Aune Kuuva has been the most discernible Inari Sámi maker of music in recent years. Her long-term hobbies of poetry writing and music surfaced in the 1990s when she released two C-cassettes of music. These are “Äijihkeđki”, released in 1994, and “Kuurâh kullui”, released in 1998. Her latest releases are from 2004. They are the Inari Sami CD “Pálgáh” and the Finnish CD “Pohjoinen mystiikkaa”.

Aune Kuuva esteems the expressive adaptability of the Inari Sámi language especially in song and poetry because it is phonetically soft and the vocabulary rich. In 1991, under the pen name Aune Vesa, a book of poetry called “Uáináh’uv ― Oainnátgo” (”Do You See?”) was published with illustration done in cooperation with nature photographer Martti Rikkonen.

As well as music and poetry Aune Kuuva is know as an artist for her multidimensional installations and doll arrangements with which she depicts in particular the interaction between the Inari Sámi culture and nature.

Children’s culture and the Inari Sámi identity have had a significant presence in Aune Kuuva’s artistic activity and she has functioned as a reader in children’s programs for Sámi Radio as well as doing installations for the photography in the children’s books “Tuálu faŋgâ” (“Prisoner of Frost”, written by Aune Kuuva, 1994), “Suábi maainâs” (“The Story of the Pole”, written by Petter Morottaja, 1999) and “Riävskánieidâ” (“Willow Grouse Girl”, written by Petter Morottaja, 2000).

Marko Jouste