Six Years Without Salmon: Sámi, Europe's Only Indigenous People on Climate Change with Áslat Holmberg

What does it mean to watch the river that shaped your entire life fall silent?

Áslat Holmberg is a former member of the Sámi Parliament of Finland and former President of the Saami Council — a salmon fisher, teacher, and holder of a master's degree in indigenous studies whose work expertise includes human rights, culture, indigenous knowledge, and environmental policy. He grew up in Njuorggán, the northernmost village in Finland, fishing salmon in the Teno River from the age of two. Today, that river is in its sixth consecutive year of complete salmon fishery closure — with stocks at roughly 1% of a healthy population.

In this conversation with Sara, Áslat shares what it means to be part of Europe's only indigenous people — a community of around 100,000 people largely invisible in European institutions, rarely taught in European schools, and yet holding some of the most profound ecological knowledge on the continent. He talks about the dramatic changes the Arctic is undergoing: collapsing salmon stocks, reindeer herding disrupted by rain in January, and insects arriving all at once. And he talks about the Sami worldview — the tradition of asking permission before entering a place, the rule of leaving it exactly as you found it, and the understanding that humans are not above other species, but simply one among many.

This is a conversation about identity, self-sufficiency, indigenous rights, and what Europe still has to learn from the people who have lived in the north for thousands of years.

In this episode:

• Who are the Sami — Europe's only indigenous people — and why are they so little known?
• Six consecutive years of complete salmon fishery closure — and what that means for a community
• How climate change is transforming reindeer herding across the Arctic
• The Sami worldview: asking permission, leaving no trace, humans as one species among many
• The gap between Sami rights on paper and real decision-making power in practice
• Why protecting the human rights system and protecting the environment are the same struggle

About Áslat Holmberg:
Áslat Holmberg is from Njuorggán, situated on the banks of the great river Deatnu at the border between Finland and Norway. He has worked for over a decade with Sámi and indigenous issues through NGOs, activism, and academia. He is a former President of the Saami Council and former member of the Sámi Parliament of Finland. He is a salmon fisher and teacher and holds a master's degree in indigenous studies. His work expertise includes human rights, culture, indigenous knowledge, and environmental policy.