I recently read about a bird so extraordinary it took my breath away. The Bar-tailed godwit — known in Finnish as kuovi or more specifically isovesipääsky — is not just another pretty bird. This long-legged, long-billed wonder is one of the world’s greatest flyers, performing an annual feat that seems nearly impossible. It migrates from…
Category: Migration
My Finnish Identity
Today is suomalaisuudenpäivä — The Day of Finnish Identity. In Finland, flags rise in honour of J.V. Snellman, the statesman and philosopher who championed the Finnish language and helped shape the soul of a nation. He believed in a Finland that could speak — in its own language, with its own voice. For those of…
Roots & Wings
As Finns living overseas, our identity is a delicate dance between the past and present, a symphony that resonates with the echoes of our homeland while embracing the richness of foreign lands. The Finnish term “ulkosuomalaiset” encapsulates those of us born in Finland but living overseas, each of us sharing a common thread despite our…
Rustic Wisdom
During our last visit to Finland, I had the honour of staying at my late mother-in-law’s childhood home, in a small village, in the Finnish countryside. These days this ancestral homestead belongs to one of the cousins, Hannu. When I stepped inside the old country house, it felt like the earth had paused to take…
Outside Finns
There is a word that Finland calls us, the Finns that were born in Finland, yet live overseas. They call us “ulkosuomalaiset”. “Ulko” means outside, “suomalaiset” means Finns. We are the outside-Finns! No matter where in the world we live, we have something in common with one-another. We all miss certain things about our birth…
One Day in September
The morning after arriving in Australia from Finland, my family left for a walk from our new home in the migrant Midway hostel in Maribyrnong. I guess we wanted to discover this strange new country we had landed in. We walked along the side of the road, like ducklings flowing their mother. We must have…
I Found It!
When my brother and I were children, we loved playing “hot and cold”. One of us would hide a small object and the other would be the hunter who would try to find it. The closer the hunter got to the object, the more the other person would call “hotter, hotter!”… and finally: “now it’s…
Timeless Treasures
When I was a little girl and lived in Finland, I had a special friend. Her name was Tiina. My friend and I lived a few hundred metres from each other and were in the same class at school. A lot of the time, she almost lived at my place, only going home to sleep….
Blue and White
I was 11 years old when my family migrated from Finland to Australia. At the time I had very little understanding of the magnitude of what it really meant. I think I was more excited about going on a plane than anything else, because I had never flown before. Yet I was acutely aware how…
Apples of Gold 