Elin Anna Labba received her doctorate during this year’s academic celebration at Luleå University of Technology.
– Democracy and academia both promote an open and inclusive social structure, where the search for truth and knowledge, critical thinking and debate, openness and transparency as well as freedom to express ideas and opinions are at the center, said the rector Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn in her celebratory speech at Kulturens hus in Luleå.
“Very honoured”
In addition to Elin Anna Labba, Karin Bodin, Group CEO Polarbrödsgruppen, concert hall manager Stefan Forsberg and author Lars Gyllenhaal were also promoted to honorary doctorates.
– I am moved by standing here, it is a very great honor. I want to thank the real honorary doctors I met, most of these storytellers are no longer with us today. I have been lucky to be brought up in a powerful Sami storytelling tradition, Elin Anna Labba began her lecture.
“Industrialization that went too far”
She then spoke about her family’s history – about forced displacement and about hydropower.
– The dams were carried out during an era when there was no need to take into account either people or nature. It could not have been done today in the same way. Sometimes you live in a gap in time when things can happen. Had the fourth dam been 10 years in the future, people might have protested. Perhaps Akkajaure can be a reminder of industrialization gone too far, she said.
The festivities ended with a banquet on Saturday evening where former Idol winner Nike Sellmar, Snapsakademien for the entertainment and STHLM Jukebox provided the entertainment.