Tens of thousands of Estonians fled across the Baltic during the Second World War, carrying fragments of a homeland into exile. Their children and grandchildren grew up with stories, songs, faded photos, and sketches of a place they had never seen—an imagined Estonia that would shape their creative voices.
For Sweden-Estonians working in music, media, and the arts, this inherited homeland became both a gift and a hardship—shaping how they create, perform, and navigate the space between belonging and displacement. What happens when that imagined place meets lived reality? And what does it mean to build a career from this liminal space, where memory, absence, and creative vision collide?
Join us for a panel where second- and third-generation Estonian-Swedes explore diaspora identity as a creative force—discussing how to create from inherited memory, reconstruct home through art, and why what is missing might matter most.
Speakers:
- Andres Lokko, writer and journalist
- Sofia Joons, musician, PhD in Ethnomusicology, founding member of Naised Köögis
Moderator:
- Alar Kuutmann, Board member of The National Federation of Folk Music and Dance