Nils-Aslak Valkeapää: Greetings from Lappland
Titel: Greetings from Lappland : The Sami-Europe's Forgotten People
Oorspronkelijke titel: Terveisiä Lapista [pamflet], 1971
Genre: algemeen
Uitgever: Prometheus Books, 1983
ISBN10: 0862321565
Flaptekst / Beschrijving
Greetings from Lappland is a passionate cri de coeur by a Sami (Lapp) author about plight of his people. Nils-Astak Valkeapaa is one of the few Lapps well-known in Scandinavia. He believes that the cultural existence and traditional way f life of the Sami - the original inhabitants of the Nordic countries - are seriously threatened. Their pastures and hunting grounds have already been greatly reduced through a process of colonization. Mines, towns, roads have cut their way through Sami land. Work on the Alta Dam, a huge new hydro-electric scheme, has recently begun despite militant Sami protests. Projected oil pipelines also now threaten the reindeer herds. In an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the bridge leading to the dam site, the photographer for this book, Nils Somby, lost his hand. The beautiful book gives direct voices to the Sami people. It is both a celebration of their outlook on the world and a call to action. The author links the situation of his people to that of other indigenous peoples all over the world, and he draws important parallels between what Europe is doing now to the Lapps, and what it has done in the Third World.