‘Our bodies know the pain’: Why Norway’s reindeer herders support Gaza

Having long endured threats to their own existence, the Indigenous Sami community is protesting Israel’s war on Gaza. In front of the Norwegian Parliament on a cold October day, surrounded by hundreds of Palestinian and Sami flags, Isaksen held a mic and performed the “joik”, a traditional Sami song performed without instruments. “I don’t like to divide the Sami with borders, but we are people now living in four countries,” Holmberg says. “Green” energy projects for globalised communities have been prioritised and built at the expense of the very people living sustainably – a process described as “greenwashing colonialism” by Sami activists. “It felt natural for Sami to speak for Palestine, especially since the genocide started,” says Benonisen, co-founder of a slam poetry venue in Oslo with Asha Abdullahi, a Norwegian Muslim.