8 February 2022

“Sámi people and the reindeer we have a sacred relationship, it is because of the reindeer we are still here – and we are still here,”-Jenni Laiti

Episode 3, The End of This World, journeys through Sápmi, from Jåhkåmåhkke to Vájsáluokta. Amid the sacred relationship between the Sámi people and the reindeer, a story of a reindeer corral carried out on top of a mountain features a journey of several losses: of beings, of entire landscapes, and of cultural practices.

On Sámi territories, past, present and future converge: historical and present-day colonial forces in place are highlighted as the environmental loss and trauma that inflicts their land is addressed. Expanding hydropower, aggressive forestry, temperature rises, glacier retreat, and neo-colonial initiatives continue to impact the cultural, economic, spiritual, mental and physical health of Sámi reindeer herders and their wider community. By questioning what we should take with us to the next world, The End of This World suggests the importance of collective grieving: the need to come together in order to elaborate and process experiences of collective trauma and loss.

Each episode is paired with another side of the same story – a B-side where the landscape, then, speaks for itself. Sounds captured in the environment are turned into sound art, and musical expressions unearth from the land.