Gunnel Heligfjell is an artist and writer who teaches the Sami language to school children. While she lives in a more conventional home in Vilhelmina, Sweden most of the year, she still spends time in a goahti or lavvu during summer or hunting trips. She believes in this traditional self-reliance and knows how to build traditional shelters and still cures reindeer meat (from her husband’s herd) and makes shoes, bags and fabrics from the skins. The Sami people are one of the oldest semi-nomadic Indigenous groups in the world. Traditionally herding reindeer in the Arctic regions of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia’s Kola Peninsula (the region is known as Sapmi), they work with the rhythms of nature in order to survive the harsh climate. Photo credit: Kirsten Dirksen
