Hello from Sweden!

Right now I’m on a train traveling from Åre, Sweden back to Stockholm. I’ve been up in Åre speaking at a conference organized by Green Cross International (another GCI!). The conference was held there because Åre endorsed the Earth Charter back in 2002. I’ve developed a workbook for cities and towns to use if they want to incorporate the Earth Charter into their planning and policy, so I talked about how they could use the workbook in their town.

In Stockholm, I had a chance to visit the House of Tibet, an education and friendship center for Tibet. Two of the other speakers at the conference – Chief Oren Lyons from the Iroquois Nation and Oscar Motomura from Brazil – and I had dinner with the people who live there the first night we arrived. For me, getting there was a bit like being in the Amazing Race – the taxi driver didn’t know how to find it, so I asked him to drop me off at a restaurant nearby and then I walked up a hill and through the woods to find the place. The evening we had there was enchanting - the Tibetan hosts couldn't have been more gracious.

The next morning, we were invited to a seminar in an office called United Spaces, a cooperative office center where several small businesses share space and conference facilities, etc. Chief Lyons spoke eloquently to the group about the traditional ethics and laws of the Onondaga Nation, and how the principles of equity, respect, unity, and peace are critically important for the current global crisis.

Åre is a ski town, north of Stockholm, about midway up the country if you’re looking on a map. Driving up there from the airport was a lot like being in Vermont – rolling hills, mountains, pine forests, rural scenery. We were welcomed there at a lovely small hotel, and went to dinner the first night at a Tyrolean restaurant way up a mountain. The driveway was so steep that we had to hike up the hill to get dinner – and hike down afterward. Down was harder. Some people managed to find a small sled to ride, but I was in a skirt, so that probably would have been more embarrassing. I only slipped and fell once.

The conference was well-attended, over 100 people came. It was held in a place called the Holiday Club, which also served as a lodge for the local ski area. The first part of the day, the international guests spoke, and then the second part of the day we heard presentations from local representatives about eco-tourism, the efforts that are being made in Norway and Denmark for Green Cross International, and how business and environmental interests are working together in the local government.

We had a nice dinner last night back at the hotel, and Chief Lyons received a special gift from Ewa Eriksson, who lives locally, works for Green Cross, and is quite a huntress, apparently. She traveled to Alaska to hunt bear, in fact, and succeeded. She makes a lot of her own clothes from the animals she kills, and the outfit she was wearing during the conference had sleeves made from the bear she shot in Alaska. She gave Oren an eagle feather for his native dress – he promised to wear it the next time he came to Sweden - scheduled in May.

By far the best part of the trip was today, though, when we went up to visit a local Samí village – the Samí are Sweden’s aboriginal people. They have lived herding reindeer for centuries, and are increasingly being forced off their lands by the state and other more powerful land interests. The current conflict centers around snowmobiles – nearby Norway has prohibited them, so a lot of Norwegians and Swedes come to this region to ride snowmobiles. The machines make it impossible for the reindeer to live during the winter, and so this group of Samí has recently had to slaughter hundreds of them, making their herd too small for them to continue their livelihood. We met with Maud Mattson, a local Samí woman, who showed us traditional crafts and the reindeer they have in this village, called Njarka.

Several of us left the village with a promise to Maud to help her find a way to reclaim the land from the snowmobiles for the reindeer. If you are interested in helping us do this, let me know.

All the best, Gwen.