Sweden's Indigenous Sami People Held Their First-Ever Pride Event

Photos by Sara Lindquist

Last Thursday the world’s first Sápmi Pride kicked off in the northern Swedish town of Kiruna. It was the first-ever event of its kind organized by and for the indigenous Sami people, who hail from Sápmi, an area in Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Russia. Although this LGBTQ event sounds pretty niche, Sápmi Pride welcomes everyone to participate, even those who don’t originate from the Sami community.

Sami people have traditionally had a difficult time coming out due to the conservative nature of their culture. Queering Sápmi, the organization behind last week's event, is dedicated to the protection of queer Sami people. Pää, a Sami who worked as a translator at Sápmi Pride, was kind enough to answer a few of my questions about the event.

VICE: Hi, Pää. What's the atmosphere over there like?

Pää: Good—very hectic! I mean we had a debate on Friday, the parade was on Saturday, and when we spoke on Friday I had to run to translate the Sexworkshop and Queer Fuckshop-thing. We founded an organization for the Sami queer community, actually. So we drafted a few paragraphs on that, too.

Wow! That’s something totally new, right?

We’ve been talking about doing this for a while, but yeah, it’s new. It’s happening right now! Considering that Queering Sápmi will end at the turn of the year, this will be the next thing.

Can you tell me more about that?

We’ve set up a queer-Sami organization that we call Queer Sámit—Sámit in the Northern Sami language means "Sami people." It’s a part of Queering Sápmi. We thought that the time was right for a constitutional meeting since as many people as possible were gathered at Sápmi Pride. The organization is by and for people of queer-Sami identity. But it’s also possible to become a support member to help the organization.

So in what way does this project begin where Queering Sápmi ends?

The project Queering Sápmi has been put together by Sami people from different parts of Sweden. It has managed to gather all of us who have set up the new project. The idea now is that the committee in this non-profit organization will make sure that things will work out after Queering Sápmi ends. I think that Sápmi still needs to become more open and respectful than it currently is.

Can you tell me about Sápmi Pride? 

I was only there as a volunteer and participant. The expectations beforehand were to make a safe and queer-Sami event where people could have fun together outside of the hetero and white person norm, which it was.

How did the pride parade turn out?

I think there were about 200 people participating in the parade. I don’t know if there’s been any negative feedback around it since I didn’t organize the thing, but the media seems to have been positive!

Is there a big demand in Sápmi for this kind of thing? 

I’d say there’s a big demand—even for Sami people who aren't living in a Sami context. The two-gender norm, racist structures, the suppression of minorities, and the hetero-norm are all everyday matters in both Sápmi and Sweden. People don’t recognize this unless they’re outside of what’s considered “normal.” Sweden doesn’t meet the UN’s demand on indigenous people’s rights. The idea of binary genders—that there are only so called “boys” and “girls” is so incredibly strong. Also, the idea that all people are sexual creatures is rarely questioned. I think that all societies would become better societies with a perspective that is non-capitalist and norm-critical. And that’s what Sápmi Pride puts forward.

Have you guys heard from other minorities since this initiative started?

Not that I know of. But I read about a Roma Pride, I think. And there was the Tornedalen Pride earlier this year. I hope this will become a trend!

Thank you Pää, and happy Pride!