Wimme Saari

"To me, joiking is the deepest way to give out my feelings and my background," said Sami joiker Wimme Saari. "It makes my life fuller." Wimme grew up with the joik, the wordless singing of the Sami, or Lapp, people. The Sami, who are spread across Scandinavia, often north of the Arctic Circle, were for many centuries nomadic reindeer herders. But more recently they've settled into communities, and Wimme grew up in a settled house in northwest Finland. His father and older brother herded reindeer, and Wimme grew up hearing the joiks around him, although it wasn't something his ...