This essay is a collaboration between the Department of INKA Komahi UGM and Forskning Scanity UGM. This essay is also published on the Inka KOMAHI Medium.

The Sami people are indigenous people who inhabit Lapland, the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The tribe is the only Indigenous people recognized in Europe and lives semi-nomadically around the Arctic Circle (Lowry, 2024). The Sami people do not have a sovereign geographical territory and live in the territory of several Scandinavian countries, with a large population in Sweden. They are also part of industrial, agricultural, and fishery activities and even participate in governmental activities (Sutherland, 2016). Therefore, the Sami people rely on nature, especially forests, to live. However, the Sami people are one of the most vulnerable tribes today. They face various ecosystem problems due to mining and logging projects. These activities have disrupted their way of survival and cultural heritage. Until today, the Sami people are vulnerable indigenous people and still face the aggressive activities of the government and private companies who are very hegemonic.

The Sami people’s struggle can be dissected through the concept of Plural Ecology which emphasizes the idea of pluralization of ecologies and how it intersects with hegemony and plurality. Guido Sprenger and Kristina Großmann introduced this theory to dissect Southeast Asia’s political and ontological environment. On the other hand, Scandinavian countries share the same characteristics in their multiplicity of ecological practices that need to be exposed worldwide, similar to Southeast Asia. Hence, the emphasis on plural ecology by the Sami people in Scandinavia. Plural ecology highlights the idea of hegemony and plurality, arising from diverging ontologies, epistemologies, cosmology, politics, and economies within and among social formations (Sprenger & Großmann, 2018). Hence, Sweden’s development policies must uphold the concept of Plural Ecology to create a welfare society for the Sami.

The Sami people face disruption from multinational companies oriented towards the timber and mining industries. Although Sweden has always claimed that its logging system is sustainable, it is still worrying. The Swedish Forestry Model continues to drive Sweden’s old-growth forests towards extinction and disrupts the balance of the ecosystem (Time, 2024). For the Sami people, this disrupts not only their ecosystem but also their ‘way’ of life, in which the theory mentioned that non-human animals, plants, and spirits are supposed to be included in the system, which also could not be comprehended by modern epistemologies. They can no longer maintain their cultures and cultural heritage that are closely related to nature, in which culture is not mere but must be integrated into a relationship with institutions. For example, the Sami people have a culture of raising reindeer that has survived the Ice Age (Time, 2024). However, this culture has been disrupted by logging and mining, which have occurred intensively in the last few decades while they were supposed to be incorporated into a specific cultural configuration (Sprenger & Großmann, 2018).

Indeed, industrial and mining activities are developing intensively in Sweden and several other Scandinavian countries. In the first quarter of 2024, capital flows in Sweden entered rapidly and continued to increase. Several global companies, such as Investor AB, with a value of 76.5 billion dollars, occupy some of the most prominent investment positions, followed by EQT, Industrivarden, and several other companies (Statista, 2024). This indicates the need for high-volume logging and other activities. This need is inseparable from the various incentives from the Swedish government to create regulations that are more friendly to foreign investment in the last two decades. The Swedish government has also enacted the Sweden FDI Act, which prevents foreign investment that could harm national security (Vinge, 2024). However, this investment policy only starts logging and mining. This occured because local investors still control various industrial and forest areas. Moreover, this means that plural ecology strategies as a whole are not implemented. In contrast, some are supposed to stay modern, and some are to be traditional, even in a hegemonic situation and plural political intersections. 

Moreover, raising livestock is no longer just a way to survive but also part of their identity and culture as indigenous people. Long before this, the Swedish government created the Swedish Reindeer Herding Act in 1971, which required the Sami people to join the herding community to obtain the right to be protected by the government (EJF, 2017). However, this kind of policy created a polarization between the Sami people and the government, so channeling interests between them would be more challenging. The theory has prophesied that inclusion and hierarchy shape the epistemological power of ecology because the government has the power to shape the ecology. Pressure from various parties to balance hegemony and plurality in a way they could contain each other, coexisting in a non-normative way, remains challenging. Brauchler and Haug mentioned the importance of local ontologies and environmentalists becoming allies and soon opposing capitalism ecology. 

The Swedish government has made every effort to eliminate discriminatory actions experienced by the Sami people through the Convention Against Racial Discrimination in 1971. However, this convention is considered not to have been implemented effectively in eliminating racism against the Sami people (United Nations, 2021). In 2018, the Swedish government held a hearing session with the Sami people to address discriminatory actions against their community. However, the result did not fully solve the discriminatory actions towards the Sami people. However, hegemony is inevitable, as one ecology tries to re-programme or dominate each other. However, plurality still has to be included asymmetrically or even hierarchically. Brauchler (2013) mentioned that if it is already on the global level, it is almost impossible for plurality to be accepted, especially when traditions are perceived as outdated or backward. 

References

EJF. (2017). Rights at risk: Arctic climate change and the threat to Sami cultur. Environmental Justice Foundation. https://ejfoundation.org/resources/downloads/EJF-Sami-briefing-2019-final-1.pdf

Lowery, S. (2024, March 19). Sami People: The Oldest Indigenous Tribe in Europe. Untraveled.com. https://untraveled.com/sami-people-the-oldest-indigenous-tribe-in-europe/

P, G., & J, O. (2023). New Swedish FDI Act – Three Questions. Deloitte Sweden. https://www2.deloitte.com/se/sv/pages/legal/articles/new-swedish-fdi-act-three-questions.html

Statista. (2024). Sweden: largest investment companies by market cap 2024. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1345637/sweden-largest-investment-companies-by-market-capitalization/

Sutherland, A. (2016, September 25). Sami People: Facts And History About The Only Indigenous People Of Most Northern Europe. Ancient Pages. https://www.ancientpages.com/2016/09/25/sami-people-facts-and-history-about-the-only-indigenous-people-of-most-northern-europe/

Time. (2024, March 12). Sweden’s Reindeer Are Under Threat, say Indigenous Herders. TIME. https://time.com/6899748/deforestation-sweden-reindeer-sami-herders/

United Nations. (2021, March 18). The Sámi: We are the natives of this country. United Nations Western Europe. https://unric.org/en/sami-we-are-the-natives-of-this-country/

Penulis: Ghiffari A. N. Pangestyatama

Dalam kesempatan kali ini, Nyheter Scandinavia berkesempatan berbincang-bincang dengan Mas Wawan Mas’udi. Mas Wawan adalah salah satu dosen Departemen Politik Pemerintahan yang pernah mengenyam pendidikan berjenjang S2 di Norwegia pada tahun 2002-2005. Perbincangan Nyheter dengan Mas Wawan kali ini akan membahas pengalaman beliau tinggal di Norwegia, khususnya terkait green living dan tata kelola kota di Norwegia. Yuk mari, kita simak bersama-sama!

Norwegia merupakan negara yang berwilayah sangat luas tetapi berpenduduk relatif sedikit, sehingga pembagian wilayah tempat tinggal dibagi-bagi berdasarkan model cluster dengan jarak antarkota yang sangat jauh. Pada tahun pertama kuliah, Mas Wawan tinggal di kota Bø, Telemark – kota ini terletak di pegunungan dan berjarak sekitar 3-4 jam dari Oslo ke arah selatan. Bø merupakan kota yang relatif kecil, dimana mayoritas penduduk tinggal di rumah-rumah biasa. Yang sangat menarik dari kota ini, menurut Mas Wawan, adalah sistem kebersihan atau sanitasi rumah tangga. Masing-masing rumah tangga terkoneksi dengan satu tempat pembuangan limbah besar. Untuk sampah rumah tangga akan langsung dipisahkan sejak awal antara limbah recyclable dan unrecyclable melalui pembedaan warna tempat sampah di tiap-tiap rumah. Pengelolaan sampah ini dilakukan oleh pemerintah daerah, mengingat pada tiap-tiap cluster pemerintah daerah mempunyai otoritas penuh terhadap pengelolaan sampah. Tugas masyarakat dalam pengelolaan sampah kota hanyalah pemisahan sampah rumah tangga yang telah disebut sebelumnya. Di beberapa kota lain di Norwegia, limbah yang tidak didaur ulang dapat dimanfaatkan sebagai energi dan bahan bakar.

Pada tahun-tahun berikutnya mas Wawan pindah ke kota yang sedikit lebih besar – kota ini bernama Kristiansand. Karakternya juga mirip dengan Bø dengan model housing yang agak berbeda – lebih banyak apartemen di kota tersebut. Menurut Mas Wawan, struktur kota Kristiansand mirip dengan kota-kota tua di Eropa: pusat kota yang tersusun oleh Gereja, dikelilingi oleh tempat-tempat perbelanjaan dan kantor pemerintah daerah. Di luarnya rumah-rumah penduduk muncul mengitari pusat kota. Hanya ada 3 jalan utama penghubung antara kota Kristiansand dan desa-desa kecil disekitarnya. Menariknya, pemerintah Norwegia mampu menerapkan standar kebersihan lingkungan dan sanitasi dengan setara di tiap-tiap kota – sistem dan standar sanitasi di kota Kristiansand sama persis dengan sistem dan standar kota Bø. Sebagai gantinya, masyarakat Norwegia diharuskan membayar iuran bulanan untuk kebersihan kepada negara. Untuk mahasiswa sendiri, biaya kebersihan sudah termasuk rencana biaya sewa apartemen (all-inclusive living cost). Kedua hal ini menunjukkan bahwa pemerintah Norwegia menjamin kemudahan hidup praktis bagi masyarakatnya, baik warga asli maupun pendatang.

Terkait dengan standar kebersihan yang sangat tinggi, tantangan unik apa sajakah yang dihadapi pemerintah Norwegia dalam menerapkan standar tersebut? Salah satunya tentunya adalah tantangan empat musim: pemerintah diwajibkan menyediakan fasilitas pelayanan limbah dengan volume dan standar yang sama, tanpa memperdulikan pergantian musim. Meskipun badai salju sedang terjadi di luar sana, truk akan tetap datang untuk mengambil sampah tepat waktu ketika jadwal pengangkutan sampah tiba. Selain layanan limbah, pelayanan dasar lain juga tidak akan terhenti hanya karena terhalang cuaca maupun musim. Seandainya ada perubahan pelaksanaan pelayanan, pemerintah akan menginformasikannya melalui telepon rumah tangga maupun pos. Intinya, selalu ada komunikasi antara pemerintah daerah dengan masyarakatnya untuk menjamin ketersediaan fasilitas umum 24/7.

Masyarakat sendiri telah diberikan edukasi sejak awal tentang bagaimana cara mengelola kebersihan dan sanitasi lingkungan. Hubungan individu dengan lingkungan merupakan edukasi dasar bagi warga-warga Norwegia, termasuk diantaranya kesadaran akan kebersihan lingkungan dan sustainable environment. Menurut Mas Wawan sendiri, bahkan para mahasiswa asing lama kelamaan akan terbiasa mengikuti sistem tersebut. Karena sejauh sistem tersebut kuat dan bagus, dengan ada mekanisme yang ditegakkan secara serius maka individu relatif akan selalu menaati peraturan lingkungan – beberapa diantaranya termasuk aturan pembagian no-smoking dan free-smoking area untuk menjaga kebersihan udara.

Mas Wawan juga membeberkan aspek kehidupan Norwegia yang menurutnya sangat menarik, yakni kemampuan pemerintah Norwegia memberikan pelayanan sosial yang equal terhadap semua orang, apapun latar belakang dan status sosialnya. Mas Wawan juga berpendapat bahwa kejujuran orang Norwegia tak kalah mengesankan: suatu waktu pada awal masa studi di Norwegia, Mas Wawan sempat meninggalkan dokumen penting dalam bus antarkota Oslo-Bø. Setelah menyadari bahwa dokumennya hilang, Mas Wawan segera mendatangi pengelola public transport dan menceritakan kehilangannya. Keesokan harinya, rupanya dokumennya sudah menunggu untuk diambil kembali (dokumen tersebut disimpankan pengelola dalam arsip Lost and Found, per aturan yang berlaku). Hal mengesankan dalam cerita tersebut adalah bagaimana orang-orang Norwegia dibiasakan untuk menaati aturan dan membudayakan kejujuran sebagai professional work ethic. Tidak hanya itu, ketaatan orang Norwegia terhadap tata kelola kota yang telah dibeberkan sebelumnya juga mencerminkan kultur Norwegia yang sangat taat aturan dan environment-conscious.

Scanity members also practice Scandinavian folk dance as a way of learning culture and art,  and we already got the opportunities to show it twice, the first one at UMY on May 26, 2016 and the second one was at Gama Awards on November 30, 2016.

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Scandinavian Day is held once a year, in 2016 was on October 27-28 at FISIPOL. Scandinavian Day was held after mid term exam and consist of some different events which are Public Lecture, Movie Screening, Language Course, and Expo.

On the first day there was Public Lecture with topic Green Culture in Scandinavia with speaker Mathilde Wichmann (Student from Scandinavia) and Ajeng from PACER. The language course was specifically for Swedish Language, it started since the first day until the last day. The Expo also last for two days and there ware cooking demo (Swedish Meatball), Photobooth spot and photo competition, Live performances, and doorprizes. On the last day, there was also movie screening which played Sweden movie The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared or  Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann.

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On April 29, 2016 Scanity in colaboration with PACER, Institut Ungu and Penerbit Djaman Baroe held a book launching and discussion “Nora adalah Subversif!” written by Faiza Mardzoeki. The discussion was moderated by Arum Chandra, a lecturer from Faculty of Cultural Science of UGM, with the speakers; Longgina Novadona Bayo, a lecturer from Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, the author Faiza Mardzoeki, Erwan Purwanto and Hilde Solbakken, Minister Counsellot at Royal Norwegian Embassy, Jakarta. These book are adaptation from the first feminist man author Henrik Ibsen.

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