Umayya Abu-Hanna


Umayya Abu-Hanna is a Palestinian-Finnish writer, journalist, and former member of the Helsinki City Council born in Haifa, Israel, into a Palestinian family. She moved to Finland in 1981. In 2011 she moved to Amsterdam where she resides with her South African daughter.

Career

In the 1980s Abu-Hanna was a member of the Helsinki City Council and member of the Real Estate Board of Helsinki. In the 1990s she was a journalist, documentary maker and columnist. She became known to the wider public as the first non-white presenter of the weekly current affairs news-program Ajankohtainen Kakkonen at the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. In the 2000s she was member of the Arts Council Finland and was the first chair of its Multicultural Board. Abu-Hanna was also the cultural diversity adviser of the Finnish National Gallery.
Her first novel Nurinkurin was published in 2003. Her book on identity Sinut was published in 2007. A manual for the cultural field Multikulti 2012. A cultural history of modern Helsinki Alienin Silmin 2014. She was the co-writer of "A changing world, perspectives on heritage" with case study of museums in Afghanistan. She is working on a book of ethics for children.

Awards