Towards a model of Regenerative Tourism for the Sámi society

Fundamental Starting Point

Any form of tourism development in Sámi Homeland, should support the Sámi society and be to its benefit. All programs and instruments developed for tourism development should be aimed at the Sámi society and its needs.

Also tourism development must respect their concrete demand of “nothing about us, without us”. This is even a requirement in Article 31.1 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:

"Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.”

Article 32.1 states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories and other resources.”

The Sámi society has the right to tell its own stories and determine the use of its cultural property, heritage, history, including its possible commercialization.

Regenerative tourism to and in Sámi Homeland should be developed on the Sámi peoples’ own terms. They should create their own visions and their own goals to build a future anchored in Sámi societal values, knowledge, and premises for sustainability and regeneration.

Our duty, as non-Sámi who develop activities in their Homeland, we need to change our understanding of the reality, and support and enable the Sámi to take ownership and responsibility for developing regenerative tourism to and in Sámi Homeland themselves.

On regenerative tourism

Regenerative tourism is a form of tourism that is developed according to regenerative principles.

Among these principles are:

  • Interconnectedness;

  • The logic of life;

  • Reciprocity;

  • Nature’s laws

  • Living systems thinking

As a form of business, regenerative tourism should nourish the social, cultural, living and spiritual capital of the Sámi society and its Homeland, ensuring its perpetuation for future generations.

There are many forms of tourism. However, the forms that are closely linked to both the Sámi Homeland and regenerative tourism are cultural tourism and ecotourism, as defined by the UN (Source):

  • A person is a visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound), classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay, or as a same-day visitor (or excursionist) otherwise.

  • Cultural tourism is a type of tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination.

These attractions/products relate to a set of distinctive material, intellectual, spiritual and emotional features of a society that encompasses arts and architecture, historical and cultural heritage, culinary heritage, literature, music, creative industries and the living cultures with their lifestyles, value systems, beliefs and traditions.

  • Ecotourism is a type of nature-based tourism activity in which the visitor's essential motivation is to observe, learn, discover, experience and appreciate biological and cultural diversity with a responsible attitude to protect the integrity of the ecosystem and enhance the well-being of the local community.

Ecotourism increases awareness towards the conservation of biodiversity, natural environment and cultural assets both among locals and the visitors and requires special management processes to minimize the negative impact on the ecosystem.

Linking this with Regenerative Tourism to Sámi Homeland, what can be expected from tourists is, indeed, an willingness to learn, observe, discover, experience and appreciate the Sámi Ways of Doing Things, culture, heritage, contemporary expressions, as well as a responsible attitude towards the Land, its ecosystems and the well-being of the local community.

The protagonists are the Sámi society, the Land and the long-standing reciprocal relationship between the Sámi society and the Land. The visitor is not and never the protagonist.

A framework for rooting regenerative tourism in Sámi Homeland in Sámi Customary Ways

Rooting regenerative tourism in Sámi Homeland in Sámi Customary Ways is not only supporting these ways of doing things, but also safeguarding cultural heritage and perpetuation of the Ways.

Since, customary ways have been developed over centuries of adaptation, through the continuous interplay between in the moment behaviours, and established ways of doing things. They are a basis of social order.

The frameworks of cultural ecology and legal pluralism help supporting cultural autonomy, political autonomy and the concept of self-determination of the Sámi society. These frameworks are complementary at a theoretical level. Together, they provide a basis for making a Regenerative Tourism Model for the Sámi Homeland.

Cultural ecology

The framework of cultural ecology integrates biological and cultural processes in the study of adaptation of humans in their physical, psychological and social environments. Thus, it is concerned with the reciprocal interactions between behavior of people and the environment they inhabit.

There are formal and informal interactions. The formal interactions happen within a local, national or transnational legislative and organizational structure. They are formed through previous experiences and accumulated knowledge of the collective. Informal interactions happen in day-to-day-activities on an individual level. They are formed through the interaction between the individual, the environment and the context. They occur in the moment and are formed through creativity, rationalization and conceptualization. So, through spontaneity and rationality.

The formal and informal interactions are not totally separate from each other. Indeed, there is a reciprocal relationship between them, and they create and re-create each other, co-creating the phenomenon of reciprocity.

Over time, several interactions get associated with certain places. They get a collective significance or a special meaning. For example, sacred places in nature. This is where such processes interweave with collectively accumulated knowledge, expressed in stories and traditions. These stories and traditions embody the collective understanding and create social cohesion.

Every human situation is, as such, a cultural ecology. Examples are social dynamics, customary ways, land use systems or institutional structures. They can be formed on all levels, from local to global.

 

Legal pluralism

Legal pluralism is a situation in which there are at least two normative systems in the same social sphere, and there is no rule of recognition about which rule is more important and which rule to choose and apply. There is equality between the normative systems.

In research in legal pluralism, customary laws are recognized as a normative system. All rules are legitimate and equally important. Legitimacy can come from a legal system, traditions, long-standing customs, beliefs, religion…

Sámi Customary Ways as the basis for Regenerative Tourism in and to Sámi Homeland

The basis for regenerative tourism to and in Sámi Homeland should be designed by the Sámi society. It is even up to the Sámi peoples to decide whether a model should be based on their customary ways and perspectives or not.

However, it would be pure logic to do so. Why? Because customary ways are part of cosmologies, and thus the result of traditions based on common long-standing beliefs and understandings of the world and of the universe.

Costumary ways are consistent with their psychologies, mentalities and social and individual values. They are the result of adaptation to the environment, to cultural, biological, physical and geographical circumstances.

Reciprocity is a basic principle: a constellation of mutual relationships, obligations and duties among people in a given community. This called the principle of “Do ut des”: I give that you may give. And vice versa: you give that I may give.

Perspectives on regenerative tourism shaped in eurocentric cultures, do not fit well with this. Why not? Because they are shaped in another cosmology, another culture. They are not based on the ways Sámi people understand the Laws of Nature.

In short, a regenerative tourism model for Sámi Homeland should be rooted in Sámi perspectives; should benefit and be aimed to the needs of the Sámi society and be based on the principle of reciprocity between the Sámi society and its visitors. It is the sovereignty of the Sámi society to decide how this reciprocal relationship should be constituted.

Examples of absolutely relevant Sámi perspectives and concepts are ‘boazolihkku’, ‘noaidevuohta’, ‘birgejupmi’ and ‘roahkkatvuohta’.

Cultivating Edge. The darker side has an equal amount of area in both images, while the image on the right has four times the amount of edge for interconnections and exchange. When taken care of and nourished from regenerative principles and rooted in indigenous customary laws and ways, both sides might benefit from reciprocal relationships.

Cultivating edge

Another concept in regenerative business is “cultivating edge”: it is one way to increase the number of connections between elements. In living ecosystems the edges between different habitats are rich in diversity. The blending availability of resources from each habitat creates a situation where more species can live and interact than in either of the two adjoining habitats on their own.

Cultivating and growing the edge itself, can offer significant benefits to both habitats without one taking space of the other.

Applied to the reciprocal relationship between the Sámi society and its visitors, the edge is the space where they meet each other and give to each other. Cultivating and consciously nourishing that space  can offer benefits to both, and provide answers to different needs from both sides.

Our self-discovery journeys are an example of applying this principle deliberately.

Without a doubt, we do support and aim to contribute to the development of a model for regenerative tourism for the Sámi Homeland, designed by the Sámi society. We therefore allocate a percentage of our incomes to help financing projects with that aim. With your participation, you contribute to the regeneration of the Sámi society.

Recommended literature

  • Roland, E.C. and Landa, G. (2013): Regenerative Enterprise: Optimizing for Multi-capital Abundance.

  • Bunikowksi, D. and Dillon, P. (2017) ‘Arguments from Cultural Ecology and Legal Pluralism for Recognising Indigenous Customary Law in the Arctic’, in L. Heinämäki and T.M. Herrmann (eds.), Experiencing and Protecting Sacred Natural Sites of Sámi and other Indigenous Peoples. Cham: Springer Polar Sciences, pp. 37-64.

  • Magga, P (2022): ‘Defining the Sámi Cultural Environment’, in S. Valkonen et al (eds.), The Sámi World. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 133-148.

  • Hætta, C. (2024): ‘A Recipe for Sámi Super Power’, in M. Danbolt et al (eds.). Searvedoaibma: Art and Social Communities in Sápmi. Alta: Fagtrykk Idé, pp. 126-142.