THE SAVIOUR MYTH AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Essay #3 about the Sámi and Sápmi, in partnership with Åsa Andersson Martti

Thank you again, all readers, for the wonderful responses to the previous essays in this series, introducing the Sámi artist, healer and “artivist” Åsa Andersson Martti! Many of you asked for more please.

If you are new to my Substack, here are the links for the previous essays (so can you catch up):

ESSAY #1 MEETING A TRADITIONAL SAMI HEALER AND ARTIST

ESSAY #2 OF NORTHERN LIGHTS AND SOUL BIRDS

Åsa is a Sámi and Tornedalian researcher, artist, and traditional healer (gunsttar) based in Kiruna (Giron), Sápmi, northern Sweden. Åsa is pronounced OHsah (not AHsa).

For today’s essay Åsa and I have looked at some myths and popular assumptions about indigenous peoples. Once again I have put Åsa’s own words in cursive script (so you can tell who is speaking). Our dialogues are in Swedish, so I have translated Åsa’s words into English for you.

Any issue involving the peoples of the Far North is extremely complex. For instance, recently Åsa was invited to write a contribution for a book. She was asked to write about “sacred places in northern Sápmi”. (And she needs to complete this task in half the usual time, because another contributor had pulled out last minute).

After explaining this to me, she said something very interesting:

I could write this piece from two different states of mind (or perspectives) and both perspectives are under direct threat of annihilation, because of (so called) “green colonialism”.

“Green colonialism’ refers to the ways in which the costs of producing renewable energy and green technologies often fall on colonized peoples’ like indigenous groups, and Global South countries. It is a form of neo-colonialism.” SOURCE

The real question then becomes, in Åsa’s own words:

“Can we really collectively extract ourselves from this situation by consuming our way out of the climate crisis?”

Add to this the myth that “The (Far) North is going to come to the rescue of the ‘real and important’ part of the world, meaning the Western World. Our attitude leads to clashes in core values, if we pitch “the indigenous peoples” against the “majority who holds the economic power”.

To this I (IA) would add that the Western World has gained wealth from the exploitation of indigenous peoples (most of them not based in the Arctic). How can it be OK to now (on any level) to “show up again” and say: we have messed this up! “Please share your indigenous wisdom with us, because it might just save the world!” That is highly disingenuous!

A) After centuries of abuse we expect indigenous peoples (who have always followed an earth-centred sustainable lifestyle) to hand over some of their most precious things (their ancestral beliefs and wisdom teachings).

B) The people who did not make this mess to start with (because they were truly living a sustainable way of life), are now expected to act as our saviour and clean up the mess?

C) They are also supposed to do that, somehow, without the Western World making a realistic dent in its systemic consumerism?

D) And so we remain stuck in (what Åsa calls) värderingskrockar, which is Swedish for clashes of values.

SYMBOLS PAINTED ON SAMI DRUMS, SAMEGÅRDEN, KIRUNA (GIRON)

This all sounds rather abstract, so let’s provide some real life examples:

The moment that Åsa is asked to write about powerful sacred places in Sápmi, the ancestral lands of the Sámi people, one question rises immediately: “Who do these places of power belong to (and who is allowed to visit them)?” Do we really want coaches full of tourists pulling up and crowds trampling all over them? (I can testify that while was visiting Narvik, in Arctic Norway, recently, there were two coaches full of Chinese tourists staying at the same hotel!)

Bringing (so called) “greener” initiatives to the Arctic has already been tried. Åsa brought to my attention that Northvolt Ett was a lithium-ion battery giga-factory. It was supposed to stand as Europe’s first home-grown response to the opportunities and needs offered by “an electricity-based world”. In plain English: they were supposed to be making batteries for all the electric cars that the entire world population is supposed to be driving in the near future. They recruited engineers from all over the world and many other workers also proudly signed up. All those employees truly believed that they were making a difference.

Åsa calls this mindset “group think and cult think”.

In reality Northvolt ended up filing for bankruptcy on 12 March 2025, here is a paragraph from their own press release:

“Like many companies in the battery sector, Northvolt has experienced a series of compounding challenges in recent months that eroded its financial position, including rising capital costs, geopolitical instability, subsequent supply chain disruptions, and shifts in market demand. Further to this backdrop, the company has faced significant internal challenges in its ramp-up of production, both in ways that were expected by engagement in what is a highly complex industry, and others which were unforeseen.” SOURCE

All Northvolt would have done (or a similar company might still do, if some last minute buy-out occurs) is taking rare earth minerals (such as graphite) out of the mines (mainly focussed on iron ore) in Giron (Kiruna, Northern Sweden) and transport them away from the ancestral lands of the Sámi people: meaning further depletion (and total destruction) of land, and no economic benefit whatsoever to the local Sámi communities.

SUNSET OVER GIRON/KIRUNA!

Åsa: No one in our local community is in favour of the extraction of rare earth minerals. We don’t want them or need them. The Swedish government has overridden the veto of the local people, in favour of an Australian entrepreneur. Local unemployment runs at zero percent, so we don’t need more jobs either. The whole enterprise is essentially built on the same concept as oil platforms: fly-in-and-fly-out, creating “camps of cooped-up men” who inevitably attract criminality, drugs, prostitution to the area, as always happens in all other locations where this same model is used.

Northvolt has not even produced one battery! Then again, they are leaving unbelievable amounts of dangerous waste behind. Who is going to do the cleaning-up after the drunken party?

Not only that, the Sámi people were demonized for protesting against this entire initiative and witch hunts against Sámi key figures occurred. They were accused of “standing in the way of progress” etc. The Sámi had been absolutely spot-on, in all their objections. Yet, no one listened then, or indeed right now. Despite this abject failure, it is clear that no one (in the dominant culture) will listen to the Sámi in the future either. No one has publicly said: the Sámi elders/teachers/activists/community leaders were right, so let’s pay close attention to them to avoid future disasters.

Please remember, (it was explained in SAMI ESSAY #1), that the entire town of Giron (Kiruna) is currently being moved, one building at a time, due to large cracks and fissures opening up (in the local hospital, schools and streets), because of over-mining causing subsidence and so destabilizing all manmade structures. The town is literally on the point of being swallowed up by the Antropocene.

Åsa taught me this word. It refers to the period of time during which humanity has become a planetary force of change. It is often mentioned in scientific and social discourse, especially with respect to accelerating geophysical and biochemical changes that characterize the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth.

(IA) I think we might need to coin the name for a new warrior goddess who rises up against this mindset. “Antropoxena” perhaps?

Åsa: This popular trope is all about false prophets and the deceptive luminosity of a secular Saviour Myth! It is also about “salt being rubbed into the unhealed wounds of the Sámi people. Add to this the Saviour Complex of the White Man and the crazy trope about “How the West was won!”

Imelda: Or perhaps more accurately in this case: “How the North was won…”

Åsa: This narrative is directly connected to the cowboy movies. The word “Klondike” has come to represent silly romantic notions for men. Like “chick lit for men”! This is an archetype we need to recognise and put to rest.

In my own (IA’s) words: what is the point of romanticising and glorifying the “ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples” if we do not listen to them, when they issue timely and dire warnings?

Answer: because greed and money get in the way!

Here is a website maintained by the Sámi people about Sámi people: THE SAMI INFORMATION CENTRE.

We also invite you all to have a look at the SAMI TRAIL OF TEARS:

The Sámi Trail of Tears is inspired by Elin Anna Labbas’s book, written from the perspective of a journalist, about the forced dislocation of Sámi people, when nationalism closed borders in Sápmi. It was the Sámi people in the north who got dislocated. The state forced them to move to unfamiliar locations. This is a triple tragedy! It affects the people who were displaced, the people who are allowed to stay (but many families were ripped apart) and other Sámi people based further south (the so called South Sámis) were displaced too, in order to make room for the arrival of the North Sámis.

The overall result is that many conflicts over land now rage within the larger Sámi community.” Major political moves always bring unforeseen downstream consequences that no one (other than the people affected) pay any attention to.

It also means that the primary insult of colonialization (and generations of children forcibly put in boarding schools down south etc., all things described in Essay #1) does not stand alone. It is followed (and exacerbated) by a pile-up of related losses and abuses of power. Last but not least this causes infighting and serious conflicts within the last remaining group of indigenous peoples in Northern Europe. We commonly call this strategy “divide and conquer”. The term originates with Julius Caesar: “divide et impera” but it is a common political strategy in our world.

Thank you, dear Åsa, for bringing these examples to our attention, and for providing the Sámi back story. Thank you for updating and educating us all! I also thank you for trusting me to write about these issues as “a southerner” who is willing to listen and learn (and use her platform to write and speak about this). I invite you all to follow Åsa on Instagram at Homiartriker! Please let us know in the comments if you want more “Sami Essays”.

I try (but sometimes fail) to get out at least one essay a week (sometimes more), due to travel, international teaching commitments and family care responsibilities (our family lives with Alzheimer’s and I have written several posts about that). If you would like to see regular posts about about Nordic spirituality and my life as a Forest Witch (and of course short videos of all the wildlife here!), please follow me on Instagram or Facebook, thank you!

Imelda Almqvist, Forest Witch

Čuonjávággi or the Lapponian Gate, just outside Abisko

BIO FOR IMELDA ALMQVIST

Imelda Almqvist is an international teacher of Sacred Art and Seiðr/Old Norse Traditions (the ancestral wisdom teachings of Northern Europe). So far she has written four non-fiction books and two picture books for children. Natural Born Shamans: A Spiritual Toolkit for Life (Using shamanism creatively with young people of all ages) in 2016, Sacred Art: A Hollow Bone for Spirit (Where Art Meets Shamanism) in 2019, Medicine of the Imagination - Dwelling in Possibility (an impassioned plea for fearless imagination) in 2020 and North Sea Water In My Veins (The Pre-Christian spirituality of the Low Countries) was published in June 2022.

The Green Bear is a series of picture book for children, aged 3 – 8 years. The stories and vibrant artwork, set in Scandinavia, invite children to explore enchanting parallel worlds and to keep their sense of magic alive as they grow up.

Imelda has presented her work on both The Shift Network and Sounds True. She appears in a TV program, titled Ice Age Shaman, made for the Smithsonian Museum, in the series Mystic Britain, talking about Mesolithic arctic deer shamanism.

Imelda currently has a handbook for rune magicians (about the runes of the Elder Futhark) in production (it will be published by Moon Books in 2026). She is now working on a book about Inuit deities and mythology. Imelda runs an on-line school called Pregnant Hag Teachings, where all classes she teaches remain available as recordings, which can be watched any time.

Website:

http://www.shaman-healer-painter.co.uk/

YouTube Channel: youtube.com/user/imeldaalmqvist

Online School: https://pregnant-hag-teachings.teachable.com/courses/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imelda.almqvist/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/almqvistimelda/