More recently, the concept of settler colonialism has come to be used increasingly in analyses of the colonial relationships between the Swedish state, the Swedes, and the Sámi. The history of interaction is complex, as the territory has been shared for millennia. The concept of settler colonialism is nevertheless useful to apply to strategies that aim to displace Indigenous rights to the lands and waters and replace them with those of the settlers, as if the settlers hold equal and/or authentic rights as heirs. Furthermore, a specific way of life—that of the settler—takes precedence, whereas nomadic lifestyles are considered to be outside of the normal way. The colonial state’s ethnic cleansing of Sámi forms part of these settler-colonial practices, within which racism has been, and still is, used as a tool.

In this essay, I discuss some of the perspectives on “climate change” and “green transition” I have come across within my research and supradisciplinary collaboration over the last two decades. I also argue for the use of the concept of (cultural) genocide as a basis for discussing the Swedish state’s actions and policies regarding the Indigenous Sámi.

Hur hänger ett foto av en lule- och skogssamisk kvinna taget 1868 ihop med ett samtal mellan mor och dotter i ett kök över hundra år senare? I denna artikel tar jag utgångspunkt i en bild på min morfars farmors syster, skogs- och lulesamiska kvinnan Brita Stina Larsdotter Rim från 1868, som jag mötte 2008 för första gången i en webbutställning, och ett avgörande kökssamtal på svenska med min mamma på 1990-talet. Brita Stinas ansikte återfinns, än idag, via Nordiska museet tillgängliggjort online, utan restriktioner, utan etiska förbehåll, och utan att Brita Stinas livshistoria finns återgiven. Att resonera kring mitt möte med Brita Stinas bild och hur det hänger ihop med min familjs osynliggjorda samiska historia utgör ett återtagande – ett försök att använda bilden på ett samiskt sätt. Det är ett bidrag till svensk kolonial och bosättarkolonial historia, och därigenom ett bidrag till nordisk och europeisk historisk och kvinnohistorisk forskning. Jag ifrågasätter hur denna historia skrivs och hur den återges på museer, i undervisning i skola och på universitet, i läroböcker och i kurslitteratur.

How does a photo of a Lule and forest Sámi woman taken in 1868 relate to a conversation between mother and daughter in a kitchen over a hundred years later? In this article, I take as my point of departure a picture of my grandfatherʼs grandmotherʼs sister, the forest and Lule Sámi woman Brita Stina Larsdotter Rim from 1868, whom I met in 2008 for the first time in a web exhibition, and a crucial kitchen conversation in Swedish with my mother in the 1990ʼs. Brita Stinaʼs face can still be found via the Nordic Museum made available online, without restrictions, without ethical protocols, and without Brita Stinaʼs life story being presented. To analyse my meeting with Brita Stinaʼs picture and the link to my familyʼs invisible Sami history is a recap – an attempt to use the picture in a Sámi way. It is a contribution to Swedish colonial and settler colonial history, and thereby a contribution to the research on Nordic, European and womenʼs history. I challenge how this history is written and how it is reproduced in museums, in school and university teaching, in textbooks and in course literature.

Titel: Ogrön vindkraft: Samiska och naturvetenskapliga perspektiv på fossilberoende och miljöförstörande design

Innehåll: Hur kommer det sig att vindkraft av idag framhålls som grön? Stora vindkraftsindustriområden är under planering och byggnation i Sverige. Svenska staten såväl som aktörer på energimarknaden, ideella miljöorganisationer och klimataktivister framhåller ofta vindkraften som grön, fossilfri och miljövänlig. Vindkraftsindustriområdena har omfattande negativa konsekvenser för omgivande miljö, renskötsel, djur, fåglar och natur. Vindkraften i dagens design består av uppemot 150 till 300 meter höga stålstrukturer på betongfundament. Konstruktion och underhåll förutsätter nya gruvor, bilvägar, skogsavverkning och stenbrott. Fossila bränslen är en förutsättning i allt detta. Hur kommer det sig att dessa aspekter inte räknas in när vindkraften framhålls som grön?

I filmen medverkar docent Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala universitet och Henrik Andersson, renskötare i Gällivare skogssameby. De områden som syns är vindkraftsindustriområdet Markbygden, Piteå kommun, samt platser inom Gällivare skogssamebys renskötselområde; Pålkem och Nattavaaravägen, Gällivare kommun; Livasudden, Bodens kommun. Alla medverkande i filmen har gett sitt medgivande eller går inte identifiera.

Finansiering: Med stöd av forskningsrådet FORMAS, inom det nationella forskningsprogrammet om klimat. FORMAS Dnr 2017-01923, 2019-01975, samt FORMAS Dnr 2016-01039, Framtidens forskningsledare "Säkra och hållbara energiframtider i Sápmi: Antaganden och handlingar, visioner och beslut“ , under ledning av docent i miljöhistoria, May-Britt Öhman, Centrum för mångvetenskaplig forskning om rasism, Cemfor, Uppsala universitet, gästforskare och gäst biträdande professor Luleå tekniska universitet, historia.

Citera som: Öhman, May-Britt; Andersson, Henrik; Helsdotter, Eva Charlotta; Storlöpare, Petri. 2021. Ogrön vindkraft: Samiska och naturvetenskapliga perspektiv på fossilberoende och miljöförstörande design, [video].

Title: Ungreen windpower: Sámi Indigenous and scientific perspectives on fossil dependent and environmentally destructive designs

Content:

This film is produced by Dálkke, a research project and research group at Uppsala University, within the Swedish National Research Programme on Climate, the Swedish research council FORMAS.

In the film, Henrik Andersson, reindeer herder within Gällivare Forest Sámi village, Norrbotten County, Sweden, speaks about the environmental destruction caused by the Swedish state, through forestry practices by the Swedish state owned forest company Sveaskog, as well as the planned wind energy industrial area by the Swedish state power company Vattenfall. Associate Professor Eva Charlotta Helsdotter, Uppsala University, tells about how the analysis of windpower is not taking into account all relevant aspects in terms of fossil dependency and environmental consequences. A large part of what is needed to establish, maintain, as well as decommission windpower is never taken into account within the so called LCA analyses. This is what makes it possible to – falsely – claim that windpower is green. However, the windpower designs of today cannot be considered green, nor fossil free.

The area in question is one out of two project areas for windpower within Gällivare Forest Sámi village - “Storlandet”, which is the ancestral grounds of Henrik Andersson’s family. Work is currently ongoing with an environmental impact study, planned to be ready for submission in 2022. The other wind power industry area that is planned within the area for the Gällivare Forest Sámi Village is Hällberget, conducted by a private power company Vasavind. In early 2021 it received permission to go ahead with a smaller part of its project. The Hällberget project is currently (August 2021) in court process. The Swedish state, the European Union (EU), as well as actors within the energy market, environmental organizations and climate activists all insist in the promotion of windpower as “green”, fossil free and thereby environmentally friendly. A large part of these constructions are planned for in Sámi territories, on land that has been taken from Sámi during late 19th and early 20th century. Furthermore, the wind power industrial areas have major negative impacts for the local environment. Forests are clear cut and replaced with 100 – 300 meters high steel constructions, on massive foundations made of concrete. Construction and maintenance demands new mines, car and truck access roads and thereby new stone quarries causing major wounds in the landscape.

These industrial areas have major negative consequence for the local environment, fresh water, nature, wild life, local inhabitants as well as reindeer herding. This film is part of a supradisciplinary research and documentary project on (un)sustainable power production, researching and documenting the subject matter from Indigenous Sámi reindeer herding point of view, along with analyses of the whole windpower industry. Henrik Andersson, Gällivare Forest Sámi Village, who works to protect - through research and challenging decision makers - the reindeer and other animals from a destructive power production mode along with the Sámi traditional culture in the area is at the front. The Sámi reindeer herding culture is documented to having lived and prospered here since at least two millennia. What can EU, Sweden and EU member countries learn from the knowledges and understandings of the Sámi reindeer herders? What is needed to make their voices heard and turned into policy making in Sweden and in the EU? Filmed from September 2020, to August 2021. Sequences from the film “The Last Generation?” Storlöpare 2016 – reindeer feeding - and by the fire.

The film is part of the research project: ”Safe and Sustainable Energy Futures in Sápmi” FORMAS dnr 2016-01039, and two projects within the Swedish National Programme on Climate: ”Dálkke: Indigenous climate change studies” FORMAS dnr 2017-01923 and ”Living without oil?! Rethinking relations with lands and waters with Indigenous Land Based Expertise for a transition towards a fossil free welfare society” FORMAS Dnr 2019-01975. All projects are led by May-Britt Öhman, Associate professor in Environmental history, PhD in History of Technology, researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, CEMFOR, Uppsala University.

Copyright: May-Britt Öhman, Henrik Andersson, Petri Storlöpare License via Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

In this chapter, I recall parts of the history of a specific stretch of the Lule River Valley, downstream of Jokkmokk, upstream of the city of Luleå – Luleju or Julevu, and place it in a larger historical and political context. Remembering a livelihood that was, and still is, a self-sufficient way of life – living from nature, hunting, fishing, herding reindeer, collecting vegetables, and most importantly, depending on good relations with other humans, animals, waters, and lands – is as political as are the attempts to make us forget. With this chapter, I am challenging a settler colonial state-imposed and reproduced amnesia, in which Sámi history and culture, as well as the Swedish–Sámi historical and contemporary relationships are to a large extent still left out of the education at all levels in the Swedish education system.

What technologies or knowledges are presented as the most important human innovations in history classes and at museums? After fire and stone tools, the invention of the wheel is com-monly near the top of the list. But what about ski technology, a Sámi innovation dating back more than 5,000 years? Why is it so rarely celebrated as the major technological innovation that it is? What other Arctic innovations, what Sámi technological expertise, is left out of the his-tory books and exhibitions, of the human past and present? Writing as historian of science and technology, this chapter is a step towards a more comprehensive history of humanity, inclusive of the Arctic region of Fenno-Scandinavia, and in particular the Sámi territories, foregrounding Sámi technological knowledge and expertise, adapted to specific conditions and geographies in the Arctic climate.

The article draws on the extensive scholarly and popular literature on Sámi and Swedish/Nordic history and archaeology, as well as the history of skiing. In addition, I have spoken to fel-low Sámi and non-Sámi experts within this field. I have made the option to, whenever possible, refer to literature in English, even though most literature on Sámi technology and expertise is only available in the Fenno-Scandinavian languages. As my knowledge of languages limits me to English, Swedish, and Norwegian, I have not covered literature in Finnish, Sámi, and Russian. I regret this; in particular as I am aware of the fact that had not the assimilation policies in Sweden been so fierce, I would have grown up as a speaker of Swedish, Sámi and Meänkieli, a language close to Finnish.

Luleå city is located downstream of 18 hydropower dams of which the majority are classified as high consequence, meaning that if there is a dam failure, there will be severe consequences downstream. The highest risk for dam failure is when the dams are full, October to about end January each year, i.e. the coldest part of the year. In a worst case scenario water (and ice) levels may rise up to 5-6 meters in the central parts, within less than 48 hours. Dam safety work entered the international dam sector agenda in the 1970s, after the Teton dam failure in the US. In Sweden, attention to and work with the risk of dam failure began the 1980s, as the hydropower construction era ended. The recent tailing dam failure in Brasil has drawn public attention to the risks with the dams used to store waste from mines. While a major tailing dam failed in Finland (Talvivaara) in 2013, so far Sweden has been spared from major disasters. What is so far unknown of in Sweden, and rarely discussed, is the combination of the two systems; tailing dams and hydropower dams in the same river, as well as and the risks and governance complexities thereto associated. Yet this is of importance to Luleå, as since 2011 there are plans for a mine within the Lule River, at Kallak/Gállok. This would bring two high consequence systemstogether, with two different main responsible actors – Vattenfall on the one hand, and the owner of the mine on the other. The public and decision makers have so far had little knowledge/understanding of the risks of such combination. Based on interviews and participatory observations within four research projects funded by the Swedish research council (VR) and FORMAS (since 2008) I will discuss the complexities for flood governance.

Sammanfattning

Jag instämmer i stort i promemorians förslag om uppdatering till moderna miljövillkor för vattenkraftselproduktion och dess genomförande.

Dock saknas vissa aspekter som behöver täckas in bättre genom att särskilt uppmärksammas, förslagsvis genom den föreslagna nationella planen och genom att berörda grupper, och inte enbart myndigheter här ges tillfälle att yttra sig samt att det bör anslås medel till organisationer och forskningsinsatser för förstärkt uppföljning.

Däribland bör samiska organisationer och Sametinget, samt bygdeföreningar och andra berörda föreningar vid reglerade vattendrag och nedströms dammar ges anslag för att kunna bevaka frågeställningarna på ett kontinuerligt sätt.

Myndigheter – kommuner och länsstyrelser – saknar i stor utsträckning resurser för nödvändig uppföljning, vilket behöver ses över.

Dessutom är det nödvändigt att bygga upp stärkt kompetens i dessa frågor genom såväl forskning som kontinuerlig informationsförmedling och uppdatering.

För detta krävs särskilda anslag och insatser, med samhällsvetenskapliga och sociotekniska perspektiv som bygger på redan genomförd forskning samt fortsatta forskningsinsatser.

Yttrandet bygger på ett flertal forskningsprojekt (se uppställning i slutet av dokumentet)  utförda vid Uppsala universitet, Umeå universitet och Luleå tekniska universitet om dammsäkerhet – såväl allmänhetens säkerhet vid dammar, som säkerhetsfrågor i förhållande till dammbrott – dess förebyggande samt förberedelser för situationer med dammbrott.

Aspekterna ifråga som ytterligare behöver uppmärksammas är följande:

1. Människors hälsa och säkerhet vid normal drift, dvs ej vid dammbrott eller risk för dammbrott – även kallat ”allmänhetens säkerhet vid dammar” – ”public safety around dams”.
2. Djurs hälsa och säkerhet vid normal drift, dvs ej vid dammbrott eller risk för dammbrott.
3. Avsaknad av perspektiv på ansvarsfördelning för och säkerhetsåtgärder när två aktörer  som båda använder sig samma älv och har dammar som innebär risker för människors hälsa samt miljön, dvs vattenkraftsföretag och gruvföretag i samma älvsystem.
4. Avsaknad av perspektiv på nedströms konsekvenser och förberedelser för dammbrott i stora dammar utifrån sociotekniska hänsynstaganden.