As it did last year, the museum will collaborate with the Scandinavia House in New York to present the festival virtually.
While I truly miss the experience of watching films together with friends, virtual festivals are Covid safe and convenient for working people.
Other films to be screened include Giitu giitu/Thank You Lord, a visual short film about “the Laestadian trance” by filmmaker Elle Sofe Sara. I’m intrigued, being familiar with liikutuksia (“movement”), the repentance ritual still practiced in the Old Apostolic Lutherans and other Laestadians.
Suodji/Shelter is a darkly comic film by Marja Helander (whose lovely Birds in The Earth is currently looping in the Finnish Landscapes exhibit). During the 1918 Flu Pandemic in Utsjoki, the Helander’s relative Ovllá-Ivvár decided to fool Death and take his fate into his own hands — what if one tried to do that now?
The full program will be announced and tickets released at the end of September.
Laura Ricketts is a master crafter and teacher who has made a study of Sámi knitting patterns on her travels to Sápmi. I had the pleasure of taking one of her classes at the Nordic Museum’s annual knitting conference a few years ago. She generously agreed to give a talk for us Sámi diaspora a few days later, at the Swedish Club, bringing samples of mittens that were simply stunning.
Laura is returning to Seattle again this fall, and she also has a class at the Northhouse Folk School.
Her classes sell out quickly so don’t hesitate if you have an interest.
Elli Karin Paval has a recipe at Slow Food Sápmi for smoked goat cheese that looks easy and delicious. Below it is converted it to U.S. Standard and reduced in quantity.
If you’ve never made goat cheese, check out this primer first.
If you don’t have access to a kåta, the Swedishterm for goahti(a hut or tent), you can use a smoker or covered grill. The flavor of the smoke depends on the type of wood used.
Rennet is a coagulant made from animal enzymes; a vegetarian version is also available.)
Smoked goat cheese
5 cups fresh goat’s milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
2-1/2 tsp. rennet
1. Heat the milk to about 86 degrees F, do not let it boil.
2. Add rennet. Stir. Let stand for about 60 minutes.
3. Heat milk to about 99 degrees F. Take off heat and cool until it clumps into a curd.
4. Stir the curd. Squeeze out as much whey as possible and pack into a mold.
5. Place mold in a drying rack inside a smoker.
6. Smoke the cheese for a few hours (the longer, the stronger). It is easy to dry out.
At 01:19, you can hear Sandra Ericksen Eira joiked by Hans Ole Eira, Sámi Grand Prix winner (introduced by singer and actor Mikkel Gaup)
The uptick in Covid cases in Washington state means most of us are back to donning masks indoors, avoiding crowds, and washing our hands extra long. Just when we were getting out and about! It doesn’t have to be this way. Please persuade your friends and relatives to consult their doctors about vaccines, not social media, and then boost their immunity (and yours) by thanking them and staying in touch. Community boosts immunity!
Our ancestors lost so many of their loved ones to smallpox, pertussis, cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, you name it. I made a list based on death records for my own family and it was hearbreaking. So many children! Let’s do all we can to protect our most vulnerable.
Some of the events are online only. Follow Seattle Sámi on Facebook for the most current info.
Sandra will help install the lodge’s Sámi flag, talk about her role in the Sámidiggi, work as a sea captain, and whatever else she would like to share. There will be time for Q&A (maybe we can persuade her to tell how her home town inspired the film Ofelaš/Pathfinder.) A relief to some of you, we will NOT be singing the anthem together (thanks, Covid). We will listen instead. But, there will be cake! Free. In person only. No need to register. Questions? Email JoAn Rudo at the Lodge.
The exhibit is excellent, and no doubt the talk by photographer Randall Hyman & curator Max Stevenson will be fascinating. Hyman has been around the world as a Nat Geo photog. That said, it’s unfortunate the only Sámi included are two dimensional. We can all help our Nordic institutions adhere to the principle of “nothing about us without us” by flexing our memberships. (Join up to speak up!) Free. Online (registration required) and in person.
Two friends active in the Sámerican community are among the Fulbright poets sharing their work. Both did their Fulbrights in Finland, and both are extraordinarily talented. Tim Frandy is also the father of a charming toddler, professor of folklore, and translator of Inari Sámi Folklore, the first polyvocal anthology of Sámi oral tradition ever published in English. Cheryl Fish is professor of English, an essayist (from whose work about Sámi artistic response to resource extraction I learned the term “elegiac ecojustice”) and poet whose recent book, The Sauna is Full of Maids, romps through Finnish sauna culture and friendship. Free. Online only (register at link).
Do you want to share an event? Feel free to contact me here.
Elli Karin Paval has a recipe at 
Seattle Sámi 