Reindeer in my Saami Heart.
Australian director Janet Merewether’s new documentary Reindeer In My Saami Heart will have its world premiere tomorrow evening at Palace Cinemas’ Volvo Scandinavian Film Festival in Sydney.
Reindeer in my Saami Heart follows the story of writer and performer Inghilda Tapio, one of the last generation of Saami reindeer herders born to nomadic parents in Saapmi, Sweden's Arctic Circle.
Inghilda is a member of Sweden's own ‘stolen generation’, forced by the Swedish government to attend residential boarding schools in the early 1950s and removed from her family for months at a time from the age of seven.
Despite these challenges, Inghilda continued on to university to become a poet, performer, teacher and international representative for Saami writers.
Inghilda's Saami community has survived centuries of attempted cultural assimilation and Christian indoctrination by the Swedes, and now faces new threats posed by mining, forestry and hydroelectric development. One of Europe's last indigenous cultures, and an ethnic minority in Sweden numbering less than 20,000 people, the Saami are regaining their voice to fight for independence for their culture and traditional lands.
In addition to her roles as writer, director and producer Merewether (Jabe Babe – A Heightened Life, Maverick Mother) was also the cinematographer of the film, and travelled north of the Arctic Circle on three occasions to complete the filming, sometimes in -32 degree conditions.
The documentary has received ATOM Award Nominations for Best Documentary (Biography) and Best Indigenous Resource.
The world premiere tomorrow evening at Palace Norton Street Cinema will be followed by a Q&A with Merewether and journalist Julie Rigg.
The season continues with screenings at Palace Norton Street and Verona cinemas, with the Melbourne launch, followed by another Q&A with Merewether and Lisa French, at the Palace Como Cinema on July 21st.
Reindeer in My Saami Heart will go onto to debut on internationally at New York’s Margaret Mead Film Festival in October.
Merewether also aims to launch the documentary in the Nordic regions in early 2017, to coincide with the centenary of organised Indigenous political activism in Saapmi, the Saami’s name for the regions commonly described as Lapland.
http://reindeerinmysaamiheart.com/