The Wilderness Diva Carina Henriksson's company is called GlesbygdsDivan, which translates to a diva from a sparsely populated area. She also runs Opera Vildmark or The Wilderness Opera.
It is in the Tornedal culture and the Sami tradition that I have my roots. My grandmother spoke mostly Meänkieli, and my parents spoke both Swedish and Meänkieli. But they chose not to teach us children the language at home, and it is a great sadness that I carry with me. For many years I lived in a Tornedal community and identity, while at the same time I felt a certain alienation because I did not fully master the language. I have always sung on meänkieli, and Tornedal folk music is close to my heart. It was only much later that I started singing in Sami.
When I write, create and perform, it is almost never just entertainment, but there is always something else, something I want to say, lift or shine through on stage. Right now I am working on a performance about addiction, co-dependency, mental illness and violence in close relationships. The show will be touring middle and high schools, and I hope to create greater awareness of these issues and generate a good discussion. It would be very nice if more people become more aware of this problem, and feel that they have choices and do not have to enter into relationships that are not good. If I can help someone, I will be happy, and I believe that humanity these days has a need to heal itself. Through the power of culture and the power of music, I can help and make a difference, and I think it is a responsibility that I have as a cultural worker.
When I returned home, I decided to reclaim my languages, and did so through music, theater and culture. I wanted to get in touch with my roots, and wanted to understand and live with both my cultures. The first performance I participated in was the folk musical Songs from Matojärvi, created by the writer Bengt Pohjanen and the Finnish composer Kaj Chydenius. The performance portrays one of Tornedalen's first female fiction writers, and was performed in both Meänkieli and Swedish. It was a lot of fun, and also the beginning of my and Bengt Pohjanen's long-term collaboration. After that we have done many productions and projects together.
The diversity itself constitutes the richness of color in our cultural life, and enriches and creates differentiated art and culture, so that it does not become too narrow and categorized. I like when culture is created where boundaries and genres are blurred. The zeitgeist today is much more permissive than when I started 30 years ago. Then you weren't allowed to do this or that. When I studied opera, only opera and nothing else applied.