Earlier this year I went to Inari in the far north of Finland, home to
the Sami parliament. While I was there I was lucky enough to meet several Sami people, including one of the parliament's Vice-Presidents, Tiina Sanila-Aikio (pictured below). I learned a lot about the Sami culture, including how the indigenous Sami people are seeking to preserve their language and traditions.
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| © European Union 2013 |
By a stroke of luck, the Sami parliament happened to come to my hometown of Brussels this week where they made history by holding a session in the European Parliament. As you can see from the photos, they came attired in their traditional dress as they sought to remind the EU of the importance of fighting to preserve minority languages and cultures.
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| ©Anna Jenkinson |
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The invitation to Brussels came from the
MEP Nils Torvalds who in welcoming his Sami colleagues said, "We don't need to go very far back in history to see that the Sami
people didn't have many rights in Finland...You should continue your
fight. You have to save the Sami languages for your children. Without
the Sami languages, the Sami culture won't be there in 100 years. We
hope it will be there as long as Finland or Europe."
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| © European Union 2013 |
