This week, the Sami from several different Sami villages gathered on the Ultevis mountain in Jokkmokk municipality to prepare for the slaughter.
The work on the land in Sápmi has a long history, but in Sirge’s Sámi village, one feels that the land that the indigenous people have cultivated for generations is no longer sacred.
– We are already paying the price for climate change. Our reindeer are struggling. Should we also sacrifice our lands for the green transition, I think that is unfair, says reindeer herder Sanna Vannar, who belongs to Sirge’s Sami village.
“Land exploiters gnaw at reindeer pastures”
In addition to climate change, growing tourism and forestry, new mines are on the rise that affect reindeer husbandry.
At the same time, the green industrial transition is thundering ahead, which means everything from new gas pipelines, hydrogen production and widening of power lines.
– The situation is quite serious because we have so much interference from all possible directions. Land exploiters who are and nibble at the reindeer pastures at the edges, says Mikael Kuhmunen, chairman of Sirges Samiby in Jokkmokk municipality.
“Our Sami village is the most affected”
But despite the Sami predicting dark times for the reindeer industry, more and more young Sami in Sweden’s largest Sami village of Sirges want to become reindeer herders.
– I think many younger people have opened their eyes to the fact that it is something that must be protected. For me personally, our Sami village is the one that is most affected right now in the name of the green transition.