10.-11.12.2025
Winter and darkness have arrived in Vuohčču. Áhčešeátne has brought the cold and gloomy winter with her and Njávešeátne has fallen asleep. We’ll be doing our part as we bring light back to the forest and guide the creatures of the forest to safer times.?
Áhčešeátne is selfish and wants everyone to fall into the darkness. Despite her plans, we will remember the warmth and light of summer, and we want to share that witheveryone. We will bring light into the darkness of the forest with our lanterns, and we’ll tell the forest creatures how you can get through the toughest winters with the help of your friends, family and community.
Darkness can be a scary thing, but it can also bring comfort. It is easy to rest in the dark. Even the bravest bears go into hibernation during winter, so they can catch fish and enjoy the warmth in summer. We need polar nights to balance out the midnight suns, so the lights can shine brighter in the darkness.
We will build a forest of light in Vuohčču together. Everyone will do their part, bring a part of their experiences, memories and values and lay them to rest in the forest, untilspring will bloom once again.
The text above was a story we wrote and read aloud to the students of Vuohčču as an inspiration for our workshops. The Rievdan project returned to Vuohčču with big plans. Our idea was to create a light art experience in the forest with lanterns, a forest gallery and shadow theatre. We took inspiration from old sápmi legends of Njávešeátne, the bearer of light, and Áhčešeátne, the bearer of darkness. In our story, the pupils were to help Njávešeátne by crafting lanterns, art pieces and shadow puppets to bring light into the darkness.
The artworks were done in different workshops and in different age levels. Youngest kids, Pikku-Poro- and Kielipesä Biedju -kindergarteners, made their own glass jar carry-on lanterns and a single, collective art piece with fingerpaints. Older school kids from grades 1-4 made forest gallery art pieces, puppets for shadow theatre and carry-on lanterns. Oldest school kids, grades 5-9 made the same things, except they made stick lanterns in the place of the puppets for the shadow theatre.
At the shadow theatre workshop with Ville, the kids got the chance to create different kinds of woodland beings to fill a whole forest. They drew animals, trees, huts and stars and cut them out of carton. They were then added to a small shadow theatre so the pupils could see how the end result would look. The kids took this really well and after the usual “but I can’t draw” -discussion created dozens of beautiful puppets for the show. They also were intrigued by the theatre and the light source and wanted test out different color films in front of the light to see how they affect the scene.
At the forest gallery workshop the pupils made aquarelle paintings based on the story they heard in the beginning. The kids worked in pairs, doing a painting and the older pupils also made wooden frames for the paintings with Ante at the woodworking shop. The workshop was divided in two, Milla working with the younger kids and Ville working the older ones.
The younger kids were very interested in the story and made many inspiring landscape paintings. The pairs many different paintings that depicted, for example, night and day, important forest scenes that they love and even fantasy inspired landscapes.
It was interesting to see how most of the older kids went with abstract forms, strong colours and contrasts with their paintings. Even when mentioned that figurative painting was also okay, they chose abstractions. However, the end results were mesmerizing. It was surprising to see just how strong, personal styles the pupils could have and how well they combined their styles with each other.
At the stick lantern workshop with Milla, students made lanterns by attaching willow sticks together with tape and yarn. They also made the walls of the lantern by sewing concrete cloth onto them and some decorated their lanterns with black paint. It was fun to see how even the wildest of the kids really concentrated on building the base and really wanted their end result to look good. We carried the lanterns to the forest with some help from the kids themselves and the lantern filled forest looked stunningat dusk.
The final workshop was the glass jar carry-on lanterns with Hanna. These were a big part of the Forest of Light –trail that we were going to have on the following day. As we wanted to maintain a certain atmosphere in the forest, we wanted the students to have something of their own to bring with them and guide them through the darkening forest. The task was simple: with acrylic paint the students decorated their glass jars with depictions of their own interpretations of nature and forest. The workshop was very free-form, as it was important that the students’ lanterns reflected their own personalities. Once the students were happy with their glass jar painting, the workshop continued with the making of the handle for the lantern. The handle was made from 2 or more pieces of yarn woven, twisted or braided together. Amazingly, the students showed great resilience especially with braiding, even if they had never braided before, and the end results were reflected their paintings very well. The students seemed to enjoy the workshop and wanted to do their best. Key points for the workshop were also to take good care of the utensils, such as paint brushes as well as protecting one’s own clothes. Hanna made sure that each student felt rewarded after finishing their lantern with a high five and having the student, the artist, sign their artwork, the lantern.
We also had the honour to work with the townsfolk of Vuohčču. They made their own carry-on lanterns, and a few made some lanterns from reindeer horns. Most importantly, they brought with them old pictures of Vuohčču and surrounding areas. We had an idea of a projecting art piece, where old photographs of Vuohčču are projected onto a wall and a connected webcam constantly double exposed live image onto those old photos. This way people could go in front of the camera and see themselves merged into old photos on the wall. History and current times mixed into one, both supplementing each other.
All the busy workshopping culminated into an hour-long light trail experience, the Forest of Light, behind the school on Thursday. At the light trail we had three different points, where participants gathered. Firstly, we were super lucky to find a twisted old tree along our path, that was just perfect for the shadow theatre. We hung the canvas on it and placed the light behind it, so that the small puppets attached to the canvas would create a scene. The groups came one by one and everyone chose one character or prop to add in the scene. Then we talked about the scene and created small stories about what was happening there. It was great fun to see how well the kids immersed themselves in the theatre. Simple questions about the scene, such as why would the reindeer stand on its nose, inspired multiple different, funny stories from the kids. It was brilliant to see how much could be gained with so little.
Amidst the stick lanterns, in a different part of the forest, we had a sound art experience, that was created by Petra Magga-Vars and Ante Jalvela. The idea was to play an ambient sound, and Petra would joik on top of that, while Ante and the participants would make different forest-inspired sounds. Our plans changed, because our speakers ran out of battery almost immediately in the cold forest. Petra and Ante started to make the sounds themselves, and it was mesmerising. The cold forest, shuffling of winterclothes and quiet sounds that became increasingly louder were magical.
Last but not least, the trail had a forest gallery exhibition of the paintings that the students had made. The gallery was displayed alongside of a long straight path, much like a museum hallway. As Hanna was waiting for the different groups to come to the gallery, the experience started with a reread of the task inspiration text:
Njávešeátne and Áhčešeátne, the daughters of the sun and the moon continuosly compete for their mothers’ attention in the form of the seasons.
Under the moonlight evertyhing seems a bit bigger or even threatening. Is it just me, or did I just see a pair of eyes following me through the trees? Was that a twig snapping in the distance? Or is something, or someone following me?
In the daylight the truth sighs from relief. The eyes following me belong to an arctic owl. The twig snapping in the distance was merely a sound from the wandering group ofreindeer. Nothing in this forest is out to get me. Yet Áhčešeátne’s infamous influence still overtakes the night and darkness of the winter and makes me feel uncertain.
Especially during these dark, cold polar nights, I miss the security and warmth that Njávešeátne and the sun provide. We should bring our beloved memories of summerspast and dreams of the light in the future to the forest.
After reciting this text, the groups would walk through the forest gallery slowly in silence, admiring the candlelit colorful paintings that stood out from the snowy background. At the end of the gallery, we had a short discussion regarding what they saw, what kind of thoughts the artworks brought up within them and if they had any favorites. Many of the artworks reflected the students’ experiences from Vuotso, the landscapes looked familiar to many, and often the works of art portrayed the duel of light and dark, summer and winter. It was very moving to hear the thoughts of the students’, their adults and the school’s staff regarding the paintings, and it was heartwarming to hear that some parents wanted to take their children’s painting home with them. Hopefully this experience has given the students’ encouragement to keep doing art, as all of them showed such talent for it!
The trail started and ended in the school yard, where we the participants got warm juice and cookies. We had also set up a bigger shadow theatre in the school yard, where we began our trail with a small story of Áhčešeátne and Njávešeátne. We also set up the old pictures of Vuohčču – projecting art piece there. It was heartwarming to see people going “Hey that’s where my family used to live” or “That’s my great uncle in the picture!”. People took alot of pictures in front of the projecting, and it was important for us to see, that people found meaning in the art piece.
All in all, our trip to Vuohčču was a challenge, but a triumphant one. We had quite an ambitious plan and weren’t so sure if everything was going to work out the way we planned. Thankfully, through hard work, motivated participants and a bit of patience, our results were even more amazing than we had originally planned. As every plan does, we had a few hiccups, but we always came up with a good plan B. Everyone on our team had a great time with the project and we could always depend on one another. We were met with great kindness and everyone was onboard with our plans and ideas. The project took a lot of time and effort, but ended up giving back so much more. Big thanks to everyone involved!