Eeva Väänänen / Mizizi 

Eight pendants
Silver and fabric ribbons

The jewellery name is Mizizi meaning roots in Kiswahili language. Just as roots provide stability and nourishment, I want the jewellery to symbolise stability, nourishment, and flourishing. The leaves cannot flourish without stability. Our roots are planted in the soil (Finland). We thrive from acceptance from the soil which gives us identity and we bear fruit. The leaves are the fruit. Without identity we lack sense of belonging and vice versa and we are hindered from progress/growth/flourishing.  

Caroline Karanja 

I come from Kenya, I was born and raised there and came to Finland after completing high school to pursue higher education. I have settled in Finland because my family is here and because of my work. My life is a constant cultural crossroads. It is not just about combining two cultures because I come from Kenya and living in Finland. It is a combination of everything, personal life, workplace, friendships, acquaintances and so on. It is allowing my self-culture to become accommodating to others’ self-culture. 

In my working life experience, language has always been the key. It has been important to ensure that I am well informed about what happens in the workplace lest I miss out on vital opportunities. I have also been very keen to note on workplace cultural practices.  

Equality to me is about acceptance, respect, and identity/sense of belonging. Without acceptance one is an outsider, hence not considered a team player. One’s input doesn’t matter because one is considered as less. Without acceptance one must work extra hard for everything and for anything to work out. Where respect lacks acceptance it is hard, and vice versa. Equality is a wide concept, it goes beyond cultural differences, race, colour, gender and so forth. In my opinion, if we all put ourselves in another person’s shoes, show acceptance and respect, we enable the person to form an identity within a particular setting, hence developing a sense of belonging. Through accepting someone we give room to allow them to flourish and express themselves as team players. Equality is allowing an equal opportunity for others to be as they wish and express themselves without limitations.  

• As a woman, equality in relation to the male species is in constant question regardless.  

• As a woman living in a foreign country, you’re not termed equal to native women. 

• As a mother of migrant background, parenting is under scrutiny and constant comparison to native mothers/ parents. 

My background may affect my daily activities in many ways. I, however, do not think about this most of the time. Many years ago, when I was new in Finland and didn’t speak a word of Finnish and struggled here and there to adjust and survive, then I thought a lot about how being who I am affected me.  

I do not feel I miss out on anything due to my background. I am well informed; I try to keep myself up to date with what’s happening. I can, however, say that despite being active and actively participating in community events, interacting, and showing up, it still doesn’t guarantee full acceptance in a community. The longer I live in this country the more I have come to literally understand the term ”birds of a feather stick together.”  

Finland will be a better place to live when prejudices are put aside. I speak this out of heartbreak for the sake of my innocent children, our children who are constantly facing segregation as if they are not part of this society they have been born into. Our children have been placed in a battlefield where they themselves do not know where they belong. They are constantly trying to figure out who they are and whom/ what they identify with. It is enough that we as their parents and those before us have struggled/are still struggling in our own ways to fight prejudices until now. Yet the same is to be faced by our children.  

My identity firstly is strongly based on where I was born, and the values instilled in me while I was growing up. Having come to Finland in my early adult years, it is in this country that I grew up. I am who I am today because of childhood influences and those of early adult years in a foreign country.