Indigenous communities.

The recent conflict in Norway between the indigenous Sami minority people and the large majority society has surprised many. The serious conflict reached its climax in the last few weeks, with a 'dharna' and demonstrations downtown the capital Oslo. The reason is that no less than 150 wind turbines have been built in a traditional reindeer winter grazing area, thus threatening the traditional livelihood and culture of a group of Sami people in the area of Fosen Peninsula near Trondheim, the country's third-largest city. Windmills and reindeer seem not to be able to coexist, and the whole conflict has messages of international interest.

Well over 500 days ago, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled that the turbines had been built based on questionable licenses, and correcting measures should be put in place. But the government kept letting the turbines produce electricity, never mind it is green electricity. Nobody seems to know how to untie the 'Gordian knot' unless the turbines are closed, moved elsewhere, or some other drastic action is taken, but that would also lead to major monetary losses of failed investments and a shortfall in the electricity production for Trondheim.

The government keeps searching for 'amicable solutions', but it seems, not in very deep dialog with the Sami people and their institutions, just a lot of words with little meaning. There have always been cultural, language and livelihood conflicts between the small Sami group, mostly living in the far north of the country, and the majority society, which rules from Oslo in the south. The Norwegianization assimilation policies have often been heavy-handed, justified to be in the Sami people's own interests over time. Yet, in recent decades, Sami institutions have also been established, indeed the elected parliamentary-type body named the 'Sami Council', in 1989, and the development of cooperation with the Sami groups in neighbouring Sweden, Finland and Russia. Positive things have happened, but even today, the Sami people many times feel they are considered lower and lesser than the rest of the Norwegians, and they worry that their culture and languages will disappear in the future if the traditional livelihood of reindeer herding cannot go on, as it is considered a cornerstone in maintaining the Sami's identity, but practiced only by a small group of them.

In my two earlier articles, I have discussed some key issues of the situation and presented some background...