The actions that changed Sami history have been turned into a feature film – NRK Sápmi
– I was working as a nurse in Copenhagen, Denmark, when I found out about the plans for actions in Alta. I think it was so important to stay that I asked my boss to let me quit. He said yes.
This is what former campaigner Ravdna Anti (70) says to NRK.
She was 26 years old when she participated in the disobedience actions in Detsika and Stilla in Alta in 1979.
During the international indigenous festival Davvi Šuvva in Karesuando in Sweden in the summer of 1979, the activist in her was ignited.
– There I got to know many politically active Sami people. Then it became important for me to fight for Sami rights, says Anti.
– Fight for Sami rights
Bjarne Store-Jakobsen (79) was the leader of the Sami movement. The then 35-year-old man was also a spokesperson for the same as the hunger strike against the Alta development.
– My goal was to advocate for Sami rights. First it concerned the rights of reindrifta. The industry was strongly against the expansion. Secondly, it was important for nature in the area, explains Store-Jakobsen.
Store-Jakobsen explains that at the time, having the case tried in the rights apparatus was the only way to make Sami rights visible.
The Sami hunger strike outside the Storting in both 1979 and 1981. The artist and writer Synnøve Persen (72) was 28 when she participated in the first hunger strike in 1979.
– For me, it was an important requirement for the authorities that they should investigate Sami rights, explains Persen.
– A quiet revolution
Professor of indigenous studies at the University of Tromsø, Else Grete Broderstad, calls what has happened a quiet revolution.
She says that she lost the battle for the development of the Alta watercourse, but achieved a lot in the wake of the battle.
– Sami rights have been investigated and are still being investigated. In the Constitution, it is a separate Sami law. The Sámi Parliament was established. Norway ratified ILO Convention No. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples in independent states, Broderstad explained to NRK last year.
Store-Jakobsen says that everyone who helped to fight for Sami rights helped to strengthen these rights.
– It is probably the hunger strikes that triggered the investigation into Sami rights, he elaborates.
Synnøve Persen thinks that things have gone very quickly.
– I never thought that we would have our own Sami Parliament just ten years after our hunger strike, says Persen.
– Not as it should yet
Bjarne Store-Jakobsen is also happy that Sami rights have been sorted out, the Sami Parliament has been established and that we have received the Finnmarkseiendommen (FeFo).
– However, I am not satisfied with the Sámi Parliament as it turned out. The Sámi Parliament is far too weak and has too little say in society, points out Store-Jakobsen.
He believes that FeFo is also a defective product, a quasi-solution.
– FeFo does not work for Sami rights, believes Store-Jakobsen.
Store-Jakobsen believes that the ongoing trial in the Utmarksdomstolen whether the ownership of the land in Karasjok municipality is an important matter.
– It is a very colorful matter. The important thing here is that the population will get proof that Sami rights exist here. It is the local population who must manage these rights, believes Store-Jakobsen.
Ravdna Anti, on the other hand, believes that it is wrong to demand rights on an ethnic basis.
– It would have been better if they had demanded rights for everyone who lives in Karasjok. After all, there are so many nationalities and peoples who live in the municipality, let alone Anti.
– Sad with the same hatred
Another thing that bothers the former activists is all the Sami hatred and unfair presentation of Sami and Sami history.
This happens both in social media and in the comment fields for the newspaper.
– It just shows that the hatred and racism, which has always been there, is not dead. It is still alive and well. The Sami Parliament and Norwegian authorities should work even harder to correct information about someone told already in primary school, suggests Bjarne Store-Jakobsen.
– It is exceptionally sad. It often appears on stands that we thought we were done with a long time ago. It is written so badly that it is almost unbelievable. There is so much hate behind it. I almost get scared, says Synnøve Persen.
– It is very heavy. Many people have turned against us because we are working for our rights. They get annoyed that we make it happen. I think it is the parents’ and the school’s responsibility to work with people’s attitudes, says Ravdna Anti.
Can’t wait to see the movie
Ole Giæver’s film adaptation of the match for Altaelva had closed screening in Oslo yesterday. The film is shown in Máze today.
The film opens the Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF) on Monday 16 January.
– I felt we had a lot to learn from the idea of solidarity and the collective mobilization that existed then, says Giæver.
During the filming of the film he discovered that he himself is the same.
Artist and environmental activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen (23) plays the female lead.
The three former Alta shareholders say they are looking forward to the film.
Synnøve Persen must see it at TIFF. Ravdna Anti waits until it is shown in Oslo, where she lives. Bjarne-Store Jakobsen says he is waiting for the film to hit the cinemas on February 3.
– I think the film will be fine. It tells our history and the struggle we led for our people, says Ravdna Anti.
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