Top Five Lessons from the Saami Peoples of Finland
The participants at the 2022 Indigenous Conference on Cumulative Effects held in March were treated to an eye-opening keynote addresse that featured the rich, lived experience of the Saami people of Finland. The presentation offered by Dr. Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi spoke to the wide-ranging impacts of cumulative effects on the Indigenous peoples of Finland and it’s impacts to their traditional practice of reindeer herding.
Dr. Näkkäläjärv, from Enontekiö, North Finland tied his presentation to the conference theme of Cumulative Effects: A Health and Well-Being Perspective. His presentation discussed the importance of Saami culture and ways of life, and how they have been impacted by climate change.
“Climate change equals cultural change for the Sammi. Adaptation measures influence the reindeer work model,” said the Postdoctoral Researcher in cultural anthropology at the University of Oulu.”
“Every Saami can choose their own path and way of life. But they must have the possibility to be a Saami and live their traditional Saami way of life,” said Dr. Näkkäläjärv. It is increasingly difficult to be a Saami. We are a small people on the global scale, but an important part of the world’s cultural heritage.”
- The Saami people are the only Indigenous people within the European Union. There are nine difference Saami languages across their territory which is called Sápmi, or “land of the Saami”. Dr. Näkkäläjärv described that “all of these languages are alive, but endangered.”
- Saami refer to their relationship with the land and the environment as Siiddastallame or “in the nature”. They don’t rely on maps and technology to navigate and travel throughout their territory. They rely on their skills and traditional knowledge accumulated from their elders and years of experience.
- Environmental relationships are formed through their activities with the land. They have a close connection to the land and lived sustainably through reindeer herding, fishing, hunting, gathering as practicing Duodji, or traditional Sámi handicrafts. This way of life has protected them from contemporary, lifestyle diseases.
- Indigenous peoples are subject to primary, secondary and tertiary impacts of environmental effects. For example: primary impacts (changes to ecology) may including the thawing of permafrost; secondary impacts (ecosystem-wide changes) include the changes to reindeer geography and mortality; and the tertiary impacts (cultural-wide changes) include the impacts to Saami livelihood respecting their reindeer work.
- Reindeer work is greatly impacted by the environment and cumulative effects. Much of this work has to be done on packed snow and on the tundra. Herding routes can vary as much as 50 to 200 kilometres in a single day. As a result, Indigenous knowledge and continuous monitoring of the environment is essential to their livelihood. “This knowledge is vital when understanding the effects of climate change,” said Dr. Näkkäläjärv.