#saebmie

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Umeå2014 - Opening up our minds

Ubmejen bïjre.

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So. It's windy as fuck outside and if I were ever to refer to something as a snow storm, this would be it. But my sister and I are heading out to the market anyway.

As Obama would have said if he'd been a South Saami; jaavoe, maehtebe

And I need to make sure that I don't come home with a pair of sealskin trousers or gloves because lord Krishna, I saw some at the market yesterday, and they were awesome.

Also, the amount of fake Saami stuff at the market was somewhat disheartening. You would think that in central Saebmie, you'd at least find people selling genuine stuff.

I feel like Jesus in the Temple.

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Saebmie

This is a map of Saebmie used by Umeå2014, and the focus on Umeå aside, I really like it.

In short, by changing the perspective, that which is normally perceived as peripheral is centred. In other words, by turning the usual map on its head and changing the visibility of state borders, that which has always been othered by the majority is suddenly turned into the subject of the map.

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The Swedish state started to colonise my mother's people's ancestral lands some 450 years ago

Despite our protests, the government continues to fuck us over to this day.

My South Saami family comes from Dearna, Vualtjere and Faepmie, areas nowadays included in the reindeer herding districts belonging to the reindeer herding communities Vapsten, Vaapsten Sïjte and Vilhelmina Norra. These communities have repeatedly protested against the plans to open up mines that would literally spell the end of reindeer herding in the area, and with it the destruction of one of the most important corner stones of our culture. 

The mines would have a detrimental impact on everything from fishing and hunting, to reindeer herding and the quality of life in the area, and yet today one of the settler courts in Saebmie ruled that Vapsten Reindeer Herding Community who would be hit the most by the planned mine wouldn't get any money for the harm the mine would do to the nature in the area and the impact it would have on the future of reindeer herding.

I rarely get angry, but if I were in Ubmeje today I would be standing outside the court and throw stones at it until the police decided to remove me from the place.

We never gave our consent to the destruction of our lands, and the only reason why Sweden can get away with this is because they've refused to sign the only international law that would make it impossible for Sweden to do anything with our lands without our blessing. Over the last year, people have come together to protest against this blatant disregard of our rights, of our futures, our lands and children, but mainstream media has made it a point in reporting as little as possible about our fight. 

Being a relatively small community, we have been easy to dismiss, but no more.

I've had enough and if I have to spend every single spare second of my life when not teaching whilst in Liksjoe to tell people about the impact this would have not only on the Saami but people in general in Saebmie, I will.

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Random facts I found out about Liksjoe and Westrobothnia

If you were to take other countries and try to place them in Sweden, you'd be able to fit Wales twice together with Northern Ireland and Mauritius in Westrobothnia.

Of the 13 people that are listed as being famous people from Liksjoe on Wikipedia, one is a porn star.

Liksjoe was basically founded so that the Swedish state could force the Saami to become Christians and pay taxes to the Swedish king back in 1604.

Ume Saami is pretty easy to understand if you understand South Saami.

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Stop Mining Industry Greed

A film from Saebmie, and the first minutes make me incredibly homesick and the second part makes me want to hit someone very hard.

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Aellieh tseegkieh gruvide mijjen maadtosne

No mine projects on our ancestral lands

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Maxida is a Saami musician who combines traditional yoiking with bluegrass, jazz and other contemporary styles of music, and this song was written as a protest against the mining company Beowulf Mining which is trying to use a Terra Nullius rhetoric to colonise and destroy parts of Saebmie.

I am a sucker for Bluegrass and when it's fronted by a Saami musician telling mining companies - we all know what I think of mining - to baaterh daestie (piss off), I'm bound to like it.