Commission exposes injustices against Norway’s Indigenous people

A Norwegian parliamentary commission has published a damning report on historic injustices against Sámi, Kvens and other Indigenous groups.

Norway’s parliament set up the truth and reconciliation commission in 2018 to examine authorities’ historic policies and activities relating to Indigenous people, including attempts to assimilate them.

It was also mandated to look at the repercussions of the country’s “Norwegianisation policy” on languages and culture as well as social and mental health consequences for individuals and the groups as a whole.

On Thursday, the commission presented its findings, in part based on interviews with more than 760 people, to Norway’s parliament, the Stortinget.

Dagfinn Høybråten, the head of the commission, noted in a speech that some outside observers might question the need for such commission in a “welfare society characterised by peace and democracy”.

He said: “The truth is that also

Norway doesn’t have a history to be proud of when it comes to the treatment of our minorities.”

Høybråten added that there was an apparent lack of knowledge among the public about some of the injustices suffered by the minority groups, but hoped the report might help increase awareness.

“Norwegianisation policy” refers to policies pursued by the authorities to assimilate Sámi and other minorities into Norwegian society.

For about 100 years from about 1850, the official Norwegian policy was that Sámi and Kvens should be assimilated into Norwegian society, in part by discouraging the use of languages other than Norwegian.

“Many have stopped using their original languages and switched to using Norwegian,” Høybråten said, noting that Sámi languages as well as those of different Norwegian Finns were now endangered as a result of “Norwegianisation”.

The commission proposed that a “centre for knowledge, research, dissemination and reconciliation” should be created. It also called for “institutions in all sectors of society” to look into “how they can contribute to reconciliation”.

Masud Gharahkhani, the president of parliament, said in a speech that the commission had been set up because parliament felt Norway had failed to protect its minorities and indigenous.

“Today we get a serious confirmation of this,” he said.

Photograph: Alf Simensen/NTB/AFP/Getty Images Members of the Sámi community protesting against the building of wind turbines on land traditionally used to herd reindeer in Oslo, Norway, in March.