HÄN Archive

Celebrating Tove Jansson's Queer World

There is a special sense of joy in looking back at a distant memory and realising it was actually incredibly queer. It is true of songs and films, friendships and little pleasures – we can look back and recognise a kernel of our fully blossomed queer selves right there and then. The work of Tove Jansson is one of these joyful gems for the queers worldwide.

Tove Jansson was a Finnish author, novelist, artist and storyteller, known internationally as the creator of the Moomin universe. She was also queer and has had a 45-year-long queer relationship with her partner Tuulikki Pietilä – something which is sadly often left out in the conversation about her creativity. At the time of her life, Jansson had to keep her queerness a secret (as homosexuality was illegal in Finland until 1971) – and yet her artistic journey is full of inspiring stories of queer love, family and self-determination.

Today, Jansson’s queer heritage is celebrated. You can read about the queer themes in her life and work on the Moomin website (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) and in this great piece by Hannah Williams on Austostraddle. It is especially touching to decode encrypted queerness in the Moomin world and how they go about family, gender and nature.

In December 2022, supported by the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland, we got together at Queer Britain museum to explore family, belonging, queer childhoods, creativity and nature in relation to Jansson’s work.

At the end of the challenging year, it was a joy to spend some time with things which bring us comfort in the big city: doodling and making things, reading, sharing an inspiring conversation and studying queer history.

We had a screening of “Travels with Tove”, a 1993 film by Kanerva Cederström, and a lecture by Kati Mustola, a researcher specialising in Finnish queer history. Artist and illustrator Aleesha Nandhra hosted a comic strip workshop which got us drawing all kinds of plants, mushrooms and moomins.

To round up the day, we hosted a panel exploring queer ways to thrive with three incredible queer creatives: a curator and writer Nimco Kulmiye Hussein; artist, writer and founder of Camp Books Brooke Palmieri and Susy, founder of Queer As Funghi leading mushroom walks for trans, queer and intersex people.

The beautiful Tove Jansson event poster and illustration were created by artist Saati J Conran-McCormack.

HÄN is grateful to everyone who joined us for the event and helped to create a warm welcoming atmosphere, to all the participants, Queer Britain for hosting the event, all the Quuer Britain staff for their help, and to the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland for their generous support.