Indigenous reindeer herders fear the drive towards a more sustainable economy is destroying their traditional way of life and identity
• Photographs: Klaus Thymann/Institute for the Guardian
It’s just after sunrise near Jokkmokk, a small town north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, and Gun Aira, a reindeer herder, and her family are gathering the animals for the long trip to the mountains. Following the reindeer’s spring migration through hundreds of miles of snow-covered forests, to their calving area close to the Norwegian border, is a centuries-old tradition.
But today, the reindeer, capable of one of the longest land migrations on Earth, will travel the 150 miles (250km) to their calving grounds by road, in the back of a big lorry.
Gun Aira, a reindeer herder from the Sirges Sami community
