by JENNI LAITI & FLORIAN CARL
A recent court verdict could affect Indigenous rights in Sweden and beyond.
In late January, the Indigenous Saami reindeer-herding community, Girjas, won a significant legal battle against the Swedish state. The Swedish Supreme Court legally recognised the Indigenous community’s ancestral claim to the land they live on and awarded Girjas Saami Village in Gallivare the right to manage hunting and fishing in its territories without the Swedish state’s approval.
This landmark ruling comes amid a climate emergency which threatens the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. Indigenous governance of lands and biodiversity are key measures that can help address the climate crisis. As such, Girjas’ fight to take back the control of their lands should be seen as urgent climate action, too.
Indigenous communities the world over have the necessary traditional knowledge and experience to survive and thrive without hindering the future of the planet. Yet, they bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
The dominant lifestyles and politics of countries that are currently in control of ancestral Saami lands, from Sweden and Norway to Finland and Russia, have long been threatening Saami culture, food security, traditional livelihoods and the wellbeing of the lands we all depend on. But the threat is more serious now than it has ever been before because of the ongoing climate crisis.
The ancestral lands of the Saami people make up almost half of Sweden’s territories. If it was not for the colonial theft of these lands, Sweden could not have become the prosperous and “progressive” nation that it prides itself to be today.
Sweden is the product of a mentality which sees it fit to exploit Indigenous lands and people to its benefit. And this mentality is still alive and well today in its state-backed extraction industries that deplete Indigenous lands, policies that force Indigenous communities to migrate and persistent cultural genocide efforts such as the eradication of Saami languages that cause invaluable losses and intergenerational trauma.
Despite the victory, the Girjas’ court case against the state made it clear once again that Sweden is not willing to acknowledge and address its colonial history.
Throughout the trial, the state tried to frame the issue at hand as an administrative dispute, rather than what it actually is: A people’s righteous fight to take back what was stolen from them.
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