Josefina Skerk

Josefina Skerk is 26 years old and lives in village of about 50 people on the coast of northern Sweden. She is a member of the sami community, the northernmost Indigenous Peoples in Europe. Studying law at Umeå University, she has been active in sami politics since she was 19, and is the vice leader of the Jakt-och Fiskesamerna party, which represents the hunting and fishing sami. This is the largest party in the sami parliament in sweden. She is working on land and water protection, the right of indigenous children to their language and all children to a good school with the possibility to eliminate differences due to class. She was also the first person in the sami parliament to raise the issue of LGBTQ-persons rights and make sure that the sami parliament officially joined the pride parade 2011.