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Sami National Day: Indigenous fights
by Asa Butcher
Issue 7 |
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At the pinnacle of the Earth are an indigenous people who have managed to survive the brutality of the Vikings, colonization by the Swedes and today are still fighting cultural genocide. This First Nation is called Sami and inhabits Lapland, which consists of the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of the extreme northwest of Russia.
Within the arbitrary line known as the Arctic Circle, there are approximately 85,000 Sami living in tribes that share a common history, language, culture, livelihood, way of life and identity, but are not one homogeneous group. These groups have their own identities, promote various agendas and some have access to contemporary media. However, many are victims of tyranny, receive no Human Rights, fear for the safety of their community and struggle against the onslaught of globalisation.
Determining whether somebody is eligible to be classed a Sami one of the following criteria needs to be met. He/she considers themselves a Sami; has Sami as his/her first language, or whose father, mother or one of whose grandparents has Sami as their first language (mother tongue); has a father or mother who satisfies the above-mentioned conditions for being a Sami.
Each tribe has its own variety of traditional clothing and cultural expressions, like singing and handicrafts, however the greatest difference is the Sami dialect that becomes mutually incomprehensible from one end of the Sami nation to the other. Language is an essential part of the Sami identity and it has been under threat for many centuries. In 1920’s Sweden, a race-segregation policy was introduced and the teaching of the Sami language was forbidden in schools.
In all the countries the Sami are spread across, they have full citizenship, but they are not recognised as an indigenous group by all governments who prefer to treat them as a minority, thereby avoiding international legislation for indigenous people or agreements such as the International Labour Organization declaration:
"To the indigenous peoples in independent countries, considered indigenous because they descend from populations which inhabited the country or a geographical region belonging to the country during an era of conquest or colonization and the establishment of the actual borders of the present states and which, no matter their legal situation, still preserve all their appropriate social, economic, cultural institutions or remnants of them."
Both the United Nations and European Union recognise the Sami as an indigenous people and representatives from the Sami nation are able to join UN global indigenous projects and people’s conferences. Both Finland and Sweden are also members of these same organizations yet they refer to the Sami as a minority. On the surface this may be a minor difference, but this has far-reaching consequences regarding issues of land rights and the preservation of culture.
Currently the situation is far worse within Sweden as the government continues to break the UN Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing freedom to both land and water. Across most of Scandinavia, the Swedes have been the predominant antagonist throughout Sami history with their early encouragement of colonialism, which strongly mirrored the problems that faced the Native Americans and their land.
In the mid-16th Century, the Swedish King Gustav Vasa declared that "all unused lands belong to God, us and the Swedish Crown", which initiated an emigration northward to Lapland. As the frontiers of the country were pushed back and settlers began to set up home on the ‘free’ land that appeared to have no cost, no owner and was for the good of the Swedish Empire.
These settlers were unaware that the vacant land they were living on was reindeer grazing land used by the nomadic Sami and stood empty for periods of the year. When the herders returned to discover an unwelcome visitor had set up residence, the civil unrest began. Ensuring that the colonisation of Lapland continued the King encouraged commercial companies to move their business to Lapland and use the Sami as cheap labour.
One such company opened a mine and coerced the Sami to work both in the mine and help with the transportation of ore; those who refused to work received harsh penalties. This violent subjugation resulted in huge numbers of Sami fleeing from the area, leaving areas severely depopulated and the owners of the slave mine being given armed troops, from the Swedish government, to prevent any further depletion of the workforce.
Once colonization had gripped Sweden and settlers were being encouraged to move to the northern regions with generous offers of land, water rights and tax allowances, the effects upon the Sami were devastating. Farming and cattle ranches became the key source of income for the settlers and this conflicted strongly with the traditional Sami lifestyle of hunting, fishing and farming for the food to feed their family.
Intensive methods used by the settlers brought several species to the brink of extinction thereby destroying the economic foundation of the Sami hunting culture bringing widespread starvation to many tribes. Across the Atlantic, the problems were echoed as the Native Americans watched helplessly as their colonizers slaughtered millions of buffalo depriving them of a major food source.
These atrocities continued for many centuries and even in Sweden and Finland today the Sami are still fighting for their rights to land and water. Methods for eviction may have changed from brute force to court cases but the voice of the Sami nation is getting louder due to the increase of media at their disposal and the growing area it can reach. Mediums ranging from the Internet to radio, newspapers to television are dedicated to highlighting and fighting for the agendas of the Sami nation across all the countries.
Arctic Lapland saami sami Labour |
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