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<h1>The impact of Covid-19 on Saami communities</h1>
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<h6>16 July 2020</h6>
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<div class="lead my-4">Interview with Christina Henriksen,
President of the Saami Council</div>
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<h4><strong>How are Saami communities affected by the
coronavirus pandemic?</strong></h4>
<p>Sápmi covers the geographical area of reindeer husbandry in
Norway and Sweden, the Saami administrative area in Finland
and great parts of the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia.
Finland and Norway both imposed a lockdown in mid-March.
Sweden remained open but provided strong advice on how to
limit the virus. So far, there have been few COVID-19 cases
in the Saami area. Except in Russia, and Norrbotten in
Sweden. Thus, there is relatively little experience of the
disease in Sápmi and we have yet to test the health service
and infrastructure when put under pressure of an outbreak
peak. One can say that the lockdown has reduced the spread
of the virus, and in Sápmi, the peak is avoided during the
most challenging weather conditions during winter.</p>
<h4><strong>How are Saami communities informed about the
pandemic and measures taken to tackle it?</strong></h4>
<p>The national media is the main source of information for
many. General advice on COVID-19 and how to tackle it has
been translated to several Saami languages and made
available in media, including Saami media, and on the
national health authorities as well as Saami Parliaments’
webpages. Information is available in davvisámegiella/north
Saami, julevsámgiella/julev saami, åarjelsaemien/south
saami, anarâškielâ /anar saami and nuõrttsääʹmǩiõll /
eastern saami.</p>
<h4><strong>Are there health issues and/or other factors that
could influence the susceptibility of Saami communities?
What steps have/could be taken to alleviate these
problems?</strong></h4>
<p>The Saami people have equal access to the same health
services as the society at large. In some cases, they face
the same challenges such as too long distances to hospitals,
unacceptable emergency preparedness, few respirators and so
on. Additional challenges for the Saami people are the
long-recognized lack of cultural-appropriate health services
and lack of Saami speaking nurses and doctors.<br>
Previous demography studies have indicated that there are
generally more elderly people living in what are dominantly
Saami communities. (e.g. northern Norway, except for big
towns such as Romsa/Tromsø, Álttá/Alta,
Girkonjárga/Kirkenes). Limiting the contact with elderly
people (65+, later 80+), limits the natural exchange and
nurture of the relationship with elders which is so
important in Saami culture. This is likely to impact the
general health of the elders in the long run.</p>
<p>So far, the virus has been most spread in the areas around
the capitals and around the larger cities in the South.
Municipals in the North has been criticized for putting in
place local restrictions for people flying in from the
South, and called for quarantine for those coming in.
Finland is the only country that limited travel around the
capital area which had most infection. This could have been
done in the other countries as well. From a Saami
perspective, we could keep the national borders in the North
open and drawn the line at the Arctic circle instead, to
keep natural movement for reindeer and people, and keep the
Saami economy going.</p>
<h4><strong>How are Saami communities affected by the national
measures taken to contain the coronavirus?</strong></h4>
<p>There are both negative and positive impact on the Saami
communities coming from the national lockdowns. In some
areas, reindeer husbandry operates more or less on the
national borders, thus migration and other movement is
crossing the borders. In the cases of Norway and Sweden, the
national authorities rapidly came up with an exception for
reindeer husbandry and allowed these herders to cross the
border without quarantining afterwards.</p>
<p>The Saami people lives across several national borders.
Months of closing of these borders interferes with the Saami
families living on different sides of a border. It
interferes with the social life of Saami as a people. And
not least, it impacts the economy. A great part of the Saami
economy is Saami wide. The market for duodji (Saami
handicrafts) stretches across the whole of Sápmi (across
borders). The Saami festival audience does not know the
borders, and the same goes for many large institutions, such
as Saami University of Applied Sciences.</p>
<p>Many tourist companies report a total stop in their
activities due to the closed borders and no travel. In some
cases, this is positive for reindeer husbandry during
Easter, this spring and summer, as the reindeer herders
would not need to go out and call for closure of access due
to reindeer migration, calving or similar. This will reduce
the potential conflicts between reindeer herders and the
tourist companies, and consequently have less impact on the
mental well-being of the reindeer herders. A significant
decrease in the cost of gas and diesel will have direct
positive impact on the bottom line in the reindeer husbandry
accounting. But it is still uncertain how the pandemic will
influence the price of reindeer meat.</p>
<p>A lot of the Saami businesses are small or micro
businesses, often in combination with several other
activities. It will be interesting to see if Saami
businesses have survived better than in other areas, in the
sense of being small in the first place and traditional. It
will be interesting to see if this made them more vulnerable
or more resistant for these abrupt changes. Or maybe this
traditional way of doing business has been broken already by
Western ideas of how to organise a business. The question is
also at what level we measure resilience, at company level
or personal economy level of the person behind the business.<br>
The Saami Parliament in Norway and the Norwegian government
has provided economical support to Saami business in
particular through the revised national budget.</p>
<p>There is a great concern that we risk the same attitude
towards industrial projects as in other Indigenous Peoples’
areas in the world. There is concern when the government
calls for or argues for rapid opening and start-up of
industrial projects in order to keep the economy rolling,
and ensuring labour opportunities in projects that the Saami
peoples have been opposing due to the impact they will have
on our culture (e.g. mines and windmills).</p>
<h4><strong>Have Saami communities taken any measures in
addition to national/regional measures to contain the
outbreak?</strong></h4>
<p>The lockdown has prevented activities gathering people and
have a great impact on the Saami cultural life, as our
festivals and markets, as well as conferences and seminars,
are important meeting spots for us as a people. Many Saami
individuals and organizations make a living from organizing
or performing in these events, and our duojárat - our
handcrafters - are relying on these events for selling their
products. As a result of the Covid-19 spread and lockdown,
Saami artists and organizers have lost their income. This is
devastating for the cultural sector, which is so crucial for
preservation and development of Saami music, art, film,
literature and other cultural activities as well as for
catalysing important discussions regarding the Saami
culture, our rights and our existence. The situation keeps
evolving and restrictions are still in place over the Summer
when reindeer husbandry moves into calf marking period that
often gather up to 300 people. In the reindeer corral it is
hard to keep distance to each other while working face to
face and shoulder to shoulder. Guidelines on how to regulate
human behaviour during this important event, are under
discussion many places.</p>
<p>A positive measure enabled through The International Sámi
Film Institute was the invitation to Saami film makers to
apply for small grant to make short film about the COVID-19
situation. All together 15 short films will show experiences
of the lockdown and the Covid-19 situation from a Saami
perspective. The series is called <a
href="https://www.isfi.no/en/?post=home-sweet-home-significant-digital-premiere-of-sami-films"
target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Home Sweet home
- Oru lea buoret go jođi</a> (A Saami saying). The films
became available in June.</p>
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