Conversation: giving Sámi culture and language a place

In connection with the Sami language week, author Moa Backe Åstot visits Skellefteå and Sara cultural center.

Moa's latest book Butterfly Heart is about, among other things, bringing back the family's Sami language that the previous generation lost. Through her stories, she provides new perspectives on both Sami culture and identity. She wants young Sami to find themselves in what she writes, but also for outsiders to gain an insight into what it can be like to live as a young Sami today. The Sami language is close to Moa's heart and she has studied Lule Sami at Umeå University.

Moa Backe Åstot, born in 1998, is a pure-blooded Sámi and lives in Jokkmokk. Her debut novel Himlabrand won the Swedish Association of Adult Education's Author Prize, Slangbellan and Norrland's Literature Prize and was nominated for the August Prize 2021. Himlabrand was also nominated for the Nordic Council's Children's and Young People's Literature Prize.