Saturday guests The Sámi are considered dangerous in today’s Finland, says Anni-Kristiina Juuso, Secretary General of the Commission to Investigate the Repression – “When a Sámi says something, he is attacked”

Anni-Kristiina Juuso, elected Secretary General of the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is demanding improvements from Finland’s Sámi right to self-determination.

The Sámi position in Finland is currently more difficult than in a long time, says the Secretary General of the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission Anni-Kristiina Juuso.

Where in previous decades the Sámi were belittled and talked about through stereotypical images, today, according to Juuso, the Sámi are seen as a threat.

“Before, it was only thought that the Sámi did not understand or know anything. There was no talk of rights then, when it was terribly peaceful. Now that the Sámi have started to vote for their rights, we are somehow seen as dangerous, ”says Juuso.

It is reflected, for example, in the hate speech received by Sámi activists.

“The situation is so aggravated that when a Sámi says something, he is attacked, and if he says he is a Sámi, some kind of proof is required.”

The government has also not negotiated with the Sámi during the corona pandemic restrictions, even though the obligation to negotiate is enshrined in the Sámi Parliament Act.

According to Juuso, internal border control between Finland and Sweden violated the daily lives of many Sámi people. For many Sámi, family connections and the practice of traditional reindeer husbandry extend beyond national borders.

“The wounds in the north are really deep about this. Likewise, the fear that the same thing will happen again sometimes, and there we are, and no one cares, ”says Juuso.

Another Juuso from the Sámi was appointed Secretary General of the Sámi Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the end of January.

The Commission began work in October. It has a limited duration, less than two years, and the task is huge.

The aim of the independent commission is to identify and assess the historical and current discrimination against the Sámi in Finland, the state’s merger policy and violations of their rights, and to find out how these affect the Sámi today.

The institution of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission dates back to the 1970s. Internationally, truth and reconciliation commissions are processes that look at the collective wrongs that have taken place in history. Finding out the truth aims, among other things, to prevent injustices from happening in the future.

In practice, the Commission conducts its investigation by consulting the Sámi.

Norway has also set up its own Truth and Reconciliation Commission to assess the impact of national merger policies, and Sweden has decided to set up a Commission. Merger policy refers to minority policy that seeks to adapt minorities to mainstream society.

“In both Sweden, Finland and Norway, the Sámi population is low on whether there is support for the Commission’s work. The issue of trust is big in all countries, ”says Juuso.

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In Finland the credit of the Sámi to the state is weak.

Many feel that the Sámi have poor opportunities to practice and maintain their own culture and language. For example, the practice of traditional reindeer husbandry is perceived as almost impossible, as Finland, for example, supports competing land uses, such as mining and tourism. The Sámi also do not have the right to decide who belongs to their indigenous people.

This is stated in a report published by the Prime Minister’s Office in 2018. At that time, the process of truth and reconciliation was still being prepared, and the Sámi were asked for their views on its need.

“Now the Sámi are very much looking forward to the fact that when the commission is set up, it will really have some meaning.”

Although the Sámi felt the need to be able to tell about the injustices they had experienced, the process of truth and reconciliation was also very critical.

“In addition to mistrust, there was a fear that once again the Sámi and the Sámi’s affairs would be investigated without any guarantee that anything would get better,” says Juuso.

In particular, the motive of the state was questioned. Many doubted that Finland would merely seek to strengthen its international reputation as a respect for human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples.

“It was then considered whether the Sámi would be forced to recite their deepest pains, weep, but then left alone. That the state apologizes, but everything goes the same, ”says Juuso.

“Now the Sámi are very much looking forward to the fact that when the commission is set up, it will really have some meaning.”

The Sámi The list of injustices experienced in Finland is diverse.

The Sámi have been converted to Christianity, their lands have been exploited, their voices silenced and belittled. The Sámi have been ridiculed and treated with contempt, which is why many have experienced inferiority and inferiority to the general population. The skulls of the Sámi have been measured for the needs of racial research in Finnish Lapland in the 1970s.

After the wars, thousands of Sámi children were taken to dormitories. They were often located far from home. You often only got home a couple of times a year, for Christmas and summer. Sámi speaking could be punished, which is why some of the Sámi who have been in dormitories have abandoned their own language.

Many of the traumas of history have never been communicated collectively out loud.

As Secretary General Juuso does not want to take a position on what kind of issues the Commission should address in its work. However, they can get a basis for their work from the 2018 consultations, where the Sámi themselves were able to say what they want clarity on.

The main themes were related to land use in one way or another. The problem was felt that it is almost impossible for Sámi to engage in traditional livelihoods, fishing, hunting and reindeer husbandry in Finland today.

“The aim is to protect and ensure the existence of indigenous peoples in the future.”

Another big theme was the legislation and how the legislation during Finnish independence has become such that it has reduced the rights of the Sámi people. According to the report, for example, the Sámi feel that their reindeer husbandry does not have legal protection and the right to use the Sámi language in official matters is practically unsuccessful.

At the heart of it all is the Sámi right to self-determination, which is not realized in Finland, Juuso says. He hopes for a change.

The problem has its roots in the Sámi Parliament Act of 1995 and its definition of the Sámi, which many Sámi consider problematic, Juuso says.

Also the UN Commission on Human Rights has stated that Finland has violated the rights of the Sámi people, when the Supreme Administrative Court (Supreme Administrative Court) in 2015 approved 93 new voters as Sámi against the will of the Sámi Parliament. In practice, it is a question of who is accepted as a Sámi.

“The right to self-determination means that we can decide for ourselves who belongs to our people. The purpose is to protect and ensure the existence of the indigenous people also in the future, ”Juuso says.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission After its investigation, it is planned to submit recommendations to the Government in 2023 to improve the status of the Sámi. The recommendations are not legally binding.

What the recommendations follow in practice depends on how the state commits to the proposals and what role it gives them.

“When you look at indigenous commissions around the world and what they’ve accomplished, they’ve really only been able to act as some kind of catalyst. They have been able to raise some kind of small awareness or increase the indigenous people’s own courage to talk about things, ”says Juuso.

“Unnecessarily sublime wings should be severed. Such commissions have not always had the effect that people have hoped for, and then it has become terribly disappointing. ”

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The picture shows the buildings of a primary school and a dormitory in 1968 in Sevettijärvi, Inari, which is the central village of the Skolt Sámi. While dismantling dormitory experiences is seen as important, it is seen as just one thing among many other experiences of injustice. Therefore, in the 2018 hearings, the Sámi did not want the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to focus its work only on experiences related to dormitory schools.

Commission one of the goals is also to increase awareness of the Sámi as an indigenous people. Lack of information is a problem among both the Sámi and the majority population in Finland. No Sámi history books have been written in the Sámi language, and nothing about the Sámi is necessarily taught in schools. The Sámi do not necessarily recognize what they have lost due to Finnishisation efforts.

Juuso considers the dissemination of information to be especially important, so that others also come to support the Sámi.

“The Sámi alone will not do anything, but all people are needed for a better tomorrow.”

At the hearings in 2018, the Sámi also hoped that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would talk about such positive things as being Sámi for the Sámi themselves. Juuso would especially like the Finns to understand and internalize that the Sámi are really their own people.

“We are not a tribe, a dialect group or a people group, but one nation in the territory of four states,” Juuso says.

And even though it is one nation, it is a very diverse nation, like everyone else. Within Finland alone, there are big differences from language to thinking and habits from west to east. And when one Sámi speaks, he does not speak in the mouths of all.

“Perhaps understanding also brings respect to us as human beings.”

Anni-Kristiina Juuso

  • Born in 1979 in Ivalo. Today he lives in Lapland, Käsivarre.

  • Worked as a journalist at Yle Saameradio and as a news anchor for the Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

  • Vice judge. Graduated with a master’s degree in law from the University of Lapland in 2014.

  • In addition, he has acted in the films Käki (2002) and Kautokeino’s Rebellion (2008), as well as in the TV series The Basics of Commitment (2008) and The Man Looking Like a Killer (2016).

  • Awarded the Nika Prize of the Russian Film Academy, the State Prize for Russian Cinema and the Amanda Prize in Norway, among others.

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