Photo Anita Artnzen.

It are important days for Mari Boine nowadays. August 24 her new CD will be released, and September 3 she gets her Anders Jahres kulturpris.

Receives 500.000 and culture price

Mari Boine shares in the Anders Jahres kulturpris in September.

Silje Charlotte Solstad

Published 14.08.2009 18:55 h. Update 14.08.2009 18:55 h.

– This price is important because it can inspire others. Talents are not only to be found in cities, but also in villages, even the smallest ones, Mari Boine says and thinks of her little birth village in the rural district Karasjok.

Some days ago she was visiting in Gámehisnjárga, where she was born in 1956.

– It is a tiny little village. When I saw it again, I thought about how strong it is what I have accomplished.

The most prestigious culture price

At September 3 Åse Kleveland hands out the Anders Jahres culture price to Mari Boine. The price is counted as one of the most prestigious in the Norwegian cultural life.

In principal it says the foundation wishes «to honour an artist that with a unique creative power, integrity and the ability to pass on has created a revealing musical expression with the Sami tradition as soundboard.»

The judges give Boine much of the honour for the fact that Sami music is no longer seen as an ethnical curiosity, but as a «living part of the worlds music inheritance ».

Important with impulses

The price that is handed out by Anders Jahres Humanitære Stiftelse, is since 1990 given to actors in the Norwegian cultural life.

Liv Ullmann, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Jan Garbarek, Jon Fosse, Halldis Moren Vesaas and Arve Tellefsen are amongst earlier price winners.

Mari Boine gets 500.000 crowns, a diploma and a trophy made by Nils Aas.

– It is important that culture impulses are appreciated. We need culture to not «fade» from within. It is food for the soul, Boine smiles.

New CD

Monday August 24 Mari Boines newest CD is released. «Sterna Paradisea» was recorded north of Cape Town in South-Africa.

– I wanted to see if warmer regions did something to the music. And I think the CD has become warmer and lighter.