7 activists in Norway meet with the king to discuss a wind farm that is on land used by Sami herders
Seven of the activists who repeatedly have demonstrated against a wind farm in in central Norway that they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer have met with the Norwegian king
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Seven of the activists who repeatedly have demonstrated against a wind farm in central Norway that they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer met with the Norwegian king on Monday and his son who is heir to the throne.
”It was a very strong moment for us — emotionally charged,” activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen told the VG newspaper after the meeting with King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon at the royal palace in Oslo. “We experienced not only being believed, but a human meeting with someone who really meets people with compassion and sympathy.”
”It makes a world of difference in the face of this state, which is so strong and arrogant and difficult to talk to,” she told the daily.
Before the meeting, another activist told Norwegian news agency NTB that “we have nowhere else to go.”
“We hope his majesty will listen to us and remind the responsible state of its responsibility,” Elle Nystad said.
At the center of the dispute are the 151 turbines of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, which is located in Norway’s Fosen district, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of the capital, Oslo. The activists say a transition to green energy shouldn’t come at the expense of the rights of Indigenous people.
They have protested several times since the Supreme Court of Norway ruled in October 2021 that the construction of the turbines had violated the rights of the Sami, who have used the land for reindeer for centuries.
The activists, many dressed in traditional colorful
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