In 1979, representatives of the Indigenous Sámi people went on hunger strike to protest a decision by the Norwegian government to build a dam at Áltá. Land Sámi lived on for untold generations was expected to become a Green Sacrifice Zone for hydroelectricity, like so much other land, from Mexico to the Philippines, from Australia to Brazil, from Nepal to Honduras. Dams have always been environmentally and socially devastating. They have often been used as acts of war, either to deny people access to water or to flood their lands. Dina Gilio-Whitaker, an Indigenous researcher, activist and journalist, wrote about how dams were used in the extermination of Native Americans:

“The building of dams has historically delivered some of the most devastating blows to Native communities. Flooding caused by dams dislocated entire towns and destroyed fishing sites, contributing to starvation and poverty inflicted by US policies.”

Sámi visual artist and poet, Synnøve Persen took part in the Áltá hunger strike. “The protests in Áltá gathered people from around the country,” she told Gabriel Kuhn for his book, Liberating Sápmi. “The fight for Sámi rights was part of it, but the movement was bigger than that. Environmentalists, farmers, salmon fishers—many were involved.” The slogan that united everyone was “Elva skal leve” (Let the river live). “The words for earth, mother and river are all closely connected in the Sámi language: eana, eadni, eatnu,” Harald Gaski, a professor of Sámi literature, told Gabriel Kuhn. The Sámi understand that everything is connected, and everything must be in balance. In a modern society these sorts of arguments hold little water. The government brought in a shipload of police to crush the protest.

Dams have taken half the water from Australia’s second largest river, the Murrumbidgee, leaving wetlands and floodplains drying up and wildlife devastated. For tens of thousands of years, the Nari Nari people have lived on the floodplains of the Murrumbidgee. To them, water is sacred. Like it is sacred to Joan Carling, who is from the Kankanaey Indigenous community in the Cordillera region of the northern Philippines’ Mountain Province. She came of age as an environmental protector in the 1980s (around the same time as the Sámi were opposing the Áltá dam) as her people opposed mega dam projects in the Cordillera region. She told Mongabay about their struggles:

“The Chico dam project was a World Bank-funded project of four dams along the Chico River. So it’s in the tribal areas of Kalinga and Mountain Province. When I spent my summertime there, I saw that the people there were willing to give up their lives … to defend the Chico River, which is providing them not only their livelihood but their culture, their cohesion as community, as tribal people.”

“They only wanted to live a simple life, but they were being pushed aside [and their lands taken away]. I was inspired by their resolve, their strength and their collective action. They were able to stop the dams. But we also saw how they were heavily discriminated [against].”