TALES OF A SEA SAMI

The Sami have a tradition of oral story telling. They would sit around the camp fire and tell each other stories of their day and their life adventures/ This story is about my father and his childhood experiences growing up in northern Finland and the war year. His mother got ill shortly after WW1 started. My dad was sent to live with relatives, then to orphanages and prison camps.

My Father often told me stories about his life as a young child, growing up in Northern Sapmi (Lapland) I would spend Saturdays sitting with him in his nethouse along the Fraser River – while he repaired his fishing nets.

He recorded many of his stories onto Cassette tapes, and asked me to make them public when this became possible for me to do. Some 40 years later I can now do this.
The stories were recorded in our Finnish language. Through AI, I have translated his voice into English – so that others can also understand.

The original Finnish versions can also be found on my YouTube channel.

I have found some images online of Sami life in those times. I have added these to the videos so others can see what the living conditions and life was like.

Episode 1 Summary:
In this first episode, my father is born in 1906 in the Kola Peninsula. His mother was a North Sámi, born in Vadso Norway. His father dies on the same night that he is born. His mother returns to Petsamo (now Pechenga). In 1908 Skolt Sámi relocate to live in Petsamo. My father describes his early days as a young child living in a turf hut through the long, harsh, cold winters of the north, surviving by eating berries preserved during the summer months, and building traps using birch wood to catch rabbits and grouse.