It all started in Sweden, specifically in the fäbod with women. During each summer, young women from Swedish families left their homes to get away from their families and men for a while. The destination was the fäbod, a summer farm that was managed solely by them.
On that farm, the women tended the family livestock and produced all kinds of sustainable dairy products for the winter. That was life in the fäbod. But according to Swedish women, going to the farm meant much more than just responsibilities and work.
The stories of Karin Saros, a Swedish woman from Mora, Dalarna, born in 1887, say that traveling to the fäbod was to discover freedom again, experience independent living and enjoy the calm of being away from home life.
For Swedish women, going to the farm was the opportunity to decide how to organize their tasks, enjoy the landscapes of Sweden and finally learn to communicate with the flock in their care. Chasing cattle through the large fields of the mountains seemed to be a viable podo tactic, which is how kulning was born.
Image: Jonna Jinton
The Swedish song that conquered the world (and nature)
Kulning refers to the herding calls that the women of the Nordic fäbod culture developed with their voices to attract livestock. Although the song had existed long before, it was Karin Edvardsson Johansson from Transtrand, Dalarna who made the song famous to the world.
It is said that Karin learned kulning singing or kölning, as it is called in Transtrand, at the age of five. Her mother and other older women were the ones who taught her. Shortly after Karin’s voice became very popular, becoming an icon of fäbod and Swedish culture.
Karin Edvardsson Johansson/ Image: Transtrands Hembygdsförening
Now, several decades later, the songs of Karin and the rest of the fäbod women resonate as an emblem of the work they did to support their families. In addition to creating beautiful melodies that helped keep their flock together and away from wolves and bears.
But not only is kulning singing becoming more popular, but it also reminds us of the important value of “inheritance” in a globalized world. This practice connects us with the feeling of belonging to a culture, whatever culture builds you.
It reminds us of the sense of community, of stability, of the rural and the local. Just as it also takes us to the most essential thing about nature, to the connection with it and not to its sacrifice only for our benefit.