Abstract
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (1943–2001) was the greatest Sámi multimedia artist. He made his debut as an author in 1971 and is so far the only Sámi who has been awarded the prestigious Nordic Council's literature prize, for his book of poetry and old photographs Beaivi, áhčážan (1989) (The Sun, My Father [1997]). In this article Harald Gaski provides an analysis of two of Valkeapää's most renowned pieces of lyrical writing. Both are long-poems; the first one is a tribute to indigenous peoples’ values and philosophy while the other one is only available in its Sámi original and thus a linguistic and cultural manifestation. It is a challenge, therefore, for the author of this essay to explicate for a foreign reader why and how the poem represents a migrating reindeer herd and why the content of both poems is relevant and important for indigenous peoples today.
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