ABSTRACT
Chapter three by Jukka Nyyssönen examines the ways in which research-based knowledge on the Sámi has been taken up, and used, in the Finnish Government’s Committee Reports that focus on Finland’s Sámi policies. Committee work brings politicians and experts together to deliberate on a predefined set of topics and it is usually followed by a final report which links research with direct policy suggestions. This form of policy formulation is used regularly in Finland to address matters specific to Lapland and to Finland’s Sámi region, such as the status and government of Sámi reindeer herding, questions of land ownership and Indigenous rights, and the region’s overall economic and social development. Nyyssönen explores how committee reports that have been issued relate to the broader social and political context in which they have been made. The chapter suggests that Sámi influence on Finnish Committee Reports peaked in the committee report in 1973 – the heyday of Sámi ethnopolitical mobilization – and again in 1993, shortly prior to the establishment of Sámi cultural autonomy. However, since the question of Sámi land rights was taken up in conjunction with the possible ratification of the ILO convention no. 169 during the latter part of the 1990s, knowledge produced by the Sámi or by people connected to the Sámi movement has been increasingly omitted and sidelined by the government, often because such knowledge is portrayed as “biased” and lacking objectivity.
