RELEASE 10 NOVEMBER 2010, UPDATED 16 NOVEMBER 2010
Newsletter 3/2010
In this newsletter you'll find information about the recent ESIN Annual General Meeting, organised in Denmark, about the FÖSS project Kulturkvarnen (Cultural Mill), about the projects Skärgårdsröster (Voices from the Archipelago) and Tidsresor i skärgården (Time Travel in the Archipelago), and also about a seminar in the context of the Forum for Archipelago Studies.
The ESIN Annual General Meeting in Denmark
During the second week of September Ms. Monica Aaltonen and Ms. Eelin Hoffström, members of the FÖSS Board, and Ms. Pia Prost, Secretary of FÖSS, attended the tenth AGM of ESIN (European Small Islands Federation), held on the island of Sejerø, in Denmark. Delegates representing eight national associations participated in the AGM. In addition to the issues related to the normal AGM procedures, the meeting discussed matters that were considered as essential and common to all the minor European islands, for example matters concerning energy supply, distance learning, and also how the voice of ordinary people could reach the ears of the authorities. It is expected that the case of the islands may be reformed within the European Union by means of Intergroup 174, which is a newly founded group of some ten parliamentarians from various political disciplines. They work in behalf of islands, mountainous regions and sparsely populated territories of Europe.
The Cultural Mill project – from creative activities into adventure tourism
The idea of the FÖSS Cultural Mill project is to present and market services of cultural actors of the archipelago, together with the marketing of other tourism services of an area. We are now getting ready for the year 2011, which at the same time is celebrated as the year of cultural capital in Turku, and this means that it would be easier for the cultural actors of the archipelago to state their businesses as well. The cultural offers will be parcelled up in the form of marketable packages that are presented by means of the marketing channels of various retailers. The next phase will be to present the producers of cultural items at various tourism websites, and to provide links to the websites of the actors in order to improve visibility. Please, contact Ms. Pirjo Hoffström (, +358 40 0744 076) as soon as possible, in case you are interested. It is free of cost to participate.
Voices from the Archipelago and Time Travels in the Archipelago: Pupils of Velkua school were to process the issue
In the framework of the projects Voices from the Archipelago and Time Travels in the Archipelago the project co-ordinators, Ms. Nicole Mattsson and Ms. Eelin Hoffström, visited Velkua in order to accomplish a scheme to produce boxes of reminiscences at the Velkua school. Pupils from grades one to six were given the task to generate a story and to produce after that a so called box of reminiscences in order to illustrate the story. The chosen themes were: A seal safari; The origins of the name Velkua; Treasures of the seashore; When I met a mermaid; and A shipwreck. After having finalised the task all 14 pupils presented their boxes in their own classrooms. An opening of an r exhibition was also organised at the facility centre Kummeli, at which the pupils presented their boxes and sang songs with autumn motives. The children greatly appreciated the task of making the boxes, they also notified that sea turned up as a common denominator for all the stories and boxes. They, in addition, learned several ways of starting off and terminating a story, and also ways and means to make it interesting or entertaining, with the assistance of hints provided by Mr. Rasmus Hoffström, winner of storytelling contest Story Slam.
Next weekend the last storytelling workshops in the framework of the project Voices from the Archipelago will be arranged on the islands of Aspö and Nötö. In-depth interviews concerning life in the archipelago will, however, be organised up to the end of this year, so it is still possible for anyone to tell his or her own story on the topic! Please, contact project co-ordinators, Ms. Nicole Mattsson (, +358 40 5741 817) or Ms. Pia Prost (, +358 50 3381 710), if you are interested.
The Archipelago Institute at the Åbo Akademi University, Skärgårdsinstitutet vid Åbo Akademi, and the Archipelago Sea Biosphere Reserve will organise a Forum concerning archipelago research, Forum för skärgårdsforskning, on 26 November 2010, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Archipelago Centre Korpoström. The topic of the Forum will be Aspects of Living. During the day, light will be shed on, inter alia, the effects of settlement on nature and environment, on preservation of landscape, on cultural heritage and the build-up environment, on the significance of community and associations for immigration, on zoning issues, on the flexible models of work in digital communities and in the future as an option for the archipelago, on transportation, on the role of part-time residency, etc. Register before the end of monday 22 November to Nina Söderlund (, +358 50 5278 180) or Gunveig Österman ().
An inquest on all-the-year-round inhabited islands
Kindly study the recent inquest produced by the Ministry of Employment and Economy, which reviews conditions of life on islands with all-the-year-round inhabitation without permanent road connection with the mainland: www.tem.fi/?s=2681&xmid=4411&C=97980.
