A choreographic practice about human’s right to self-determination.

Raja is an artistic research and study of the current geographical and cultural area between the states of Finland, Norway and Russia. This is a traditional Sami-area and an area where the Finnish-related Kven-language minority also lives. The borders of the states that have changed over time, the practices between them, as well as the unrestricted movement of the traditional Sámi culture in the region, such as reindeer husbandry, gathering and fishing, create or break a special sense of community. How does this affect people's lives nowadays, when the effects of the corona pandemic, such as the closing of borders, and thus restricting the movement of people and cargo to different levels, also possibly bring up memories of the times when war and conflicts restricted movement and communication as well? Now we also have a war again in Europe, by a country really close to these historically violated boundaries of a civilized society. Do psychosocial tensions as part of changing everyday life and the present affect people's physicality? Possibly also as generational memory traces of restricted movement of bodies, as well as linguistic restrictions in the times of Finnishization, Norwegianization and Russification in relation to the original peoples languages ​​of the region? RAJA approaches the subject with bodily practices of performing arts and contemporary dance as well as with an aesthetic and cultural anthropological research framework as the basis of interviews that are initially conducted with reindeer herders and fishermen in the Teno river region.