Despite the fact that the question of the Sami villages’ internal organization was tabled at the plenary session, the board of the Sami Parliament sent its proposal to the government on Monday.
Erika Jannok, reindeer herder in Baste Sami village, opposes the board’s actions.
– I can feel that it is a little ugly. That the decision that the voters want has not been taken at all. Those who are at the plenum represent the voters. So you haven’t looked after them – you’ve just run your own race, she says.
“Our gathering point”
She is now worried about what more open Sami villages would mean in practice.
– It is our meeting point where we can talk about what affects our reindeer. That everyone should be allowed to be a member who does not belong to the reindeer industry, and should be allowed to make decisions about it. It feels as if reindeer husbandry is being ignored again.
At the same time, Jannok thinks that the right to who and who should be allowed to farm the land is a difficult issue.
– I think there is a lot of preference for interpretation in the proposal. It is very difficult to answer. Nor do they themselves seem to be able to answer exactly what it entails, says Erika Jannok.
“Deserves to be treated with respect”
The four opposition parties Sámiid Riikkabellodat, Guovssonásti, Mijjen Geajnoe and Samerna have condemned the board’s decision and called the action undemocratic.
– An important issue like this deserves to be treated with respect and not, as now, with political tricks by the board bloc, said Anders Kråik, party leader for the Sami, earlier this week.
The Sámi Parliament’s chairman of the board, Håkan Jonsson, has defended the action by saying that the board agreed on the issue. And as he sees it, the board represents a majority even if the issue was never decided in plenary.