Media сenter FINUGOR publishes the group of scientists working in Norway and Sweden. Editors publish this material, but calls to objectively consider the views of scientists as well as the situation in the Kola Saami.
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‘To Kill a Reindeer’ or ‘Exterminate Reality’?
Reindeer Husbandry and Kola Peninsula Indigenous Peoples in Western Media
We would like to focus on a video-documentary by Paul Anders Simma ‘To kill a reindeer’ (”Å drepe en rein”), presented by the Swedish TV Channel SVT2 in July 2012, by the Norwegian TV Channel NRK2 in December 2012 and at the Göteborg International Film Festival in February 2013. The film’s story is about Saami reindeer husbandry dying out in Russia. The responsible parties are Russian state authorities, poachers, the military, oil and gas extracting agents, as well as other powers who are allegedly also creating obstacles for the development of Saami clan communities (obshchiny) and bringing about the closing down of the Kola Saami Radio. Based on longitudinal research work with reindeer husbandry and Saami communitiesin the Kola Peninsula, we have reasonsto assert that the facts presented in the film do not correspond to local realities, relate a slanted picture, and misinform the viewing public.
Trailer: "To Kill a Reindeer". from paul simma on Vimeo.
The case of an allegedly disappearing Saami reindeer husbandry is unreservedly laid at the door of raiding urban or military poachers (‘external poaching’), as also at the one of industrial companies, backed by Russian state authorities. At the same time, internal reindeer husbandry problems have been entirely left aside. The film is dismissive, in the same manner, of the fact that poaching – both external and internal – is not a phenomenon peculiar to Russia, but occursin reindeer husbandry communities of other countries also, including those of Fennoscandia. Global experience shows that when controlled herding is an established practice, instances of poaching tend to decrease. And conversely: when herders are far from their herds, or alcoholic dependency is a factor of consequence, poachers are likely to take advantage. Reindeer husbandry on the Kola Peninsula is characterized by ‘maximum extensivity’: herds migrate on their own and are sporadically contacted for the purpose of rounding up and harvesting. Thus reindeer husbandry in Murmansk Region shows a marked difference from the husbandry of the Nenets Autonomous District, for instance, which has preserved its intensive-herding and family characteristics. After the changes of the 1990s, Nenets reindeer husbandry registered growth on the basis of private herd ownership, and despite the presence of oil/gas extractive industries, massive influx of labour migrants, and all manner of pipelines and installations, has marked a spectacular increase.
During the last 20 years Russian state authorities have not presented any obstacles to the development of intensive family private herding. Quite the contrary: numerically small indigenous peoples have been provided with subsidies and grazing range. With such assistance from the state more than 20 Saami clan communities in Murmansk Region have had the chance to develop private family reindeer husbandry and fishing. The reindeer husbandry cooperatives are also functioning primarily with the help of state subsidies. Regrettably, such facts have been entirely ignored by the film.
The film continues with the story of a criminal court proceedings in respect of a Saami clan community. The Head of the community is presented as a person victimised by state authorities and industrial companies, who are allegedly trying to get rid of the community and, in this manner, gain free access to their territory for the purpose of initiating extractive activities. The film makes no mention of the fact, however, that the Head of the community had been found guilty of appropriating a subsidy of 1 million rubles for the herding of 2,000 reindeer, found out to be fictional. The same person has also been found guilty of a number of fraudulent activities in respect of the state, as well as in respect of various Saami persons in connection with Saami fishing quotas. The Head of the community was also accused for embezzling another million rubles, entrusted to her by various Saami communities for the construction of houses for reindeer herders.
In the same misleading manner the film shows the ultimate failure of the Kola Sámi Radio (KSR) to function in a proper manner. The Director and another KSR associate are presented as heroes, who are allegedly trying to save the Radio from bankruptcy and are persecuted by the state authorities. The film ignores the fact, however, that the financial reports of KSR, amounting to several million rubles, paid out in the course of 10 years by foreign sponsors, have not found to be in order. Such an opinion had been reached not only by the Russian tax authorities, and the Prosecutor’s Office of Murmansk Region. In 2010 the international Saami Council had to interrupt payment of targeted sums due to the unsatisfactory state of reports. KSR, financed with western money, had decided to be completely independent of Russian state control and for this reason the Radio could not claim state support, finding itself in a position when the sole means of supporting itself was by selling new stems to western Saami channels. At the same time, KSR which is not functioning at the moment, had not been able to produce items of quality, so that it could cover its most basic needs. Broadcasting in the Kildin Saami language in the Village of Lovozero was sporadic, most of the broadcasts were in Russian, at times the Radio went completely off the air.
For the purposes of avoiding responsibility and for receiving western political and financial support, there are people – both in Fennoscandia and in Russia – who prefer to play on western stereotypical images and to present the Kola Saami people as if living in stark confrontation with the Russian state. At the same time, those of the Kola Saami, who, in a dialogue with state authorities, work for improving the conditions of life for their own people, tend to be absent from western media presentations. We cannot but recognize the fact that for a tiny indigenous people it is far from easy to defend its interests vis-à-vis the much bigger society in which it exists. Nevertheless, stereotypical presentations in the west or in Russia, lacking nuanced treatment of such relationships, is detrimental to a constructive dialogue between the indigenous people and state authorities, and is not conducive to solving problems of the Kola Saami. On the contrary, falsification of reality presents obstacles to the solution of internal problems, while responsibility is avoided and deflected in the direction of external agencies. Such a policy of evasion of responsibility is indeed capable of bringing about the slow annihilation of reindeer herds and of creating a serious threat for the indigenous Saami people themselves.
About the authors:
Elisabeth Scheller, linguist, PhD student at the University of Tromsø, Norway. She has been working in the Kola Peninsula for the last ten years, being engaged with problems of the revitalisation of the Kola Saami languages.
Yulian Konstantinov, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Tromsø, Norway. During the last 20 years he has been carrying out anthropological field research with the reindeer herders of the Kola Peninsula.
Vladislava Vladimirova, Doctor (Social Anthropology), working as an anthropologist at the Uppsala University, Sweden. For the last 12 years she has been carrying out anthropological research work with Kola reindeer herders and the people of Lovozero and Revda, Murmansk Region.