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Click here for a detailed program.
CONFERENCE
19-22 July 2007
Northern Europe and its Indigenous minority:
pointers for Australia?
When the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) was formed in 1975, the Sami of Northern Europe were among its founding members. Since then, they have been at the forefront of the movement for Indigenous rights on the global stage, where the leaders of the Sami can be found side by side with the representatives of such peoples as Native Americans, Inuit, Maori, and Aboriginal Australians. Although Europeans, the Sami have through their history shared much of the experience of Indigenous peoples from other continents: colonisation, pressures for cultural and linguistic assimilation, loss of traditional land rights, political and economic marginalisation.
The “Sami revival” of recent decades, however, has done much to improve matters: in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, the Sami now have their own elected parliaments. Sami-language media and education are flourishing. In 1997, the Norwegian King apologised to the Sami for “injustices committed in the past against the Sami people by the Norwegian state”. Today, the Nordic countries (and especially Norway) are often held up as examples to the rest of the world in their policy towards their Indigenous minorities. Yet problems remain. Above all, there is the question of rights to the land, water, and other natural resources – all hotly contested issues between national governments and Indigenous movements. The three Sami parliaments have little more than advisory powers, and although the Sami see themselves as one people, with one homeland (Sápmi), they remain divided by the frontiers of four different states (the three Nordic states and Russia) which have very different approaches to the question of Indigenous rights.
The Sami revival, and the responses to it of the North European states (as well as that of the European Union, of which Sweden and Finland are members while Norway and Russia are not), is of obvious interest to Australians grappling with similar issues in the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Not, of course, in the sense of “lessons” which could simply be transferred from Northern Europe to the very different situation here but as pointers to possible alternative approaches. The conference will be an opportunity to discuss in depth various key aspects of the Sami experience and the Indigenous politics in Northern Europe, as presented by Sami and non-Sami academics, activists, and politicians from the region (hopefully from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia). Australian speakers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, will also be invited to respond and to facilitate comparisons with Australia.
Key themes of the conference
Assimilationism, cultural identity, and cultural revival
The policy of “Norwegianisation” (and its equivalents in other Nordic countries) and its effects on the cultural and political identity of the Sami. The revival of Sami culture and the expansion of Sami education and media.
Cultural identity and socio-economic development
Cultural identity must have a socio-economic base to survive in the long run: given that only a minority of Sami are still engaged in the iconic activity of reindeer herding, what about agriculture, fishing, and industry? Can there be a secure future without ownership of the resources?
Grassroots activism and political representation
A key factor in the “Sami revival” in Norway was the campaign of civil disobedience around the construction of the Alta dam in the 1970s, which preceded the Sami Act and the establishment of a Sami parliament. Sami politics from the top to the bottom.
Majorities and minorities
The Sami are a minority in four different nation states, and every political advance is therefore conditional on coalitions and alliances with other forces. What developments outside the Sami movement itself have been favourable towards the Sami revival? The Sami movement and the mainstream political parties.
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