Seija playing a traditional reindeer bone game in the Sevettijärvi school.
Seija Sivertsen (nee Feodoroff), Skolt Sámi knowledge holder, language teacher and a traditional fisher passed on 22nd February, 2022. Snowchange salutes the life work of this outstanding Indigenous woman.
Seija was born in mid-1950s in the Skolt Sámi community of Sevettijärvi, Finland. All of her life she worked to advance the Skolt Sámi Indigenous culture, language, rights and traditional life ways.
Seija, being a decorated teacher of the Skolt Sámi was at the same time one of its most skilled speakers. Skolt Sámi is a critically endangered Indigenous language and thanks to Seija, generations of young Skolt Sámi learned the linguistic and cultural knowledge of their people.Between 1978 and 1986 she served as the Chief Editor of the “Sámi News” paper (Sääʹmođđâz).
For these efforts, she was decorated, including in 2014 with the pan-Sámi award Gollagiella, in service of outstanding work to Indigenous languages.
Snowchange cherishes the long years of collaboration with Seija. Our sister, friend and colleague has gone home. We first started to work with her in 2009 during the Eastern Sámi Atlas and recall with love the visits that Seija co-led to Selkie village, where Sámi and North Karelian children visited each other and learned about their cultures.
We offer condolences to the family and relatives of Seija.