sami culture and language in the new teacher training program in norway

Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr. Trohaug, Bodø University College

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Sami culture and language in the new teacher training

program in Norway By

Kjellrunn Kr. TrohaugAssociate Professor

Klassekampen


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Sami culture and language

• A part of the proposed new teacher training program in Norway.

• How to teach the students through

literary studies.• Reading fiction.


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Historical background• The state of Norway is founded on the

territory of two nations: the Sami and the Norwegian.

• Norway is a rather young nation, and gained its independence as late as 1905.

• Until then, the region had been in a continuous union with Denmark, and then with Sweden.


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Building a Norwegian Nation• A by-product of this building of a nation

was the oppression of the indigenous Sami culture and language.

• For more than 150 years, the official Norwegian policy favoured ethnic Norwegian culture and language, and oppressed the Lappish culture, in order to build an independent, Norwegian nation.


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ILO Convention 169• Concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in

independent states.• According to this convention, • the Sami are an indigenous people, not an

ethnic minority.• There are five defined ethnic minorities in

Norway, according to this definition: Jews, Kvens (descendants from Finnish), Forest Finns in Solør, Roma, and Romani.

• Newer immigrants are not indigenous peoples according to international law.


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Curriculum of the teacher training program

• Norway is preparing a new, national teacher training program, launched in the autumn of 2010.

• Ministry of Education and research.• The Sami parliament has agreed on the

importance of knowledge about the Sami culture and language for the students.


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The earlier primary school curriculum

• Only children of Sami birth or children in Sami districts had the right to learn about Sami culture and language at school (National curriculum of 1974 and 1987).

• According to the national curriculum of 1997, all students, all over the country, are required to learn about the Sami people.

• The Sami perspective has not been explicitly shown in the curriculum for the teacher training program.


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How to handle challenges of the new teacher training program

• Study the national curriculum and the Sami children’s rights in the educational system – past and present.

• Text readings – I will introduce a selection of Norwegian fiction to the students.

• The students will study Sami life and civilization through these texts.

• The Sami people as indigenous group.


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Method:How to train the students

through literary studies• We will read closely a text corpus from the

late 18- and 1900s.• Includes authors like Jonas Lie, Knut

Hamsun, Johan Falkberget, Olav Duun and Regine Normann, which throw interesting light on our topics.

• To study the texts with a view to the Sami:– 1) as individuals– 2) as a group


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Questions: • How can a diachronic study of a text

corpus give the students knowledge of the cultural and historical background of the Sami students at the school?

• Why do many Sami wish to hide their Sami background, even today?

• How does the study of a fiction corpus help us explain such an attitude?


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Literary motifs in the text corpus• The motifs of cultural conflict

– The contrast between Sami and Norwegian culture and language.

• The motif of the nature child– The Sami as a child of nature. – The Norwegian as representing a civilized nation.

The motif of love between a Sami person and a Norwegian.

The motif of mixed blood– Can lead to unclear ethnic identity.


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Literary motifs in the text corpus

• The motif of mixed marriage: – Marriage of Samis and Norwegians is not desirable.

• The motif of Lapp magic:– The Sami are working magic and are spreading fear and

terror.

• The motif of conflict with industrialisation: – Conflict between keeping reindeer and agriculture on the

one hand,– or keeping reindeer and the mining industry on the other

hand.


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For our purposes• We will look at two central motifs

– 1) The motif of mixed blood– 2) The motif of Lapp magic


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”It is a shame to be of Lappish blood”

Jonas Lie (1872): in the short story ”Lappish blood”

• The young man Eilert thinks about his own identity as a Lapp: ”He had heard that it was a shame to be of Lappish blood, beause the Lapps were not as good as other people. The authorities allowed them burial only in particular areas of the church yard and special ’Lapp chairs’ in the church.”


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Mixed blood• Many characters in the text corpus are

mixed people from mixed marriages. (Lappish-Norwegian)

• Nonetheless, the local surroundings defined them as Lapp, e.g: – Aase in Knut Hamsun: The Road Leads On

(1933)– Solvi in Olav Duun: The Blind Man (1919)– Jon in Regine Normann: Krabvaag (1905)


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How to hide Sami heritage?• The young man Jon in

Regine Normann’s Krabvaag:– Is ashamed of his father being Lappish.– He dreams of America – in that country

nobody knows about his father and his family, and cultural heritage.

– Instead of accepting and facing his ethnic background, he wants to run away from it.


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Lapp magic in the texts• These Sami characters are all accused of

practising magic power to cause:– Accidents and crop failures.– Storms and bad weather.– Illness and disease.

• This interpretation of the events take it for granted that the surroundings accept and believe in the practice of magic.


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Summary• How can literary study emphasize the

intentions of Sami awareness in the new teacher training program?

• By reading these texts the teacher training students could better understand why:– the older generation of Sami tried to hide who

they really were.– and why they disclaimed their own cultural

heritage.


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The Creole Identity

• ”In the multi-ethnic society, it is necessary to strike a balance between that which is in common and that which is different. It is necessary to remain conscious of the fact that each of us belong to many groups, and that there are many ways of combining identities.

• Being a modern Norwegian Sami is one such identity, a traditional Norwegian farmer another, a postmodern Norwegian public relations consultant another, a modern Norwegian muslim another.

• Therefore, the national community cannot just build on common values and cultural heritage. It must also build upon difference.” (Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1997): Flerkulturell forståelse, Tano Aschehoug)


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Then we can conclude

• The political norwegian National building program of the 19th century is out of date and unacceptable (one people –one state)

• A modern state has to build on differences not homogeneity

• By reading fiction my students have been able to see the history of Sami identity – and to have a basis of working with Sami culture in the teacher training program


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Litterature

• Altern, Inger og Minde, Gunn-Tove: Samisk folkemedisin i dagens Norge, Rapport fra seminar i regi av Institutt for sosiologi og Senter for samiske studier, Tromsø 26. – 27. nov. 1998, Skriftserie – Nr. 9 Senter for samiske studier, Universitetet i Tromsø 2000

• Borgos, Johan (1999): De er her ennå, Samisk historie i Vesterålen, Vesterålen Kulturutvalg - Vesterålsmuseet

• Edvardsen, Edmund (1977): Nordlendingen, Pax Forlag• Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (1997): Flerkulturell forståelse, Tano Aschehoug • Fidjestøl m.fl. (1994): Norsk litteratur i tusen år, LNU/Cappeln• Nergård, Jens Ivar (1998): Det skjulte Nord-Norge,• Skarðhamar, Anne-Karin (2001): Litteraturundervisning Teori og praksis, Universitetsforlaget • Trohaug, Kjellrunn (2000): ”Om det samiske perspektivet i norskfaget i L 97” Norsklæreren

nr 1/2000Fiction:

• Duun, Olav (1957): I blinda. Skrifter i samling Bind V, Olaf Nordlis Forlag og Johan Grundt Tanum, Oslo

• Hamsun, Knut (1933): Men livet lever• Lie, Jonas (1891): Finneblod, frå Trold I-II (1891-92)• Normann, Regine (1905): Krabvaag, i utgåve i Fonteneserien, Aschehoug, 1976

sami culture and language in the new teacher training program in norway

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