Talkoot: The Finnish Tradition of Community Work
The beams are too heavy for one family to lift. The roof cannot be finished before winter comes. Livestock will need shelter before the snow arrives. Waiting until enough money has been saved to hire workers means it might never be finished.
Kuusamo, Alberta: The Finnish Farming District Near Sylvan Lake
The Canadian Geographical Names Database places Kuusamo at 5-26-38-2-W5, approximately six kilometres southwest of Sylvan Lake. Alberta’s provincial place-name history says the surrounding area was originally settled by Finns and connects the name with Kuusamo School District No. 755.
Löyly: The Finnish Word at the Heart of Sauna
The ladle tips. Water strikes the stones with a hiss, vanishes, and returns as a wave of humid heat. It rises toward the ceiling before rolling across the upper bench. A few seconds later, the whole room feels different.
That movement has a name in Finnish: löyly.
English translations usually settle on “steam.” The word covers more than the vapour released from wet stones. It can describe the heated wave moving through the room, the character of the heat, and the quality of the sauna session.
Finnish Women in Alberta
In 1927, Mary North explained why the Finnish Women’s Labor League in her Alberta mining community consisted largely of housewives.
“Naturally … we are housewives for jobs here are only in mining and are hardly even accessible to the man,” she wrote.
Women had few opportunities to earn wages in the coal towns of the Crowsnest Pass. That did not keep them outside public life.
Hespero, Alberta
Betty Speirs was born at Hespero, Alberta, in 1931. Her father, Neil Humalamaki, had come from Finland, as had her maternal grandparents, who took a homestead north of Eckville in 1903. Neil died when Betty was one, and her mother, Emma, moved Betty and her brother into Eckville.
Is Finland part of Scandinavia?
In 1976, Finnish delegate Marjatta Stenius rose to speak at a meeting of the Nordic Council in Copenhagen. She delivered her remarks in Finnish, even though the council’s standing orders did not then permit its use.
Clearing the Bush
Central Alberta’s wooded parkland around Sylvan Lake, Eckville and Hoadley lies largely within Treaty 6 territory, while Red Deer stands near the meeting of Treaty 6 and Treaty 7 lands. The region is also Métis homeland and was travelled, occupied and used by Cree, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota, Dene and Métis communities long before homestead lands were surveyed.
Just Let Them Bite You
The Prairies have been flooding since spring, setting new records. On June 27th, Edmonton broke a 112-year record when 244 mm descended on the city, surpassing the 216.5 mm record set in 1914. Fields flooded, roads were impacted, basements flooded, and the ground was like walking on a soggy sponge.