Yesterday 3th of Feb My novel Land and Snow and Ashes got it´s UK publication! That was amazing! Very thrilled and honored that my novel has been mentioned in The Guardian as one of the Best recent translated fiction. 

Also The Sámi national day is this Sunday on the 6th of Feb. I have followed the discussion about Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi. The purpose of this is to collect Sámi´s experiences of the actions of the Finnish state and its various authorities and to make that noticed and visible.

My novel has set the food in these questions they deal with in commission. Land of Snow and Ashes has had good critics concerning not only about the new info Nazi camps in Finnish Sámiland but talso the colonialization of Sámi in Finland. I remember a few years ago – and even today – the colonization was denied and whether you could use the word colonialism in this very manner was very largely debated – but as a historian I am using that word and that is my point of view in my novel. 

I choose to write the story of Bigga-Marja, the Sámi girl in point of view of the white people who all wanted her to be something mix of traditional and comfortable: they locked her i a boarding school where she grew out of Sámi but if she was too much something else suddenly in white perspective she wasn´t anymore “a real Sámi.” 

Land of Snow and Ashes is story that brings out this period of time in Finnish – and World history that has not talked about yet but is important to discuss about. 

Sámi national day is important in many ways but it is also important that Sámi would be visible every day of the year – and not only presented the White people or problematic perspectives. 

Anyhow Happy Sámi day <3

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