Land can never be separated from the life that grows alongside it. Land is home, livelihood, culture, identity, and a source of life. Yet throughout history, land has also been a site of contestation, displacement, and conflict. These tensions remain visible today.

As part of the Master’s programme in Peace, Trauma, and Religion (PTR) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, we explored questions of ecological justice through a study visit to Sápmi, the traditional cultural region of the Sámi people, whose territories extend across northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

The visit invited us to listen to diverse Sámi experiences and to reflect critically on our own assumptions about land, development, language, culture, livelihood, and human relationships with nature. We also recognise that what we encountered represents only particular perspectives and cannot speak for the Sámi community as a whole.

In this publication you will find a collection of reflections by PTR students based on their encounters during the visit. Each contribution is a personal reflection, rather than the views of the Sámi community or the PTR programme as a whole.