Global Trends , Local Contradictions − Challenges of Transnational Sámi Politics in 2000 s (original) (raw)

From Kautokeino to a Nordic Sami Convention: An Overview on Sami and Indigenous Peoples' Rights

2017

III Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank prof. Poggeschi for accepting to supervise this work and for lending a helping hand during the research phase. His love for the minorities' issue and his passion in supporting language rights are commendable, and it has been a true honour to be one of his students. Second, I would like to thank Alexandra Tomaselli of the EURAC Research Centre for always being so kind and willing to help students and researchers interested in the topic, and for helping me in both my bachelor and master thesis. I wish her a successful career and a bright future. Third, I would like to thank the Finnish professors and researchers who I contacted during the research phase, Lotta Kokkonen, Maritta Stoor-Lehtonen, and Lydia Heikkila. Their kindness and passion in helping young people has been highly appreciated. A special thank, in particular, to Lotta: I still remember attending her course in Jyväskylä, during my stay in Finland, as one of the sweetest moments, thanks to her cheerfulness and devotion to the students. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my closest friends, who have always had kind words of encouragement (and a whole lot of patience) to offer unconditionally through the months spent writing this thesis.

Preparatory Report from the Sami Parliament in Sweden/Sámediggi/Sámedigge/Saemiedigkie/Sametinget For the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, prior to her 2015 August visit to Sápmi and Sweden

Sami Parliament of Sweden (Sametinget), 2015

"Sametinget welcomes the visit of Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz to Sápmi this August 2015 in her examination of the current status of the Indigenous Rights of the Sami People residing in Sápmi and Sweden. Sápmi is the traditional territory of the Sami People currently politically and territorially divided by the borders of the Nation-States of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. In preparation for Ms. Tauli-Corpuz’s visit, this Report provides some follow-up and additional information concerning both new developments and issues addressed and not addressed in conjunction with the previous visit (2010) to Sápmi and Sweden of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Mr. James Anaya, and his concluding Report to the Human Rights Council of the status of the Sami People in Sweden, Finland and Norway produced in 2011 . In addition to any other materials and submissions she receives from other institutions, groups and persons, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz will receive in-person input regarding the status of the Sami People during her visit to Sápmi in late August 2015 during pre-arranged, interactive dialogues with State and Sami representatives and speakers as well as local visits to specific Sami areas with a highlighting of specific issues the Sami People are facing in the context of Indigenous Rights, among other activities..." https://www.sametinget.se/92639

Notes on the Contemporary Legal-political Situation of the Sami in the Nordic region"

New publication from collaboration with UEF and University of Lapland Dr. Dawid Bunikowski has published an article "Notes on the Contemporary Legal-political Situation of the Sami in the Nordic region" in "Current Developments in Arctic Law", Volume II (2014), edited by Timo Koivurova and Waliul Hasanat. The volume was prepared by University of the Arctic Thematic Network on Arctic Law and The Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (NIEM), Arctic Centre, University of Lapland.

Bridging Divides: Ethno-political Leadership among the Russian Sámi

The Sámi are an indigenous Northern European people whose homeland, Sápmi, extends across the territories of four states: Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. For the Sámi of the Nordic countries, a long period of cultural repression gave way to a renaissance of sorts during the last half of the twentieth century. During the last decades of the century, their indigenous rights were recognized, they experienced a cultural and linguistic revival, and popularly elected Sámi parliaments were established in each of the three Nordic states. In contrast, the Soviet Sámi had little opportunity to develop independent ethno-political organizations and were largely isolated from their ethnic kin across the Norwegian border. The Soviet–Norwegian frontier was one of only two short stretches where the USSR and NATO shared a direct land border (the other being between Turkey and the USSR), and it remained tightly sealed until 1989. After the Soviet Union collapsed, its borders opened. In the decades that followed, the Russian Sámi attempted a linguistic revival; they began mending the Cold War scars across Sápmi and established their own independent ethno-political organizations. This period saw numerous struggles over the right to define the interests of the Russian Sámi and represent them, laying the foundations for current Russian Sámi politics. This book tells the story of what happened once the Soviet borders opened up. In this volume, we follow the development of an ethno-political movement on the periphery of the Russian Federation: the tensions that arise when a small people attempts to organize itself, reconstitute its culture and identity and reach out across the old Iron Curtain to ethnic kin in the West. As this border has been one of the most important dividing lines in modern history, the tale of the Sámi people and their efforts to mend their divisions is a case study of not only an indigenous movement, but indeed a microcosm of Russian–Western relations, replete with idealism, opportunism, misunderstandings, cultural exchange and intended and unintended consequences.

Who Is Sami? A Case Study on the Implementation of Indigenous Rights in Sweden

This chapter focuses on the complications that arise in implementing Indigenous rights in Sweden, in particular in deciding who belongs to Indigenous groups and as such to whom Indigenous rights are accorded. I discuss the political mobilisation of the Indigenous population of Sweden, the Sami, and introduce a case study based on interviews conducted with parliamentarians in the Sami parliament , a governmental institution, as well as Sami rights activists and scholars. My interest in " Who is Indigenous " , or rather " Who is a Sami " , is based on the impact this has on the workings of an Indigenous rights movement and its leaders, and the possibilities of achieving the rights they claim.

Retrospect on 'The Sami Nation'. Text, context, field, symbolic violence. Confessions of a bordering actor

2006

I wrote a book (1970) of the Sami, formerly known as the Lapps, the People of Eight Seasons. The Polar Circle divides their territory roughly in half, measured as distance, although the bulk of its area is up north – way up north, almost as far north as people can adapt. Divided between four nation states, the bulk of it once more is within Norwegian borders, a region known as Finnmark, the Finns being another old name of the Sami. The coasts here have sparse agriculture but are mostly barren, high mountains and glaziers in the west, lower hills and moors to the east. Inland, vast stretches of more moors, until the coniferous and deciduous forests start, going all the way east, across Northern Europe and Asia to the easternmost shores of the Pacific Ocean. Sami territory however does not extend east beyond the Kola Peninsula within the Russian border. I remember finishing the text in March 1969, late at night in a small hotel room in Madrid, writing in a frenzy, accompanied by my wi...