Friday 26 October – Friday 2 November
Lyttelton Ground Floor Foyer | Projected on the fly tower
'As time went on we knew this was no way to live. We were becoming ill; our children couldn’t go to school. We didn’t want to leave, our hearts belonged to that place, we still had land in our name even though it was now under water. We had no choice but to move.'
'These wealthy countries who have industrial factories, who pump out smoke from cars, they are damaging the poorer countries who have no power to defend themselves. It makes no sense; these people cause the problems and then send us aid.'
'If you think of me, where I am living my life and how, the way my forefathers have lived their lives, this is all I know. If I can’t live like this, then how should I live? If I have to change my way of life then the whole Sami culture will change… and all will be lost.'
'In the beginning there was a kind of tranquility to the landscape.. now you can feel that the wildlife is struggling. Back then, when I was in the forest there were so many birds flying everywhere. But today, there are far fewer to be seen in the air. Even the birds are in decline.'
'I can’t understand why we are forgetting nature, why we are abusing the world. We think it’s so big, but it’s not. We are all connected some way, somehow. We will all have to live with the consequences. I look at my children and I wonder if they will be able to continue this way of life.'
'In the flood, 80 or 90 families that I know lost their homes. They were attached to one another in a row, some of them were my husband’s uncles and aunts, all were lost. Maybe 250 people were made homeless in minutes. The people who could afford to move then went to other places where they could find a living.'
'Living with such uncertainty is torture. We worry, will we last this night? Even if we do survive what about our children? Will they? We don’t want much, just enough food to eat, to not to be worried all the time, to live in peace. What will become of us if we leave? We just want to find a way to save ourselves.'
'I sit here in the dark, in the heat, and I think of the home we had, the lands, the trees, the fish. I think how all of it has been taken away – my whole life was washed away by that stream. Now I have nothing, no future, no certainties. Who will give me shelter? Who will give me place where I can rest and die?'