Sápmi: For the Sámi People or the Forest Industry? : A Critical Discourse Analysis of Contemporary Land-Use Conflicts

The aim of this bachelor thesis is to critically examine the relationship between the Swedish state and the indigenous Sámi people, with special attention to land-use conflicts. Throughout history, the Swedish state has subjected the Sámi people to severe violations of their human and indigenous rights, such as forced relocation and land acquisition. Because of the historical context, and because it has been used in previous research on the Swedish-Sámi situation, the thesis uses settler colonial theory. The method is Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) on communicative events from the government, state-owned forest enterprises and Sámi actors. Three research questions guided the analysis: 1) How does the proposed law of consultations describe the possibility for Sámi influence? 2) Are the state owned forestry enterprises reproducing settler colonial power structures in Sápmi? 3) How do Sámi actors describe the state’s forest politics? The conclusions were that it is uncertain if the proposed law of consultations satisfies requirements of free and prior informed consent (FPIC) as they are formulated in international law. Furthermore, the state-owned forestry enterprise Sveaskog reproduces settler colonial structures with some of their statements, for example by relating to state ownership of land that was stolen from Sámi people as unproblematic. Lastly, Sámi actors mostly portray the state’s forest politics in a negative light, emphasizing how the space for reindeer husbandry is shrinking due to irresponsible forestry methods.