Abstract
Reindeer herding with its multiple traditions, that is, knowledge of handling the animals, lands, climate, grassing, and so on, is generally acknowledged as a main historical basis for Sámi languages, culture, traditions, cosmology, and communication, in addition to being a central area of survival and income, that is, as a way of life. Reindeer herding and husbandry still has a crucial position in Sámi culture and language. The chapter argues that past and present state governance of Sámi reindeer husbandry has caused serious damage to shared traditional knowledge, herding practices, and ecological equilibrium, in addition to being the main cause of internal conflicts in the Sámi reindeer husbandry field in Fennoscandia. The question is how this governance is taking on new forms, as well as continuing to harm indigenous ecologically based practices and traditions. Hydle and Henriksen try to find new ways to achieve justice and autonomy in reindeer husbandry conflicts, which may serve as an example for similar conflict-related fields.
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Notes
- 1.
Yle Sapmi (2018). State of Norway wants reindeer herder to slaughter though the case has not been decided by UN. The Barents Observer. Retrieved from: https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/life-and-public/2018/12/state-norway-wants-reindeer-herder-slaughter-though-case-has-not-been (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 2.
The Reindeer Husbandry Act (2007). Retrieved from: https://www.pileosapmi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/reindeer-husbandry-act-english.pdf (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 3.
Lee Swepston and Lars Norberg (2017). A conversation on the Sami’s rights as Indigenous people in their Homeland. Retrieved from: https://www.sametinget.se/11144 (last accessed 13 November 2017).
- 4.
The Norwegian State established the Finnmark Act in 2005. This decision reversed the management of the 45 000 km2 area of Finnmark to the population of Finnmark. The Finnmark Act sets up a board where half of this board is appointed by the Sámi Parliament and the other half by the Finnmark County Council. One of the representatives appointed by the Sámi Parliament must be a reindeer herder.
- 5.
The National Mediation Service (Konfliktrådet) is a service for people in conflict or after an offence.
NMS have about 550 volunteer mediators throughout the country. The service is free of charge. All residents in Norway may contact their local Mediation Service with a request for a possible mediation meeting (restorative process). See https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/jd/organisation/underliggende-etater/national-mediation-service/id426406/ (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 6.
One does not speak about Finnish, Swedish, Russian, or Norwegian Sámi; the Sámi people are considered as an Indigenous people resident in four nation-states. Thus, no matter where in Fennoscandia, the Sámi are one people.
- 7.
The Kven people are of Balto-Finnic ethnic origin. They descended from Finnish peasants and fishermen who emigrated from the northern parts of Finland and Sweden, to Northern Norway in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were granted minority status in Norway in 1996, and the Kven language was recognised as a minority language in 2005 in Norway.
- 8.
The siida (in Northern Sámi, sijte in Southern Sámi, etc.) is a Sámi reindeer herding collective or community that has existed from time immemorial, mostly based on family hereditary relationship.
- 9.
For details on the Finnmark Act (FEFO) see: http://www.fefo.no/en/Sider/AboutFeFo.aspx (last accessed 22 January 2022). For details on the Utmarksdomstolen (Finnmark Land Tribunal) see: https://www.domstol.no/en/Enkelt-domstol/Utmarkskommmisjonen/about-the-tribunal/ (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 10.
Microchips and GPS-collars are fitted on a selection of female reindeer so that herders can, from their sofa at home, watch at anytime where the plurality of the animals is on the tundra.
- 11.
See, for example, https://www.nmbu.no/en/projects/reign (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 12.
International Centre for Reinderr Husbandry, https://reindeerherding.org/projects/6wrhc/ (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 13.
See, for example, the current centre of excellence ReiGN at its website: https://www.nmbu.no/en/faculty/biovit/about/department/iha/research/reign (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 14.
The reindeer graze about 40 per cent of Norwegian land (as in Finland [36 per cent]). In contrast to other land-based primary sectors, where crops can be grown and planted on new land, the grazing and resource areas for reindeer are diminishing due to different kinds of encroachment, such as transportation corridors. See https://www.fylkesmannen.no/nb/Nordland/Landbruk-og-mat/Reindrift/Fakta-om-reindrift/Reindrift-i-Nordland/?id=96214 (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 15.
Fennoscandia, Fenno-Scandinavia, or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is the geographical peninsula of the Nordic region comprising the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland, Karelia, and the Kola Peninsula.
- 16.
See http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 17.
Juridification and judicialisation are used differently in various contexts but we rely upon both terms here to cover the entire process we perceive as having occurred and continuing to occur with respect to the Sámi People and their way of life.
- 18.
This term means the county government.
- 19.
The lifeworld in Habermas’ interpretation is based upon the philosopher Edmund Husserl’s term, applied into a sociological area of interpretation and understanding as to how the world is experienced through communication with language and actions, both formal and informal understandings and mutual adaption, grounded in culture.
- 20.
The question of a Sámi court of appeal, particularly in lawsuits concerning reindeer herding, has been raised and will perhaps be prompted once more as a result of the Truth Commission.
- 21.
See https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2021-07-28/norway-supreme-court-defines-extent-of-swedish-sami-reindeer-herder-rights/ (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 22.
See also a conversation between Norberg and Lee Swepston, the former senior advisor for human rights at the ILO in Geneva: https://www.sametinget.se/11144 (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 23.
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/22/norway-court-clears-way-for-controversial-reindeer-slaughter (last accessed 22 January 2022).
- 24.
Particular rights, such as reindeer herding, are seen as protected by the European Human Rights Convention, article 1-1.
- 25.
The central conventions that are relevant for protecting traditional reindeer herding are in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 27, implemented in Norwegian law through the Act of Human Rights and the ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples 1989 (No. 169), which the Norwegian State has ratified, but only made directly current for Finnmark through the Finnmark Act.
- 26.
See, for example, https://inews.co.uk/news/reindeer-fight-government-109315 (last accessed 22 January 2022).
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Hydle, I., Henriksen, J.E. (2022). Restoring Justice and Environmental Knowledge in Sámi Reindeer Husbandry?. In: Pali, B., Forsyth, M., Tepper, F. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Restorative Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04223-2_20
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