The sami people

The Sami people lives in the northern parts of four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia (the Kola Peninsula). In earlier times Sápmi (the land of the Sami) covered a much bigger part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, probably also more of northern Russia.



Lapps, Finns or Sami?
In earlier times the Sami were called Lapps (as in Lapland and Lappmarken) and Finns (as in Finnmark and Finland). During the centuries when they were suppressed by their majority neighbours the names 'Lapp' and 'Finn' acquired a disparaging value (in English the word 'Finn' means an inhabitant of Finland).

In the last decades Sami (or same in Norwegian and Swedish), derived from their own word sámit, has replaced the older names.



How many Sami?
Assimilation makes it difficult to give exact numbers for the Sami population today. They are at least 30 thousand, but they may be twice as many. The majority lives in Norway, where population numbers are at their most uncertain. Not only has assimilation gone very far in many areas, in addition a lot of Sami have moved to other parts of the country.

Russia has the smallest part. There are two thousand Sami on the Kola peninsula, fighting to survive as an ethnic group. A life-threatening environment in only one of their enemies!



The language
The Sami language is related to - but very different from - Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. Is it divided into many dialects. Over the centuries each of these dialects developed until most of them became mutually unintelligible. However, the North Sami dialect is spoken by a majority of the population, and is the most used dialect in literature and education.

Almost all Sami speak the official language of the state where they live, but far from all speak Sami. However, the Sami language is now expanding among the groups who lost it due to assimilation and cultural suppression.


From:
http://www.borgos.nndata.no/samer.htm

Yogi-tea wisdom

To learn, read.
To know, write.
To master, teach.

GB1

Christmas memories!

This is such a cool movie! I have seen it many times, but never from the beginning. I always turn on the TV and there it is just finishing! I remember when I was younger, maybe only a child I saw the end of this movie and though "wow, what a beutiful song!" And I sang "mom is home, now you can open the door, dont be afraid now, not anymore" all christmas. That was all of the lyrics I knew, and had no idea of what the movie was called or where to get hold of it. But I accidentally have tuned into this movie every year since! They show it every christmas in Norway it seems. And I have seen it twice this year! But still havent seen the beginning.... I love it! :D And now I know what it is called too! Maybe I will be able to see the beginning soon.... :D

Samisk te

Skierri (djevrgbjerk, Betula nana), egner seg ypperlig til te og har vært brukt som urt blant samene i årtier, så dermed passer det rimelig bra å kalle drikken for samisk te. Drikken er både god og næringsrik.

Man samler friske dvergbjerkkvister med bladene på og henger dem med toppen ned til tørk. Når de er tørre, tar man bladene av, og de danner grunnlaget for teen.

Man koker opp en kasserolle med vann, har en håndfull tørre blad i og lar det småkoke i 20 minutter. Så lang kok er nødvendig for å få fram den gode smaken og en drikk som kan nytes.

Fra:
http://www2.nordhordland.no/matsider/index.php?maincat=22&subcat=147&recid=12187

Back from Berlin!

Pic from the Hafla by Christiane Uhlich. Samantha Emanuel and me!


I am back in my bed from a week in cold Berlin. Not that Oslo is any warmer, but here I have my own bed at least... It is the best bed in the world!

I have been in Berlin 2 times this autumn for a 5 day Tribal Cross-training with Sharon Kihara and Samantha Emanuel from the Bellydance superstars, and Beata and Horacio, two world famous dancers living in Berlin. Everyday we had 7 hours of dancing, starting off with 1 hour warm up (yoga or other stretching and strenghtening), then 1 hour ballet with Horacio, following with 1 hour Oriental technique with Beata, break for 30 mins, 1,5 hours Tribal Fusion with Sharon, and finally 1,5 hours of American Tribal Style with Sam. That was hardcore training let me tell you!
When we called it "beaing deadead by Sharon and Sam" we werent joking!

So now I was there for my second and last week. It was so nice to go back again. Now we know each other better, and had a good time together. We did some cool excersises with sharon and Sam that made us grow closer togehter as a gruop, so it was sad to leave not knowing if we would meet again...

I took my first Ballett-classes in my life and I thought it went pretty well. I got so much better at spinning, I cant belive it! I always just get dizzy and dont want to practice it because of that, but now we did spins every day, and they were improving quickly!

Heike Humphreys and I shared a room at a hotel Heike had booked for us close to the studio, and we had alot of fun there making up or own vampire- and elf-ballett...hihi pretty funny! I think the ballett-classes definately will be useful in future dancing.

So for future refrences:

What I learned from Horacio:
- Always stand very straight and look front and up.
- lift from the back and keep the abs strong.
- Small steps while spinning.

What I learned from Beata:
- "which one of my schizos-personalities should I be today?"
- The pretty foot - heel is inwards.

What I learned from Sharon:
- tips to make your body move even,cause we often are not same on both sides.
- Butoh

What I learned from Sam:
- Walk from the hip
- Turn your lights on in front and also the back


Of course I learned much more, but this is the main things that are left in my mind when I look back...

The saturday we all performed for each other. It was so much fun to see the other dancers, and there were so many different styles. That is always fun to see! And Samantha performed a choreo I had seen on youtube, and though "wow, wish I could see that live", and now I got too! It was such an inspiering evening for me! :D

Working on my new single!

The first studio-session for my new single went well! Juhani Silvola and I were in the studio for 5 hours and we have the skeleton of the song ready already! Very effective working I must say! Juhani who has been playing guitar with me since 2008 is producing this single for me to release it at by:Larm. I am so glad he wanted to do it, and I am so looking forward to releasing it!
Juhani has by the way just finished recording a new albmun for his band "Sacred Harp". I love that band! Cant wait to hear the album! You should absolutely visit them at:

http://www.myspace.com/sacredharpmusic


My new single which will be out in february is a hopeful spring-song. It is all about letting yourself be happy. That the dream of happiness is comes true if you let it. The title in sami is "Lihkku niehkku". "Lihkku" means happy or lucky and "niehkku" means dream. To norwegian I would translate it "Lykke drøm" but in engllish I dont know how I would say it without it sounding silly... If anyone could help me translate I would appriciate it! :D

Kyllingsuppe mot forkjølelse!

Bare 3 dager igjen til jeg skal tilbake til Berlin for Tribal Cross-Training. 5 dager med 7 timer dansing hver dag! Gleder meg! Men det er bare det at jeg kjenner meg ikke helt bra. Det kribler og er sår i halsen, og er ganske slapp. Da er eneste løsning: Helbredende kyllingsuppe!

Dette er en oppskrift jeg fant da vi holdt på med innspillingen av "Jiknon musihkka-Frozen Music". Vi hadde planlagt å spille inn vokal rett før jeg skulle på en 3 ukers reise til Canada, men uheldigvis var jeg i ferd med å bli syk med influensa dagene før jeg skulle i studio. Det var helt krise, fordi hvis vi ikke fikk spilt inn vokalen før jeg dro ville vi bli enda mer forsinket i innspillingen. Jeg var helt desperat og spurte alle jeg kjente om råd om hvordan jeg skulle bli frisk, og prøvde alt jeg fikk råd om. Fotbad, hviløk i nesa, hvitløk mellom tærne, stor dose omega 3, c-vitamin...kommer ikke på alt i farta. Men kyllinsuppe var en av rådene, og da fant jeg denne på nettet som inneholdt mange av de ingrediensene som skal være helbredende mot forkjølelse; hvitløk, chili, ingefær og kylling. Jeg lagde suppa, og den ble kjempegod! Den beste suppa jeg har smakt! Siden den dagen har jeg lagd denne suppa hver gang jeg kjenner at jeg begynner å bli litt småuggen... eller om jeg bare har lyst på den fordi det er godt! :D



Fra www.dinmat.no

Ingredienser:
800 g grillet kylling
2 l hønsekraft
3 dl matfløte
5 g frisk ingefær
3 hvitløkbåter
1 rød chili
3 gulrøtter
1 eple
2 løk
2 ss smør
1 ts salt
1/2 ts hvit pepper
4 frisk koriander
1 ss curry


Framgangsmåte:
Skrell gulrøtter og epler og riv disse på et rivjern.
Rens kyllingen fri for skinn og bein. Del den i strimler.
Skrell og finhakk løk. Skrell og riv ingefærrot.
Fjern frøene i chilien ved å skjære av toppen og rulle den mellom hendene til frøene faller ut, eller del den i to og grav ut med en teskje.
Finhakk hvitløk og chili.

Fres ingefær, hvitløk og chili mykt i smeltet smør i en romslig gryte.
Tilsett revne gulrøtter, eple og løk. Dryss over curry. Tilsett hønsekraft eller buljong.

La alt få et oppkok. Kok i 10 minutter.

Tilsett kyllingkjøtt og matfløte.
Smak til med salt og pepper.
Dryss over frisk koriander før servering.
Server med nanbrød eller annet godt brød.


Jeg må vel si at jeg ble ikke frisk av den da... det endte med at vi måtte avlyse studio-dagene, og jeg lå syk i senga de første dagene i Canada..:( Det finnes nok desverre ingen kur mot forkjølelser, men som forebyggende tiltak er den super!

Min oldefar..

Det er ikke så lenge siden jeg fant ut akkurat slektskapet mitt til Trollkaaven. Men jeg glemmer så lett, så nu husker ikke akkurat hva det var. Lurer på om det var broren til oldefaren min... Når jeg finner det ut igjen, skal jeg skrive det opp her!

Fra wikipedia:

Johan Martin Andreasen Kaaven (født i Talvik eller Repparfjord 16. november 1835, død i Indre Billefjord i Porsanger 23. juni 1918), ble gjerne omtalt som «Trollkaaven» og var en av de siste og mest kjente noaidene i Norge. Han holdt til i Indre Billefjord i Finnmark, og var berømt og fryktet for sine kunnskaper om åndemaning, ganing og svartekunster. Han var en dyktig folkelig helbreder og sannsiger med inngående kjennskap til de supranormale kreftene i tilværelsen. Det ble hevdet at Johan Kaaven var blitt herre over en hel dauingehær gjennom å sitte ute en julenatt med bøtte på hodet mens oskoreia (joulogadze) strøk forbi.

Fra www.forums.skaidi.net:

Johan Kaaven

Mannen som stoppet hurtigruta
http://home.online.no/~hahaakon/kaaven.htm

-Fra artikkelen:
Kaaven (Koven) ble av lokalbefolkningen betegnet som en noaide, og historiene om hans bragder var mange. En noaide er en slags trollmann, hvis evner går langt forbi dét menig mann kan. Han kunne helbrede sykdommer, drive ut ånder, kaste gan (forbannelser) på folk, ha kontroll over de døde osv.

I den første delen av Kaavens virke som noaide ble hans evner benyttet til ymse formål. Ingen kunne være helt trygg på hva han fant på.

Solve et coagule..
TH: - En gang stoppet han Hurtigruta, fordi han ikke fikk mere i baren. Da kapteinen fikk høre at Koven var ombord, og at han hadde stoppet skipet, sendt han øyeblikkelig sine beste flasker med godsaker til Koven, som "skulle se hva han kunne gjøre...". Da ville ville maskinene gå igjen, akkurat i tide til å forhindre at skipet drev på skjærene...

............
Kaaven holdt sitt ord,
og han var god og hjelpsom mot folk resten av livet. Noen ganger mente han at det var nødvendig å gi noen en lærepenge f.eks. de som stjal men også de som spillte ham et puss. En gang han var i Tromsø ble han ertet av noen gutter. De syntes denne merkelige mannen så rar ut. Kaaven tok frem sine kunster og gjorde det slik at guttene ikke kunne røre seg før han kom tilbake.

Healer
Kaaven hadde et utall av helbrederkunster, noen av disse var temmelig brutale: Noen mennesker kom til Kaaven syke med onde ånder i sjelen. For å kvitte seg med disse åndene plasserte Kaaven den syke på en stor stein uti fjæra.

"Mannen som stoppet hurtigruta"
av Richard Bergh (Grøndahl & søn forlag/ ISBN 82-504-1771-2).

I noaidens fotefar
http://www.nfi.no/filmbutikken/tittel.html?id=6287

Dokumentarfilm om den samisk-norske noaiden Johan Kåven som ved sin død i 1918 var kjent over hele Nordkalotten for sine synske og helbredende evner.

Han var høyere enn de fleste.
Håret var bustete. Nesa var stor og øynene skarpe. Det var som om blikket hans gikk rettgjennom deg. Beretningene om noaiden, mirakelmannen Johan Kåven, er mange og lever fortsatt på folkemunne i Porsanger,som de siste rester av en muntlig fortellertradisjon.

Ved sin død i 1918 var Johan Kåven kjent over hele Nordkalotten for sine synske og helbredende evner. Der doktor, prest og lensmann måtte gi tapt, lyktes Kåven. Han hadde ingen utdanning, og om sine evner uttalte han at noe var medfødt, noe hadde han lært av andre, og noe lærte han av seg selv. Imer enn 30 år har Richard Bergh samlet folkeminner i Porsan-ger. Han har vandret i noaidens fotefar og skrevet ned beretningene om Kåven. Nedtegningene er bakgrunn for filmen.

Samiske beretninger
http://home.no.net/hildeboe/docs/19982pollan.html

Coold photoshoot!

I have just had a photoshoot ouside. And it was cold! I wanted it to look like a spring-picture, so I couldnt really have alot of clothes on me, but the weather was coooold! This pic was for some kind of a by:Larm-paper inside a newspaper called Dagsavisen. The photographer was Solveig Selj who is a awsome fashion photographer, luckily for me!

She was like; "yeah we gonna do this and that,just stand over there", and after maybe 30 mins of clicks we where finished! I was freezing cold, but luckily she worked so fast that I couldnt believe we got the pics already. I looked thruogh the frames and there where so many good pics! I dont know how I will be able to choose just a few of them...

I will be able to see the result soon! :D

You can see som of her beutiful work here www.solveigselj.moo.no

Have a nice weekend! I am going to get ready for the student-show at the bellydance shool I teach in here in Oslo, Madam qadam orientalske magedansskole.

Reindans - Boazodansa - Reindeer dance

Yesterday I finally got to see the dance performance called Boazodansa - Reindeer dance. Two modern dancers from Finnmark dance in it and they have made a beutiful film from the reindeer herd to the performance. The dancers and choreographs are Simone Grøtte Pedersen and Johanne Eltoft. Herman Rundberg has made so beutiful music to it, and also Petter Carlsen is in it with his soothing vocals.
Its about these two girls that dance in and with the reindeer herd. It was a really special experience, and inspired me so much! They manifested many things in their dance that I have been trying to do in my own dance. And I feel actually stronger as s dancer after this, cause I feel now that my expression as a Tribal Fusion dancer is valid. In the bellydance community I am always facing a whole different approach to and expression in the dancing. I have many times doubted my choices as a dancer because I was afraid to make it too different from what is expected from a bellydancer. But now its is like a relief for me, cause I have seen why I have all these urges to express myself in certain ways in my dance, that maybe people who are not sami never would feel the need for. Like my teachers that I look up to can never express this deep feeling of the love for and connection with the nature, and the source of life almost... the way that this dance just showed me. Because they are not inspired by the same things as me. My teahcers will give me the tools, but I have to use them the way I feel is natural for me and use it with my own expression.

Thank you so much for this amazing experience!
www.reindans.com