Nils-Aslak Valkeapää

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää
Born	(1943-03-23)23 March 1943 Enontekiö Finland
Died	26 November 2001(2001-11-26) (aged 58) Espoo, Finland
Nationality	Sami
Other names	Áillohaš
Occupation(s)	Elementary school teacher, writer, musician, artist and film director

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, known as Áillohaš in the Northern Sami language (23 March 1943 – 26 November 2001), was a Finnish Sami writer, musician and artist.

Early life

Valkeapää was born on March 24, 1943 in Enontekiö in Finnish Sápmi to a family of nomadic Sámi reindeer herders. His father, Johannes J. Valkeapää, was Finnish Sámi from the Kaaresuvanto area, while his mother, Ellen Susanna Aslaksdatter Bals, was Norwegian Sámi from Uløya in Troms. Valkeapää lived in Finnish Sápmi until his father's death, when his family moved to Skibotn in Norwegian Sápmi.

Valkeapää's mother tongue was Northern Sámi. However, like many Sámi children in the 1950s, he did not have access to formal education in his native language and did not learn how to write in Northern Sámi until adulthood. Along with his early education in boarding schools, Valkeapää spent six years studying at the Kemijärvi Teachers' Training College, though he never worked as a teacher.

Career

Music

Valkeapää first came into the public eye as a performer of traditional Sámi joik and was central to the revitalisation of the genre. His debut record, Joikuja, was released in 1968. In 1973, folk and jazz musicians Seppo Paakkunainen, Ilpo Saastamoinen and Esko Rosnell invited Valkeapää on a musicians' retreat. During the retreat, Valkeapää was inspired by Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 and its African-American spiritual influences to develop fusion joik. In collaboration with Paakkunainen, he developed Juoigansinfonija, a jazz-joik symphony. In 1978, Valkeapää released his jazz-joik record Sámiid eatnan duoddariid. Valkeapää's music was somewhat controversial in Finland, both for his unorthodoxic inclusion of jazz elements and because Laestadian Sámi often viewed joik as immoral. Valkeapää continued to perform jazz-joik and resisted efforts to "preserve" the traditional form, stating in his book Terveisiä Lapista: "When I hear talk of conserving the culture, I see an investigator of folklore in my mind’s eye, and interpret their activities quite literally: cataloguing a dead culture."

Valkeapää released thirteen records from 1968 to 1994. His song Goase Dušše (The Bird Symphony), composed of nature sounds from the Sápmi region, received the jury’s special prize at the Prix Italia radio competition in 1993. Valkeapää also composed the music for and acted in the Oscar-nominated 1987 film Ofelaš. He received further international recognition as a musician when he performed at the opening ceremony of the 1994 Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

Writing

Valkeapää's first book, Terveisiä Lapista (Greetings from Lapland), was published in 1971 and acted as a political treatise on the issues impacting Sámi people, including condemnations of boarding schools designed for assimilation and land acquisition policies. The book was written in Finnish, and was the second-ever book by a Sámi author to be translated into English.

Valkeapää's debut book of poetry, Giđa ijat čuovgadat (Spring Nights So Bright), was published in 1974. From 1974 to 2001, he published nine books of poetry, all written in Northern Sámi. Only two of his books were ever translated into Finnish - his debut and his 1988 collection Beaivi, Áhcázan (The Sun, My Father). Beaivi, Áhcázan was awarded the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1991.

Along his poetry and nonfiction, Valkeapää also wrote a Noh play that was performed in Japan in 1995. The play was first performed in Sámi at the Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter as Ridn’oaivi ja Nieguid Oaidni (The Frost-haired and the Dream-seer) in 2007.

In 1984, Valkeapää was one of the founders of the publishing house DAT. He established DAT to publish his books and music and to support and publish other Sámi artists and writers.

Art

Valkeapää was both an artist and a photographer. Many of his paintings were based on Sámi mythological beings, while his pencil drawings often featured birds, people and reindeer. He included his art in several of his poetry books, including his award-winning book Beaivi, Áhcázan, and he designed the covers for not only his own music records and books but also for books by other Sámi writers like Rauni Magga Lukkari. His artwork was also presented at the North Norway Festival in 1991.

Valkeapää donated thirty of his art pieces to the Kautokeino municipality, where the collection is on permanent display at Guovdageainnu Gilišillju (the Kautokeino Museum).

Activism

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää was central in establishing Sami Authors' Union and also in helping performing artists to have their own union. For a period, he was the culture coordinator for the World Council of Indigenous peoples (WCIP). He was behind what was called the world's first culture festival for i Indigenous peoples, Davvi Šuvva, in Karesuando in 1979, as well as when the festival was held again in 1992.

Valkeapää was a mentor, publisher and inspirator of many young yoikers and writers.

He earned a lot of recognition for his work, and was appointed honorary doctor of the University of Oulu in 1994 and the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi in 1996. In 1995 he was awarded the honorary order of the White Star of the Republic of Estonia.

Death and legacy

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää died in his sleep in Espoo on 26 November 2001.

Posthumous publication of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää's work includes two poems included on his godson Niko Valkeapää's eponymous début album. An article published by the Music Information Center Norway stated, "In his trademark, understated style, Niko composes melodies that weave their way into and out of his godfather’s words. Nils Aslak Valkeapää was one of the foremost exponents of Sami art and culture through his long and distinguished career as a poet, composer and artist. Says Niko on his godfather’s influence: 'I can’t deny that Nils Aslak was a role model for me – he was a figure that I would look up to. He has been a source of inspiration and I have included two of his poems on my album to pay homage to him.”

A recording of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää performing his joik (for the soundtrack of Pathfinder film) forms the centrepiece of "Prayer for the Earth", a track on The Songs of Distant Earth, the 1994 album by British musician Mike Oldfield.

Personal life

Valkeapää was bisexual, but hid his sexuality throughout his life.

Discography

• Joikuja (1968)
• Juoigamat (1973)
• Vuoi Biret-Maaret, vuoi! (1974)
• De čábba niegut runiidit (1976)
• Duvva, Áilen Niga Elle ja Aillohaš (1976)
• Sámi eatnan duoddariid (1978)
• Sápmi, vuoi Sápmi! (1982)
• Davás ja geassái (1982)
• Beaivi, áhčážan (1988)
• Eanan, eallima eadni (1990)
• Sámi luondu, gollerisku (1992)
• Goase dušše (1994)
• Dálveleaikkat / Wintergames (1994)

Written works

The Sun, My Father artwork by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää

Poems

• Eanni, eannázan (2001) ISBN 82-90625-40-5
• Girddán, seivvodan (1999) ISBN 82-90625-34-0
• The Sun, My Father (1997) ISBN 82-90625-32-4
• In the shadow of midnight sun. Contemporary Sámi prose and poetry (1997) ISBN 82-7374-309-8
• Jus gaccebiehtár bohkosivccii (1996)
• Nu guhkkin dat mii lahka: så fjernt det naere (1994) ISBN 82-90625-20-0
• Trekways of the Wind (1994) Univ of Arizona Press, ISBN 82-90625-21-9
• Aurinko, isäni (1992) Ulkomainen Kirjallisuus, ISBN 978-82-90625-15-8
• Fadir min, solin (1992)
• Solen, min far (1990)
• Vindens veier (1990)
• Beaivi áhcázan (1988)
• Vidderna inom mig (1987)
• Ich bin des windigen Berges Kind (1985)
• Ruoktu váimmus (1985) (combination of earlier poem collections)
• Ádjaga silbasuonat (1981)
• Kevään yöt niin valoisat (1980)
• Lávllo vizár biellocizás (1976)
• Gida ijat cuov’gadat (1974)

External links

• Liv Tone Boine reciting Valkeapää's poem Mu ruoktu lea mu váimmus in Northern Sámi