So, since no-one seems to be talking about this outside of Sweden, and since I seem to become the blog for pissing on Sweden’s colonial policy, Swedish officials from Kronofogden have burned down the one of the Kåtor in which the Sàmi traditionally live. It’s owner, Anita Grimvall, raised it on the spot where her family had lived for literally hundreds of years, but she was sued by the council as an illegal building, and after a long legal battle she was evicted dramatically by tens of police officers, lighting her Kåta on fire. This follows many attempts by the non-reindeer keeping majority of the Sàmi population, who have not gotten any land-rights over their colonized possessions, to reclaim that which by right belongs to them.
It is a stark reminder that Sweden’s colonial policies are not over yet, and it reminds us of the worst days of burnings, conquest, and murder in the sordid history of Sweden.
JUSTICE FOR ANITA! SMASH COLONIALISM!
(Swedes and non-Swedes are encouraged to reblog, because no-one is talking about this)
Please explain the importance of “non reindeer keeping majority”?
Of the roughly 20 000 Sàmi who still live in Sàpmi, 5 000 or so are reindeer-keepers. These are the ones you will find if you search for “traditional Sàmi” etc. They have been granted SOME land (Not all that they once had, mind) on which they are allowed to herd their reindeer and live. However, the other 15 000 do not practice reindeer-keeping, and for the most part they live from hunting and fishing primarily, and selling what they catch. These have received no reparations or land at all, despite being affected in the same ways as their reindeer-keeping siblings. Anita and her family belong to this majority.
While I think it’s great that people are talking about this issue – I made a vlog about this earlier this year, and here’s a post I wrote about it as well – I think it is important to get some things right here.
- There are anywhere between 40,000-80,000 Saami in Sweden alone. Roughly 9,000 Saami have opted to add their names to the Swedish Saami electoral roll.
- We have not been granted any land whatsoever; the land which reindeer herders still depend upon and use to this day has never been ceded, and thus it is factually wrong to say that we’ve been granted some land, when the state is still engaged in active settler colonialism in Sápmi.
We cannot be given something that has always been ours.
- Anita is a member of a Saami political party known as the Hunting and Fishing Saami, and her family has used the area for ages. However, to claim that she, as well as I and everyone else who isn’t a reindeer herder, somehow all work as fishermen and hunters is … well, laughable. Mostly because it’s not true.
Thanks for the corrections. Much appreciated.
I will just say that for the first point I’m aware that there are more than 20 000 Sàmi people, just that 20 000 or so live in the territories usually recognized as Sàpmi in Sweden, which is the statistic I have seen. As for point three, that’s a mis-spelling on my part. It should have been lived, not live.
Swedish enforcers burn down Sami ‘kåta’ teepee
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