WHY TELL THIS STORY?
Author’s statement I have based the script on my upbringing in a nomadic reindeer herding tribe. The oral legends about the Päiviö (Sun) tribe are the primary inspiration for the story. My grandfather, Beivvas Piera, was the war chief of our nomadic reindeer herding clan. The Sun clan struggled to defend the reindeer grazing grounds for many generations. In 1970, the tribe lost the battle. The state burned down the old village and moved its inhabitants by force. Today, the reindeer herd of the Sun tribe is a tiny drop compared to the ocean of reindeer it was at the beginning of the last century. Many of the Sun tribe members are no longer nomads. Their lassoes have rotted and their nomad walking sticks are broken forever. This script attempts to honour the men, women and children of many generations who struggled to defend their grazing grounds. Since oral storytelling is vanishing in Lapland, even the memories of the nomads’ pain are dissolving.
Grandfather Beivvas Piera visiting a German camp for starving Russian war prisoners in 1945.
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