YouTube: Tales of a Sámi – Part 1
These YouTube videos are all spoken by my father, in the Finnish language. I have added translations into several other languages such as English, French, Spanish and many others – these are as CC – Closed Captions. You may have to click on the CC – Closed Captions in the YouTube settings shown at the bottom of the screen for this to appear.
Episode Summary:
In this first episode, my father is born in 1906 in the Kola Peninsula. His mother Maria Dahl Halonen was a North Sámi, born in Vadso Norway. Maria’s father (my great-grandfather) was Johan Marvinius Rask Dahl) a wealthy land owner from Vadso. Maria was an illegitimate child born to Birthe Mortensdatter from Bugoyfjord. The father changes Maria’s birth records to acknowledge that she was his daughter.
In this first episode, my father is born in 1906 in the Kola Peninsula. His father Robert Halonen 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 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.
00:00:00 Chapter 1 – Intro
00:50:00 Chapter 2 – Äiti – My Mother 1873 – 1946
02:31:00 Chapter 3 – Isä – My Father, My Birth 1906
03:33:00 Chapter 4 – Petsamo Pechenga 1908
04:27:00 Chapter 5 – Marttimo the Neighbour
05:10:00 Chapter 6 – Kevät Marjoja – Spring Berries
06:11:00 Chapter 7 – Talvi – Winter
08:20:00 Chapter 8 – Jäniksiä – Rabbit hunting
YouTube Video: Tales of a Sami Part 1.1
Museums and Resources
Sami Museum Siida
Arkitum Museum Lapland
More Tales of a Sami
Tales of a Sámi
Tales of a Sami – Childhood Memories – Part1
Tales of a Sámi – 1.2
Categories: Tales of a Sami
