Raajroe - Orchestral project

Mortensson’s album, a labour of love, has reached the autumn pastures. Raajroe – The Reindeer Caravan is steeped in the knowledge of how one not only travels through our Mother Earth, but how one lives on and off her, always caring for her. The music becomes an offering of thanks to nature itself, the reindeer and all ancestors who have carefully traversed these lands before us. These are stories stemming from a time Marja herself has not lived through, but through her commitment to the Saami oral tradition, the yoik and the South Saami language, she is passing on her people’s traditions to future generations. Raajroe – The Reindeer Caravan offers a youthful interpretation of a tradition ranging all the way back to the very first time humans started to follow in the footsteps of migrating reindeer. The musical story being told through the eyes of Marja’s ancestors and their reindeer herds on this album is full of love for eatneme, Mother Earth, for bovtsh, the reindeer, and nature itself. This is also the reason as to why the album has been given the name Raajroe – The Reindeer Caravan. The ten tracks on the album each tell a story about days gone by, reindeer caravans, Mother Earth, the yoiking tradition, the Sacred Bear, the reindeer chosen to lead the herd, old reindeer tracks and contemporary modernisation.

By choosing to focus on the past, one is able to discover and understand past experiences, the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, stories and important meetings between people. Together, this forms the basis for maahtoe – the important, embodied knowledge one needs in order to survive in the future. This knowledge is a vessel, meant to carry and sustain future generations. Without this knowledge, we are poor. Those of us who listen to old teachings from those around us, those of us who pay attention to nature’s teachings, will bïerkenidh – survive. At this point, we have entered our autumn pastures, and soon we will carry on towards our winter pastures.