SWAMP gloss‣ary



CLOUDBERRY
Rubus chamaemorus
pihkapää
klopo
muuraimensuppu
lillukka
löllerö
suomuurain
nevanmarja
valokki
supukka
tuppiluikku
hillikko
plussi
lakka
mämmi
suppupää
kartti
urpiainen
hissale
rellu
rahkamuurama
hilla
valon marja
muurain


SWAMP
aapa 
neva 
räme 
letto 
rimpi 
korpi 
suo 
hallamaa 
lutto 
luhta
keidassuo
palsasuo
lähteikkö 
hete 
hetteikkö
❦

the first time i entered the swamp behind TUO TUO, it was as if i’d untucked a crease in reality; a velvety portière puckered and conceded as i stepped through a portal of star moss. with tender crisp, i drew closer to the swamp’s glassy interior, i brushed over tangles of wild rosemary and flowering whortleberry shrubs. the air was like a saline dream of swimming halls and lemon trees, the surrounding pines ombréd into the faded blue sky and breezed over willowy sedge. i turned in circles, this whole world a blur, i too became a blur.

mystery, death, and the husky breath of cosmic history were all present; sensed, felt – a weight that quite literally hummed beneath my rubbered feet.

it’s possible that the only thing i love to talk about with others more than dreams are swamps. there is certainly no place more magical that i know of. when i enter the swamp alone, i find that i exit feeling reset, embodied (and i know it sounds melodramatic – swamps are afterall intensely melodramatic locales), reborn. when i visit the swamps with others it’s like sampling an ancient hush, a silence that’s candy-coated in bliss.

Niina Kivilä  & Kati Saonegin's collection of essays, Hillasuolla kaikki on toisin (The world looks different from the cloudberry swamp) describes the duo's cathartic berry-picking trips to remote Eastern Lapland. Their essays like vignettes of conversations that sprung from their marshy visits – childlessness, gender, borders, Finland’s historical violence and rejection towards swamps – are all topics ushered by their expriences together in Hillasuo. Niina wrote for the collection in part during a residency at TUO TUO in the autumn of 2022.

While the book's essays are all written in Finnish, our SWAMP glossary is a small talisman from the spirit of the book, which is available in bookstores, e-book & audio formats. We hope you’ll read it or gift it to a friend, and if you have a magical swamp experience, you’ll know who to share it with. 

find out more about the book ‣ 



Niina Kivilä is a hiker, berry picker and a master of social sciences who roams the northern wilderness. Niina studies writing at the Critical College.

Kati Saonegin is a publishing editor living in Helsinki, whose roots are in the north. 

The above text was written by Kaitlyn D. Hamilton – co-founder and co-director of TUO TUO.