Welcome!

You can make a difference! Please help us!

What is Jåhkågaska tjiellde?

We are a community of indigenous sami people located in the middle of Jokkmokk municipality in the north of Sweden. In the past we were known under the name Jåkkåkaska but we chose to reclaim our sami spelling which is Jåhkågaska tjiellde and means "the sami community between the rivers". The community is governed like an economic association, and we also have a territorial area which our members are using as grazing grounds for our reindeer. The land of the sami community is currently severly exploited in many different ways such as by logging, hydro plants, various infrastructures and so forth.

Gállok? Gállak? Kallak?

These are different ways of spelling the name of an area in the middle of our grazing lands, situated beween the two villages Randijaur and Björkholmen in Jokkmokk municipality. Kallak is also the name of the concession permit to mine iron ore that the swedish government recently gave to the company Jokkmokk Iron Mines.

What has happened?
Our community has been fighting for 12 years to prevent an iron mine on our grazing lands. Our members have come together and financed the resistance, which has been mainly in the form of written, juridical correspondence with the swedish authorities, primarily with Bergsstaten. The economical burden, aswell as the psychological pressure on our members during this time has been a heavy cross to bear.The Swedish government recently decided, despite our efforts to prevent it, to award the concession permit to mine iron ore in Gállok to Jokkmokk Iron Mines. In the same time as this long struggle, our community has also been fighting against plenty of other exploitations on our grazing grounds.
What happens next?
Our sami community is of the firm opinion that the Swedish governments decision to allow an iron mine in Gállok, is not compatible with international conventions that they are obliged to live up to. An actual iron mine in the area would cause massive, irreversible damage to the environment, which would lead to many bad consequenses for animals, people and especially for the reindeer herding that has been present in the area since time immemorial. This would be of great sorrow for us, and we are trying our best to prevent it from happening.
The community is in the process of trying to get the governments decision repealed to prevent the mine. In parallel to this we are also trying to stop other exploitations in our nature. This implies a large amount of legal work with a big economic impact for our members. We can no longer carry these costs alone and ask for your support!
For more information about how to help us, see below.

We need your support! Please help us!

To be able to afford to keep fighting against the exploitations on our lands we need everybodys support. If you, like us, cherish wild animals, a nature untouched and a thriving indigenous sami culture, then you can help us!

You easily donate any amount you'd like below through either PayPal, Credit/Debit card payment or via an international bank transfer. All donations will be used for our sami communitys fight to prevent the exploitations on our lands. We need to pay lawyers, other persons with nessecary expertise, lodging and travel costs, other costs for opinion formation, various arrangements and meetings etc. during our fight against the exploitations.

If you feel that you can't support us with an economic donation, there is still a way in which you can help us! Please give the URL to our webpage www.gallok.se/en-gb to everyone you know, and share it through social media.

We become strong together!