Recap of Forest Finn conversations. With Miriam Pedersen and Guest Sol Caspara Stenslie.

The podcast episode featured Sord Stensli as a guest, who is a forest Finn. She talked about her discovery of her forest Finn heritage and her interest in learning more about it. She also discussed the importance of building identity and unity among forest Finns around the world. Sord expressed her passion for working with minorities and her desire to preserve the forest Finn culture and language. She emphasized the need to spread knowledge and awareness through platforms like the podcast. Sord shared her personal experiences and discussed the challenges faced by forest Finns in preserving their culture. She highlighted the importance of staying united and building a sense of belonging as a forest Finn nation. The episode ended with a mention of an upcoming interview with another forest Finn, Camilla Hågheim-Miller. Good evening everyone, I'm here to report a little from the last podcast with Mirjam Pedersen, her Skogsfinske samtaler, your forest finn conversations and today's guest was Sord Stensli. She is a friend of Mirjam and a colleague and she told that she was honored to be asked to participate in the podcast. It seems that people think that this is very honorable to participate in and I think that is the right feeling because what we are doing here is to try to build identity and gather us all over the world, not only here in Norway and Sweden and Finnskogen, but also our friends and families in the United States. The first question I got was, as usual, that Mirjam asks every guest are you a forest finn? And she answered clear and loud yes. And the other question she asked her is how or have you always knew that you were a forest finn? And the answer to that was no. She found out this one year ago and this means a lot to her and she wants to learn more. Personally I think this is so good to hear that young people embrace this important work that we are doing. We are trying to rebuild our minority, the forest finns, not to be only a mention on a paper but a living and breathing society and fellowship. Mirjam and Sol is also related to Lithjane and Hakarein, as I said. And Sol, she said that she's almost 30 years old. She's from Oslo and has been living all over in Norway, in Hedmark or Finnskogen probably. And she's burning for minorities and the weak or the marginalized people in the different minorities. And she has been working a lot with LGBT. Her way into the forest finn environment was through Mirjam, as she explained. And they also found out that they were related through another minority in Norway, Tatar or Romani people. And she has found out that there's a lot of shame in the older generations that we all have found out. I don't know how it is in the USA because there I think most of it was already erased when people went to USA. Some people got written in their papers that they are more Finns, but not any particular about forest finns, I believe. And I have learned and heard from most other Kamala. Sara Kamala, I mean. I was thinking about your vice president right now. Okay. The new generation, she mentioned that they don't have this shame that was brought upon us in all the generations. Now it's more to be proud of who you are, your roots and your traditions. Unfortunately, she said, we have lost our language and much of our culture. But she burns for this and really wants to work with this. I have personally asked her if she wants to join our youth group in Skog Finnske Interesse i Norge, Forest Finns Interest in Norway. And she said yes, immediately to that. And I'm going to put her in contact with some of the big shots in our group. She also said, or she is also one of the few unique people that has known her grand grand grandparents. And that is very special. And they were all forest Finns. And she also said that they got a lot of children. So and that she also was named after her grand grand grandmother, who also had the Kaspara as a middle name that Sol also had. And that when she was younger, and when her grand grand grandparents lived, she was young to be interested in the minority, probably she didn't know much about it either. And this older generations, they didn't talk about it. I have the same experience in my family, where this was shush, shush, not to talk about it's a shame and so on. But as I said, no, it's new times. She also said that her family come from a working class environment, workers and farmers and probably lumberjacks and so on from Denmark, amongst others. And she is the first generation who has taken education, she has a master's and a lot of experience. And we in Skogsfinsk Interesse really need people like this with youth and stamina. And she also said that this podcast of Miriam is an important contribution in the work of identity building to spread knowledge, awareness and to wake up people. She also expressed a little sorrow because of the loss of culture. I also have been talking about that before, that I feel in a way robbed for my identity. And I was, well, I'm an old man. So I forgot almost how old I am. But I was a little late in my 50s before I discovered that I was a Forest Finn. So I really understand this. And it comes like a, first you get this feeling, wow, so interesting, so cool. And then you start to think, what was this? Why did this disappear? And then you find out that the authorities didn't exactly help us to continue our culture or to preserve our language or, it was a mild word I used now, they actually wanted to eradicate our language. They denied us using our names, family names, or clan names, and so on. And Sol is one of these people that I have a great faith in. She seems to be burning and has a lot of energy. That is very important in this, you can never give up. And that is also one thing that recognizes a Forest Finn, in my opinion. It is this calm way of being, very decided. And when you have put your mind in something, you never bend and you never break. That is my mantra, at least. Her engagement in the Forest Finn environment so far, it hasn't been so much. She follows Facebook groups that all of us do. And she also has been presented, like I also have been doing, presented my findings for, or her findings for her family. And luckily, she discovered that they were very interested and thrilled to know about their Forest Finn background. And on a question she got, if she had met any other Forest Finns today? And she said yes, she had a good friend that also she found out that she was related to. And my experience so far through these years I've been active in this environment, is that it's difficult to find a person that you are not related to. They are very few. So in a way, the Forest Finns all over the world, they are actually a big family of blood. And that pleases me and makes me feel good. And her last words was that we need to come together to spread the information and the knowledge and stay together and build identity. And I think she is very clear in this. And I agree that this is one of the most important things. One thing is to know about cabins, building techniques, small cabins, handcrafts, rye, farming, slash and burn and so on. It's very important. But it's also important to create, how can I say, a group or a... I'm not so interested in having a land or a country, but similar to the Native Americans that also call themselves for nations, even though they don't have land, I think also Forest Finns should be entitled themselves as a nation. That is my personal view on this matter. I hope you got a little clue on what tonight's episode was about. And I will come back with more and try to make some recaps of the previous episodes. And I'm also going to make some reportages. Amongst others, I'm going to interview Camilla Hågheim-Miller tomorrow, actually. She is also a Forest Finn, a very burning one. She is a board member of Skogsfinneforeningen. So I'm looking very forward to talk to her tomorrow. Until then, thank you for listening and have a nice evening.