In myths of the Saami people in Lapland goddess Sarahkka is part of a group of three goddess; Sarahkka, Juksakka and Uksakka. They are all daughters of Madderahkka, the goddess of the earth. Juksakka is the goddess of hunt and protector of boys, Uksakka is the guardian of doors and entries and protector of childhood. 
Sarahkka is the protector goddess of women and girls and goddess of giving birth and midwifes. Pregnant mothers honoured her by leaving her porridge as sacrifice and when was time to deliver the baby midwives invoked Sarahkka to protect the child and the mother. 
I have Saami ancestry and I greatly enjoy painting characters from the myths of the Saami´s. For this painting I used different techniques to create textures. I also did lots of research on the baby´s cradle. It is called "komsio" and it has traditional Saami weaving. 

You can purchase the original painting here.
Posters, tshirts, notebooks etc can be found here. 

Some of you may already know I have saami ancestry from Finland and from Sweden. For those of you who don´t know the saami´s are the first nation people of Scandinavia and northern peninsula in Russia. 

I have been studying saami folklore and mythology for the past couple of years. It started as a wish to connect more with the culture. We Finns tend to be a quite mixed bag mainly with Finno-Ugric, Baltic, Slavic, Saami and Scandinavian/nordic roots. 

The name of Juksakka means "the bow women". Saami culture had strictly divided gender roles and Juksakka was the protector of boys and men and the goddess of hunt. You can see many of her symbols in this painting. She has the bow and arrows. Colors in her shawl are traditional colors of the saami and can be found from the flag of the saami land. All images in the shaman drum are typical shaman drum motifs. Juksakka and her two sisters Madderakka and Uksakka were often painted to the bottom of the drum and there they are. 

Still today reindeer herding is a big part of saami culture and back in the days herding happened in the mountains and the herders lived in kota (tent). 

Original is painted with watercolors and can be purchased here
Stickers, posters, mugs etc can be found here.