THE SÁMI PEOPLE AWARENESS DECADE (2009-2019) + Brochure

The Sámi People Awareness Decade (2009-2019) is an initiative born in Southern Europe in  the Republic of Croatia. It is designed to increase familiarity and understanding of the Sámi people among all the inhabitants of our planet. The focus of the decade is on the popularization of contemporary Sámi society, life and culture.

The idea for the decade came from Robert Kakarigi, founder of Ecogreen Europe, when he realized how little people around the world know about the contemporary Sámi way of life. Kakarigi and Ecogreen Europe, organization built around four pillars of sustainable development, reached out from Mediterranean Europe to the indigenous Sámi people living at the northern tip of Scandinavia and proclaimed the period 2009 - 2019 as The Sámi People Awareness Decade. The Decade is symbolically commencing on the United Nations’ International Day of the World's Indigenous People, 9 August 2009. 

The Sámi People Awareness Decade (2009 – 2019) aims to improve and intensify information exchange on facts and issues concerning the Sámi people. During this project we plan to use different real life and on-line cultural events to communicate with the general public in Europe and other parts of the world to raise awareness on Indigenous issues.

The main objectives of the Decade are:

• To raise the awareness about the Sámi people among the general public in Europe first, and then across the entire globe;
• To develop written and audio-visual materials and to organize real life and on-line cultural events in order to raise awareness across Europe and globally about contemporary Sámi society, life and culture;
• To draw attention to the modern and historical issues facing the Sámi people;
• To contribute to the existing efforts of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.