Article in VK Kultur 20th of February 2016
Link to article and film clip from the demonstrations at Gállok September 2013
Tag Archives: 36/100M
ÁHPI – wide as oceans
In the new Music video ÁHPI – wide as oceans by Sofia Jannok you can get a glimpse of vessel no. 36/100M (2:56 into the video) on YouTube. The image in the video was from the 11th September this year during the demonstrations against mining at Gállok Sweden – before the vessel cracked…
99 vessels left…
Slowly gently
all alone
She walked towards the edge last night
in a room
locked and alarmed
I can still see the tracks
She drifted towards the edge and fell
she left a story
a message
in her shattered pieces of glass
It is real now
this threat to our lives
this rape of our Earth
SERIOUS DANGER
Please be aware
and understand this my friends
She is there now
amongst her people
Rocks and glass
sand soda lime
Glass is fragile
yet forever strong
if looked after
according to its needs
Like a human being
like our nature
Like the Sámi people
like glass
Vessel Thirty-six
Vessel nr.36/100M in pieces at the exhibition Gállok Protest Art, Sámi Duodji, Jokkmokk the 18th of September 2013.
Photo: Jenni Laiti
Text på svenska:
Långsamt försiktigt
ensam
vandrade hon mot kanten
i ett låst och larmat rum
Jag kan ännu se spåren
Hon gled mot kanten – hon föll
och kvar blev en berättelse
som ett tecken
i hennes skärvor av glas
Det är på riktigt nu
det här hotet mot livet
den här våldtäkten av vår Jord
AKUT FARA
Snälla, lyssna och förstå!
Hon är där nu
bland hennes vänner
Sten och glas
sand soda kalk
Glas är skört
samtidigt starkt i all evighet
om det tas omhand
för vad det egentligen är
Som en människa
som vår natur
Som det samiska folket
som glas
Du kärl Trettiosex
Protesting vessel of glass
Gállok 3rd of September 2013. Photo: Matti Holmgren
Mixed feelings of sadness and pride when I see images of vessel no. 36/100M taking part in the demonstrations against mining in the north.
Gállok Protest Art exhibition 11th of September 2013 in Jokkmokk. Photo: Jenni Laiti
See article “Gruvkampen har blivit konst” in todays paper – from the opening of the show last night.
TV-clip from SVT Nordnytt “Provmalmen körs från Kallak” 3 September 2013 where you can see vessel no. 36 in the middle of the protests (about 1:15 into the program)
Gállok – Police, excavators, a Maori Princess and a vessel of glass
Unexpected feelings yesterday of sadness mixed with pride when I saw images of vessel no. 36/100M demonstrating in its own peaceful way against a society without any respect of people and nature. The vessel is made out of glass. Fragile but at the same time forever strong if looked after according to its needs. Like a human being, like our nature, like the Sami people – like glass.
There are many issues talking against a mine at Gállok in the middle of Sábme Samiland, north Sweden, an area close to the World Heritage Site Laponia. The original cause is the fact that the Swedish state continues giving away the land and nature of our country and future generations to shortsighted foreign prospectors that will profit at the expense of the indigenous Sami people, local people and the nature.
I want to discuss one of the issues not so often raised in the debate: it is about the human and personal aspect of the effects of mining in an area used and looked after by the Sami people. We have no ancient photos, old written parchments or previous rock house foundations to prove that we have been here generation after generation. That is because we have looked after our nature, taken care of her and made sure to work in harmony with her without leaving traces behind. That is respect.
Yet, we own a treasure hidden in the mountains and in the hardly seen paths winding through the forest. The treasure is our stories, the verbal histories from the past and from today. The land, the streams, the mountains and that specific rock carry all the stories of my past and with the stories I learn about my history, about how to act in specific situations, how to look at life in general – it’s a cultural heritage woven into the story by the land.
The stories of the past create a feeling of home, a core in life, and a deep connection with previous generations. When I walk the same path my great grandmother walked while I listen to her story of that specific mountain or rock, told by my grandmother, I get a feeling of belonging. Me – today, is part of yesterday. I belong. We belong. And by understanding this I can also look forward with enjoyment and see the future; a future where my children walk the same path as my great grandmother.
I think too many people in our society have lost that natural connection with the past, they can’t see where they come from. They search for identity and meaning and somewhere to belong. If they don’t find it they might make their own artificial world with their own ‘right and wrongs’. That can be fatal.
Please, don’t cut that path of mine and destroy our nature with your large machines, and please don’t stop that river flow. You tear open our souls to nothing then and you get lost people, a lost land and you take away the pride of giving a beautiful world and a meaningful life to future generations.
Erina Rhöse (Maori from New Zealand) said yesterday at Gállok: “You have to hide yourself Mother Earth. You have to hide your treasures and make them invisible for them. You have to make the ore invisible and useless for them. Hide yourself, hide.”
Read more about the different issues of mining in Gállok area close to Jokkmokk in The Detroit News, The Washington Post, London Mining network and at the webpage What local people or sign the petition Stop Mining in Jokkmokk. And consider this is only one out of many areas in Sweden interesting for future mining.
You tube related links Gállok by Maxida Märak, Kråkan by Jörgen Stenberg, The Mountain by Maxida Märak & Downhill Bluegrass Band or Gállok by Niillas Holmberg & Roope Mäenpää feat. Ánne Mággá Wigelius. Or listen to Sofia Jannok´s speech at TEDxGateway 2012 Our Rights to Earth and Freedom.
The local TV news Provmalmen körs från Kallak from the demonstrations yesterday with vessel no.36
All photos by Jenni Laiti.
100MIGRATORY 