Sámi Parliament President: Orpo's government easier to work with than Sanna Marin's

The President of the Sámi Parliament in Inari says that Petteri Orpo’s government has been easier to work with than Sanna Marin’s government on indigenous issues.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Pirita Näkkäläjärvi says that progress of the delayed Sámi Parliament Act has been made easier without the presence of the Centre Party.

“The irony is that when we had Sanna Marin’s government, it was a more left-leaning liberal kind of progressive government, and we thought okay now is the time we are able to achieve this,” Näkkäläjarvi tells Finland Insider.

“But there was one party in that government, the Centre Party, which was very strongly opposed to the Sámi Parliament Act amendment and they caused a lot of difficulties,” she adds.

The long-awaited Act defines the relationship between the Sámi people and the Finnish State, and had been left on the back-burner by Marin’s administration despite promises to the contrary she made on an official visit to Inari in summer 2022.

A scramble at the end of that year to get the legislation over the line and to MPs in parliament for a vote ultimately ran out of time, much to the frustration of Sámi politicians.

“Sanna Marin’s government was not able to do what ironically Petteri Orpo’s more right-leaning government has been able to do,” and although there have been delays, Näkkäläjärvi notes, Orppo told Yle Sápmi recently that he was still committed to bringing the new Act into power.

“I try to remain optimistic although some politicians are trying to cause delays. We still have time to push this through,” says Näkkäläjärvi.

International focus on Sámi issues

A former management consultant, head of Yle Sápmi, a local politician and a PhD candidate at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Pirita Näkkäläjärvi added the role of Sámi Parliament President to her already-impressive resume earlier this spring.

It’s a job which has already taken her from Inari to New York to speak at the United Nations, and to Brussels this week, where she called for more help for the EU’s indigenous people impacted by the climate crisis.

“Overall the UN has been one of our best friends in the last decades, and they have given us a lot of tools that have built momentum to actually try and do better here in Finland.”

“Finland is often considered a model country when it comes to equity and equality and human rights, but unfortunately the reality is there are big challenges when it comes to our rights as indigenous people.”

One of those big challenges is the role of the Sámi Parliament which is supposed to be a body “by and for the Sámi people”. But in the last 15 years, the Finnish State and Finnish courts have allowed non-Sami people to vote in elections, something the United Nations has been openly critical about.

In fact, Näkkäläjärvi is preparing for an election re-run in June after Finland’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled that 65 voters considered non-Sámi by the parliament in Inari must now be added to the Sámi electoral role.

“This is not to say that we are trying to leave out people or discriminate [against] people, it’s just that we are trying to protect our quite fragile Sámi democracy and Sámi representative body and make sure that what is meant to be the Sámi voice is a legitimate Sámi voice,” Näkkäläjärvi explains.

The successful adoption of the Sámi Parliament Act amendment would codify contentious issues such as the electoral roll, and likely avoid the UN declaring Finland in breach of its international human rights obligations when it comes to the Sámi people.

Truth and reconciliation process

One of the most sensitive issues Finland’s Sámi people are dealing with involves a truth and reconciliation process, to address historical injustices and generational trauma, and seek some sort of resolution with the Finnish State over past discriminatory actions.

Other countries with indigenous populations are already further ahead than Finland with the process, or have completed the work - including Canada, Norway and Sweden - but there’s progress being made here too.

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Sámi issues here on the Finnish side is about halfway through their work and I think it’s good that they are taking their time because it takes time to build the trust of the people that they feel they can speak to the Commission and reveal all the feelings they have about assimilative politics and policies which have also taken place in Finland.”

“They haven’t been official policies as such compared to Norway for example, but they have been there and they are to some extent are still there, for example in the school system.”

It’s only been relatively recently that Sámi language teaching and Sámi cultural elements have been introduced in the school system, and Näkkäläjärvi says there are still lots of “bitter memories” even from her generation.

“We can’t even imagine what it has been for our parents’ generation who had to leave their homes and go to boarding schools where they not even allowed to speak Sámi or dress in Sámi clothes.”