00:00 The Sami people live in Lapland in the far north.
00:08 They are fishermen, reindeer herders, around 80,000 of them.
00:14 Many of the decisions made in the European Union directly affect them, which is why they
00:18 participate in a European project to strengthen ties.
00:24 It will continue to allow us to do our traditional way of life, to allow us to keep on using
00:31 our language, to exercise our culture and actually have the right to stay where we are
00:40 and have been since time immemorial.
00:48 This hut is a gati, a Sami house.
00:51 It is built with birch branches, leaves and moss and it blends into the landscape.
00:57 The bond of respect and sustainability with the environment is characteristic of the Sami,
01:02 the only recognised indigenous people in Europe.
01:05 Their territory, which is called Sapmi, spans two countries of the European Union, Sweden
01:10 and Finland, and two countries outside the European Union, Norway and Russia.
01:16 The way of life is linked to sails, fishing, reindeer herding, crafts and is influenced
01:21 by community policies.
01:24 The European project, filling the EU-Sapmi knowledge gaps, aims to strengthen the mutual
01:28 understanding and Sami representation in Brussels.
01:34 We are aiming to work with issues such as conservation, with traditional livelihoods,
01:40 markets, more on the research issue.
01:44 Also the youth participation is something that we think should be more built here in
01:49 the EU.
01:51 In these three countries, Norway, Sweden and Finland, this project had a total budget of
01:55 almost one million euros, of which more than 200,000 have been contributed by the Inter-Greek
02:00 Norway programme and almost half a million by Finland and Sweden thanks to the EU development
02:05 funds.
02:12 In the Sapmi territory there are nine languages and just one song, the Joik, which paints
02:17 the soul of beings and landscapes.
02:25 We have a saying that where the words are ending, the Joik begins.
02:33 And then I made a Joik to Svahken, which is one of the big mountains in the area.
02:42 It's quite high and the back of the mountain is more floating down.
02:50 And then you have the Joik.
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