ASLAK OLA AIKIO, SAMI HUNTER
- seidrart
- Mar 20, 2022
- 2 min read
There are things that are not written, things that should never be told. But that doesn't mean that they are not important. Those things are only there for those who lived them and for those who felt them. I'm sure he never thought that a girl from another time like me, thousands of miles away from where he was born, would one day write about him. Surely a man like him really didn't need this. He is Aslak Ola Aikio, the Sámi hunter who left a legacy far greater than we imagine. He lived his childhood and youth in Utsjoki, and suffered the changes in his way of life and culture because of the construction of a road. He was a hunter and fisherman, deeply connected to nature and his environment. He fought for the fishing rights of Sámi people. But he did much more, he fought to keep alive a way of life, his culture, a people, the effort and work of his ancestors. Aslak ran after a wolf for a whole day when he was a child. They say Aslak was the Man whose word is worth...But his deeds were worth even more, he is a legend. A few days ago someone told me that deeds are that really count, not words. And so it is, the world belongs to the brave, and Aslak was one of the bravest, because he did great things and the most beautiful thing of all is that he did them from the heart. And although there are things that should never be told, there are others that should not be forgotten. Thus arose the work Metsäveri, the oral stories of Aslak Ola Aikio. Metsäveri means "Blood of the forest". I'm sure that this is how Aslak felt, that his connection with the forest was so deep that he was part of it, and with every piece of forest that died Aslak felt it as a wound bleeding in his body, in his soul. Aslak said one of the hardest and most beautiful sentences I ever read "We have to understand Nature, we have to love her, we can't destroy her. The welfare society doesn't meet Nature"...No more needs to be said. My deepest respect to this great man and Sámi people. Special thanks to @beherithanna , Aslak's granddaughter, for these original pics of him and for her support to post this tribute.
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