Similarities Between Indigenous People: Comparison Between Cree, Sami, and Australia’s Aboriginal Peoples

There are many different Indigenous groups of people worldwide. In this paper, I will focus on the Cree people of Canada, specifically my family members from the Chemawawin Cree Nation. I will also focus on the Sami people of Northern Europe and the Aboriginal peoples of Australia. All three groups of Indigenous people have something similar to one another: They have been forcefully displaced by their local governments, whether the government is colonial or not, to assimilate all Indigenous people and remove and replace their traditional cultures. The desired outcome of the governments was typically to gain monetary value from the lands taken away from the Indigenous population, as well as to produce a white country, with no Indigenous people remaining. I will bring these similarities together by sharing what I have learned about each Indigenous group, such as writing about my family’s experiences with displacement within the Chemawawin Cree Nation, the displacement of the Aboriginal people in Australia and the Sami peoples of Northern Europe. I intend to bring awareness to the shared experiences of cultural loss from each Indigenous group, their loss of identity and the resistance and resilience to the forced assimilation brought upon by their governments.

The provincial government displaced the Cree people of Chemawawin Cree Nation, also known as Easterville, Manitoba, in the early 1960s. The people of Chemawawin had traditional homes on a small island in Cedar Lake, Manitoba. Their island had no individual name; people called it Cedar Lake. The government relocated the people of Cedar Lake due to plans to build a hydroelectric dam, which would flood their lands. For this paper, I interviewed my maternal grandmother from Cedar Lake to learn about her experiences with the move to Easterville. When asked why the people of Chemawawin were moved from their homes, my grandmother did not know the reason, as she was a young adult at the time. The preparations and negotiations happened between the government and her parents. She remembers that she and others were disappointed with the lands chosen for the community, referring to Easterville as “a rock pile” and noting that there were much nicer grounds that could have been selected for them nearby (Hengemuehl, Sylvia, Personal Communication, March 29, 2025). Related to my grandmother’s account of Easterville when they first moved there, the consensus about the reserve is similar among all the people who remember what their traditional lands were like. In Doris George and Don K. Philpot’s story, “Kā-āciwīkicik = The move”, the authors share their experiences through their written characters. The older couple in the story share that the land they’ve been moved to is nothing like their old home; there is nothing but rocks in the new place (George & Philpot, 2022). The government promised the people of Chemawawin that the land they were moving to was beautiful, lush, and would be an excellent place because it is situated along a lake; the actual land was too rocky, and there was not enough soil to grow their crops or care for their animals (Waldram, 1988). My grandmother remembered that her family had a beautiful garden at Cedar Lake, along with farm animals such as horses, cows and roosters. But all their animals were given to the Pouliot family in The Pas, Manitoba, because they could not care for them in Easterville (Hengemuehl, Sylvia, Personal Communication, March 29, 2025).

The people of Chemawawin Cree Nation began to lose their traditional Knowledge because of the forced displacement of their community brought upon by the provincial government. Their loss included the inability to hunt, gather, and fish for their food because they were placed onto a reserve with an Indian Agent who had the power to choose if a person from the community could leave or return. The waters where they fished were contaminated by the flood from their previous island by Manitoba Hydro. The people of Chemawawin Cree Nation had to adapt to their new lands, which could not provide resources for the people living there due to their rocky terrain. The loss of the ability to continue their traditional hunting and gathering practices made the community rely on rations from the provincial government, and their future generations lost the traditional knowledge of hunting. Presently, Chemawawin no longer receives rations. Instead, they rely on a community convenience store and commute to surrounding towns or cities to purchase food and anything else they might need. There are efforts made by community members to bring back their hunting knowledge, and many people from Chemawawin have been taught about the grounds where they can continue to gather food sources. The people of Chemawawin are making efforts to bring back their knowledge through resources such as culture camps to educate their children.     

The Sami people of Northern Europe settled around Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. They were traditional reindeer herders who were forcefully displaced from their traditional lands because their national governments no longer wanted the reindeer on those lands; they wanted more space to build dams and for farmers to settle (Lopenen, 2023). It is necessary to note that the Sami people have been referred to as “Lapps”; this is a negative term that should no longer be used. The Sami people were sent notices regarding their relocation in languages that they were often not familiar with, such as:

Should the Lapp, with the reindeer under his care, be instructed to relocate to another Lapp herding community, the County Administrative Board must inform him that he must have completed his move within a given period of time and must also inform him of the regulations by which he must abide in so doing. Should the Lapp fail to carry out the relocation within the prescribed period of time, the County Administrative Board shall either impose further fines and/or order the reindeer to be transferred and taken care of at the expense of the refractory party. (Labba, 2024, p. 83)

The government often chose where the Sami people were going to be relocated and gave a specific time limit by which they had to leave. As a result, the Sami people would lose connection with family members, and if they had not left their community by the set time limit, their reindeer herds would be subject to slaughter by the national governments. Further, the government began to ban the use of the Sami language in schools (Lopenen, 2023).

The Sami people experienced a loss of connection to their homes, families, traditional knowledge and language as a result of the forced disconnection and displacement from their traditional Sami lands. Because many of their reindeer herds were slaughtered by their governments, the knowledge of how to herd was lost to many of the Sami people. Presently, there are few herding families among the Sami, but the families are attempting to keep their traditional knowledge alive. The Sami people make the same effort to rekindle their language among today’s generation. Because of this resilience, the Sami people are the only recognized Indigenous group in northern Europe.

In Australia, the Aboriginal peoples have been displaced by their colonial government. The Aboriginal people were forced into stations, which were similar to the reserves in Canada, around the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was common for families to be split apart, not knowing where the other was placed. The goal of the stations was to eliminate the Aboriginal population through controlling who could leave, return, marry or speak their languages (Missions, Stations and Reserves). Essentially, the government was attempting to eliminate the Aboriginal population. A similar attempt was made in Canada, through the residential schools and reserves; the idea was to “Kill the Indian, save the man” (Kliewer et al., 2021).

As a result, the efforts made by the Australian colonial government led to the Aboriginal people’s loss of identity, culture and language. The Aboriginal people of Australia lost their connection to their traditional lands because of the forced displacement and move to stations. The ban on using their traditional languages led the people to lose the ability to speak their own tongue. Intending to bring back their culture and identity, the Aboriginal communities are making efforts to relearn what was taken from them.

Between each group of Indigenous peoples, the Cree, Sami and Aboriginal people of Australia, the common struggle was the forced displacement by their colonial or national governments, who had the intention of erasing their Indigenous identity. Each group of Indigenous people continues to make resilient efforts to maintain their Indigeneity and revive their cultures to this day. During my studies of the Sami and Aboriginal people, I have been able to relate to their struggles by relating my family’s struggle in Canada. There are issues that all Indigenous populations can relate to among one another, showing that they are not alone in their experiences. Reflecting on how other Indigenous communities are attempting to overcome their struggles can help different populations of Indigenous people support themselves in similar ways. It will take a lot of effort, but the Indigenous populations have a chance of reconnecting to their history as long as we support one another.