The other day I caught the final episode of ‘Arctic: with Bruce Parry’ on SBS. I had missed the first part of the series, but in this episode, the intrepid Bruce spent some time with a group of Sámi people in Norway. Sámi (or Saami) are the indigenous people of Sápmi, which covers the portions of Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Russian Kola Peninsula that are within and around the Arctic circle. Sámi are semi-nomadic and many still pursue customary livelihoods, including their well-known reindeer-herding traditions. Of course, what with modern politics and global warming, the Sámi’s traditions and lifestyles are under threat, as has happened with most indigenous cultures around the world. Continue reading →