The setting is Birtavarre in the 1900s. What happens when an international company comes into an isolated community, flooding the valley twice yet paying the community nothing whatsoever in compensation? What consequences does this have on the small farms and fjord fishing which, until this point, had been the primary livelihoods of the Sea Sámi, Kvens, and Norwegians living there?

The mines in Moskogaisa and elsewhere in the Birtavarre mountains have long been used as a horrendous example of how not to run industry. Join authors Odd Marakatt Sivertsen and Irene Larsen for a conversation about Sivertsen’s 2021 novel, Ingen tårer i Moskogaisa / No Tears in Moskogaisa, which explores the impact of one of the first industrial projects to take place in Sámi regions, in the Birtavarre mountains in Northern Troms (1898-1919).

Odd Marakatt Sivertsen from Kåfjord uses his Sámi and Laestadian background as inspiration in his works. His latest novel, Ingen tårer i Moskogaisa / No Tears in Moskogaisa, was published in 2021. Marakatt Sivertsen is also an internationally renowned visual artist. His pictures have been exhibited in Aarhus, Karasjok, Sumiainen and Berlin, among other places.

Irene Larsen is a poet and teacher from Skjervøy municipality in North Troms. Her Sea Sámi background adds color to a contrast-filled and pictorial poetry about Northern Norwegian life in a historical, mythological and modern perspective. Since 2015, she has been employed in teacher education at Tromsø Arctic University. She has also taken on assignments for Den kulturelle skolesekken. Larsen's poetry is influenced by Sámi culture, everyday life and mythology, in interaction with modern, urban and global elements.