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This study aims to strengthen the visibility of Sámi expertise, knowledge, and the biocultural diversity of Sámi territories by exploring the impact of colonial perception on Sámi territories Maps have played a central role in reinforcing colonial perceptions. In Sámi communities in Sweden, traditional mapping has reduced their complex landscapes to mere grazing areas, neglecting essential cultural practices. This perspective has guided land use planning, facilitated extractive ventures such as large-scale mining while displacing Sámi and severely disadvantaging Sámi livelihoods. This chapter presents a case study on the Swedish side of Sábme with a feminist and supradisciplinary approach that incorporates Sámi Indigenous Methodologies in co-production with a Lule Sámi family (a “sijdda”). We argue that environmental and land-use policies must address the complexity of the Sámi landscape by acknowledging the linguistic, biological, and cultural diversity to work towards sustainability. Additionally, our work provides an example of how to work ethically with and for Indigenous communities and how to make Sámi expertise, knowledge, and biocultural diversity visible.

The paper I plan to present would be about the preliminary work and findings for my Master thesis about lappskatteland, Saami taxlands on the Swedish side of Saepmie. The thesis will be a study in intellectual history/history of ideas (In swedish: Idéhistoria) which entails the study of human thought throughout history. The method used will be to study official and public discussions as well as governmental policies about Saami taxation to see how the concept of Saami autonomy is presented and understood and how it changes from the 1600s to lappskattelands dissolvement in 1928. The thesis plans to further the understanding of self-autonomy in Saami history through the study of lappskattelands origins and development. This field of study is important to historical and current discourse and understanding of Saami autonomy and land rights due to the uncertain nature of ownership that has entailed lappskatteland and Saepmie.

Lappskatteland was a way to divide Saepmie into different regions of taxation from the 1600s to its dismantlement in 1928. These taxlands weren’t static concepts but took different forms and sizes throughout history. Lappskatteland also played a major part in avvittringen. A governmental process between the 1600s-1900s where the Swedish government systematically appropriated land in Northern Sweden and Saepmie to then redistribute it to what the government considered suitable parts of the population for exploitation of the local resources. The local reindeer herding Saami population were not considered suitable for this end and were therefore forced to give up their ancestral land.

Coming Home to Culture

Home is a place of safety to be with kin, to practice and preserve culture and to plan the next stage of Indigenous activism in a colonized world.  This panel was developed in collaboration with the project Sijddaj máhttsat/Coming home led by Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University, alongside ongoing international Indigenous work that centres culture, kinship, and Indigenous studies.

The speakers are connected to Uppsala University in Sweden and the University of South Australia. By working together, we continue to inspire and uplift each other. 

The first presentation brings together two generations of Indigenous people from Australia who talk of the importance of Elders and Academic kinship in their university work after the brutal result of the referendum that denies Indigenous people a voice to parliament. 

The second presentation is a young politically active Sámi person working to communicate Sámi perspectives in both academic and parliamentary sectors. 

The third presentation tells a familial, cultural, and geographical story of the Sámi gákti, knowing that the wearing of this traditional dress is often a performance of activism, that the personal is the political. 

The fourth and last presentation is from the President of the Stockholm Sámi Association who often hosts Indigenous visitors from other countries, connecting people from business, politics, and academia. Sweden and Australia journey on different paths regarding voices to parliament and conciliation with the colonizer but we have the same goal, to be safely at home with our own cultures in our own countries.

Dr. Frances Wyld (University of South Australia) and Ms. Keita Wyld (University of South Australia)

The Importance of Eldership and Academic Kinship after the No Vote in Australia

The brutal outcome of the vote that will deny recognition of Indigenous people in the Australian constitution in 2023 highlights the importance of generational change through listening to Elders and a commitment to Critical Indigenous studies in teaching and learning. The presenters are Martu women from two generations working for a university on Kaurna land (South Australia). One will story their work with the Elders in Residence who provide an embedding of Indigenous knowledges and cultures across programs, in research and which informs university business and governance. The other will present part of a chapter published in 2024 using the methodology of storying to speak of Academic Kinship in teaching and is inspired by NAISA and the relationships formed through attendance and collaborations, especially regarding work with Sámi scholar May-Britt Ӧhman. Academic Kinship (Wyld, 2024). is a useful term to help students story themselves within their work, respecting those who have come before them, and knowing that change will be generational; “[f]or story is the most powerful intergenerational manifestation of hope” (Archibald et al., 2019, p. 13, in Kovach, 2021, p. 156). Holding on to that hope, however difficult that may be is the way to reconnect to purpose after the crushing defeat of the referendum that was to give Indigenous people a voice in how we manage our own affairs. We do this collectively, through relatedness for our relations, as our Elders have always done.

Ingela Jannok Öhlund

The Sámi gákti, history and variations from north to south in Sámi territories

I will present the gákti, a dress of major importance within Sámi culture. My grandparents lived 10 kilometres away from roads, a couple of kilometres from the railway station Harrå, Gällivare, on the Swedish side of Sábme. The salesman would come walking, and my grandmother sewing the gákti for the family, would use the entire fabric, not letting anything go to waste.

Sámi cultural and language regions follow the rivers from the coast on the Swedish side to the coast on the Norwegian side, just as the reindeer have migrated for millennia. Trade routes followed the coasts around the North Pole and down to England. Sámi maintained trade routes within their areas and transported goods between the coasts. Our culture has overcome the colonial borders imposed, reflected in the gákti variations. The gákti has also followed fashion trends in society, in the past and today. There are elements that are of importance for a gákti to be considered a gakti, and with that as base, one is free to make the design.

Furthermore, the Karesuando Sámi in the 20th century were displaced by force southward and, as a result, are scattered throughout Sápmi. These families have retained the Karesuando collar and the Northern Sámi language, even now in the third generation after the forced relocations. This is of importance to understand what the gákti is in the different geographical settings of today.

The presentation is developed in collaboration with the Sijddaj mahttsat project, led by Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University.

Inger Axiö Albinsson, Stockholm Sámi Association

Stockholm Sámi Association in the middle of Sápmi and the center of Swedish power

I am the president of the Stockholm Sámi Association for 2 years, a member of many years. I am urban Sámi, from the North, with experience from several professions. An economist from the beginning, I worked with development aid in Asia, & Africa. I have a vast knowledge of working with empowerment of women, Swedish and immigrants, individual and unemployed and small business-owners. My meetings with First nation people in Canada and Bangladesh, and Australia where I have my daughter and grandchildren, have helped me to return to my own origin, and also enhanced my interest in working intensely with Indigenous peoples issues.

I will present reflections on how to work for a better society, bringing in Sámi expertise and perspectives, especially from the urban /Stockholm point of view. Although there are many Sámi living in the north of Sweden, Stockholm is the capital, close to the political power and international visits from like-minded countries like Australia, New Zeeland, the US and Canada.

Focusing on the Sámi Association I will present the type of activities I have found most useful to be as a family for Sámi in urban setting. I will also point at the challenges we have with so-called consultations, the lack of interest from our government for all Sámi issues and the consequences for us as the so-called “green” transition is taking place. More than anything the immense ignorance of Sámi life, values and knowledge from politicians and the vast majority of the Swedish population.

Contribution by Christine Olsen, president of the association Niejdda, added on site. 

This chapter is an email conversation on Sweden’s own colonialism—inside the country as well as overseas—and its historic role and continuing relevance to Sweden. Among the topics that are discussed are the significance of Swedish colonialism within a broader context of European colonialism; how the history, legacies and continuing practices of Swedish colonialism often fail to be recognized in Swedish political and public life; Sweden’s continuing colonization of the Sámi and Sápmi; decolonial Indigenous and Black consciousness among the Sámi and people of African descent in Sweden, the struggles of Sámi and people of African descent in Sweden to correct the public and political lack of recognition of Swedish colonialism and how these struggles are connected to other decolonial and human rights struggles across the world.

This chapter explores the management of the Covid-19 pandemic and it effects focusing on Norrbotten County, the largest county in Sweden, which occupies a quarter of the country, with 98,245 square kilometers and a population of 250,000.

Norrbotten has two international borders, Finland and Norway, crossing Indigenous Sámi territories and reindeer grazing and herding lands. The effects are linked to geography, cold climate, natural resource exploitation, industries, multicultural population, and sparsely populated areas with long journey times to access healthcare.

The county has a large Sami population and the largest number of reindeer and reindeer herders on the Swedish side of Sábme.

The research project “Pandemic in the (sub) Arctic North: A supra and cross-disciplinary data collection on experiences, resilience and social mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on Norrbotten county,” was initiated in March 2020 and ended by April 2022. The project was led by the author of this chapter, Dr. May-Britt Öhman, Associate Professor of Environmental History, Lule and Forest Sámi of the Lule River valley. Within the project, an important part was the participants’ own documentation of their everyday life, including reflections on the events and developments during the crisis management period. One of the project participants was Henrik Andersson, a reindeer herder in the Gällivare Forest Sámi community, Flakaberg group, and also a coauthor of this chapter. Gällivare Forest Sámi village is one of fifty-one reindeer herding Sámi villages on the Swedish side of Sábme. The reindeers’ land stretches from the inland around Gällivare city and out into the archipelago of Luleå city.

In wintertime the reindeer are in the area of the archipelago in the Gulf of Bothnia, and during the summer they move to the grazing lands in the inland.Andersson started documenting his everyday life in March 2020, when he first heard of the pandemic. He uses a first-person perspective bringing together situated knowledge and ego-histoire.

The diary contains written entries and photographs and thereby documents the experiences from Sámi reindeer herding throughout almost two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this chapter, May-Britt Öhman has made a selection of entries, starting from day one, covering from the first day when Henrik Andersson heard about Covid-19 in March 2020 to the end of August 2020. The entries thus follow half of the reindeer herding year, including winter season when the grazing is often hard to find, spring migration from the coastal areas toward the inland, the calving season and the calf marking season, and the short time of rest that follows in August before the herders’ work begins again.

In this article, we have only entered the first few months of Henrik Andersson’s corona diary, showing the initial thoughts, responses, and difficulties that emerged. As most are aware, the situation continued for very long. When this article was being finalized, in early 2023, the Covid-19 situation was far better, but still not completely over. 

There has been very little study on the situation of the reindeer herders during the Covid-19 pandemic, at least not on the Swedish side of Sábme. Our research project, which was mainly data collection, has contributed to highlight a few of the issues at stake and will hopefully result in more research and writing on this subject.

This presentation is by me, Lule Sámi reindeer herder, within the Sirges Sami Village, in the Lule Sámi area. The Lule Sámi area encompasses a large geographic region, around the Lule River valley, stretching from coast to coast. The Sámi village is an organisational structure that the Swedish state set up through legislation, an economic association, in a specific region.

Reindeer husbandry in this area has been present for many generations and continues to be a vibrant culture, passed on from generation to generation.

There are few Indigenous peoples in the world that still maintain their primary livelihood in the same way. The reindeer husbandry has undergone significant changes over the last century. When my grandfather practiced reindeer husbandry, there were no motor vehicles, and they lived in very basic settlements. They were nomadic, following the reindeer, and couldn't carry many provisions.

Today, we are not as closely connected to the reindeer as before. We live in more permanent settlements, and use all available technology.

I will discuss these issues, from a reindeer herder point of view, and expertise adressing issues in particular these aspects: How has reindeer husbandry changed over 100 years?; Why is Sirges Sami Village the largest Sami village in Sweden?; What are the advantages/disadvantages of being a large Sámi village?

The presentation will be in our language, Lule Sami, with slides in English.

The presentation is supported and developed in collaboration with Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University, and the research project Sijddaj máhttsat.

Exploring the Nexus of Water, Territory, Life, and Sustainability in Sámi (Swedish side) and Pataxó (Brazil) territories

Abstract

This roundtable represents a collaborative effort between Indigenous and non-indigenous partners, exploring the critical role of water in the context of territory, life, science and sustainability, building on earlier exchange and aiming strengthening international collaborations, while inviting new collaborators.

Participants include Erilsa Braz, Master's student at the Federal University of the State of Minas Gerais, who also leads Pataxó’s Mother land in Brazil;Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala University, Associate professor of Water Security; Henrik Andersson and Hampus Andersson, two generations of reindeer herders, Gällivare Forest Sámi community; Marcia Camargo, PhD candidate, Federal University of Sao Carlos, and Tamikuã Pataxó, coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast Region of Brazil and part of the National Articulation of Ancestral Warriors Women and the Biome Women of Brazil.

Chair is Warren Cardinal-McTeague, (Métis and Cree), University of British Columbia, of the SING Canada program, (Summer internship for Indigenous peoples in Genomics), SING Sábme and also a co-lead of Pathway T5, Decolonizing Science and Education of ⴰⵔⵔⴰⵎⴰⵜ Ărramăt (https://arramatproject.org/) , University of Alberta.

The roundtable is supported by the Environmental Justice, Land-Based Learning, and Social Sustainability in Sábme project, led by Dr May-Britt Öhman (Forest/Lule Sámi), Uppsala University. We will discuss the essential connection between water, territory, life, science and sustainability through the lenses of different cultures and expertises. We provide insights from Indigenous lands, urban perspectives, and academic expertise, addressing shared challenges. We invite scholars, experts, and practitioners to participate in dynamic discussions, knowledge sharing, and the creation of innovative solutions that uphold principles of collectiveness, co-creation, ethics, and respect to promote decolonization of science and education.

Marcia de Camargo, UFSCar

This presentation delves into the profound significance of water in Pataxó cultural identity and political empowerment, focusing on the Awê ceremony.

Awê is a central element of full moon ritual, featuring various water-related rituals. It culminates with warriors journeying to the sea to greet, receive and take the sun to the community, signifying the profound connection between the Pataxó and water, from which their name derives.

The presentation highlights that Pataxó's cultural identity and political empowerment hinge on culture and consciousness. Awê fosters unity, fortifies individuals for collective struggles, and transforms ritual practices into tools of resistance, strengthening the entire community.

This presentation is a fragment of an ethnographic decolonial collective research with pataxó women from the mother land, Aldeia Barra Velha, as part of Phd dissertation intitled: “Awê, the sacred and the ethnicity of the jokanas of the Pataxó people of Aldeia Barra Velha”, from 2020 till 2024, and also a partnership of more than 10 years with the community.

Water holds symbolic significance in Pataxó cosmology and religious beliefs, inhabited by water spirits inspiring rituals and shaping their collective identity. Water is integral to daily life, from fishing in the sea, bathing in lagoons, collecting shellfish in mangroves, and producing sacred drink, cauim. The rhythms of life revolve around water, with the some gathering by the water's edge, especially near the sea, to welcome a new day. This presentation elucidates the cultural importance of water rituals and their role in collective empowerment, offering insights into Pataxó resilience and identity.

Erilsa Braz dos Santos (UFMG - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) 

This presentation introduces the multifaceted history and ongoing struggles in the Indigenous Barra Velha territory, mother land, transcending conventional academic narratives.

As a formal leader, vice-cacique, from the pataxó mother land (Aldeia Barra Velha ) community since 2020, responsible for fights for the rights of the Barra Velha Indigenous Territory, along with the council of caciques, addressing social, territorial, and social projects for the community.

Erilsa will present a fragment of the demarcation process, that runs since 1988 when Federal Constitution was established, the marred by challenges and violence, that demands continual updates and documentation.. Barra Velha's Indigenous territory has evolved from a single village, aldeia, into 24 self-demarcated ones.

The Pataxó people from Aldeia Barra Velha are located in the coastal region of extreme south of the Brazilian state of Bahia, surrounded by waters, from ocean to mangrove and river. Barra Velha is more than, “geography”; it's our territory and identity, where Pataxó people relentlessly fight for land rights, cultural preservation, identity recognition, organizational autonomy, and community survival.

Through living research for graduation term paper in 2014 intitled: “The history of demarcation of the Indigenous land of Barra Velha, to an ethnographic research project for ongoing Master degree: “Continued Demarcation of the Territory of Barra Velha”

A presentation that will trace an introduction to the Pataxó community's historical journey, revealing leadership, community dynamics, threats, and unwavering resilience from ethnographic research but also a living reality through daily fights and struggles.

Luciene Santos Faustino (ANMIGA)

"My registered name is Luciene Souza Santos, but in truth, I don't know who that person is. Non-indigenous names were required, and I do not identify with this name; it's merely a name on paper that I was forced to carry. My true name, which I now begin the process of acknowledging, is Tamikuã Pataxó Faustino. Tamikuã will present her journey, memories and fights in urban environment, driven by collective struggle, that often appears to mean the loss of indigenous identity.

In urban context, São Paulo, Brazil, since very young, knowing that indigenous women often find themselves invisible in terms of territory and rights outside their territory, Tamikuã decided to fight for the rights, for territory and all indigenous women. As coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of the Southeast Region, ARPINSUDESTE since 2019 and part of the National Articulation of Ancestral Warriors Women (ANMIGA) and the Biome Women of Brazil, created in 2021, that organized this year the III March centered around the theme “Ecosystem Women in Defense of Biodiversity through Ancestral Roots”

The invisibility in urban context is challenged daily through the fight to preserve territorial rights, access to water essential for sacred rituals, and respect for indigenous culture, which is intrinsically linked to water. Water holds a sacred place in lives, both inside and outside the villages, strengthening the spirit and solidifying indigenous identity.

Tamikuã will present and overview of her ongoing fight and struggles as indigenous women in urban context for territory, water and rights.

Eva Charlotta Helsdotter (Uppsala University)

This contribution forms part of the preparations for an upcoming workshop to be held in Sámi territories, partly funded by the Arramat (arramat.org) program. Building on local Sámi expertise and requests, it focuses on water quality and water security by sampling surface water in creeks, springs, rivers, and lakes in the area of Gällivare Forest Sámi territories to investigate pollution levels and ascertain impacts from industrial projects and the so-called “green” transition. Pollution stems from mines with tailing dams, wind power plants, clearing of forests, military activities, tourism, and increasing human use of pharmaceuticals, such as hormones, found in the fertilizers made from human waste from the Swedish capital Stockholm brought to the forests. Despite increasing pollution levels, there is no existing research on water quality taking place.

The workshop will provide a curriculum that disrupts and unsettles conventional scientific approaches, but also provide participants with hands-on training. Through a co-produced method, which will be discussed at this roundtable, we will be focusing on the Sámi-led questions on quantifying and monitoring water pollution in this specific territory. Ultimately the aim is to both enhance Sámi governance processes and address their concerns with environmental and human health. Building on SING Canada’s (https://sing-canada.ca/) expertise in mobile genomics technology, the workshop will be using a combined approach examining surface water bacterial communities and chemical/pollutant profiles.

Eva Charlotta Helsdotter has collaborated in several projects focusing on Sámi territories, since 2010, with Associate Professor, May-Britt Öhman (Lule/Forest Sámi), Uppsala University

Hampus Andersson 

Hampus Andersson, a 20-year-old reindeer herder hailing from the Gällivare Forest Sámi village within the Flakaberg group, has carried the rich tradition of his family's reindeer herding practices for generations. While Hampus himself has actively engaged in reindeer herding for the past two years, his connection to this way of life runs deep. In his contribution , Hampus will delve into his personal reflections on the critical importance of clean water. He will explore the significance of clean water for not only human consumption but also its vital role in sustaining the health and well-being of the reindeer, as well as the diverse flora and fauna that inhabit his territories. Moreover, Hampus will shed light on his observations regarding the impacts of industrial exploitations on water quality in his region. As a part of the Arramat project, Hampus will also share insights into the sites selected for study through the SING Sábme initiative. These areas hold immense significance in understanding the complex relationship between water quality and sustainable reindeer herding practices.

Henrik Andersson

Henrik Andersson, a 43-year-old father from the Gällivare Forest Sámi village, Flakaberg group, has devoted his life to full-time reindeer herding since the age of 16. In his contribution, Henrik will share his expertise, insights and reflections on the critical significance of clean and safe water. He will discuss its vital role in sustaining the well-being of reindeer, as well as other local fauna and fish within his territories. Henrik will provide examples on what he finds are the industrial exploitation that impact the quality of water, particularly within the context of his reindeer's seasonal migrations and the lush growth of essential mushrooms and plants in the summer. Furthermore, Henrik will address local expertise and reflections on the specific sites to be examined within with the SING Sábme, part of the Arramat (arramat.org) project. Henrik will emphasize the pressing issue of maintaining clean water sources, particularly in the face of ongoing industrialization and the proliferation of wind power in the region. These developments pose a significant threat to clean water, manifesting through increased road construction, amplified traffic, PFAS pollution from wind power plants, and expanded mining operations. Henrik's contribution serves as a powerful reminder of the urgency in safeguarding these critical water resources, as well as a promote the development of methods on how take into account Sámi reindeer herders’ expertise.

The impact of wildfires in Sweden, commonly claimed to be caused by climate change, has recently become a national and international concern. The overall aim of the inter- and supradisciplinary research project presented in this article is to analyse, document and draw attention to the local and Indigenous/Sámi stewardship of land, with specific regard to fire management, drought, and other aspects of climate change. The project situated within the growing field of Indigenous Land Based Education and Knowledge (Wildcat et al., 2014). It is run by an experienced artist and researcher in collaboration with Indigenous Sámi communities and Indigenous Sámi academic scholars. The project brings together the disciplines of artistic research and visual documentation with the history of technology and science, environmental history, feminist technoscience, gender research and Indigenous methodologies as well as Sámi knowledge. Based on the methods available within these research disciplines, the project uses extensive fieldwork, archival research, and audio-visual documentation, including interviews, documents, drone images, photographs, writings, and workshops, as a source of research, communication, and dissemination. We investigate local and Sámi ecological knowledge available. Furthermore, we evaluate how artistic research and visual documentation -with a critical approach and developed collaboratively- can be used to document, analyse, discuss and provide a basis for promoting Indigenous knowledges in the nation state and climate change debate.

Militarism on and from Sábme/Sápmi and beyond – roundtable at Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting, 2024, Båddådjo

This roundtable invites a discussion on militarism from Indigenous perspectives. Indigenous lands across the world have long been used for military bases, weapons testing ranges, and other related facilities. The military presence was a product of colonial conquest in which Indigenous peoples were dispossessed of land. It continues to bring negative impacts on the lives of Indigenous peoples to this day. Yet, their voices are typically ignored by post-colonial policies and overshadowed by the state-centric idea of security. Scholars and activists have been endeavouring to centre on Indigenous perspectives against the metropolitan discourses and practices, notably in the context of the Pacific islands where Indigenous lands have been highly militarised (for example, Guåhan and Okinawa Island) or were made uninhabitable by nuclear testing (Bikini Atoll). Little has been discussed is military issues in Sábme/Sápmi despite its significant role in past and present military activities. The Europe’s largest overland test range Vidsel Test Range is located in the Swedish side of Sábme and has hosted the testing of weapons for decades. In the Norwegian side, military training has been actively conducted, often in cooperation with the United States and NATO. In light of the recent (re-)militarisation of the Nordic countries, it is of great importance to understand how militarism affects the lives of Sámi people. The roundtable is an effort to create a platform for collaboration and dialogues among interested parties in the militarisation of Sábme/Sápmi and other Indigenous lands. It is part of an upstarting project funded by the Research Council of Finland and based in the University of Oulu. Followed by a brief introduction by each presenter, the roundtable invites ideas on how to approach the theme and it is hoped that it contributes to the development of intra- and inter-indigenous intervention to militarism.

Chaired By Dr. May-Britt Öhman (Uppsala University)

Organized by Dr Hidefumi Mishiyama and Dr May-Britt Öhman 

Michael Teilus

Perspectives on Udtja Forest Sámi territories and the Vidsel Test Range - the largest over land test facility in Europe

The Vidsel Test Range, also known as RFN – Robotförsöksplats Norrland (Robot Testing Ground Norrland/North), was established in the late 1950s, in the area used by three Sámi villages –Forest Sámi Udtja, and Mountain Sámi villages Tuorpon and Luokta Mavas. Michael Teilus, Member of Udtja Forest Sámi village, and also member of Sámi school board, for a Sámi Parliament party is born in the 1940s, and has own experience from when Udtja was expropriated by the Swedish state, and all residents evacuated for the establishment of the test range. He currently owns a house within the restricted area, where he can visit only when there are no test shootings. Michael Teilus will make an introduction to the history of the Udtja forest sámi reindeer herding, current situation and the consequences of the militarization in the area, for the reindeer herders, the families, the forests and nature.

 Tomas Poletti Lundström  (accepted abstract but withdrawn from presentation) 

Mapping the strategies and consequences of Swedish military exploitation of Sápmi

Sápmi areas - from south to north, east to west - have been exploited by the Swedish Armed Forces for centuries. They have been used to facilitate large and small-scale military firing ranges, military education focusing on warfare in the subarctic climate of the ‘Cap of the North’ (Nordkalotten), massive military exercises, and even nuclear weapons testing. A curious visitor to the website of the Swedish Armed Forces looking for information on the authority’s view of its massive presence in this region will be disappointed; a search for ‘Sápmi’ on the website will result in zero hits. How, then, can we map the strategies and consequences of the Swedish military exploitation of Sápmi? What methods, techniques, and points of departure should a researcher in this field employ? What are the ethical and perhaps political boundaries to such research? This presentation aims to sketch approaches to analyzing both governmental perspectives and the collective and individual memories within the indigenous communities of the region, striving to provide a well-rounded inquiry into the prevailing narratives.

Envisioning the indigenous geographies of war and militarism

Hidefumi Nishiyama (University of Oulu)

Military bases and other related facilities such as weapons testing and training sites are integral part of war, without which the latter cannot be prepared or operated. Accordingly, the geography of war must be extended to the geography of militarised sites that are not conventionally regarded as battlefields or warzones. Such “non-warzone,” yet highly militarised sites are also crucial for the understanding of war as they are themselves the outcome of warfare. Many military facilities across the world were established on Indigenous lands during the earlier colonial period against the will of Indigenous peoples. Moreover, the continuing military presence creates a particular kind of war within these sites. It endangers the lives of Indigenous peoples and local social, cultural, and ecological systems, all of which are typically neglected under the name of national security. Drawing from the military issues in Sábme/Sápmi, accompanied with some illustrative cases from other indigenous contexts, this short presentation will introduce how war and militarism can be studied from indigenous perspectives. It will then outline some of the key topics arising from the contestation between militarism and Indigenous peoples and suggest broader implications.

contribution by Elisa Maria Lopez,  Royal Institute of Technology, added to the roundtable on site. 

PROGRAM, lördag 19 oktober, klockan 13.00 – 16.45 ABF-huset, Sveavägen 41 i Stockholm, Zäta-salen 

13.00 Samefolkets jojk, Juhán Niila Stålka 

Välkommen – Maritha Sandberg Lööf, programledare, Inger Axiö Albinson, ordförande för Sameföreningen i Stockholm och docent May-Britt Öhman vid Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet 

Samerna som försvann – en brytningstid i den samiska historien  Jan-Åke Olofsson, barnbarn till fotograf Robert Lundgren i Västerbotten 

Dikt Rönn Lisa Zakrisson Påve, poet och spoken word artist  

Vi som förlorade språket – och vi som tar tillbaka släktens språk Samtal mellan författaren Moa Backe Åstot, poeten Rönn Lisa Zakrisson Påve och programledaren Maritha Sandberg Lööf 

Vi ska ta samiskan med oss från historien och in i framtiden  David Kroik, filosofie doktor, førsteamanuensis i sydsamiska vid Nord Universitet och universitetslektor vid Mittuniversitetet 

Varför syns inte samer i berättelsen om Sverige? Okunskap, fördomar och hat Evelina Solsten, renskötare i Tåssåsens sameby och influencer på Tiktok Sara-Elvira Kuhmunen, ordförande, Sáminuorra 

Vikten av att minnas historien för att lära i nuet Petra Mårselius, överintendent, Forum för levande historia 

PAUS cirka 30 minuter. Vi bjuder på fika. 

VÄLKOMMEN! Det är kostnadsfritt, men du måste  boka plats. 

PROGRAMMET fortsätter klockan 15.00 När staten stal de samiska skattelanden Maximilian Borg, masterstudent, Södertörns högskola: 

Dikt, Rönn Lisa Zakrisson Påve 

Politikens ansvar och möjligheter Mats Berglund (MP), ordförande, riksdagens kulturutskott Mirja Råihä (S), ledamot, riksdagens konstitutionsutskottet Lars-Jonas Johansson, styrelseledamot, Sametinget 

Arbetet i sanningskommissionen för det samiska folket Anders Lidén, ordförande, Sanningskommissionen för det samiska folket 

Försoning och fördjupning Boel Hössjer Sundman, stiftsprost i Stockholms stift, Svenska kyrkan 

Internationell utblick Ms Frances Sagala, ambassadör, Australien  Mr Alfredo Molina, konsul och förste ambassadsekreterare, Guatemala 

Uppsala universitet och Södertörns högskola Cecilia Wejryd, professor i kyrkohistoria, dekan Teologiska fakulteten, Uppsala universitet  Jan Selling, professor vid Södertörns högskola 

Försvenskningspolitik – ett kulturellt förtryck Eva Forsgren, ordförande, Amnesty Sápmi 

Del av föreställningen Ruohttsot – att slå rot  Juhán Niila Stålka, lulesamisk jojkare, och Jasmine Skog, modern dansare 

Amnesty Sápmi, Sameföreningen i Stockholm, Sáminourra, Riksorganisationen Same Ätnam och Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, CEMFOR, Uppsala universitet - forskningsprojektet Sijddaj máhttsat betyder "kommer hem" på lulesamiska under ledning av docent May-Britt Öhman. 

I samarbete med ABF Stockholm. 

Minnesdagen genomförs med stöd av Stockholms stad, Statens kulturråd och  Uppsam – nätverket för samiskrelaterad forskning i Uppsala. 

May-Britt Öhman frågar i sitt kapitel: Hur hänger ett foto av en lule­ och skogssamisk kvinna taget 1868 ihop med ett samtal mellan mor och dotter i ett kök över hundra år senare? Hur hänger allt detta ihop med svensk rasistisk bosättarkolonialism, markstölder från urfolket samer, samt samiskt motstånd under över ett sekel?

Öhman utgår från en bild på sin morfars farmors syster, skogs­ och lulesamiska kvinnan Brita Stina Larsdotter Rim från 1868, publicerad 2008, samt från ett lågmält men avgörande kökssamtal på svenska med sin mamma, ett drygt decennium tidigare.

Brita Stinas ansikte återfinns, än i dag, via Nordiska museet tillgängliggjort online, utan restriktioner, utan etiska förbehåll, och utan att Brita Stinas livshistoria, samt vad den svenska kolonialstaten gjorde mot henne och hennes familj, finns återgivet.

Författaren diskuterar hur dagens ”gröna omställning”, på av svenska staten stulna samiska marker, hänger ihop med hennes familjs osynliggjorda samiska histo­ria. Detta utgör ett återtagande och synliggör vad svenska staten gjort: något som rimligtvis borde undervisas om och ligga som grund för alla debatter om de miljöförstörande gruvexploateringarna, vindkraften, vat­tenkraften, skogsbruket. Rustade med kunskapen kan samer själva bättre utmana dagens ogröna och fortsatt rasistiska kolonialism, och förhopp­ningsvis kan allierade bättre förstå vad som hänt och se paralleller till annan rasism och anknyta till detta i all antirasistisk aktion. 

Reclaiming Forest Sámi - Land Rights, Identity and Culture in Sábme

This roundtable gathers Forest Sámi perspectives on and experiences from protecting land rights, reindeer herding, identity and culture.

A government inquiry on the Sámi tax lands 1922, states that the forest Sami made up more than half of the Sámi population in the 16th century, when Finland still belonged to Sweden. Norstedt (2018) shows that the Forest Sámi landscape was divided into taxlands in the 17th century, they had land of their own, as farming landholders did. In the 17th century, fishing was most important for subsistence, combined with hunting, reindeer herding and plant gathering. As each household had control of its taxland, resources were used flexibly. During the winter season, surplus pastures and hunting grounds were leased to reindeer-herding Mountain Sami. In the 19th century, the Swedish state stole – erased - the taxlands, and attempted at eradicating Forest Sámi livelihood. During the 20th century, Forest Sámi were considered to be in the way for industrial exploitations, and the Mountain Sámi culture was promoted as the true Sámi culture, along with extensive reindeer herding. Forest Sámi who did not continue with reindeer herding, were forced into assimilation, Swedification, and Finnisation, in Finland (Sarivaara, 2012).

Three presentations, three on reclaiming Forest Sámi identity, and one on the protection of existing Forest Sámi reindeer herding and we invite other Forest Sámi and Indigenous communities to share own experiences and to discuss possibilities for further collaboration.

Organised in collaboration with the Sijddaj máhttsat project, led by Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University.

Chair: Henrik Andersson, Gällivare Forest Sámi village

Discussant : Professor Bodil Petersson, Linnaeus Univesity

Ms. Ellinor Blom Lussi, Lund University and Dr. Per Lindström Lussi, Linnaeus University

Constructing a Boat and Re-constructing an Identity: The Revitalisation of the Forest Sámi Haupe

This is a daughter-father exploration of how a Forest Sámi family identity can be re-constructed at adult age. So far little effort has been put into understanding how cultural identity is built amongst Forest Sámi whose identities were concealed, due to state promoted assimilation policies. For the Forest Sámi, on Swedish side, the assimilation- and Swedificationprocess, started from the late 19th century, with reindeer herding legislations and in particular since 1928, when the Swedish state decided that the Sáminess was tied to Mountain reindeer herding ( Åhrén 2008; Stoor 2020). Displaying (Forest) Sámi identity became linked to both shame and loss of opportunities, such as owning land, or getting positions in workplaces. This forced many Sámi to conceal their identity and “become” Swedish, while hiding their Sámi identities and cultural practices from their children and grandchildren (Öhman 2021).

This paper presents the exploration and re-construction process of our Forest Sámi family identity. We build on the work by Lindström Lussi (2023) where the construction of the Forest Sámi Haupe – boat - was revived. Utilizing the notes from conversations and text messages between family members from the period the boat was designed, constructed and built, we explore how a cultural identity is being scrutinized and reformed when questioned by the self, the family and the society.

We find that the Haupe revitalisation project facilitated a process that has irrevocably reshaped, and continues to reshape, the family identity and relationship, whether it is a Construction, Reconstruction, Revitalisation, or Conveying of Forest Sámi identity today.

Suzanna Asp (Lule Sámi Artist)

ÁHKO JÅRRÅT Sitespecific artistic research as method to heal & revitalize Forest Sami identity

Can site-specific Indigenous artistic research practice contribute to processes of healing from intergenerational trauma caused by assimilation and separation of Sami children from their parents?

Muv namma l Suzanna. I am Forest Sámi from Lule Sámi area. I remember names of places where I have never been. I start going there, staying for longer and longer periods of time.

Through examples from my own artistic research practice as well as examples from other Sami artists I will show inspiring methods of strengthening Forest Sami identity and contribute to storytelling which in great parts have been erased by colonization and assimilation. »Báhko jårråt« means »Words falling« in Lule Sami language. To be in a place is to be surrounded by language. My great grandmother, was taken from her family and placed at an Arbetsstuga, an institution for children meant to assimilate Forest Sami and Tornedalians children. By tracing her and our ancestors walks, on maps and on the land, I have gotten closer to my family history and closer to my Mother tongue. I hold words in my hand. I return the racist and colonial words that hit my grandmother and create space for the Lule Sami language to thrive.

UNDRIP ART 13:1 reads: “Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places, and persons.”

My presentation forms part of a proposed artistic research project.

Elle Eriksson, Flakaberg group, Gällivare Forest Sámi village

Forest Sámi reindeer herders’ fight the “green” transition to continue traditional practices

The so called ”green” transition is commonly justifying environmental destruction of Indigenous territories. Sámi reindeer herders fight every day to be able to continue their traditional practices. In this presentation, forest Sámi reindeer herders of the Flakaberg-group in Gällivare Sámi community (Sweden) discuss how their reindeer herding is affected by cumulative land pressures due intrusions by the Swedish society, with special attention on the exploitations wind power and forestry. They will also argue for different future sceneries that might occur depending on which way the transition goes.

The presenters are members of the Flakaberg-group and collaborators that are engaged in their fight. With a historic background, focus is last 20 years. Most of the presenting community members are tradition bearers, they hold traditional expertise.

Our findings show that the reindeer herding is negatively impacted by cumulative land pressures. The members belong to a forest Sámi community which means that they are always in forest landscapes with their reindeers and thus forestry have a huge impact on their conditions. Additionally, a wind power industry with 57 turbines have been given permission to operate in the main reindeer calving area of the group, which will likely have dire consequences.

The conclusions are important because the Flakaberg-group are under immense pressure and this session helps bringing awareness to their situation. Moreover, by discussing possible future trajectories, knowledge and experiences will be shared between Indigenous peoples.

Sara V. Gustafsson,  Lule Boden Sámi association member

How do we reclaim our Forest Sámi culture?

My Forest Sámi family is from Suobbat, Norrbotten county, my grandmother was from Flakaberg. I am just starting to reclaim our history and culture. At 46 years old, it is hard work, but I want my children to know our story, our culture. I am member of the Lule Boden Sámi association, and I take part in activities and courses to learn our culture that was hidden from me. I don’t have the language, the yoik, the reindeer herding. I feel cut off. I will share a few of my thoughts and reflections, and my own work to reclaim my culture. It is so close, but still so far away. 

Roundtable - Reclaiming Julevsamegiella Lule Sámi language and culture

Abstract: 

NAISA has finally come to Sábme, and Lule Sámi territories! 

Buorisboahtem! Welcome!

Lule Sámi territory encompasses the Lule River Valley and beyond– from the Gulf of Bothnia coast, on Swedish side, to the Norwegian sea coast, on the Norwegian side of Sábme.

In our roundtable we are Lule Sámi, Forest and Mountain, and the presenters are all adult learners of Julevsámegiella, one of ten Sámi languages, at the Sámi Education Center, Jåhkkåmåkke, since 2022. We challenge ourselves to speak Lule Sámi to present methods for learning, and to talk about issues of importance to us; one presentation is on how to learn the language through everyday Sámi cultural practices – baking the Sámi bread – gahkko; two talks are about two different specific Forest Sámi places and cultures, the fourth delves into Lule Sámi yoik. English slides will be used. We invite all interested to share experiences and inspirations of and how to reclaim Lule Sámi, and other Indigenous languages, and thoughts on how this can be further developed. 

During the 20th century, the Swedification and Norwegianization policies towards the Sámi people were harsh. Children who spoke their language in school faced punishment, and Forest Sámi were subjected to rigorous assimilation policies. As a result, many Sámi refrained from speaking (Lule) Sámi in public, and they avoided passing on the language to their own children in an attempt to shield them from difficulties. Consequently, there are very few individuals today who speak Lule Sámi. This roundtable is one of several initiatives aimed at reclaiming the language and culture.

The roundtable is organized by the research project Sijddaj máhttsat – Coming home https://www.cemfor.uu.se/forskningsprojekt/sijddaj-m-httsat-betyder--kommer-hem-/, at Uppsala University, led by Dr May-Britt Öhman.

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Marita Eriksson 

The Pitelf Sámi village - through history

My name is Marita Eriksson, and I come from an area where the Forest Sámi people have lived for centuries, in the Pitelf area (Arvidsjaur parish). In my presentation, I will explain in Lule Sámi the consequences of Swedish settler colonial policies on Sámi culture and language.

Due to settler colonialism, the Forest Sámi had to witness their way of life change forever. The Swedish State, with the assistance of the State Church, aimed to convert them into "good Christians." Their family names, as well as place names, were changed to Swedish.

Swedish state policies had a severe impact on them. Forest Sámi people were considered less "Sámi" than their fellow Mountain Sámi. They lost rights to land, culture, and language, and we still live with the consequences to this day.

The language was lost for my generation, but thanks to the fantastic opportunity for adults to study the language at Sámij åhpadusguovdásj, the Sámi Education Center in Jokkmokk, we have been given the chance to reclaim our language. With the support of our teacher and what I have learned, I will deliver my presentation in Lule Sámi, thus challenging the impacts of colonialism and sharing our story.

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Juhán Niila Stålka

Harmonizing tradition - Joik and language

Growing up in the southern region of Sweden, my early exposure to the art of joiking came from my father. Our holidays were synonymous with lengthy road trips, spanning over 12 hours, to visit my Áhkko and Áddjá—my grandparents. These trips became a canvas for my father's joiking performances, initiating the moment our journey commenced. The enduring exposure to traditional Sami singing during these extensive drives left an indelible imprint on me, shaping my connection to this art form from a very young age.In the confines of our car, my father’s joiking echoed, often centered around animals intertwined with their captivating stories, leaving an enduring impact on me that I continue to carry within. This exposure was an integral part of my formative years, embedding the spirit of joik within me.During my upcoming presentation, I aim to provide a concise yet comprehensive introduction to the art of joik, specifically delving into the distinctive elements of the Julevsame joik. Additionally, I will share insights into my personal journey of revitalizing and reclaiming old joiks, illuminating their significance. Moreover, I will explore the crucial role that joik has played in my endeavor to reclaim and revive my native language, shedding light on the symbiotic relationship between joiking and language revitalization.The symbiotic relationship between joik and the reclamation of my language is an integral part of my narrative, one that I am excited to share and explore in-depth during the forthcoming presentation. I aim making the presentation in Julevsami.

Kerstin Kuoljok and Anna Pittja Granlund

Our Lule Sámi Language Journey - Baking Gáhkko

In the spring of 2022, we embarked on our language journey and our efforts to reclaim our family's language, Lule Sámi. At the Sámi Education Center in Jokkmokk, together with our teacher, Sara Aira Fjellström, and our fellow classmates, we have been working hard not only to learn words but also cases, verb conjugations, and more.

Learning an entirely new language as adults is not easy, but Sara's teaching methods have truly facilitated our progress. During our course periods, we have had lessons from 8 AM to 3:30 PM, and it has been essential to vary the teaching approach to help us maintain concentration. As a result, many lessons have involved practical activities while speaking Lule Sámi. Sara's teaching approach emphasizes speaking Sámi throughout - talk, talk, talk.

With this presentation, we aim to showcase one of our various activities, which is baking gáhkko. In addition to the language, we have also engaged in certain traditional Sámi daily chores. 

May-Britt Öhman 

Subttsasa biehtsevuomátjistema: Stories from our little pine forest 

Subttsasa biehtsevuomátjistema means “Stories from our little pine forest” in Lule Sámi. Sámi is very different from Swedish, the language I grew up with.   My maternal grandfather was probably the last in our family to understand and speak, but his knowledge of Sámi was a well-concealed secret. Only as an adult, in 2008, I learned about this secret, of being Sámi. Fall 2022, I finally took the opportunity to start learning Lule Sámi. The Sámi education center in Jåhkåmåhkke offers beginners courses, and there is the talented and inspirational teacher Sara Aira Fjellström. When I started, I was 55 years old, thinking it would be impossible– but the pedagogical methods, lots of laughter, and the support of three elder Lule Sámi women, assistant teachers, gives us opportunity to listen to the language, and to speak ourselves. Their knowledge, telling me stories about my own family, as well as their validation of the stories I bring about my family, has made the language learning into a life altering project of memory and culture. 

I will tell a couple of stories, in Lule Sámi, about the Sámi taxland of my Lule/ Forest Sámi family,  near Jåhkåmåhkke. Our stories are so far very rarely taught at universities and schools. We Sámi have the right to our history, but the discipline of history is often not bringing forward Sámi history. As Lule and Forest Sámi, and as a trained historian, I am doing my best to contribute to a change. 

Kerstin Andersson, Sámi and Board Member of Amnesty Sápmi and Hannah Edenbrink Andersson, Sámi, involved in repatriation of ceremonial offerings

This presentation discusses removed sacred objects, sieidis, from the Swedish part of Sápmi and the issues that arise when the Sámi demand repatriation of these cult objects. A sieidi is usually a stone with an unusual shape. They are – or were – in nature placed in sacred places by lakes and rivers, or in the mountains. Research is underway to find out the true origins of the stolen siedis.

Transfers of objects between museums in Sweden are compatible with the Museum Act, but transfer of objects to indigenous people is not regulated.

In recent years, awareness of the removed sieidis has increased among the Sámi in Sweden. There are ongoing discussions about restitution to the Sámi people in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Discussions are ongoing within the Sámi society about ownership and placement but there are some difficult issues to deal with.

To understand what opinions that exist within Sami communities we will do in-depth interviews with 10-15 Sámi respondents from December 2023 to March 2024 and present a report in June about the Sámi’s view on this issue. Questions asked will be amongst other: What does a siedie mean to you? Should the siedies be placed in museums or be re-placed in nature? Who can claim ownership, and who has the right to decide?

The study forms part of “Sijddaj máhttsat” – “Coming Home” in Lule Sámi – led by Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University. Contributions, mainly guidance on ethical aspects, has been made by Dr Öhman. 

Sammanfattning. 

Det har gått drygt hundra år sedan Unna Sájvva, en samisk offerplats i norra Lapplandskändades och plundrades. Offergåvorna grävdes upp och fördes till Stockholm. Det skedde i en tid då svensk samepolitik präglades av rasbiologi och rasism.

Samerna är ett urfolk och har, med utgångspunkt i FN-deklarationen för urfolk, rätt att fåtillgång till sina ceremoniella föremål. Nu driver Kerstin Andersson tillsammans med andra samer frågan om ett återbördande av offergåvorna till det samiska folket och ett museum i norra Sápmi. De har ett starkt stöd i av flera stora organisationer i det samiska samhället.

Offergåvorna från Unna Sájvva är en väl dokumenterad samling med runt 600 föremål och 156 kilo ben och horn, som finns i Historiska museets magasin i Stockholm. Boken utkom första gången 2021 och fick följande recension av BTJ: ”Det har blivit en vacker, lågmäld och sparsmakad bok med ett fantastiskt bildmaterial. De korta informativa texterna fungerar lika bra för både museianställda, arkeologer och andra ämnesexperter som för den allmänt intresserade läsaren. Helhetsbetyg: 5”.

Den nya upplagan är uppdaterad med två nya kapitel – ett om mynten som hittades påplatsen och ett om saivasjöar.

Välkommen att läsa mer om Unna Sájvva – den lilla heliga sjön – och offergåvorna.

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Nytrycket av publikationen har möjliggjorts genom stöd via forskningsprojektet " 'Sijddaj máhttsat' betyder 'kommer hem' på lulesamiska", Vetenskapsrådet Dnr 2021-03080, under ledning av docent May-Britt Öhman, som del av utveckling av samiskledda studier utförda av, med och för samiska civilsamhället. 

Sejtar tillhör ingen gammal samisk sedvänja, som hör hemma i historieböckerna. Sejtar är ett högst levande kulturarv bland många samer idag. Det framkommer i intervjuboken, som skogssamerna Kerstin Andersson och Hannah Edenbrink Andersson har skrivit.

Sejtar är heliga föremål, vanligtvis stenar eller klippor med en ovanlig form, men det finns även sejtar av trä. I boken beskriver de vad sejtar betyder för människor idag, om sorg och ilska över att många sejtar är bortförda från sina platser och tankar kring återbördande av sejtar.

Sejtens riktiga hem är i det samiska kulturlandskapet, i naturen, i Sápmi. Det är de intervjuade överens om. Men när det gäller återbördande av sejtar som finns i södra Sverige idag uppstår ett dilemma. Vart ska de placeras – på museer eller i naturen? Och vad ska man göra med alla sejtar utan känd hemvist?

Kerstin Andersson och Hannah Edenbrink Andersson är skogssamer och kommer från en by intill den heliga sjön och samiska offerplatsen Unna Sájvva i Gällivare kommun.

"Vi är inga akademiska forskare. Vi är två samer med stort intresse för frågor kring återbördande av samernas ceremoniella föremål. Vi har fått stöd av docent May-Britt Öhman i diskussioner om urval, dokumentation och etiska frågeställningar. Det är vi oerhört tacksamma för. Hon har även, via sitt forskningsprojekt ”Sijddaj máhttsat betyder ’kommer hem’ på lulesamiska” finansierat tryckningen av den här boken."

Välkommen att delta i minnesdagen då vi hedrar minnet av de samer som har utsatts av rasbiologernas mätningar, registreringar och fotograferingar. Vi hedrar minnet av de samer vars kvarlevor ännu finns på svenska institutioner. Vi lyfter fram vikten av att återbörda samiska ceremoniella föremål som har förts bort från Sápmi. Den svenska samepolitiken får inte glömmas eller gömmas.

Anmäl dig senast 15 oktober (se länk nedan). Vi kommer även att sända minnesdagen online.

PROGRAM

12.00 Dörrarna öppnar - deltagarregistrering och förmingel -vi är många så vänligen tänk på att vara i god tid.

13.00 Samiska folkets sång

VälkommenInger Axiö Albinsson, ordförande, Sameföreningen i StockholmKerstin Andersson, styrelseledamot, Amnesty SápmiMaritha Sandberg Lööf, programledare

Sámeviesso mujtalvis – påminnelser om samiskt livDocent May-Britt Öhman, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet

Jojk, Sara-Elvira Kuhmunen

Samiska kvarlevorBegravning av samiska kvarlevor från museer, Mikael Jakobsson, ordförande Riksorganisationen Same ÄtnamSamiska kvarlevor vid Historiska museet vid Lunds universitet, Jenny Bergman, antikvarie

Rasbiologiska bildarkivetEva Forsgren, ordförande, Samiska föreningen i Uppsala

International experiences (in English)Ambassador Erik D Ramanathan, USAProfessor Brenda Gunn, The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Canada

PAUS, cirka 14.00 – 14.45

Vi bjuder på kanapéer, kaffe och te

14.45. Jojk, Sara-Elvira Kuhmunen

Ceremoniella föremål

Återbördande av samiska offergåvor från Unna Saiva, Hannah Edenbrink AnderssonÅterbördande av föremål till urfolk, Ann Follin, överintendent Världskulturmuseerna

Kulturdepartementet och RiksantikvarieämbetetKarin Svanborg-Sjövall, statssekreterare, KulturdepartementetKicki Eldh, utredare, Riksantikvarieämbetet

ReflektionerLena Tjärnberg, kyrkoherde, Kiruna pastoratAnders Hagfeldt, rektor, Uppsala universitetLawen Redar, riksdagsledamot (S), kulturpolitisk talespersonSara-Elvira Kuhmunen, ordförande, Sáminuorra

Closing speech (in English)Stefan Mikaelsson, vice ordförande för Sametinget styrelse

Jojk. Mari Boine

Avslutning, cirka klockan 16.15.

Efter det officiella programmet finns det möjlighet att stanna kvar en stund och samtala med övriga gäster.

BOKA PLATS PÅ BIOGRAF SKANDIA

Vill du delta på minnesdagen i Stockholm? Anmäl dig här senast den 13 oktober: https://simplesignup.se/event/208040

Vi öppnar dörrarna 12.00. Programmet börjar 13.00. Vi bjuder på kaffe, te och kanapéer i pausen. Efter det officiella programmet, runt 16.15, finns det möjlighet att stanna kvar en stund och samtala med övriga gäster.

Det är kostnadsfritt att delta, men om du FÖRHINDER måste du AVBOKA så att vi kan ge din plats till någon annan. Om du inte avbokar och inte kommer, tar vi ut en AVGIFT på 150 kronor.

DELTA ONLINEDu som vill delta online ska INTE anmäla dig. Vi sänder klockan 13.00 via vår Youtubekanal: https://bit.ly/3xAnMJz

Arrangörer: Amnesty Sápmi, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism vid Uppsala universitet, Riksorganisationen Same Ätnam, Sameföreningen i Stockholm

r, iakttagelser

I svensk grundlag SFS1974:152, lagarna SFS2009:724 respektive 2009:600  – fastställs sedan över ett decennium att de nationella minoriteterna - judar, romer, samer, sverigefinnar och tornedalingar, har särskilda rättigheter, skydd och stöd för såväl kultur som språk. 

Myndigheter, och därmed de statliga universiteten, har ett särskilt och omfattande ansvar. Det hänger nära samman med i synnerhet lärarutbildningen, där skolorna via läroplanerna har tydligt ansvar för att elever från förskola till och med gymnasium får kunskap om de nationella minoriteterna. Men det gäller även övriga utbildningar där de utbildade studenterna kommer att i kontakt med de nationella minoriteterna, det vill säga i praktiken alla utbildningar. Dessutom finns förstås även enskilda individer inom de nationella minoriteterna representerade som såväl studenter som personal vid lärosätena.

Frågan är då hur det ser det ut i verkligheten, i förhållande till undervisning, i synnerhet ifråga om lärarutbildningen?  Hur bör historieämnet förhålla sig till lagstiftningen? 

Vi diskuterar reflektioner, erfarenheter och iakttagelser utifrån egen verksamhet vid lärosäten över drygt två decennier, anordnande av Minnesdag Hundra år i skuggan av rasbiologiska institutet under 2021- 2022 -  samt samarbete med en artikel för en kommande Routledge antologi.

En iakttagelse för de universitet/institutioner där vi varit/är verksamma är att det antingen saknas resurser och kompetens, eller att i de fall som kompetens finns, så ges inte ett tydligt stöd från lärosätena för tillgängliggörande. En större fråga i sammanhanget är då varför det ser ut på det sättet, samt vad som krävs för en förändring ska kunna ske för att uppfylla lagstiftningen.  Vi utgår från teorier och metoder inom rasismstudier, bosättarkoloniala studier, genusstudier, urfolksmetodologi och ego-histoire, inklusive muntlig historia. Även begreppet metodologisk nationalism är användbart för analysen. 

Presentationen utarbetas med stöd av forskningsprojekten Leva utan olja?!  FORMAS Dnr2019-01975,  inom Nationella forskningsprogrammet om klimat, och 'Sijddaj máhttsat' betyder 'kommer hem' på lulesamiska, Vetenskapsrådet, Dnr2021-03080. 

There are no magic wands. The current ongoing so called “green transition” is in reality environmentally destructive, fossil dependent and also aggressively colonial. May-Britt Öhman and Eva Charlotta Helsdotter will discuss the case of wind power, currently massively promoted by environmentalists, governments and large companies as part of the “green” transition. However, windpower plants come with the need for massive extraction and use of resources; rare earth metals, lime stone, steel, all which demand more mines. The wings, due to leading edge erosion, are according to a recent study (A. Solberg, B-E. Rimereit and J. E. Weinbach, 2021) emitting hormone and fertility disturbing micro- and nano plastics (Bisphenol A) polluting surface water and in the long term also ground water. 

Windpower plants need large areas. In the more populated regions it is politically difficult to reach acceptance. Therefore, in Sweden and in Norway, wind power is installed in the Sámi reindeer herding territories, where the Sámi Indigenous land and water rights are still not acknowledged.

May-Britt Öhman is Associate Professor in Environmental History, PhD in History of Technology. Öhman leads the research group “Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies”, funded within the Swedish National Research Program on Climate Change,( FORMAS Dnr  2017-01923, 2019-0197, 2021-01723) and is a researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University. She is Lule and Forest Sámi of the Lule River valley, and has also Tornedalian heritage. Öhman is by the Swedish government appointed expert of the Committee on Reindeer Lands – Renmarkskommittén (N 2021:02) 2022—2025, on the mandate of the National Sámi Association Same Ätnam. Öhman has over the last two decades contributed to the work with the establishment and development of the research field Indigenous Climate Change Studies, centering Indigenous peoples’ experiences, perspectives and epistemologies, through publications, organization of meetings, and the building of networks. 

Eva Charlotta Helsdotter has a PhD in Land and Water Resources Management and is an Associate Professor in Water Security. She has been an international research leader in land and water related research, e.g. in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Kenya and Tanzania and in national environmental and sustainability projects. She has investigated drinking water supplies and designed protection needed to ensure good water quality. Since 2009 she has been involved in several research projects on the Swedish side of Sámi territories. Helsdotter is a researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University and part of the research group Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies.

Öhman and Helsdotter have collaborated since 2009, and together with filmmaker Petri Storlöpare produced several films;  about the Talvivaara mining disaster in Finland The Talvivaara mine – Water consequences  and the film Ungreen windpower: Sámi Indigenous and scientific perspectives on fossil dependent and environmentally destructive designs, 2021. Other films are available at the youtube channel for the research group “Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies”.

Our research work is funded by FORMAS, Dnr 2019-0197 within the Swedish National Research Program on Climate Change, and FORMAS Dnr 2021-01723. Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies, at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR), Uppsala University 

Roundtable at NAISA, 2023

Title: Sámi Land Free University: An invitation to centre Indigenous Peoples expertise and knowledge in an online open access university 

This roundtable aims at presenting what the platform Sámi Land Free University (SFU) has achieved so far and to invite to a conversation on what SFU may achieve in the practice of decolonising research and education, while inviting interested to join forces for courses and joint or shared research over the colonial borders.

Over the last four decades, Indigenous Studies (IS) has been developed as an academic discipline within several settler colonial states and within colonial academia, the strongest presence in North America, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. So far Sweden is lagging behind. Yet, IS mainly turns the gaze towards the Indigenous peoples, while to achieve decolonization and long term sustainability, as well as good relations, there is a need for a 180 degrees shift in vision. What if there were several universities that centre Indigenous knowledges and expertise, as point of departure, while researching and teaching for the benefit of all?

In 2015, the SFU [www.samelandsfriauniversitet.com ] was created by Lule and Forest Sámi, Dr May-Britt Ӧhman with a vision and challenge of the mind to include the Sámi community and international Indigenous collaborations, having its base on the Swedish side of Sábme. SFU has co-hosted symposia and workshops. We now envision moving on, producing free to access online educational content, inviting earlier and new collaborators. Methods adopted are supra-disciplinary, giving voice to academics, artists, and practitioners of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, while also inviting other scientific methods. 

Commentator: Prof. Kim TallBear, Univ of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies

1. May-Britt Öhman, Lule and Forest Sámi, with Tornedalian heritage, Sábme, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University

Experiences from the last 7 years with the platform Sámi Land Free University – what has it done for my – and others – thinking and acting?

Introductory presentation on how the Sámi Land Free University came about as a website in 2015, followed by a Facebook page, a youtube channel, and some of the activities that has taken place, as well as some thoughts on possibilities to move ahead.

There are so far very little opportunities for Sámi to study our own history, culture, traditions, and epistemologies at universities in Sweden. There are even less opportunities to have a place in academia for Sámi who are open with their Sámi identity. Hence, there is a need for a place to gather, to develop courses, and proposed ways to make this happen, as the (settler colonial) academia so far gives very little space to Sámi perspectives in Sweden. Yet, Swedish legislation states that the Sámi are a people, with rights, and that Sámi history, culture and tradition shall be taught to pupils in school and secondary school.Furthermore, at universities, there is almost no teaching on Indigenous peoples’ culture, history, traditions, around the world, while the settler colonial perspectives are taught in all university courses.

Thus, there is a need for a Sámi university, on Swedish side of Sábme, that will provide both Sámi and other Indigenous peoples history, traditions, culture, expertise, perspectives - the question is mainly how to organize this.

2 Frances Wyld, Martu woman (Aboriginal People of the Pilbara region of Australia) living on Kaurna land, Dr of Communication, Justice and Society, University of South Australia

All good thing are wild and free: the wild winds that carried me to Sámi Land Free University.

NAISA introduced me to the international cross fertilization of ideas within Indigenous research and education, specifically it created the opportunity to collaborate with Sámi Land Free University as an Australian Aboriginal scholar. The collaboration has included 6 visits to Sweden and Sápmi for symposia and workshops, publications, and freelance work on a climate change and Indigenous sustainability project. I am a storyteller; I write in the moment inspired by nature. I watch the news reporting on the damage done by wild winds on the weekend. The reporter is in front of a house where a tree has fallen onto it, the house is on my road. At the same time, through my open door, I hear the whine of the chainsaw cutting into this majestic ghost gum tree. Only weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle along the same road with a wild sense of freedom as my birds, the Rainbow Lorikeets who live in the avenue of trees, flew alongside me. Sámi Land Free University has given me the same sense of freedom to work as a decolonising scholar within Critical Indigenous Studies, gaining international perspectives and walking on two lands that are both rich is stories. The collaboration has given me opportunities, and now in the spirit of reciprocity, I lend my skills as a curriculum developer to create content for this grassroots university in another land inhabited by Indigenous people who have much in common with my own people, with knowledges to share for a sustainable future.

3 Anna Kajsa Aira and Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Jokkmokk  in collaboration with Alma Linke Nilsen

Duv gábdde - Du gákti - Din kolt – Your Sámi dress

We are Sámi artisans, duojár. Anna Kajsa makes handicraft – duodje - in the Lule Sámi tradition, Jokkmokk area. Laila Susanna works within the North Sámi duodji tradition of the Karesuando area. We both live in Jokkmokk/Jåhkåmåhkke, a Sámi metropolis. Sámi heritage is passed down from generation to generation.

The traditional Sámi dress – gábbde/gákti/kolt - reveals one’s geographical area and is an important link to one’s roots and history. Many Sámi now reclaim their culture by wanting to wear the dress, but there is a gap of one generation in the transmission of knowledge about how to make them. Our project “your Sámi dress” is about providing this knowledge, both by making the gábbde for children and young people, for rent, and through making a digital platform with instructions and advice. It is just as important to be able to wear your gábbde as it is to handle it respectfully.  While there is a university in Sweden for textiles and fashion, there is no such for Sámi culture. We think maybe our work could find a place within the SFU, and thereby receive more support. 

4 Henrik Andersson and Hampus Andersson, Gällivare Forest Sámi village

Experiences of and reflections on the needs for education and higher education for and about Sámi reindeer herders

Reindeer husbandry is carried out on Sámi territories, on almost 50 percent of the territories of the colonial state of Sweden. It is is a tradition – a way of life – as well as a basis for livelihood, income, since several hundred of years. It is acknowledged as a national interest, to be protected, since 1987.

Yet, the knowledge and expertise of reindeer herding is mainly passed within the families. Learning demands spending time together with the older generations, from early childhood. As the school system requests pupils to be in school, this often come into conflict with the need to learn. Furthermore, for a reindeer herder, there are an increasing set of other skills than the actual herding – which is complex enough- that are of importance; economics, law, animal health, and one’s own history and culture etc. In school, secondary school, and at universities, there are no opportunities to study reindeer herding with the other skills thereto related. Another aspect of the education system’s lack of teaching on reindeer and reindeer herding, is that when persons within the reindeer herding meet with all parts of society – health care, police, teachers, social care, etc, they have to carry the burden of constantly educating them, and also facing discrimination and racism. 

Henrik , 42 years old, and Hampus , 20 years old, are two generations reindeer herders within the Gällivare Forest Sámi village, Flakaberg group. They will share their experiences and reflect on the need for education and higher education for Sámi reindeer herders.

5 Susanne Spik and Gun Aira, Jåhkåmåkke in collaboration with Alma Linke Nilsen

Lule Sámi culture and language on university level? Experiences,  reflections and ideas 

Gun Aira is a Lule Sámi teacher and Susanne Spik, is an entrepreneur and innovator. Both live in Jåhkåmåhkke,   and are active within reindeer herding. Both have attended university – teacher’s education- at a Swedish university, in the 1980s. The Lule Sámi language and culture origin in the Lule River valley. Due to the by the Swedish state forced relocation of several North Sámi families, from the Karesuando area during in the 20th century, along with fierce Swedification politics, both the language and culture have become sidestepped. While there is a Lule Sámi centre on Norwegian side, there is no such on the Swedish. In general, there is vastly more support to Sámi culture and language in Norway, than in Sweden. We will present our experiences, reflections and ideas on how SFU could be of use to promote Lule Sámi language and culture, and wish to develop this with the others and the audience. 

This roundtable aims at presenting what the platform Sámi Land Free University (SFU) has achieved so far and to invite to a conversation on what SFU may achieve in the practice of decolonising research and education, while inviting interested to join forces for courses and joint or shared research over the colonial borders.

Over the last four decades, Indigenous Studies (IS) has been developed as an academic discipline within several settler colonial states and within colonial academia, the strongest presence in North America, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. So far Sweden is lagging behind. Yet, IS mainly turns the gaze towards the Indigenous peoples, while to achieve decolonization and long term sustainability, as well as good relations, there is a need for a 180 degrees shift in vision. What if there were several universities that centre Indigenous knowledges and expertise, as point of departure, while researching and teaching for the benefit of all?

In 2015, the SFU [www.samelandsfriauniversitet.com ] was created by Lule and Forest Sámi, Dr May-Britt Ӧhman with a vision and challenge of the mind to include the Sámi community and international Indigenous collaborations, having its base on the Swedish side of Sábme. SFU has co-hosted symposia and workshops. We now envision moving on, producing free to access online educational content, inviting earlier and new collaborators. Methods adopted are supra-disciplinary, giving voice to academics, artists, and practitioners of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, while also inviting other scientific methods. 

Commentator: Kim TallBear, Univ of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies

1 May-Britt Öhman, Lule and Forest Sámi, with Tornedalian heritage, Sábme

Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University

Experiences from the last 7 years with the platform Sámi Land Free University – what has it done for my – and others – thinking and acting?

Introductory presentation on how the Sámi Land Free University came about as a website in 2015, followed by a Facebook page, a youtube channel, and some of the activities that has taken place, as well as some thoughts on possibilities to move ahead.

There are so far very little opportunities for Sámi to study our own history, culture, traditions, epistemologies at universities in Sweden. There are even less opportunities to have a place in academia for Sámi who are open with their Sámi identity. Hence, there is a need for a place to gather, to develop courses, and proposed ways to make this happen, as the (settler colonial) academia so far gives very little space to Sámi perspectives in Sweden. Yet, Swedish legislation states that the Sámi are a people, with rights, and that Sámi history, culture and tradition shall be taught to pupils in school and secondary school.Furthermore, at universities, there is almost no teaching on Indigenous peoples culture, history, traditions, around the world, while the settler colonial perspectives are taught in all university courses.

Thus, there is a need for a Sámi university, on Swedish side of Sábme, that will provide both Sámi and other Indigenous peoples history, traditions, culture, expertise, perspectives - the question is mainly how to organize this.

2 Frances Wyld, Martu woman (Aboriginal People of the Pilbara region of Australia) living on Kaurna land, Dr of Communication

Justice and Society, University of South Australia

All good thing are wild and free: the wild winds that carried me to Sámi Land Free University.

NAISA introduced me to the international cross fertilization of ideas within Indigenous research and education, specifically it created the opportunity to collaborate with Sámi Land Free University as an Australian Aboriginal scholar. The collaboration has included 6 visits to Sweden and Sápmi for symposia and workshops, publications, and freelance work on a climate change and Indigenous sustainability project. I am a storyteller; I write in the moment inspired by nature. I watch the news reporting on the damage done by wild winds on the weekend. The reporter is in front of a house where a tree has fallen onto it, the house is on my road. At the same time, through my open door, I hear the whine of the chainsaw cutting into this majestic ghost gum tree. Only weeks ago, I was riding my bicycle along the same road with a wild sense of freedom as my birds, the Rainbow Lorikeets who live in the avenue of trees, flew alongside me. Sámi Land Free University has given me the same sense of freedom to work as a decolonising scholar within Critical Indigenous Studies, gaining international perspectives and walking on two lands that are both rich is stories. The collaboration has given me opportunities, and now in the spirit of reciprocity, I lend my skills as a curriculum developer to create content for this grassroots university in another land inhabited by Indigenous people who have much in common with my own people, with knowledges to share for a sustainable future.

3 Anna Kajsa Aira and Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Jokkmokk  in collaboration with Alma Linke Nilsen

Duv gábdde - Du gákti - Din kolt – Your Sámi dress

We are Sámi artisans, duojár. Anna Kajsa makes handicraft – duodje - in the Lule Sámi tradition, Jokkmokk area. Laila Susanna works within the North Sámi duodji tradition of the Karesuando area. We both live in Jokkmokk/Jåhkåmåhkke, a Sámi metropolis. Sámi heritage is passed down from generation to generation.

The traditional Sámi dress – gábbde/gákti/kolt - reveals one’s geographical area and is an important link to one’s roots and history. Many Sámi now reclaim their culture by wanting to wear the dress, but there is a gap of one generation in the transmission of knowledge about how to make them. Our project “your Sámi dress” is about providing this knowledge, both by making the gábbde for children and young people, for rent, and through making a digital platform with instructions and advice. It is just as important to be able to wear your gábbde as it is to handle it respectfully.  While there is a university in Sweden for textiles and fashion, there is no such for Sámi culture. We think maybe our work could find a place within the SFU, and thereby receive more support. 

4 Henrik Andersson and Hampus Andersson, Gällivare Forest Sámi village

Experiences of and reflections on the needs for education and higher education for and about Sámi reindeer herders

Reindeer husbandry is carried out on Sámi territories, on almost 50 percent of the territories of the colonial state of Sweden. It is is a tradition – a way of life – as well as a basis for livelihood, income, since several hundred of years. It is acknowledged as a national interest, to be protected, since 1987.

Yet, the knowledge and expertise of reindeer herding is mainly passed within the families. Learning demands spending time together with the older generations, from early childhood. As the school system requests pupils to be in school, this often come into conflict with the need to learn. Furthermore, for a reindeer herder, there are an increasing set of other skills than the actual herding – which is complex enough- that are of importance; economics, law, animal health, and one’s own history and culture etc. In school, secondary school, and at universities, there are no opportunities to study reindeer herding with the other skills thereto related. Another aspect of the education system’s lack of teaching on reindeer and reindeer herding, is that when persons within the reindeer herding meet with all parts of society – health care, police, teachers, social care, etc, they have to carry the burden of constantly educating them, and also facing discrimination and racism. 

Henrik , 42 years old, and Hampus , 20 years old, are two generations reindeer herders within the Gällivare Forest Sámi village, Flakaberg group. They will share their experiences and reflect on the need for education and higher education for Sámi reindeer herders.

5 Susanne Spik and Gun Aira, Jåhkåmåkke in collaboration with Alma Linke Nilsen

Lule Sámi culture and language on university level ? Experiences,  reflections and ideas 

Gun Aira is a Lule Sámi teacher and Susanne Spik, is an entrepreneur and innovator. Both live in Jåhkåmåhkke,   and are active within reindeer herding. Both have attended university – teacher’s education- at a Swedish university, in the 1980s. The Lule Sámi language and culture origin in the Lule River valley. Due to the by the Swedish state forced relocation of several North Sámi families, from the Karesuando area during in the 20th century, along with fierce Swedification politics, both the language and culture have become sidestepped. While there is a Lule Sámi centre on Norwegian side, there is no such on the Swedish. In general, there is vastly more support to Sámi culture and language in Norway, than in Sweden. We will present our experiences, reflections and ideas on how SFU could be of use to promote Lule Sámi language and culture, and wish to develop this with the others and the audience. 

Reindeer husbandry in Sweden is a traditional livelihood activity conducted (exclusively*) by the Sámi, an Indigenous people whose land – a region called Sápmi – is broadly understood to extend across northern Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland) and the Kola Peninsula in contemporary Russia. Reindeer husbandry in contemporary Sweden occurs in both the western mountainous regions and the eastern forests, but the concerns and challenges of reindeer herders in the forested regions are largely neglected in academic, political, economic, and other discourses. According to the traditional knowledge of Sámi reindeer herders, industrial forest landscape exploitation, including large-scale clear-cutting for timber and vast wind power developments, will have a profound impact on both reindeer and the herders themselves, threatening the viability of reindeer husbandry as a livelihood activity and a locus of Sámi cultural identity.

Research into the complex and compounding impacts of forest use projects and policies was undertaken under the auspices of the Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change project, led by Dr. May-Britt Öhman, at Uppsala University’s Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism. It included four weeks of close collaboration between the first author and Henrik Andersson, a Sámi reindeer herder, activist, and board member from the Gällivare Skogssameby (Forest Sámi community). Fieldwork methodologies included participatory observation and semi-structured interviews and complexity theory was used as the basis to develop a case study, which was then contextualized within Sweden’s colonial history and contemporary political and economic paradigm. This research was based on the understanding that the structural limitations of the Swedish settler-colonial state hinder the ability of Sámi people to engage in the traditional livelihood of reindeer husbandry and benefit from traditional uses of non-timber forest products. The state promotes corporate intrusion onto reindeer grazing and calving land and seizure of natural forest resources and this is encouraged by a combination of anti-Sámi racism and a sense of entitlement to these resources.

The case study details the various compounding and interrelated system-level challenges to the survival of Henrik Andersson's reindeer and Indigenous way of life. These challenges and encroachments include (1) the development of vast wind power farms on calving and grazing land, (2) the devaluation of traditional knowledge in response to reindeer overpredation (particularly by bears), (3) industrial timber harvesting and unsuitable woodland plantation methods, (4) habitat fragmentation caused by transportation infrastructure, and (5) local hostility toward reindeer and the Sámi people. The impacts on traditional Sámi livelihood and cultural activities have been described individually in academic literature, but rarely as a complex system. Taken together, these encroachments may have impacts that are greater than the sum of their parts and must be addressed as interrelated expressions of a complex system rather than as a series of disparate and unrelated pressures.

How to cite: Mumford, E., Öhman, M.-B., and Andersson, H.: Contemporary Colonialism and Marginalized Indigenous Practice in Sweden’s Northern Forests: A Case Study on Reindeer Husbandry in Gällivare Forest Sámi Community, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-10413, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-10413, 2022.

* There is an exception to the exclusive Sámi reindeer herding rights in Sweden: In the eight so called concession villages in the northern most county, Norrbotten,, non-Sámi are allowed to pursue reindeer herding with special permission tby he County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen). 

May-Britt Öhman

Gulldal sielov, mihá ja gievrra

Tal vid Minnesdag - svensk samepolitik får inte glömmas, 29 oktober 2022, 14.00-17.00, Biograf Zita, Stockholm.

Arrangörer: 

Amnesty Sápmi; Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet; Sameföreningen i Stockholm

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Gulldal sielov, mihá ja gievrra

Gut duosstel álggusittjat

Ja bälos gieladimev

Ane dal gielav, divna tjoavdá dån

Känn efter i själen, stolt och stark

Den som vågar säga något

Försvarar den stumme

Så använd rösten, och gör oss alla fria.

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Buoris, terve, hej,

Inledningsorden kommer från Mio Neggas, fina och starka popsång på lulesamiska, från 2013, Miha ja gievrra, Stolt och stark.

Nu i höst, har jag börjat lära mig lulesamiska, morfars språk. Jag tar tillbaka det som skulle raderas ut.

Denna Minnesdag sammanfaller ju med giellavahkko, språkveckan, etablerad 2019, under Förenta nationernas urfolksspråkår. 

Jag heter May-Britt Öhman, jag är skogssame, och lulesame, från Lule älvdal, och har även tornedalsk härkomst.

 Idag representerar jag Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Cemfor, vid Uppsala universitet, medarrangör till denna minnesdag, genom finansiering från ett forskningsprojekt;  Sijddaj máhttsat betyder "kommer hem" på lulesamiska, med stöd av Vetenskapsrådet. 

Jag är docent i miljöhistoria, och verksam som forskare vid CEMFOR. Jag är också gäst biträdande professor i historia vid Luleå tekniska universitet. 

I år är det alltså precis ett hundra år sedan Statens institut för rasbiologi öppnade. 

Beslutet togs av en enig svensk Riksdag, året innan, 1921. Det vill säga det år då vi brukar säga att det blev demokrati i Sverige. 

Rasismen och rasbiologin, diskrimineringen av samer, och av de som då kallades ”finnar”, dagens tornedalingar, kväner och lantalaiset, var direkt knuten till övertagandet och kontrollen av de samiska territorierna – de marker som samer hade ägt, vårdat och skattat för i flera hundra år, skattelanden.  

Sveriges elit, makthavarna, var inte framgångsrika i kolonisationen runtom i världen. Istället vände man blicken norrut, från 1500-talet.  Från att ha varit respekterade och viktiga partner, blev samer nu undanträngda, deporterade eller assimilerade, och markerna lade statsmakten beslag på genom olika tillvägagångssätt. Och började exploatera och förstöra utan hänsyn till människor, djur och natur.

Omkring 1840 argumenterade Anders Retzius, professor i anatomi, vid Karolinska institutet,  för att människor kunde delas in i raser utifrån formen på deras skallar-  ”kortskallar” respektive ”långskallar”. 

De långskalliga menade han var högre stående. Detta framfördes under några decennier som en vetenskaplig sanning. Det ”nordiska folket” var långskallar, högre stående.

Även andra verktyg användes. Såsom försvenskningen – att  alla skulle tala svenska, och att vi skulle glömma våra språk, de många olika samiska språken, och meänkieli.

Men varför skulle Sverige, som under några hundra år varit ett imperium, stormakt,  där det var en självklarhet med många olika språk och kulturer, där franska var kungamaktens språk, varför skulle vi alla nu bli enbart ”svenskar”? 

Jo, 1809 förlorade Sverige Finland till Ryssland. Hela östra halvan av Sverige försvann. 

Mindre än hundra år senare sa Norge tack och adjö, 1905 ville Norge inte längre vara i union med Sverige. Sveriges tid som stormakt var nu definitivt över. Det var svåra slag för självkänslan för maktens innehavare. Och det medförde rädsla att förlora ännu mer.  

För samtidigt pågick industrialiseringen – där tillgång till skog, malm, och snart även vattenkraft, de stora älvarna i norr – var av avgörande betydelse för ett då fattigt Sverige. 

De människor som lever i områden med rikliga naturresurser framhölls, som lägre stående, och i behov av styrning och kontroll, -  och en berättelse om att det var för nationens bästa, och för deras eget bästa, etablerades. 

Men, att det inte var för dessa människors eget bästa, det var och är ännu idag uppenbart. För resurserna, vinsterna, stannade aldrig där de togs ifrån, utan fördes till centrum, till  Stockholm, då som idag. Och de områden de tagits från blev och är ännu idag, fattiga. Och drabbade av allvarlig miljöförstöring. 

Rasism var – och är - ett verktyg för att ta kontroll över naturresurser. Utradering av språk är ett verktyg för kontroll. Och, har medfört och medför än idag, fattigdom. Och miljöförstöring.

Rasbiologiska institutet upphörde 1959. 

Verksamheten flyttades över till Institutionen för medicinsk genetik, vid Uppsala universitet. Rasbiologiska institutets dokument och de tusentals bilder som tagits, flyttades över till Uppsala universitetsbibliotek. 

Med Vetenskapen som alibi samlades även mänskliga kvarlevor in, och flera av dessa ligger ännu kvar i lådor, hos Uppsala universitet, men även på andra statliga myndigheter –institutioner – runtom i Sverige.  

Förenta Nationerna etablerades, och världens nationer har där gemensamt antagit ett stort antal konventioner och deklarationer, där man tar avstånd från rasism,-  där mångkultur, respekt för olikhet framhålls – för vi har lärt oss, den hårda vägen, att rasism och diskriminering, leder in på farliga vägar, och till fattigdom. Vi behöver istället arbeta tillsammans, för samhörighet, respekt, kärlek, för olika kulturer, för mångfalden, för samhällets bästa – allas bästa. 

För långsiktig hållbarhet.

Universiteten, lärosätena, har här en oerhört viktig roll, där utbildar sig idag alla som ska bli lärare, tjänstemän på olika nivåer, jurister, ja - väldigt många yrkesgrupper, här bedrivs även viktig forskning, som kan främja samhällets utveckling. 

Uppsala universitet har tagit ett oerhört viktigt steg i etablerandet av Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, CEMFOR, för fem år sedan.  

Men det kan inte bara vara Uppsala universitet och CEMFOR, som gör detta arbete, eller andra enstaka institutioner, forskningsprojekt, enstaka engagerade forskare och universitetslärare. Alla universitet behöver engagera sig, och forskningsmedel tillskjutas, och kunskaperna bli en självklar del i all utbildning – ochvytterst ansvarig för att detta ska kunna ske är Sveriges lagstiftare, Riksdagen tillsammans med regeringen. Det är ju där som besluten tas över de skattemedel som samlas in, där en väldigt stor del kommer från de naturresurser som tas från samiska territorier, från de stulna markerna. 

Jag vill varmt tacka alla er som medverkar idag, som framför perspektiv och insikter, och tack till alla som lyssnar och som vill samverka för att minnas, utmana, förändra. Du och jag, vi har alla viktigt arbete att utföra. 

Gulldal sielov, mihá ja gievrra

Känn efter i själen, stolt och stark

Ane dal gielav, divna tjoavdá dån

Så använd rösten, och gör oss alla fria.

Gijtto, kiitos, tack! 

Minnesdag - svensk samepolitik får inte glömmas, 29 oktober 2022, 14.00-17.00, Biograf Zita, Stockholm.

Arrangörer: Amnesty Sápmi; CEMFOR, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism - forskningsprojektet Sijddaj mahttsat/May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala universitet; Sameföreningen i Stockholm

Minnesdag 29 oktober – svensk samepolitik får inte glömmas eller gömmas ---

För att förstå den rasism som många samer vittnar om i dag är det viktigt att förstå den historiska diskriminering, som samer har upplevt i Sverige med tvångsförflyttningar, rasbiologiska mätningar, gravplundringar, assimileringspolitik och raslagar. Det är 100 år sedan Statens rasbiologiska institut grundades i Uppsala. De hade ett särskilt intresse av att kartlägga den samiska befolkningen, som kategoriserades som en lägre stående ras. Institutet är visserligen nedlagt, men dess arv påverkar samerna än idag. Regeringen skrev i den nationella planen mot rasism 2016 ”att det är viktigt att genom särskilda minnesdagar uppmärksamma hur olika former av rasism har präglat Sverige och delar av vår befolkning under historien. Det finns behov av att särskilt uppmärksamma minnesdagar för övergrepp som skett mot olika folkgrupper och minoriteter”.

Amnesty Sápmi, Sameföreningen i Stockholm och Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism (CEMFOR) vid Uppsala universitet bjuder därför in till en minnesdag lördag 29 oktober klockan 14.00 – 16.30 på biograf Zita i Stockholm.

Minnesdagen sänds även online. Vi vill hedra minnet av de samer som har utsatts av rasbiologernas mätningar, registreringar och fotograferingar.

Vi vill hedra minnet av de samer vars kvarlevor ännu finns på svenska museer och institutioner.

Vi vill belysa den svenska samepolitiken, som inte får glömmas eller gömmas. Den samiske dansaren

Ola Stinnerbom dansar ett utdrag ur den kritikerrosade jojkoperan A SAAMI REQUIEM. Jojken och musiken tar lyssnaren med till det samiska dödsriket och tillbaka.

Program 14.00 Samefolkets sång Sámi soga lávlla

14.04 Maritha Sandberg – presentatör Talare: Kerstin Andersson, styrelseledamot Amnesty Sápmi Inger Axiö Albinsson, ordförande för Sameföreningen i Stockholm May-Britt Öhman, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Uppsala universitet, Gulldal sielov, mihá ja gievrra Matti Blind Berg, ordförande för Svenska Samernas Riksförbund Parisa Liljestrand, Kulturminister (Moderaterna)

Musik med Gålmuk

Talare: Daniel Holst Vinka, Sametingets ordförande; Rose-Marie Huuva – Objekt för forskning Eva Forsgren, ordförande för Samiska föreningen i Uppsala

Ola Stinnerbom – A SAAMI REQUIEM

Talare: Amanda Lind, ordförande för riksdagens kulturutskott (MP); Andrew Jenks, ambassadör, Embassy of New Zealand;  Meghan Lau, ambassadråd, Embassy of Canada; Bernard Philip, ambassadör, Embassy of Australia; Cecilia Tengroth, generalsekreterare, Svenska FN-förbundet; Peter Rodhe – Skogssamerna och rasbiologin;  Ylva Gustafsson – Rasbiologin trängde in i min egen familj och övergreppen fortsätter

Musik med Gålmuk

Med anledning av det i år är 100 år sedan Statens institut för rasbiologi (även kallat Rasbiologiska institutet) öppnades i Uppsala, arrangerar CEMFOR en digital minnesdag med berörda enskilda och grupper, organisationer och forskare. Minnesdagen arrangeras i samarbete med Forum för judiska studier (UU) och Centrum för forsknings- och bioetik (UU). Rasbiologiska institutet är en del av Sveriges historia, som inte får glömmas eller gömmas.

Tid: 17/2 2022 9.00-17.30

Minnesdagen hålls online på grund av förnyade restriktioner. 

Det statliga institutet för rasbiologi öppnade i Uppsala 1922. 1956/57 upphörde själva institutet och delar av institutet upptogs av Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för medicinsk genetik.  Arkivet från det rasbiologiska institutet handhas av Uppsala universitetsbibliotek.

Minnesdagen är en fortsättning på de fyra dialogseminarier med berörda grupper som anordnades av CEMFOR under våren 2021. Dialogseminerierna uppmärksammade rasbiologin, det smärtande arvet och dess konsekvenser samt rasismen, som lever kvar än idag. Under 2022 planeras uppföljande seminarier. 

Vi utgår från metoder och etiska förhållningssätt som finns inom urfolksstudier, rasismforskning samt etiska regler som finns i svensk lagstiftning och hos forskningsfinansiärer samt i internationella konventioner och deklarationer om mänskliga rättigheter. 

Minnesdagen arrangeras av CEMFOR i samarbete med Forum för judiska studier (UU) och Centrum för forsknings- och bioetik (UU). Initiativtagare och projektledare: May-Britt Öhman. Finansiellt stöd har erhållits från forskningsprojekten: 

"Sijddaj máhttsat betyder "kommer hem", Vetenskapsrådet, Dnr 2021-03080, 6,120 MSEK. 

" 'Leva utan olja?!' Omprövande av relationer med land och vatten utifrån urfolks expertis", FORMAS Dnr 2019-01975, 7,5 MSEK, inom Nationella forskningsprogrammet om klimat.

More recently, the concept of settler colonialism has come to be used increasingly in analyses of the colonial relationships between the Swedish state, the Swedes, and the Sámi. The history of interaction is complex, as the territory has been shared for millennia. The concept of settler colonialism is nevertheless useful to apply to strategies that aim to displace Indigenous rights to the lands and waters and replace them with those of the settlers, as if the settlers hold equal and/or authentic rights as heirs. Furthermore, a specific way of life—that of the settler—takes precedence, whereas nomadic lifestyles are considered to be outside of the normal way. The colonial state’s ethnic cleansing of Sámi forms part of these settler-colonial practices, within which racism has been, and still is, used as a tool.

In this essay, I discuss some of the perspectives on “climate change” and “green transition” I have come across within my research and supradisciplinary collaboration over the last two decades. I also argue for the use of the concept of (cultural) genocide as a basis for discussing the Swedish state’s actions and policies regarding the Indigenous Sámi.

In this presentation, part of a research project at Uppsala University with the ambition to promote Sámi knowledges and values, I discuss how I as a Lule Sámi teacher work with the transfer of traditional knowledge to Sámi school children. Sámi tradition is climate and environmental friendly and shows deep respect for animals, water and nature. 

There are five Sámi schools on the Swedish side of Sábme. In Jåhkåmåhkke where I work, there are 62 pupils from preschool to year six. 

What differs from Sámi school from a Swedish is that the Sámi language is present throughout the day, in class, at breaks, at lunch and at the after-school centre.  Sámi culture is supposed to permeate the entire education, with the Sámi eight seasons as its foundation. Today only few children can learn the traditional knowledge earlier transferred buolvas buolvvaj – from generation to generation – as most families are in need to wage income and thus adapting to the Swedish industrialised society. Furthermore, the families are no longer living with the older generations. The Sámi society has changed as we spend so much time in the Swedish society, where these knowledges and traditions are not valued.  I work with árbbe diehto, traditional knowledge, teaching the pupils a closer relation to the Sámi language present in all Sámi activities, such as hair removal from hides and the whole process to sassne, the tanned hide to be crafted to duodje, handicrafted work, and guole – the handling of fish from capture to cooking. 

Hur hänger ett foto av en lule- och skogssamisk kvinna taget 1868 ihop med ett samtal mellan mor och dotter i ett kök över hundra år senare? I denna artikel tar jag utgångspunkt i en bild på min morfars farmors syster, skogs- och lulesamiska kvinnan Brita Stina Larsdotter Rim från 1868, som jag mötte 2008 för första gången i en webbutställning, och ett avgörande kökssamtal på svenska med min mamma på 1990-talet. Brita Stinas ansikte återfinns, än idag, via Nordiska museet tillgängliggjort online, utan restriktioner, utan etiska förbehåll, och utan att Brita Stinas livshistoria finns återgiven. Att resonera kring mitt möte med Brita Stinas bild och hur det hänger ihop med min familjs osynliggjorda samiska historia utgör ett återtagande – ett försök att använda bilden på ett samiskt sätt. Det är ett bidrag till svensk kolonial och bosättarkolonial historia, och därigenom ett bidrag till nordisk och europeisk historisk och kvinnohistorisk forskning. Jag ifrågasätter hur denna historia skrivs och hur den återges på museer, i undervisning i skola och på universitet, i läroböcker och i kurslitteratur.

Titel: Ogrön vindkraft: Samiska och naturvetenskapliga perspektiv på fossilberoende och miljöförstörande design

Innehåll: Hur kommer det sig att vindkraft av idag framhålls som grön? Stora vindkraftsindustriområden är under planering och byggnation i Sverige. Svenska staten såväl som aktörer på energimarknaden, ideella miljöorganisationer och klimataktivister framhåller ofta vindkraften som grön, fossilfri och miljövänlig.

Vindkraftsindustriområdena har omfattande negativa konsekvenser för omgivande miljö, renskötsel, djur, fåglar och natur. Vindkraften i dagens design består av uppemot 150 till 300 meter höga stålstrukturer på betongfundament. Konstruktion och underhåll förutsätter nya gruvor, bilvägar, skogsavverkning och stenbrott. Fossila bränslen är en förutsättning i allt detta. Hur kommer det sig att dessa aspekter inte räknas in när vindkraften framhålls som grön?

I filmen medverkar docent Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala universitet och Henrik Andersson, renskötare i Gällivare skogssameby. De områden som syns är vindkraftsindustriområdet Markbygden, Piteå kommun, samt platser inom Gällivare skogssamebys renskötselområde; Pålkem och Nattavaaravägen, Gällivare kommun; Livasudden, Bodens kommun. Alla medverkande i filmen har gett sitt medgivande eller går inte identifiera.

Finansiering: Med stöd av forskningsrådet FORMAS, inom det nationella forskningsprogrammet om klimat. FORMAS Dnr 2017-01923, 2019-01975, samt 2016-01039, under ledning av docent May-Britt Öhman, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Cemfor, Uppsala universitet.

In this chapter, I recall parts of the history of a specific stretch of the Lule River Valley, downstream of Jokkmokk, upstream of the city of Luleå – Luleju or Julevu, and place it in a larger historical and political context. Remembering a livelihood that was, and still is, a self-sufficient way of life – living from nature, hunting, fishing, herding reindeer, collecting vegetables, and most importantly, depending on good relations with other humans, animals, waters, and lands – is as political as are the attempts to make us forget. With this chapter, I am challenging a settler colonial state-imposed and reproduced amnesia, in which Sámi history and culture, as well as the Swedish–Sámi historical and contemporary relationships are to a large extent still left out of the education at all levels in the Swedish education system.

Dating back more than 5000 years, skiing and ski technology are innovations from Sámi territories, Sábme. The oldest ski found in Sábme is over 5000 years old. Rock depictions of persons skiing are estimated to date back to 2000-1500 BC. Scholars mention the skiing people, the Sámi, and their advanced skills in rapidly moving about on skis, starting from the 6^th century AD, until late 19^th century. There are around 300 words for snow and snow conditions in Sámi and several of these relate to conditions for skiing. Yet, this advanced technological innovation are rarely celebrated in history books, nor within museum exhibitions, which seem to intently, for example, celebrate the wheel as an early human innovation. Conversely, Sámi ski technology is largely invisible in academia and in other places of cultural production even though for millennia it has been a significant feature of major importance to the livelihood and wellbeing in Arctic Sámi territories. This chapter is a step towards a more comprehensive history of humanity, inclusive of the Arctic region of Fenno-Scandinavia, and in particular the Sámi territories, foregrounding Sámi technological knowledge and expertise, adapted to specific conditions and geographies in the Arctic climate. The chapter draws on the extensive scholarly and popular literature on Sámi and Swedish/Nordic history and archeology, as well as the history of skiing.

In this documentary filmed in September 2020, Henrik Andersson, reindeer herder within Gällivare Forest Sámi village speaks about the environmental destruction caused by the Swedish state, through forestry practices by the state owned forest company Sveaskog, as well as the planned wind energy industrial area by the state power company Vattenfall. He also shows what a healthy forest should look like. The area discussed is one out of two project areas for windpower within Gällivare Forest Sámi village - “Storlandet”, which is the ancestral grounds of his family. Work is currently ongoing with an environmental impact study, planned to be ready for submission in 2022. 

Title: Ungreen windpower: Sámi Indigenous and scientific perspectives on fossil dependent and environmentally destructive designs

Content:

This film is produced by Dálkke, a research project and research group at Uppsala University, within the Swedish National Research Programme on Climate, the Swedish research council FORMAS.

In the film, Henrik Andersson, reindeer herder within Gällivare Forest Sámi village, Norrbotten County, Sweden, speaks about the environmental destruction caused by the Swedish state, through forestry practices by the Swedish state owned forest company Sveaskog, as well as the planned wind energy industrial area by the Swedish state power company Vattenfall. Associate Professor Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala University, tells about how the analysis of windpower is not taking into account all relevant aspects in terms of fossil dependency and environmental consequences. A large part of what is needed to establish, maintain, as well as decommission windpower is never taken into account within the so called LCA analyses. This is what makes it possible to – falsely – claim that windpower is green. However, the windpower designs of today cannot be considered green, nor fossil free.

The area in question is one out of two project areas for windpower within Gällivare Forest Sámi village - “Storlandet”, which is the ancestral grounds of Henrik Andersson’s family. Work is currently ongoing with an environmental impact study, planned to be ready for submission in 2022. The other wind power industry area that is planned within the area for the Gällivare Forest Sámi Village is Hällberget, conducted by a private power company Vasavind. In early 2021 it received permission to go ahead with a smaller part of its project. The Hällberget project is currently (August 2021) in court process. The Swedish state, the European Union (EU), as well as actors within the energy market, environmental organizations and climate activists all insist in the promotion of windpower as “green”, fossil free and thereby environmentally friendly. A large part of these constructions are planned for in Sámi territories, on land that has been taken from Sámi during late 19th and early 20th century. Furthermore, the wind power industrial areas have major negative impacts for the local environment. Forests are clear cut and replaced with 100 – 300 meters high steel constructions, on massive foundations made of concrete. Construction and maintenance demands new mines, car and truck access roads and thereby new stone quarries causing major wounds in the landscape.

These industrial areas have major negative consequence for the local environment, fresh water, nature, wild life, local inhabitants as well as reindeer herding. This film is part of a supradisciplinary research and documentary project on (un)sustainable power production, researching and documenting the subject matter from Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding point of view, along with analyses of the whole windpower industry. Henrik Andersson, Gällivare Forest Sámi Village, who works to protect - through research and challenging decision makers - the reindeer and other animals from a destructive power production mode along with the Sámi traditional culture in the area is at the front. The Sámi reindeer herding culture is documented to having lived and prospered here since at least two millennia. What can EU, Sweden and EU member countries learn from the knowledges and understandings of the Sámi reindeer herders? What is needed to make their voices heard and turned into policy making in Sweden and in the EU? Filmed from September 2020, to August 2021. Sequences from the film “The Last Generation?” Storlöpare 2016 – reindeer feeding - and by the fire.

The film is part of the research project: ”Safe and Sustainable Energy Futures in Sápmi” FORMAS dnr 2016-01039, and two projects within the Swedish National Programme on Climate: ”Dálkke: Indigenous climate change studies” FORMAS dnr 2017-01923 and ”Living without oil?! Rethinking relations with lands and waters with Indigenous Land Based Expertise for a transition towards a fossil free welfare society” FORMAS Dnr 2019-01975. All projects are led by May-Britt Öhman, Associate professor in Environmental history, PhD in History of Technology, researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University.

Copyright: May-Britt Öhman, Henrik Andersson, Petri Storlöpare License via Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

Malmen, skogen och vattenkraften, i de nordliga samiska territorierna, (och numera de nordligaste delarna av Sverige) har under lång tid varit förutsättningen för den vällevnad och ohållbara livsstil som många människor, kanske även du, upprätthåller idag.

Titelfrågan – om vem du är – på (lule)samiska, svenska och meänkieli, handlar om just detta. Minns du dina förmödrar och förfäder, och vilken del de har haft i denna historia? Vilken roll, som bygger på det som hänt, är, i nutiden, din? Låt oss bryta ner detta i lite mindre delar. Vi börjar med en fråga om glädje: Vad får dig att känna glädje och är den känslan kopplad till något slags konsumtion? Hur lever du? I vilken slags byggnad, varifrån kommer vattnet du dricker, vart tar maten du processat genom din kropp vägen? Hur färdas du dagligen? Är du fastboende och under svenska statens kontroll eller förflyttar du dig fritt som du vill? Och hur hänger detta ihop med den kultur du lever i? Har du funderat något på vad svensk kultur egentligen är? Hur svensk kultur formuleras i ord, bild, berättelser, i historien du fått lära dig, eller kanske den historia du inte fått lära dig?

Jag vill ta dig med på en perspektivvändarresa. Där du, som den du är idag, får vrida och vända på dig för att minnas – och därmed förstå vem du är, vem du blivit, beroende på vad dina föregångare gjort och sagt.

Sverige har inte alltid varit. Sverige – Svea rike – som modern kolonialstat skapades på 1500-talet. Fram till dess var samer inflytelserika och mäktiga. Parallellt med de europeiska kolonisationsprocesserna runtom i världen blev även Sverige en stark kolonialstat, ett imperie, grundat på just kolonisationen av de samiska territorierna.

The ore, the forest and the hydropower of the northern Sami territories (nowadays the northernmost part of Sweden) have for a long time been essential to the unsustainable life of luxury that many people, perhaps even you, lead today.

The question in the title – asking who you are in Lule Sami, Swedish and Meänkieli – is about exactly this. Do you remember your foremothers and forefathers, what part they played in this history? Which role, based on all that has happened, is now yours? Let’s break it down into smaller parts. And begin with a question about joy: What makes you feel joy, and is that feeling connected to some kind of consumerism? How do you live? In what kind of building? Where does the water that you drink come from, where does the food processed by your body end up? What is your daily mode of transport? Are you a permanent resident under the control of the Swedish State or do you move freely as you wish? How does all of this connect with the culture you live in? Have you ever considered what Swedish culture really is? And how Swedish culture is being defined through words, images, and stories, through the history you were told, or perhaps through the history you were not told?

I want to invite you along on a voyage of reversed perspectives. During which you, as you are today, have to contort yourself to remember – in order to understand who you are, who you have become, and how this depends on what your predecessors did and said. 

‘Sweden’ has not always been. Modern Sweden – that is the Kingdom of Sweden  – was established as a colonial nation state in the 16^th century. Up until then the Sámi were influential and powerful. But, concurrently with other European colonisation processes taking place across the world, Sweden also became an assertive colonial state; an empire founded on the colonisation of the Sámi territories.

I denna intervju har May-Britt Öhman ett samtal med Adrián Groglopo om den koloniala situation som Samerna genomgått i Sverige. Utifrån en berättarteknik om egna minnen och upplevelser om vad som kännetecknar den koloniala situationen för samerna, berättar May-Britt om sin uppväxt i en tystnad om samisk bakgrund och kulturarv. I denna levande berättelse går det att urskilja kolonialismens tekniker för att omformatera Nordens ursprungsbefolkning till en fråga om minoritetsrättigheter och föreningsformer vilket har lett till en för dem ständig kamp över rätten till markområden och kulturell identitet.

I denna introspektiva intervju förs det också fram en berättelse om den svenska statens koloniala procedur genom olika tider, som varit att studera samerna ur ett rasbiologiskt perspektiv, försöka förstöra samisk organisering, förbjuda det samiska språket och försvenska samerna: Det tas även upp hur flera generationer av människor vuxit upp utan kännedom om sin egna samiska bakgrund samt hur de förbjöds, tystades ner eller uteslöts när de försökte lyfta fram sin samiska bakgrund och kulturella identitet. Att känna skam över att tillhöra eller ha samisk bakgrund har varit centralt för det statliga assimileringsprojektet som idag förstås som frågan om integration i det svenska samhället.

Ett gediget och djupt samtal som lyfter fram den grund-kolonialismen som människor i Sverige fortfarande lever med och i, men också de strukturer som med mer moderna och anpassade regler och diskurser fortfarande upprätthåller ett kolonialt system för Sápmi.

I början av 2000-talet tog Susanne Spik och Karin Kuoljok, båda renägare och renskötare i Sirges sameby, initiativ till ett projekt i samarbete med Luleå tekniska universitet ”Kvinna i sameby”. I samtalen i projektet föddes en dröm om att kunna spåra och följa renar på nätet. Susanne och Karin inledde ett samarbete med forskare inom genus och teknik och informations- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) med mål att ta fram ett kommunikationsnätverk anpassat till fjällmiljön baserat på nätverkstekniken Delayed Tolerant Networking, DTN. För att kunna vidareutveckla ett renspårningssystem anpassat till den nya nätverksmiljön och den samiska renskötselns förutsättningar startade Susanne och Karin företaget, Tánnak AB. Företaget blev en tidig föregångare i att utveckla en produkt som kombinerade informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) med traditionell ekologisk kunskap (TEK). Förenklat kan TEK sägas vara kunskap om den nära naturomgivningen och hur den hållbart kan utnyttjas. TEK har vuxit fram främst hos människor som varit beroende av naturresurser de hade i sin närhet. Kunskapen skiftar över tid och följer förändringar i både traditioner och naturförhållanden. Kunskapen förs vanligtvis vidare muntligt och i praktiskt arbete. Susanne och Karins intresse för att ta fram produkten föddes utifrån sina egna erfarenheter och behov som renskötare och kvinnor, men också med en önskan om att underlätta för den yngre generationen att kunna fortsätta bedriva renskötsel och leva ett bra liv. Behovet var formulerat utifrån deras erfarenheter och syftade till att kunna utveckla och förnya renskötseln. En del i detta var att också få ner driftskostnaderna och att minska miljöpåverkan. 

Deras ursprungliga företag har idag övergått till företaget Tánnak International AB som marknadsför spårningssystemet för även andra områden än renskötseln. Tánnak International AB bygger vidare på den produkt som Susanne och Karin tog fram utifrån sina kunskaper om både renskötsel och markerna. Idag är dock Susanne och Karin inte längre majoritetsägare i företaget och renspårningssystemet saknar formellt patent. Susanne Spik och Karin Kuoljok har idag inte ekonomiskt inflytande i nuvarande företaget Tánnak International AB. 

Denna förstudie bygger på ett samarbete med nuvarande ledning för Tánnak international AB, Bobby och Jim Carlsson och de ursprungliga innovatörerna till företaget, Karin Kuoljok och Susanne Spik och forskaren May-Britt Öhman. Förstudien är en del av forskningsprojektet Dálkke – urfolksperspektiv på klimatförändringar, inom ramen för delområdet som rör samisk innovation och klimatförändringar. Förstudien syftar till att initiera en process att undersöka förutsättningarna i svenska Sápmi för samiska innovation och att fördjupa företagets kunnande om urfolk och mänskliga rättigheter. I denna process ingår att lyfta fram de ursprungliga innovatörernas grundidéer och deras produkt som en samisk innovation. På så sätt kan Tánnak International stärka sitt varumärke genom att profilera sig som ett samiskt innovationsföretag som kombinerar ny teknik med traditionell ekologisk kunskap. Certifieringar och märkningar kan vägleda konsumenter och underlätta för företag i att profilera sin produkt. Finns det behov av att certifiera samiska innovationsföretag? För att kunna undersöka förutsättningarna för att ta fram ett certifieringssystem för samiska innovationsföretag behövs en kartläggning av vilka certifieringar och märkningar som finns och hur dessa fungerar i svenska Sápmi idag. 

When the climate apocalypse comes I’ll make it: 16 year old Hampus Andersson’s survival month living off the lands and waters in the forests of Norrbotten, Sweden. There is a lot of talk of crisis and apocalypse, due to war, to climate change. Young people worried about their future go on school strike and manifest, around the world. But, when the climate or any other crisis happens, how are these young (and adult) protesters prepared to fend for themselves? How long can you survive without electricity and water in the tap, with access to food in the supermarket? Thinking about all of this, 16 year old Hampus Andersson decided to try to live off the lands and waters for a full month, on his own. If there is such a crisis, would he make it on his own? From mid July to mid August 2019, the experiment went on. He made sure to learn from more experienced and older reindeer herders and others with experience from the forests. Hampus is not completely unaware on how to get access to food in the forest. His father is a Sámi reindeer herder, and his mother’s family are an agriculture family. But until this day he had never done such an experiment. How would he find food, water, shelter? What would be the hardest? Some things that he had never even thought about turned out to be harder than expected. During the stay Hampus documented his everyday life with photos and short films, and posted on his Facebook page and Instagram. This is a film made from those photos and videos, along with an interview by film maker Petri Storlöpare, Slowfilm AB. Hampus speaks of his experiences, thoughts and ideas on how to continue this experiment. Will he try the same in the Arctic winter, with temperatures down to minus 40 Celsius? The film project is supported by Dálkke: Indigenous Climate Change Studies, led by Dr. May-Britt Öhman, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University.

Berättelser, kunskap, jojkar och röster från Giron, Kieruna, Kiruna -  och andra utforskningar av rasbiologin, rasism, gruvor, exploateringar,  urfolkskamp och vardagsliv.  

Format: Detta är en session med fyra presentationer som alla hänger ihop med fokus på Kiruna, kolonisation, rasism, rasbiologi, urfolkskamp, vardagsliv, utmanande av akademisk kunskapsproduktion och  främjande av kunskapsproduktion utanför de akademiska normerna. Vi som presenterar är konstnär, teknikhistoriker, renskötare/jojkare och arkeolog. Det som presenteras är arbete knutet till tre olika forskningsprojekt, ett konstnärligt forskningsprojekt om Kiruna som är en ansökan till Vetenskapsrådet Konstnärlig forskning, ett om urfolksperspektiv på klimat (finansierat av FORMAS 2017-2019), samt ett om samiska perspektiv på rasbiologi (”Åvdåsvásstadus”, finansierat av Sametingets Kulturnämnd och Rådet för lika villkor, Uppsala universitet).

Organisatör May-Britt Öhman, Fil.Dr., Teknikhistoria, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, CEMFOR, Uppsala universitet och LTU, ETS - historia

1.

Liselotte Wajstedt, Konstnär, Fil.Kand Gestaltning i konvergerande medier.

Titel: Ruotnas Várri: berättelser från renskötare i Kirunaområdet med filmvisning

Detta är en presentation av en del av ett filmdokumentationsprojekt om flytten av Kiruna. Här fokuserar jag på de samiska renskötarnas situation i Kirunaområdet. Deras situation blir allt svårare. Jag har pratat med många som känner sig ledsna och uppgivna. De trycks undan allt mer för de olika gruvorna som det prospekteras för och de nya som öppnas. På den platsen där Kiruna ligger idag var det ett höstbetesland för renarna. Renskötarna har inte längre någon plan D. Jag följer samebyn Gábna sameby och en renskötare; Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen, i hans vardagliga arbete. Han är även jojkare, och en musikvideo är del av dokumentären. Det är svårt att föra arvet vidare i en familj, det är hård press på barnen som måste ta över en stor renhjord efter sina föräldrar. Till det ska de kämpa med växande miljöproblem, ekonomin etc... En annan aspekt som kommer in i detta är rasbiologins kategoriseringar och dess effekter på de som lever idag; Kväner, Lantalaiset, Samer och Svenskar - de olika motsättningarna som uppstår och hur det påverkar klimatet i Kiruna. Denna fråga lyfts inte fram ordentligt, det är så infekterat och därför viktigt. Det handlar om urfolkstatus och rättigheter till land och vatten. Hur påverkar det staden, arbetet, mentaliteten och gruvan - och den lilla människan. Hur har rasbiologin och den statliga politiken som delat upp människor i olika grupperingar bidragit till detta? Det är många frågor som söker sina svar och berörs i forskningsprojektet. Jag kommer visa några klipp från pågående filmdokumentation.

2.

Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen, renskötare, jojkare

Titel: Jojken -  samisk glädje och motstånd och framtidstro

Detta är en presentation av jojk som tradition och som en möjlighet till helande i en sårig värld. Jojken är en urgammal och oerhört viktig men tyvärr idag för många samer tystad tradition. Jojken var en självklarhet i samiska familjer, man jojkade ensam, man jojkade när man träffades. Jojken förmedlar kunskap, minne, historia och tradition och känslor. Med kristendomen och kolonisationen tystades jojken och i många släkter tystnade den. I ett samiskt samhälle som utsätts för ett växande kolonialt förtryck, rasism, och av miljöproblem från den ökande industriella exploateringen, är jojken en väg att hitta tillbaka till glädje och välmående. Jag kommer här berätta om hur jojken kan användas för just detta välmående och återtagande och stärkande av samisk kultur. Och på sikt, förhoppningsvis del av det som kan sätta stopp för miljöförstörande och djur- och människoförstörande industriella exploateringar, genom att åter bygga upp relationerna till omgivande samhälle, natur, djur, medmänniskor på ett hållbart sätt. Jag kommer även låta deltagarna själva prova på jojk.

3.

May-Britt Öhman, FD Teknikhistoria, LTU, Historia och Uppsala universitet, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, CEMFOR.

Åvdåsvásstadus: Om ansvar, avkolonialisering, helande,  rasbiologi, rasism, avbildade samer, samiska kvarlevor och vägar till upprättelse och självförtroende

Frågan om rasbiologi och dess påverkan på de som mätts och hamnat på bilder i rasbiologiska institutets kataloger i Uppsala universitet, de döda som grävts upp ur sina gravar och vars kroppar hamnat i statliga institutioners lådor har alltmer uppmärksammats de senaste åren. En växande opinion från samiskt håll, sverigefinskt och tornedalskt håll börjar nu allt mer ifrågasätta. Vilket ansvar har svenska staten? Vad ska göras med samlingarna – kropparna  - bilderna? Vad har rasbiologin och rasismen haft för påverkan på de utsatta? Och inte minst – frågan om varför har man hållit på med detta, och kallat det vetenskap, till att börja med? Varför fortsätter man behålla och använda stulna kvarlevor för forskning?

21-23 januari  2015 hölls ett symposium vid Uppsala universitet, som jag var initiativtagare till och huvudsaklig organisatör för, ”Åvdåsvásstadus: ansvar, avkolonialisering, helande,  Ett symposium om rasbiologi, rasism, avbildade samer, samiska kvarlevor och vägar till upprättelse och självförtroende”. I samband med symposiet påbörjades arbetet med en supradisciplinär antologi, dvs för både akademiska forskare och forskare inom det samiska samhället som inte nödvändigtvis är verksamma inom akademin, som bjöd in alla intresserade. Nu vid slutet av 2018 är vi nästan klara. Det har varit ett tungt och smärtsamt men även stärkande arbete. Jag kommer ta upp aspekter ur antologin, påpekanden, nya insikter och även mina egna bidrag. En betydelsefull aspekt är trots allt att rasismen, rasbiologin, hade och har än idag, ett syfte – att kunna kontrollera människor och territorium med rika naturresurser. Detta framgår i bidragen till antologin.

4.

Gunilla Larsson , FD Arkeologi, Uppsala universitet, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, CEMFOR.

Titel: ”Man får aldrig ro”: Arkeologiska och historiska perspektiv på Kirunas stigar

Det finns berättelser om stigar och platser som måste lämnas i fred, annars uppstår problem. I Jokkmokk är det ett av mest omtalade exemplen vattenkraftsdammen Seitevare, som enligt muntlig tradition är byggd på en helig plats, vilket ska ha medfört de problem som statliga företaget Vattenfall  än idag har med dammen.  Sådana berättelser – sådan kunskap – finns även i Kirunområdet. Wajstedt konstnärliga forskningsprojekt har denna aspekt som en viktig del. Wajstedt skriver: ”Stigarna har särskild betydelse för mig både minnet och andligt. Det finns en massa berättelser kring dessa stigar. Både när de använts och i eftertid då de fortfarande är ’beträdda’ av andar. De berättas helt utan skam. Till exempel får man aldrig bygga hus sådan stig. Då får man aldrig ro. ” I presentationen kommer jag att redogöra för möjliga arkeologiska och historiska ingångar på stigar, flyttleder och lämningar inom det som idag är Gábna och Laevas samebyars områden. Jag kommer att belysa relationen mellan människorna och landskapet i ett långtidsperspektiv genom att analysera de lämningar och minnen som är kopplade till platser i landskapet. I de arkeologiska lämningarna här finns spåren efter den osynliggjorda samiska historien i Kirunaområdet. De lämningar som finns och de minnen som finns knutna till dessa platser är länken mellan de människor som har levt här och landskapet, men även vittnesbörd om rättigheter till land och vatten. Med hjälp av arkeologiskt och historiskt källmaterial, och utifrån ett  samiskt perspektiv, kan livet i samebyarna i Kirunaområdet förändras, och kolonisationen har förändrat det samiska landskapet belysas.

För vem är vindkraft hållbar? Detta är urfolksperspektiv på en energiproduktionsdesign som är miljödestruktiv och kortsiktig, och dessutom bidrar till förstörelsen av urfolks traditioner. Henrik Andersson, Gällivare skogssameby, Flakabergsgruppen, berättar om sin kamp för att skydda markerna, miljön mot ett 150-tal 200 hundr meter höga betongkonstruktioner, med tillfartsvägar. Detta är del av ett supradisciplinärt forskningsprojekt och finansieras bland annat av Dálkke: Urfolksperspektiv på klimat, FORMAS dnr 2017-01923, inom det nationella forskningsprogrammet om klimat. FORMAS future research leaders project Safe and sustainable energy futures in Sápmi FORMAS Dnr 2016-01039; båda ledda af FilDr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala universitet.

Vänligen referera som:  Öhman, May-Britt;  Storlöpare, Petri; Andersson, Henrik; Silversparf, Agneta, 2019. "Den koloniala och ohållbara vindkraften: Ett dokumentärfilmsprojekt om vindkraft och mänsklig säkerhet – Hällberget, Överkalix, Gällivare skogssameby". Film 4 min 17 sek.

Luleå city is located downstream of 18 hydropower dams of which the majority are classified as high consequence, meaning that if there is a dam failure, there will be severe consequences downstream. The highest risk for dam failure is when the dams are full, October to about end January each year, i.e. the coldest part of the year. In a worst case scenario water (and ice) levels may rise up to 5-6 meters in the central parts, within less than 48 hours.  Dam safety work entered the international dam sector agenda in the 1970s, after the Teton dam failure in the US. In Sweden, attention to and work with the risk of dam failure began the 1980s, as the hydropower construction era ended.

The recent tailing dam failure in Brasil has drawn public attention to the risks with the dams used to store waste from mines. While a major tailing dam failed in Finland (Talvivaara) in 2013, so far Sweden has been spared from major disasters.

What is so far unknown of in Sweden, and rarely discussed, is the combination of the two systems; tailing dams and hydropower dams in the same river, as well as and the risks and governance complexities thereto associated. Yet this is of importance to Luleå, as since 2011 there are plans for a mine within the Lule River, at Kallak/Gállok. This would bring two high consequence systems together, with two different main responsible actors – Vattenfall on the one hand, and the owner of the mine on the other. The public and decision makers have so far had little knowledge/understanding of the risks of such combination. Based on interviews and participatory observations within four research projects funded by the Swedish research council (VR) and FORMAS (since 2008) I will discuss the complexities for flood governance.

Filmed Interview with Palle Erixon, Turberget, Jåhkåmåhkke, Swedish Sábme September 2018

Memories of fighting forest fires in Jåhkåmåhkke, with local knowledge expertise.

Presented at The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Annual Conference, Aotearoa/New Zealand, 2019.

Sound design and mix Udit Duseja.

Supported by Indigenous Climate Change Studies. FORMAS Dnr 2017-01923, led by Dr May-Britt Öhman, Uppsala University.

The growing call for countering climate change along with increasing demands for so called “environmentally friendly” – “renewable” - energy production modes continues and increases the dispossession of Indigenous (including Sámi) peoples from our traditional lands and waters.

What is commonly referred to as “environmental friendly” technoscientific language and imagery continue to shape and reflect racist power relations which favor the colonial nation states and dis-favor/abuses/displaces Indigenous rights and peoples. While challenging this rhetoric is important, another important task is to enter into the very technologies and propose solutions regarding design and development.

I will elaborate on the potentials and possibilities of Sámi land based knowledge as a basis for innovative designs of energy production technologies, in collaboration with the field of fluid mechanics.

Current “renewable” energy productions modes are in fact actually major environmental destructors and are outdated designs: Nuclear power plants are but steam engines, a billion times more environmentally hazardous systems. Design of the current windpower plants gigantic windmills, demanding immense natural resources for their construction while claiming massive areas to be erected and cause the death of whales, insects, bats and birds. Current designs of hydropower kill fish and destroy entire bio systems.

Departing from Sámi /Indigenous Feminist Technoscience, this paper engages with the socio-material, innovative thoughts within fluid mechanics and discusses Sámi perspectives and proposals for sustainable and non-colonial non-racist energy production and consumption - for a good life for all, humans and non-humans and forms part of a research proposal to the Swedish research council.

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Annual Meeting, June 26-29 2019, Waikato University, Aotearo (New Zealand)

Panel 2019

Title: Sámi Perspectives on Climate Change, Green Colonialism, Forest Fires, Industrial Exploitations and Food Sovereignty.

Addressing and analysing climate change leading to forest fires and burnt reindeer grazing lands in summer, as well as “locked in” reindeer food in winter, the whiteness and coloniality of "green" political campaigning, the consequences of industrial exploitations of Sémi territories — and the Sámi resistance and struggles to find solutions and challenge a colonial destructive knowledge paradigm - this panel is ultimately addressing Indigenous Food Sovereignty and thereby future survival for Indigenous peoples in general and Sami in particular. Organised by a Sámi scholar at Uppsala University, the panel brings together community, scholars and non-Sámi/ non-Indigenous scholars from Sweden, Chile/UK, South Africa approaching the theme from multiple angles and aims at setting up a network for continued collaboration among ourselves and interested NAISA participants. The panel is partly financed by a research project led by Dr May-Britt Öhman on Indigenous Climate Change Studies (FORMAS 2019- 2021), within the Swedish National Research Programme on Climate. Film and drone technology as a means for research, communication and dissemination is used. Case studies are from Jåhkåmåhkke and Ljusdal on the Swedish side of Sébme, and from the Talvivaara tin mine, Finland, where a tailing darn failure occurred in 2012-2013.

Chair and organiser:  Dr May-Britt Öhman, Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University and guest researcher at Luleå University of Technology, division of history.

1. Gun Aira and Anna Kajsa Aira,  Sirges Sámi Village, Jåhkåmåhkke (Jokkmokk)

Sámi perspectives on climate change and imposed flexibility: experiences from reindeer herding in the Lule River valley

This is a presentation of a documentation project regarding climate changes – from our sijdda reindeer herding group, consisting of myself, my two children and a cousin’s child. On the one hand, we document climate changes, and on the other hand we show how industrial exploitation and forestry impact on our ability to be “resilient”: an imposed flexibility.

We work and live along the Lule River, moving between winter and summer lands, stretching from the mountains in the west, to 100 km east of Jåhkåmåkke. Fifty years ago, the conditions were totally different from today. The reindeer were tamer and didn’t fear humans. We worked on skis, humans and reindeer lived together under the same conditions. There were few forestry roads, and no snowmobiles with their tracks. Lichen on the trees was plentiful. The lichen on the ground was not destroyed by forestry machines. We rarely had to transport reindeer by trucks, and rarely had to support-feed them. The reindeer could support themselves most of the time.

Today, due to exploitation and climate changes combined, we have to support-feed the reindeer every year. Because of rapid temperature changes, snow falls, turns to water, and then freezes, “locking in” the ground lichen. The trees are also cut down, and so no tree lichen is available.

Our project departs from our perspectives, defining the problems and the solutions. The ambition is to communicate our findings and recommendations to the public and decision makers, with a view to protect our future, our Sámi culture.

2. Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala University

Under the surface: Water, pollution, and threats against Sámi food security – learning from the Talvivaara tailings dam failure

Clean and safe water is the key to food security and food sovereignty. How can Sámi/Indigenous waters be protected from the destructive mining policies in the era of climate change mitigation and the scramble for metals needed for electrical cars, batteries, solar cells, and wind-power plants? How can awareness of the toxic pollution of tailings dams be raised among the public and decision-makers? This presentation is part of a film project about the Talvivaara tin mine in Finland, and the disastrous tailings dam failures in 2012-2013. A research group consisting of myself, May-Britt Öhman, and the independent filmmaker Storlöpare visited the site in 2017, conducting video interviews and documenting  the area. The failure caused massive problems. Leakage from the tailings dam is still ongoing, polluting waters all the way to the city of Oulu, and into the Baltic Sea. On the opposite side of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden, several mines are located in Sámi territories, and more mines are planned. In 2013, the Swedish government adopted a Mineral Strategy in which they claim to exploit mineral assets in a “long-term sustainable way, with consideration shown for ecological, social and cultural dimensions...”. Yet, respect for Sámi people is still lacking. The aim of the project is to reach a wider audience, and to support ongoing struggles to protect Sámi lands and waters. At NAISA, the ambition is to show an example of how to join film and scientific research, and to receive suggestions on how to proceed.

3.  Liz-Marie Nilsen and Ignacio Acosta

Fighting climate change and forest fires – from a Sámi perspective

We present a research project documenting experiences from forest fires in two municipalities within Sámi territories.

The summer of 2018 was extremely hot and dry in Sweden, with up to 50 forest fires raging simultaneously. In Jåhkåmåkke – which has 5000 inhabitants, and an area of 19 477 km2 – as many as four fires raged simultaneously during July. With the support of volunteers, and building on experiences from a major fire in 2006, disaster was avoided. In Ljusdal – which has 19000 inhabitants, and an area of 5288 km2 – the fires spread out of control, and people had to be evacuated.  Understanding what went well in Jåhkåmåkke and what went wrong in Ljusdal may provide lessons to be learned: it is not only about climate change, it is also about firefighting competence. Another aspect, highlighted from the Sámi perspective, concerns disaster relief: while forest owners resort to insurance, there is no such relief for reindeer herders, as they don’t own the grazing lands. According to the Sámi Parliament’s application for disaster relief to the Swedish government, 31 out of 51 Sámi reindeer herding villages and 21 500 hectare of grazing lands burned.

Due to climate change we can expect more of the same in the future. Thus the consequences of forest fires for reindeer grazing need to be addressed and mitigated, at the same time as it is of major importance to reclaim local and traditional knowledge on firefighting, demanding that the actors involved are prepared and ready when it happens again.

4. Scott Burnett, Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg)

The whiteness of green ideology: Swedish environmentalism as colonial vanguard

The violent occupation and appropriation of land in Sápmi for Swedish hydro- and wind-power projects has been opposed by Sámi scholars and activists for over a century. Yet Sweden has maintained its reputation on the world stage both as a humanitarian and green “superpower”. The narrative of “good Sweden” has worked to (re)produce the nation as a space where whiteness is the unquestioned norm, and settler colonialism passes as common sense. Environmentalist communication in this context shapes ethical subjectivity, and legitimises the colonial base of the modern welfare state.

This paper presents a discourse-theoretical analysis of the construction of “renewable” energy around the 2018 elections. It investigates closely the Swedish Green Party’s election platform at a national level, and also zooms in to Jåhkåmåkke municipality, and Sámi candidate Henrik Blind’s successful campaign for office. While Sámi issues remain “unspeakable” at a national level, local political texts reveal complex accommodations and contestations. I argue that mainstream Swedish environmentalism constructs the argument for renewable energy as a series of impossible choices.

While this research has been pursued in conversation with Sámi scholars, I do not speak for or from a Sámi position. I am a descendant of the European settler colonialists of South Africa, and I have recently relocated to Sweden. My approach to critical “race” and indigenous studies research is to problematise the colonial centre and the “whiteness” it reproduces, in the tradition of critical whiteness and settler colonial studies.