On behalf of the Sámi Education Institute, I bid you welcome to enjoy indigenous stories! Welcome to the Land of the Sámi and to Inari!
Skábmagovat has meant a great deal to Sámi cinema, but also more widely to Sámi culture. The festival highlights our own culture, making our voice heard. Throughout the festival weekend, varied stories celebrate both important indigenous themes and life, with all its joys and sorrows. Skábmagovat is a meeting place that binds indigenous peoples together and inspires to create something new accross borders.
Our school is proud to be part of the 27-year-long trip of the Skábmagovat Festival. The festival provides our students with great circumstances for practising for work in various fields. The students of our Media Programme have shown films in the Snow Theatre, in the light of the aurora borealis, for more than a decade. The construction of the theatre, in turn, shows the skill of our students of the Nature and Environmental Studies.
Furthermore, our students have played various other roles, too, for example as organisers, translators and photographers. But first and foremost, our students’ productions have recently been shown at Skábmagovat but also at other film festivals around the world – not to forget TV screenings. We are proud of the professionals we have trained, and at the same time we take delight in the learning environments that support our education. And that’s what events are at best.
Thus, Skábmagovat is much more than a film festival. It is a stepping stone to move on, and it motivates, encourages and makes one believe not just in one’s own skills but also in the view that indigenous issues are worth attention. And in addition to bringing life to our community, Skábmagovat also brings us interesting visitors from all around the world. It has also brought you here to experience these films: to meet, be inspired, share, learn, become engrossed, enjoy, and a lot of other things. So dear friend, I wish you a good weekend! I hope that you will have happy memories but also something that will turn out to be valuable in your life later on.
Congratulations and success to the event and its organisers in future too! On behalf of the Sámi Education Institute
Eeva Rasmus-Moilanen
Rector
