Webinar series 2025-2027
The NOGVIS webinar series spotlights the issue of Gendered violence in Sámi and Inuit communities from different perspectives. The webinars are broadcasted digitally on zoom and are open to policymakers, professionals working with violence prevention, researchers and anyone interested in Indigenous health and equality.
Next webinar: Friday Sept 18th, 12.00-13.00 (UTC+1, Swedish time).
“What happens to the landscape, happens to oneself” – External and internal violence and abuse in reindeer herding communities
Presenters: Hannah Helseth, Senior Researcher and Solveig Bergman, Senior Researcher (em.), Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies.
In a recent study we argue that to comprehend violence in Sápmi one needs to expand the concept of violence from just describing persons’ actions towards persons to include the historical context of subordination and colonialisation, present discrimination and actions towards the land. Based on individual and group interviews with persons from the Sámi reindeer herding community, the study explores how the connection between various forms of violence and abuse is understood in their context. Violent acts and sexual abuse within the community, extended family or couple relationship are tainted by the Sámi reindeer herding context but cannot be interpreted solely as being related to external pressure and subordination. Gender and gender relations are conceived of as a central dimension interacting with individual factors, kinship, economic conditions, local community norms, and historical traumas.
Structural, institutional and cultural barriers prevent Sámi victims of violence and abuse from seeking and/or receiving adequate help, and a support system designed according to a Norwegian, individualistic logic often clashes with reindeer herding as a more collective, family-based way of life. Many informants carry multiple simultaneous burdens over time, which has serious consequences for psychological and physical health, and for reindeer herding Sámi communities as a whole. This points to the need for support services capable of understanding and managing this complexity.
The stigma surrounding talking about violence and abuse that occurs internally within reindeer herding Sámi communities appears to be on the wane. All informants point to historical progress in the conversation about violence and abuse – whether it concerns violence and abuse inflicted from outside or violence occurring internally within reindeer herding Sámi communities.
The study was carried out by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies (NKVTS) and the Sámi Norwegian National Advisory Unit – Mental Health and Substance Use (SANKS) in close cooperation. The research teams consisted of Hannah Helseth (project leader), Solveig Bergman, Anna Lene Turi Dimpas, Margrethe Bals Utsi, Kaisa Sofie Anti, Maria Hansen and Linn-Eirin Aronsen Haugen. The report was published as NKVTS Report no. 2/2026.
