• Source: Elsa Laula Renberg

Elsa Laula Renberg (née Elsa Laula, 29 November 1877 in Tärnaby – 22 July 1931 in Brønnøy Municipality) was a Southern Sámi activist and politician. Alongside Torkel Tomasson and Johan Enok Nilsson she established and served as the leader of the first Sámi political organization Lapparnas Centralförbund. She also initiated and served as chairwoman for the first in the organization of the Sámi Assembly of 1917.
After receiving training school in Stockholm as a midwife, she returned home to live near Dikanäs. In 1908, she married reindeer herder, Thomas Renberg. Together, they moved to Vefsn Municipality in Nordland, Norway where they lived as reindeer herders and had 6 children together. Elsa died at the age of 53 of tuberculosis in Brønnøy Municipality.




Childhood and Background


Elsa Laula Renberg was born on the 29th of November 1877 to Lars Thomasson Laula (1846–1899) and Kristina Josefina Larsdotter (1847–1912). Her place of birth is debated as her family lived in a Siida on the border of Norway and Sweden, however regardless she was born in Sápmi territory.
Her family were traditional reindeer herders up until 1898 when, due to financial hardship, they decided to transition to agriculture starting a small farm on their land they named "Kanaan". However Sámi were prohibited from working the land due to the Reindeer Grazing Act. In July of 1899 Elsa's father Lars and brother Matteus tragically drowned days before a court hearing regarding the use of their land. In February of the next year Elsa's mother Kristina was part of an envoy to the king opposing the Reindeer Grazing Act and restrictions on land use. As a result of their advocacy her family received a letter from the king affirming their right to work and live in Kanaan.




'"Do we face life or death?"


In 1904, Renberg wrote and published a 30-page pamphlet in Swedish entitled Infor lif eller död? Sanningsord i de Lappska förhållandena (Do we face life or death? Words of truth about the Lappish situation) making her the first Sámi woman to have her writings published. This work discussed several issues that were facing the Sámi, such as their education system, their right to vote, and their right to own land. The Sámi national spirit was reawakening at the point the writing was published, making it especially important. Renburg also encouraged Sámi women to work and help her in the cause. Throughout the pamphlet, she uses carefully crafted temporal rhetoric to enact resistance to Swedish colonization.
In 1904 she founded the South Sámi Fatmomakka Association, which was the first Sámi activist organisation. Its aim was to combat issues surrounding increasing state colonization and settler presence on Sámi lands, and to resolve local land conflicts, as well as improve the societal, economic, and political position of the Sámi. She was also the chair of the organizing committee of the first Sámi Assembly of 1917 in Trondheim.




References






Further reading


Elsa Laula Renberg at Svenskt kvinnobiografiskt lexikon




External links


The Pioneers: Elsa Laula And Karin Stenberg, The First Sámi Woman Writers
Elsa Laula Renberg - the mother of Sámi cooperation

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• Elsa Laula Renberg
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• Renberg
• Karl Johans gate
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• List of Sámi people
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• Norwegianization of the Sámi