The purpose of the seminar was to provide information to the members of the Sami village and others and tell about the experiences gained through the legal process within the Norwegian judiciary that the Sami village has gone through.
Background
On 30 June 2021, Saarivuoma won against the Norwegian state in Norway's highest court, Höyeste rett, in the case where Saarivuoma sued the Norwegian state in 2018 with the claim that the Sami village has the exclusive right to reindeer grazing land on the Norwegian side.
Something that the Norwegian state opposed.
The Sami village lost both in the district court and in the court of appeal, but won in the highest instance.
Lecturer on the legal process
The law seminar started on Friday evening with a lecture by David Sjögren, senior lecturer at Uppsala University, about his historical research on Saarivuoma which Sjögren gave as a testimony in the legal process.
Saarivuoma's lawyer Knut Helge Hurum began on Saturday with a review of the Supreme Court ruling.
Neither Hurum nor Ande Somby, first assistant professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Tromsö, could be present as both had been prevented at the last minute.
Both gave their lectures via link.
Ande Somby spoke about the importance of the Sami cultural context in legal proceedings and the approximately 70 participants had many questions for Ande Somby after the lecture.
Per Anders Nutti, chairman of Saarivuoma Sami village, says that they have tried several times to arrange this seminar, but the corona pandemic has put a stop to it, so he is pleased that it is finally successful.
Parallels and criticism
Matti Blind Berg, chairman of SSR, was also present.
He drew some parallels to the Girja goal that his Sami village went through and won in HD in January 2020. SSR received some criticism for the organization being absent and not supporting Saarivuoma in their process against the Norwegian state.
Something that Blind Berg regretted but at the same time agreed that SSR has failed there.
The day ended with a lecture by Toralf Heimdahl, chairman of Bardu municipality, in which Saarivuoma's summer pastures are located.
Heimdahl began his speech by apologizing on behalf of the municipality for the suffering to which Saarivuoma Sami village has been subjected.
After that, he talked about the historical sharing of nature in Bardu and about new opportunities for cooperation in the future and the respect for each other between the municipal residents and the members of Saarivuoma Sami village.