A yellowed document flashes on the projector. An old map. Neat writing style marks a circled area. There stands Adak. The map is from 1820.
- That was our tax country, Jörgen Stenberg tells the audience on site in Malå.
All are priests or employees within the Church of Sweden. He lectures on reindeer husbandry. Shows where the reindeer want to graze at what time of year in Malå forest community. Shows how wind farms, forestry, the Kristineberg mine and holiday homes have made the reindeer's walking paths increasingly narrow.
The Stenberg family no longer owns the tax land. This is mainly done by state-owned Sveaskog.
When the Truth Commission now hands over the results of its work to Parisa Liljestrand (M), Minister of Culture in the transitional government, the land issue is central. Both in how the state has historically taken over the land and what role it can play in compensating the Sami. The land issue is also the most controversial politically.
The truth commission states that the state has partly "unilaterally seized property rights over large parts of Sami land", and partly needs to recognize the policy's consequences for the Sami.
- The most important thing is that the government takes this seriously and starts a process, says Lena Nyberg.
She is chairman of the Truth Commission, is a lawyer and has a long CV as, among other things, social citizen councilor in Stockholm (S), director general at an authority and former Children's Ombudsman.
- In Sweden, we think we are good at human rights, but in reality we do not live up to them when it comes to indigenous people. We have not lived up to the legislation that exists today and we do not live up to international conventions.
The truth commission describes the consequences of Swedish policy for the Sami as "devastating" in its final report.
Malå forest community, like many parts of the northern half of the country, carries the history of politics.
- Malå became multicultural in 1769. That was when the first Swede came here. I think it puts the finger on how out of place the whole debate is about Sami rights. That you don't see that through de facto colonization you have taken a right from the original rights holder, says Jörgen Stenberg.
Through the Crown's policy of displacement and assimilation of the Forest Sami over the centuries, a large part of the group has been assimilated and forgotten. Only in northernmost Sweden did the culture survive. Malå Sami village in Västerbotten County is the southernmost still remaining in Sweden.
The area is also the one that has suffered the greatest loss of language. Today, only a few dozen Sami speak Umesami.
It is not only the Forest Sami who have suffered from Swedish politics.
Some examples from the commission's work are Sami who have lost their mother tongue, discrimination, how families in mountain Sami villages were forced to leave their children to nomadic schools for long periods, abuse of said schools, division within Sami society caused by the reindeer herding laws or how authorities' ignorance of reindeer husbandry leads to loss of rights.
Therefore, the Truth Commission now directs 71 calls and 35 proposals to the government to work with in order to improve the situation of the Sami and promote reconciliation. Including that Sweden must apologize and that compensation for the loss of land is made by implementing the commission's calls and proposals regarding land.
At Dungers pizzeria in Malå, Jörgen Stenberg is skeptical that anything constructive will come out of the Truth Commission's work. He lifts the Girja Cathedral, where the Sami village's right to manage small game hunting and fishing rights was established. The government inquiry that followed, the Clearlands Committee, was criticized and disbanded.
- The closing down of the Clearland Committee shows that the Truth Commission will have no significance. Regardless of whether they succeed in showing that there is a Sami right, it does not fit into the Swedish social image.
What do you think would be the most important thing to do if the state wants to work for reconciliation?
- The committee was closed because it was concluded that there were Sami rights. Take it out and respect its contents. It is the biggest wound that exists right now because there has been a process that went all the way to the Supreme Court, Jörgen Stenberg answers and continues:
- Should that right not apply because it is a Sami rights holder? Then you just consolidate all the abuses that have ever happened in history and that puts the entire legal society at risk in the long run. It becomes a capriciousness in the law when judgments are to be tested politically.
