Members of the Samediggi - Finland’s Indigenous parliament - have watched Australia’s Voice debate from afar and say there’s a sense of familiarity to it.
There aren’t many arguments against Indigenous representation that Tuomas Aslak Juuso hasn’t heard over the years. Nowadays nothing much seems to take him by surprise.
They were largely ignored by the Scandinavians who settled in the south but from the 17th century to the 1960s, as the economic potential of their homeland was realised, they were subjected to a systematic campaign of forced assimilation designed to eradicate their languages, culture and ancient shamanistic religion.
Some Sami now reside in large cities, living side by side with Finns, far away from the northernmost lands of Europe where fishing, hunting and reindeer kept their ancestors alive for thousands of years.Although the Sami live in a modern way in mixed communities, they still have strong kinship ties and an awareness of their own culture, which is distinct from the mainstream culture.
There are around 10,000 Sami in Finland, a country of 5.5 million, with a third of whom those still living in the traditional Sami homeland areas, called Sapmi, in Finnish Lapland. Since 1996 they have been represented by the Samediggi, a constitutionally recognised consultative body.
Sami politicians have been increasingly voicing their concerns against so-called green colonialism in their homeland. Along with neighbouring Norway and Sweden, Sami politicians claim that the climate action of governments has violated their rights to land, livelihoods and decision-making. Without formal land rights in Finland, to prevent unwelcome developments, the Sami rely on demonstrating the impact to their cultural survival, which is protected by a clause in the Finnish constitution.
“I know the new government is more supportive of the concept, but it obviously needs a vote. Which is hard, I’m told,” he says. The hint of any Indigenous veto over development in Finland’s north has also raised strong objections from many in the Finnish community. Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin was in favour of expanding the rights of the Indigenous Parliament.Part of the legislation put forward to overhaul the way the parliament works also attempted to resolve a decades-long debate over who gets a say in those negotiations in the first place.
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