Aahka – tjaetsien mojtele (memory of water)
The last part of the trilogy is a concert performance with its premiere in Bodø Cathedral in collaboration with Helgeland’s Sinfonietta. ‘Aahka’ (grandmother) is the child’s security. She sings and sings the story of what it was like when man lived happily in harmony with nature and the universe.
In a war-torn Europe, a young girl is forced to leave her home. Simultaneously, a young Sami boy plans to escape from the state boarding school. And just like water moves through the world, their lives belong to a cycle that finds new paths and a new future.
Aahka (grandmother) represents the child’s security. Through song and joik, she tells the story of how humanity lived happily in harmony with nature and the universe.
Nordland Teater, Nöörjen Cultural Directorate – project director
Co-operation with Helgeland Sinfonietta
Supported by Nordland Theater, Art Council Norway, Bodø 2024 and the Sami Parliament
Hans Petter Bjørnådal/Barkitekt | 07 February 2023
Samisk teaterløft i viden | 06 February 2024
Script & Idea: Cecilia Persson
Director: Ada J Einmo
Music Composers: Mari Boine, Svein Schultz & Stein Austrud
Visual Design: Superlys Charles Ellingsen
Costume: Anna-Stina Svakko
Band Mari Boine: Mari Boine, Svein Schultz, Kristian Svalestad Olstad, Georg Buljo, Gunnar Augland & Stein Austrud
Actors: Mari Boine, Bernt Bjørn and Ebba Joks
Helgeland Sinfonietta: Carl Ninian Wika, Trond Wika, Eivind Rossbach Heier, Martin Lien & Elias Morgan Grimstad
Translation: Sig-Britt (Pia) Persson (åarjelsaemien), Johan Sandberg McGuinne (englaanten gïele)
Language consultant: Unni Steinfjell
Producer: Neste Trinn v/ Siri Hallingby Børs-Lind & Martha Jensine Hansen Møkkelgjerd
Lyrics:Kerttu Vuolab & Mari Boine
Music: Mari Boine.
Performd by: Mari Boine and her Band
“Aahka” perhaps the biggest venture by a Sami theater ever, and at least for the South Sami theatre. “Aahka”, which refers to the Sami word for grandmother, here in the form of Mari Boine, is an ambitious concert performance that tells a frame story about flight on different levels, about life cycles and the life that follows the water. Boine’s newly written songs and joik become the stories of when man and nature lived in harmony. Like a grandmother who passes on her knowledge and memories to the next generations.
(…) Mari Boine’s band and Helgeland’s Sinfonietta create powerful musical tableaus under the high ceilings of Bodø Cathedral at the premiere.(…)
(…) The experience is further framed by Charles Ellingsen’s tasteful visual lighting design. Cecilia Persson has written the script for “Aahka”, and the actors Bernt Bjørn and Ebba Joks share the voices between them, acting as narrator and various roles, most prominently a little boy who escapes from a boarding school, and a young girl who flees from a country in war and survives a shipwreck at sea. The initially clearly defined characters dissolve into several voices, in time and space. (…)