The FSU Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) Center hosted a seminar on how the Sami people, the only recognized Indigenous people in the European Union, responded with artwork as a form of resistance to the building of a dam on the Alta-Guovdageaidnu River in Northern Norway in the early 80s.
While the dam would provide reliable renewable energy for the area, it would greatly harm Sami cultural traditions like reindeer herding and salmon fishing. The dam was eventually greenlit by Norweign courts and completed in 1982.
Haylee Glasel, a Department of Art History graduate student, hosted the event, which was named “Images of a protest movement: Artistic Responses to Damming the Álta-Guovdageaidnu River.” Glasel is not indigenous herself but is interested in how environmental policy has impacted and influenced indigenous artwork.
“There has historically been a discounting of indigenous knowledge and indigenous sciences,” Glasel said. “Lots of decisions regarding the environment are made without their consent.”
The Sami protests against damming were unsuccessful, but they did spark a major shift in the environmental movement and Sami culture. The artistic works were created in response to the dam’s creation Glasel displayed in her presentation, including “Gárjjat / The Crows” by Britta Marakatt-Labba. Pieces like these showcase resilience and unity against oppression that were not present in artwork before the protests.
“Before, Sami people were subject to physical danger if they visibly displayed their culture, and many Sami chose to hide their identity for their own safety,” Glasel said. “The protest movement helped rid some of the shame that previous generations had imposed on the Sami people.”
Since Glasel’s larger dissertation project is about Sami’s responses to environmental policy, a large part of the presentation and subsequent discussion centered on how environmental movements often leave Indigenous perspectives out of their own activism. Oftentimes, environmental legislation works actively against Indigenous interests and can perpetuate colonialism.
“Western colonial voices often talk on top of Indigenous people when it comes to environmental concerns,” Glasel said. “All of the artwork from this protest movement use symbols of colonization and repurpose them.”
While modern governmental regulations are meant to mitigate environmental damage, these laws have often disproportionately impacted Sami people.
Professor Eric Coleman, who has extensive experience in environmental policy research, says that the ways that governments incentivize sustainable behavior often are not accessible to people of lower social classes and the historically disenfranchised, including Native and Indigenous people.
“The types of people that benefit from government incentives, like subsidies and credits, are likely already well off,” said Coleman. “There are questions of who exactly realizes the benefits of environmental policies that rely on economic benefits.”
As climate change worsens and new environmental policies are being drafted to mitigate it, there are growing concerns that Indigenous people across the globe will have a harder time protecting their land – especially because many renewable energy sources, like the Alta River dam, rely on the natural environment to be sustained.
This problem is exasperated by politically unstable governments and the faltering economies of developing countries.
“The reality is that very little land in the world is not being used, and oftentimes meeting sustainability pledges in countries forcibly evicts people,” said Coleman. “When there is not a clear understanding of who owns the land and when democracy is already shaky, it is very easy for historically marginalized people to be further disenfranchised.”
While many people view sustainable measures like renewable energy as innovative and a step in the right direction for climate change, the reality is that Indigenous people are often not considered when these decisions are being made.
This problem extends globally and has a particularly strong connection to Florida. The formation of Everglades National Park required the eviction of the Seminole Tribe of Florida from their ancestral land. Like the Sami people, the Seminole Tribe was not considered in implementing a seemingly environmentally conscious measure.
“It’s important to realize that these communities exist and that they have important stories that we can learn from,” said Glasel.
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