FUEN participated in the Sámi Symposium in Berlin

Tuesday 22 September FUEN participated in the Symposium “Sámi Contemporary: A Symposium about Minorities and Identities”. Politicians, academic experts, artists, representatives of the media and activists discussed together about how important legislation and law, art and architecture, language and media are for minorities and their identity, and in particular how important these are for the Sámi.

In a forum on the rights of minorities the speakers were the Swedish State Secretary for Culture Per Olsson and the Finnish Member of Parliament Eva Biaudet and also Judith Walde, the head of the Minority Secretariat in Germany, who spoke about the minorities in Germany and how they are working together on the European level within the network of FUEN.

The symposium was organised in Berlin by the Nordic Embassies in cooperation with the Freiburg Research Group in Sámi Studies and is part of the programme around the art exhibition Sámi Contemporary, which is on display in the Nordic Embassies in Berlin until 27 September.

The Sámi are an indigenous people, who form a minority in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia. According to estimations there are approximately 40,000 Sámi in Norway, 20,000 in Sweden, 7,500 in Finland and 2,000 in Russia. The Sámi have their own historical and cultural area of settlement, their own language, culture and history. They are the only group that is recognised as an indigenous people within the area of the European Union, Norway and the Kola-Peninsula. 

The Sámi-languages are related to the Finnic languages of Finnish and Estonian. According to UNESCO the Sámi languages are endangered; one of the Sámi languages already has already become extinct.

In Norway, Sweden and Finland the Sámi have their own parliament, the Sameting (Sámediggi). The Sámi Parliamentary Council (SPC) is the body for parliamentary cooperation in Finland, Norway and Sweden, in which also the Sámi from Russia are represented as permanent observers. Transnational cooperation between the Sámi enhanced the position of their culture, language and legislation. Despite all, the Sámi still face the challenge how to assert and strengthen their rights as an indigenous people and how to strike a balance between traditions and a modern way of life.

FUEN is a partner of the Sámi-organisations.