Taarka – a singer from Hilana village – was born as a first child in the eight-child family of Gavrila Mats and Karassima Oka. Her mother was a good singer as well, and song writers often visited her. Taarka went to sing at weddings already as a child: her mother was the lead singer and Taarka sang the killõ (high and sharp accompanying voice). Taarka’s father was dark, and Taarka inherited her looks from him. However, her father Mats became an alcoholic and a gambler and made the life of the family miserable. Taarka was poor her whole life.

The saying that a prophet has no honour in his own country applied to Hilana Taarka as well. She was a well-known and demanded leelo singer at weddings, but at the same time, the attitudes towards her were controversial. Taarka’s reggae verses were sharp, apposite and even provocative, which is why she was feared as she was not afraid to tell the truth. Taarka was also regarded as very immoral: she never married as she did not have any dowry due to the broke household, but she still gave birth to five children.

Taarka had one son and four daughters whom she raised with the help of her mother in a small threshing hut that had no chimney. To provide for herself and her children, she sang at the weddings of the village, worked at other houses and also begged.

Regardless of her troubles and hard fate, Taarka was an optimistic and hot-tempered person. Her fame as a singer spread and song writers often visited Hilanamäe: the Vastseliina writer Hindrik Prants, the Finnish folk music scientist Armas Otto Väisanen, the collector of folk dances and games Anna Raudkats, etc.

The fame of Taarka as a singer was at its peak in June 1921 when she performed at the Helsinki Song Festival with her choir at the request of Armas Otto Väisanen, where the President of Finland also listened to her. Taarka was probably the first folk singer to sing to the highest public authority of the Finnish people.

The singer lived her whole life in poverty. But her friends and supporters wanted to help her out of the chimneyless hut. This only happened right before the eve of Taarka. For the subsidies, she was bought a house to Võmmorski village. Although the place was far from Hilana and Taarka’s heart remained in her home village, she moved to the new house – with a chimney – in her old age, where she lived till the end of her days with her daughter Taana.

Hilana Taarka is buried at Obinitsa cemetery. There were only a few people at her burial, and after the funeral, her grave was forgotten. This was the revenge of the locals on the unmarried mother. Only in 1981, when the regional studies day was celebrated at Obinitsa, did people start recovering their memory and looking back – the 125th birthday of Hilana Taarka was celebrated, a commemorative evening dedicated to her was organised, etc. Hilana Taarka was recognised as a great Seto Mother of Song and in 1986, was stored in the Seto memories forever by being respectably carved into a sculpture that has been looking down on Lake Obinitsa to this day.

Source: Sillaots, Liidia; Obinitsa Seto Museum (2003) „Kumo kaldu kuldakaivo. Hilana Taarka (1856-1933)“.