Meet the Artists:

Samira Saramo is Senior Research Fellow at the Migration Institute of Finland and holds Title of Docent (Associate Professor) in Cultural History at the University of Turku. Samira’s transdisciplinary work centers on Finnish North American histories in the contexts of place, settler colonialism, the environment, and life narratives. Samira is very interested in bringing together arts and research to build new understandings and ways of communicating the past. For example, she has facilitated community creative writing and “mapping” workshops that explore identity, heritage, and place. This is Samira’s second artistic exhibit. Her first photography exhibit, “Finnish Pasts and Presents and in the U.S. Midwest” (2018 Turku, 2019 Jyväskylä), explored the power of feeling in place, a theme she has also written about in the article “Archives of place, feeling, and time: Immersive historical field research in the (Finnish) U.S. Midwest.” Since then, she has been expanding her artistic practice to installation. Samira grew up as a settler in Canada, but returned to Finland in 2015.

Zoe Gordon is a media artist focused on sound, and she runs a sound studio, Cricket Cave, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia, Film and Video from Emily Carr University, and collaborates on media projects with filmmakers, musicians, and artists for independent release and broadcasters. Some of the films she has worked on have shown nationally and internationally, including at Sundance Film Festival, Imaginative Film Festival, Hot Docs, Crave TV, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Additionally, she is a community arts producer. She was a production coordinator for Tangled Art + Disability's programming in Thunder Bay for 4 years and worked with Community Arts and Heritage Education Project to deliver arts programming to youth in their Arts to the Streets program for 5 years. Her personal practice is focused on embodiment, listening and environmental recording. Zoe is a settler living in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, part of the Superior Robinson treaty. Her ancestors come from across Europe, including Finland.

With warmest thanks to:

Kone Foundation for enabling this research project and exhibit

everyone at the Migration Institute of Finland

Artturi Elovirta and Forum Kortteli

Jarno Heinilä and the Migration Institute of Finland Archives

Sara Janes and the Lakehead University Archives

Jenni Kyrövaara

Luke Nicol

Lämpimät kiitokset:

Koneen Säätiölle tämän tutkimusprojektin ja näyttelyn mahdollistamisesta

Siirtolaisuusinstituutti ja ”’tuuttilaiset”

Artturi Elovirta ja Forum Kortteli

Jarno Heinilä ja Siirtolaisuusinstituutin arkisto

Sara Janes ja Lakeheadin yliopiston arkisto

Jenni Kyrövaara

Luke Nicol