LONDON
The Sami Indigenous people have lived in Europe’s far north for thousands of years in a borderless region known as Sapmi, the land of Sami, where they lead sustainable, culture-rich lives close to nature.
One of Europe’s most distinct Indigenous communities, they inhabit stunning untouched parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Russia, where they work to coexist with the modern world while maintaining their ancient traditions and culture.
The Sami have however endured human rights abuses and discrimination in the Nordic countries, which have a long history of racism, where they were subjected to sham racist “science,” and forced to change their way of life.
The Sami still face the prospect of losing their culture, livelihood, and identity due to the Swedish government not respecting their human rights, said Aslat Holmberg, vice president of the Saami Council, which represents the interests of the Sami people in the four countries where they live.
Assimilation policies based on the assumption that Sami populations were “uncivilized” have existed in Sweden since the 1800s and were still being implemented as late as the 1970s.
Sweden was the first country to open a “racial biology” institute in 1922, and it was only in 2019 that the Swedish History Museum returned the remains of Indigenous Sami to their communities for proper burial and mourning.
These remains had previously been used and exhibited since the 1950s for the purpose of examinations to “prove” racial theories.
Forced conversions to Christianity that often resulted in imprisonment and even the death penalty for those who resisted as well as the banning of native languages and segregated schooling all took place in the Nordic country.
According to the United Nations, to this day the Sami are still subjected to human rights abuses, violations, and racism. It has also issued criticisms of the country’s policies that forcibly aim to assimilate the Indigenous group.
‘Colonized people’
Holmberg said that one of the key injustices has to do with land ownership.
“I am talking about colonization in general, which is rooted in the possession of lands. So slowly, throughout history, we have been pushed into smaller areas that are left for our traditional use, and that is a trend that is continuing today,” he said.
Political marginalization and the right to self-determination are the “underlying factor” of all issues faced by the group, said Holmberg.
“We're not making the decisions on our lands or on our culture, but those decisions are being made by our neighbors, our neighboring nations, and because we don't have really a say in how our territories are being used, the states consider that they can just take our areas and develop them in any way they want,” he added.
The decisions are made “far from our homelands and not in accordance to our culture,” without the proper knowledge on how to govern “our territories,” he said.
Sara Andersson Ajnnak, a Sami artist and activist, described the Sami as a “colonized people.”
Threatened by 'green' project
Traditionally, Sami people have supported themselves through reindeer herding, fishing, farming, and hunting. But Ajnnak said that reindeer herding, which carries a cultural significance and value to the Sami, is being threatened by Sweden going green.
The green shift is something that is limiting “our possibility to continue our traditional way of living, and so the young children that are growing up right now” in Sapmi “might be the last generation” who will be able to live according to their culture, she said.
“So it's really a stressful time right now, and it's hard to imagine that our culture is slowly vanishing,” she added.
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the government’s “shortsighted, racist, colonial and nature-hostile” decision to allow an open-cast iron ore mine in Sapmi – part of a push to enable sustainable steel production to cut carbon emissions – due to its disregard for reindeer migration and the impact that it would have on the Sami culture and livelihood.
This February, UN human rights experts urged Sweden not to greenlight the project, saying the open-pit mine would endanger the protected ecosystem and reindeer migration through dust containing heavy metals, and toxic waste ending up in water resources.
UN criticism
Sweden ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1971, but according to the UN statement “it is not putting it sufficiently into practice.”
In a 2018 hearing between the United Nations Racial Discrimination Committee and Sweden, the UN body “specifically targeted the lack of protection by the Swedish government regarding discrimination, Indigenous rights and hate crimes,” according to the UN statement.
This was not the first time that “Sweden had been the subject of such criticism,” it said.
In 1998, the Swedish government formally apologized to the Sami community. But according to Holmberg, despite adopting the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, no actions have been taken in a positive direction and their rights have not been fulfilled.
“We expect and demand that the nation-states do respect our human rights, because that is the basis of our remaining and continuing our existence here,” said Holmberg.
He also stressed the importance of adhering to human rights commitments and demanded “that we have our rights to our territories and right to practice our culture and effectively participate in decision making in matters that are relevant to us.”
Ajnnak called for the Swedish government to take action, saying there is no need for further studies that “say nothing” because “we know that we already existed before the Swedish state was formed. And we already know that we have our own language, and we have our own culture, and we have our own traditions.”
Now, she said, “I need actual tools to be able to continue to be myself, to be able to live by my culture and my traditions.”
Ajnnak said it is hard for her to have “any expectations towards the Swedish government” because the injustice is something that has been going on “for so many generations.”
“But in my wildest dreams, our culture and our language and our people would be maintained in the future,” she said.
