In a windy and slightly rainy slope on Luossavárri in Kiruna, the author group is gathered around a fire with coffee, gáhkku and Lars Ánte Kuhmunen who yoik, show and tell about Gabna Sami village lands.
– For me, it’s getting to know a new world, says Zeyneb Yash, Kurdish author. It is clear that with a new broader perspective and an even broader world, my writing will be affected.
Joint literature project
It is about a two-year project between the Sami writers’ center Tjállegoahti and a sister organization in Turkey that works with Kurdish literature. A number of authors have been selected, brought together and will now start collaborating. The project is to result in a book and when the visit from the Kurds is over, the writing will start. The intention is for the book to be published around Christmas in Kurdish, Sami and English.
– It feels like we are two friends and two different people who are close to each other but have separated and met again. There are two things that are common to us, the most similar is our oral storytelling tradition and our relationship with nature and the Sami relationship with their land and their land, we have a similar relationship to our land and our country, Zeyneb Yash explains.
Visiting each other
Two months ago, the Sami writers visited their newfound friends in Turkey and got to visit both Istanbul and Diyarbakir, get to know the Kurdish culture and literature.
Because the Sami author group was so well received and got to take part in a valuable journey, they are now trying to do the same for their guests from the Sami side, says Elin Anna Labba, herself an author and project manager.
– The project gives me a lot of thoughts. It is strange to see that they come from a completely different country with war, not like here in Sápmi, but still we have the same. That it is difficult to both write and read in the mother tongue, to be able to publish books in our mother tongue and the historical experiences such as school and assimilation are the same. We have very interesting conversations and for us Sami writers it is nice to not have to explain their culture and so, you can go directly to the heart issues, says Elin Anna Labba.