The Diversity of Sacred Lands in Europe - IUCN

Lake Inari. Some of them are planned
to be built near Áddjá. For the Saami
people this development is unwelcome.
It’s important that the religious
site and its surrounding environment
are protected from mass tourism.
The Saami traditional religion, shamanism
has evolved together with the
Saami culture and livelihoods. Nature
is an important part of the Saami shamanistic
religion. The Saami attitude
towards nature can be described as
an attitude of unity, in other words, man
is seen as a part of nature, not as holding
power over it.
The Saami religion that has helped the
Saami people to survive in nature has
almost disappeared. When the colonialists
came to the Saami area, the
Saami religion was rapidly forbidden
and also the traditions linked to shamanism
disappeared. The Saami people
were forced to abandon their religion
and convert to Christianity. Our
knowledge of the Saami religion is thin,
because the oral tradition was lost.
And, that is something that no science
can bring back. Luckily, at least sieidis
and their meaning have survived
through the assimilation process.
Although shamanism was replaced by
Christianity, the sieidis continue to be
an important part of the Saami cultural
heritage, and knowledge of the sieidis
has been passed on from one generation
to the other. Many of the Saami
sieidis are well known. However, there
are still many sieidis that are only
known by members of the community.
The Saami people have wanted to
keep the knowledge private, and the
privacy of the Saami people’s spiritual
beliefs has to be respected. In recent
years there has been quite a lot of discussion
on who can study sacred sites
of the indigenous people, who should
benefit from the studies and how the
research should be conducted.
The approval of the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in
2007 is meaningful when considering
guidance on how to conduct research
in sacred sites. The Declaration states
in article 11 that ‘indigenous peoples
have the right to practice and revitalise
their cultural traditions and customs. It
includes the right to maintain, protect
and develop the past, present and future
manifestations of their cultures,
such as archaeological and historical
sites, artifacts, designs, ceremonies,
technologies and visual and performing
arts and literature’. Furthermore,
article 12 states that ‘indigenous peoples
have the right to manifest, practice,
develop and teach their spiritual
and religious traditions, customs and
ceremonies; the right to maintain, protect,
and have access in privacy to
their religious and cultural sites; the
right to the use and control of their ceremonial
objects; and the right to the
repatriation of their human remains’.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples is a powerful document
and it obligates different stakeholders
to respect the spiritual beliefs
and places of indigenous peoples.
I hope that the Declaration will be implemented
in Finland and in other
countries as well.
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