LONDON

A recent report prepared in Finland has revealed that the country’s Indigenous Sami people believe that an assimilation policy has been carried out against them for many years.

Past injustices toward the Sami people living in the northern regions of Finland, Norway and Sweden were addressed in the report published by Finland’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The report noted that unlike in Norway and Sweden, there is no legislation in Finland that forces Sami children to integrate into Finnish life and culture, but this has functioned as an unwritten rule.

It said that more than 400 Sami who were interviewed for the report described restrictions, particularly in boarding schools, on using their own language and practicing their culture.

The report said that Finland used Sami lands for its own economic interests and that the community, which earns its livelihood from agriculture and livestock husbandry and may not speak Finnish fluently, has been unable to defend its rights.

It emphasized that an assimilation policy has been carried out against the Sami in Finland for many years, yet the Sami people have not given up defending their community and culture.

Highlighting that the Sami and the Finns share a common future, the report noted that the Sami community is open to reconciliation with Finland and is requesting protection of their rights.

“For the truth and reconciliation process to be successful, it is important to increase awareness and understanding of the Sami as Finland’s only Indigenous people. It is time to right the wrongs and injustices done to the Sami people,” said Commission Chair Hannele Pokka. “We hope that our work will open the way for reconciliation so that Finland’s two peoples, the Finns and the Sami, can live together in good cooperation with one another.”

Tuomas Aslak Juuso, acting president of the Sami Parliament in Finland, urged a shift in national attitudes.

“Now is the time to adopt a new attitude to Sami issues: our old ways of doing things are no longer enough,” he said.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established by the Finnish government in 2021 to investigate historical and current discrimination and assimilation policies against the indigenous Sami people, interviewed more than 400 Sami and worked with 25 experts while preparing the report.