Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 3, 1 March 2011 — SAMI RIGHTS PIONEER SPEAKS AT UH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SAMI RIGHTS PIONEER SPEAKS AT UH

By Lisa Asato The struggles of indigenous peoples around the globe may have similar under currents and facets - such as issues of land and language - but there is no cookie-cutter solution for self-determination for all native peoples, a leader of the Sami indigenous peoples of Northem Europe said during a panel discussion in Honolulu. "The right to self-determination applies to all peoples including indigenous peoples," said Magne Ove Varsi, speaking at the University of Hawai'i Law School on Feb. 11. "How we choose to solve the self-determination issue by autonomy and self-government, that cannot be a uniform solution. We cannot copy cat one solution and put it to work in another country. It's a dynamic process this right of self-determination - for indigenous peoples as it is for peoples, because indigenous peoples are peoples."

Over a two-hour-long discussion, Varsi described the 1989 establishment of a Norwegian Sami parliament, a non-leg-islative body that serves as the "eommon voice for Sami of Norway today" that has consultation - but not negotiation - powers with the Norwegian government on issues significant to the Sami culture. He also described hunger strikes in 1979 and 1981 outside the Norwegian parliament over Norway's policy toward the Sami. "This period was a culmination of the struggle for Sami rights," said Varsi, Founder of the

Galdu Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Norway. The hunger strikes, whieh were sparked by government plans to build a hydroelectric power plant in a river important to i the Sami people, attracted intemational V media attention. That confrontation M over an environmental issue was the first time that the Norwegian . W and other Nordic governments . paid attention to the grievances ■ of the Sami people, whieh is ■_W SEE INDIGENOUS ON PAGE 10

Panelists Jon Osorio and Esther Kia'āina listen intentJy as Magne 0 ve Varsi speaks,- Photos: UsaAsato

GOVERNANCE

To restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve self-gover-nanee, after whieh the assets of OHAwillhe transferred to the new governing entity.

Magne 0 ve Varsi addressed the United Nations in May during lndigenous ^^4 Peoples Month. ■'

INDIGEN0US

Continued from page 4 eommon for many indigenous peoples around the world, he said. Panelist Jon Osorio, a UH Hawaiian Studies Professor, likened it to the Hawaiian political movement that "grew out of protest and evictions" in Kalama Valley, threats of eviction in Waiāhole and Waikāne and the U.S. Navy's bombing of Kaho'olawe. Environmental issues, he said, seems to be an "international indigenous theme and I think you ean see this over and over again in many places." OHA Chief Advocate Esther Kia'āina, also a panelist, asked Varsi whether there were ehallenges against the Sami-only vote when it comes to electing the Sami parliament, similar to how the Hawaiians-only vote for OHA Trustees was challenged, and ultimately struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2000. "All federal

and state programs are vulnerable under the equal protection clause and until we form a government and establish a . . . government-to-government relationship with the United States, we're still vulnerable," she said. Varsi said political parties are challenging Samis' ability to vote for both Sami and non-Sami representation for the area known as the Finnmark Estate, a vast territory in Northern Norway that was returned to the county. The estate's governing body is split between members of the Sami parliament and County Council. Challengers have considered that an unfair advantage, or double vote, for the Sami who ean participate in elections for Sami and non-Sami, he said. Varsi called the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, whieh was adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 and more recently supported by the United States in December, "the strongest instrument when it comes to selfdetermination because it states that

all indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination." "It's very important that there is now international consensus on the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples especially when it comes to self-determination after Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States joined the ranks of states that endorse this declaration," he said. "But you have to remember, there were 1 1 states that abstained from voting in the General Assembly and among them, Russia. Russia has numerous indigenous peoples inside its border. So the next step in the process is eonvincing those states that abstained to endorse the declaration." The Sami people live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Varsi said the Sami have pushed their claims forward by working nationally and joining the international indigenous movement that arose in the 1970s. But he said Sami could do better in taking advantage of an 1997 acknowledgement by the Norwegian king that the Norwegian

state is established on the territory of two peoples - the Norwegians and the Sami. "This is an important acknowledgement from the Norwegian authorities but we have not have not been that clever to utilize that statement in our demands," Varsi said. "Because what does it mean that this state is established on our eommon territory? Well, when it comes to land rights and resources, we also need part of the revenues from exploitation of timber or hydroelectric power or minerals or fisheries." The panel was moderated by UH law Associate Professor Melody MacKenzie. The Indigenous Rights Symposium, held over two days at UH, also included panels on sustainable self-determination regarding territories, land and natural resources, as well as a young leaders panel on transforming legacy into vision. Kevin Chang, OHA's Land Manager, was a panelist for the land and natural resources discussion, whieh was held at the Kamakakūokalani

Center for Hawaiian Studies. Noenoe Silva, an author and UH Associate Professor of Poliheal Scienee, said she was "a little more optimistic" after participating in the indigenous rights panel. "It is the internahonal cooperation of indigenous peoples that may lead to liberation for us from these huge states that have us in our cages," she said. Osorio also was optimistic, in part, he said, because "there have been so many efforts by Hawaiians to secure justice but also to secure a stronger control of things that affect our lives." "What we are facing," he added, "is a really complex global system that continues to morph before our very eyes. We're no longer dealing with old state systems; we're dealing with international corporations. They cross nahonal boundaries. They're after the same things that they 've always been after - the eoncentration of weahh in just a few hands. That's what we're fighting. That's what indigenous peoples are fighting." ■

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