Reindeer in My Saami Heart
REINDEER IN MY SAAMI HEART is a documentary about the life and poetry of Inghilda Tapio, born in 1946 into a nomadic Sámi reindeer herding family in the Arctic Circle, now inspirational poet and community activist. Inghilda is a member of Sweden’s own ‘stolen generation’, where nomadic children were forced by the Swedish government to attend residential boarding schools in towns after the Second World War. At the age of seven Inghilda was removed from her teepee home, reindeer herds and Saami parents for months at a time, isolated and confused by the difficult Swedish language, intimidated by unfamiliar boarding school buildings and foreign customs. Despite these challenges, Inghilda continued on to university to become a poet, performer, and champion of her Northern Saami language and culture, and lives most of the year in Karesuando, on the border between Sweden and Finland, over two hundred kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. Her extended family continue their traditional indigenous herding practices. This visually innovative documentary will blend English and Saami languages to present Inghilda’s life in a cinematic style, and will be engaging for audiences around the world.