, 2022
By the time I started driving west into Sweden, I had been driving on many kinds/widths/speeds/qualities of roads, but I wasn't entirely prepared to be driving along long stretches of unpaved roads to reach Vettasjärvi. It looked like work was being done, because signs announced men at work, but the extent of that work was very unclear with no actual men or equipment present & working. It seems that many roads in more remote areas are unpaved in Sweden. They are heavily packed and I was able to drive close to normal speeds on most, but it really did make me reflect on the priorities of the area - or maybe I should say that it made me notice that Sweden prioritizes certain things over others in this area - Swedish Sápmi. The big roads leading to and from the mines had wider lanes and were maintained well. The roads leading to Sámi populated areas were unpaved for long stretches. Maybe there are other, more generous, reasons for it but they don't come quickly to mind. I take time to describe the roads because it was a tangibly different aspect of place that I hadn't encountered previously on my journey ... and I suspect it reflects a difference in attitude that I don't fully grasp yet.
I like to say that I planned this trip on the wind, because I needed outside forces to push me into realizing I was worthy of making this trip - even without gratification in the form of grants. Flowing with the wind meant looking for signs and waiting for signs. But eventually I needed to reserve lodging to solidify my route. I still only had names and birthplaces of Wilhelmine and her parents so I alotted time to go to the birth places, fully aware that there may only be houses or simply a sign signifying the place. What does it mean to visit a place this way - without knowledge about "this is where" their lives specifically existed? How do I plan for that? I didn't know.
On most levels, I didn't know what I was doing beyond seeking the dot on the map. Given the distances traveled, I think my unknowing helped me see a bigger picture told through movement (and their migration) from one place to another. I accepted from the beginning that my experience of these birthplaces would not be specific.
At the same time, I was starting to know my new-found cousin Julie who was feeding me information that has taken her twenty years to compile. We have exchanged messages thru messenger during my entire journey. I knew she had the potential to give wind to my sails if the timing worked out. At the very least, she helped me trust the long long history I was uncovering.
So .... I drove towards the dot on the map.
Vettasjärvi was the birthplace of Wilhelmine's father - Adam Persson Vettainen. But also of Adam's father - Per Hansson Purnu. AND ... it is the place where Per's father -Hans Mickelsson Purnu- settled after losing his reindeer herd. But really, Vettasjärvi is the home of Anna Persdotter Heiva, the woman Hans Mickelsson Purnu married on April 5, 1790 (likely in the Lappkyrkan (Gamla Kyrke) in Gällivare). So, this family line had deep roots in Vettasjärvi for many generations before Adam was born. To compound the connection further, Wilhelmine's mother's mother was also born here, because Anna Kaisa Hansdotter Purnu (W's grandmother) was also Hans & Anna's child - making Wilhelmine's parents cousins, and doubling this Heiva/Purnu family line in my lineage. So much unknown about actual lives lived, but this is the place.
So, after driving for a while along paved and unpaved and paved again Kalixälvsvägen, I arrived at the "Welcome to Vettasjärvi" sign. I turned right to enter the loop that is Vettasjärvi:
There are more houses/residents in Vettasjärvi than I expected, especially given how remote the place is. I pulled my car into what appeared to be a busstop (it's not) where the community message board stood, a tiny spot to pull over where my car won't block the road. The place was quiet, apart from the sound of a tiny stream trickling towards the lake. I pulled out the drone and launched from the top of my car. Up up up it goes and I am able to take-in a view of the place from the perspective of a bird. I turn the drone in a circle to capture a 360° view, but my eyes always comes back to the lake and a few red and white houses/out-buildings closest to it. After landing the drone, I snap a few pictures of a wild stretch of land and a wild little driveway leading down to the house by the lake. With that, I completed by visit to Vettasjärvi.
At my request Julie sent me an old photo of the ancestral house in Vettasjärvi, but I didn't receive it until I arrived at my hotel in Gällivare that night. Julie also connected me via messenger with our relative Lennart in Pajala. After speaking to him on the phone, I learned that he actually lives in Vettasjärvi - to my very pleasant surprise! He welcomed me to return to Vettas the next day. I accepted!
Before I went to sleep that night I looked at the image julie sent me and then checked the photos I took earlier that day. I had mostly taken drone footage and only snapped a few photos. But, as I looked through them, I gasped .... Could it be????
