We define Swedish Lapland in a hundred ways or more. For the mountains, forests and wetlands, and for the major rivers flowing continuously into the archipelago of the Baltic sea. For the art, music and literature. For the people who live here and for the broad, untouched expanses of untamed nature.
The destination Swedish Lapland is not only defined by geographic boundaries, but also a common brand used by the northernmost municipalities in Sweden, making it Your Arctic Destination. For us, at Swedish Lapland Visitors Board, the quality of life in the region is more important than its boundaries. And what we are trying to define is an arctic soul. But what is that?
While our location at the Arctic Circle defines our Arctic home, our Arctic everyday life defines us as people. The seasons, distances and climate have not only created a special way of life, but also a life where nature is almost a religion. Here, the place has shaped the people who live here. A slowly changing cultural landscape, where the resources have been utilised by the people who have lived here for thousands of years. An Arctic everyday life, shaped by customs and traditional knowledge. Our home.
Indigenous people lived here long before any king moved the boundaries for his domain farther north. The king’s men called these people Lapps, but they called themselves the Sámi and their homeland Sápmi. There are also minority peoples here, Kvens, Lantalaisset, Tornedalinger, all with distinct local cultures. Together they inhabited a country without state borders, across the entire North Calotte. Today, of course, it is not possible to say who was here first, but it is easy to say who was here last.
Today we refer to this region as Arctic Europe. It is a part of the world that has become increasingly interesting for political powers and foreign investors. A place in love with the open and progressive society, sometimes referred to as “swedishness”, but always on our own terms, under hail or mosquito swarms, snowstorms or sun blisters. Today this northern region is the most progressive in Europe.
Naturally, Swedish Lapland, is a vital part of the global fabric, but it has been shaped since time immemorial in a multicultural melting pot. And, somewhere at this intersection, there is something that we wish to define as a unique lifestyle.
We dry our meat in the spring, smoke our fish in the summer and boil our coffee over an open fire all year round. Amid the clatter of reindeer hooves, fiery sermons, weathered log cabins and tangled herring nets something very exciting has emerged. A destination, of course, but also a place to call home is evolving under northern lights or midnight sun. An everyday arctic lifestyle deeply rooted in nature that we wish to share. For us, Swedish Lapland is not really a place, but rather a way of life.
And you are welcome to share our Arctic lifestyle.
