Life was fond of us. The sun in heaven’s space and the earth sought in its arms gifts. The reindeer roamed, the salmon climbed.”

Proven SustainableSámi - PSSámi
Written by Blog Post Author

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (neels-ah-slock fahl-kay-ah-pah)

Sámi poet

IMAGE SOURCE: Stiftelsen Lásságámmi. Facebook post. 23 Mar. 2018. | QUOTE SOURCE: Ellis Quinn. Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. “The sun’s progress.” Books from Finland online archive. Issue 1/1991.

IMAGE SOURCE: Stiftelsen Lásságámmi. Facebook post. 23 Mar. 2018. | QUOTE SOURCE: Ellis Quinn. Nils-Aslak Valkeapää. “The sun’s progress.” Books from Finland online archive. Issue 1/1991.

QUOTE CONTEXT: “…grouse laughed, the geese flew, the cloudberry ripened. If a part of these heights becomes water the air breathes in the north”

QUOTE QUESTION: What gifts have the sun and the earth given to your people?

IMAGE CONTEXT: “Today, Valkeapää would have reached the age of 75. We remember him today with his own text.”

IMAGE QUESTION: What gifts from the earth did you hold as a child?

MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote is from a poem and the image is from a friend’s Facebook post.

MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: How do poetry and family memories help you to resist and survive?

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“The roots are where it starts… Sun, moon, land, animals are important… I am not the main thing here, the human.”
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“The river cannot be separated from the families, and the families cannot be separated from the salmon.”