Separatism in Norway, pt. 2

I want to take up again the subject from my posting on March 8, "Separatism in Norway".

After the Kosovars declared their independence from Serbia on February 17 this year, Norway was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo as an independent state. We might have been right to do that, or we might not. I will not take a stand on that now. Still, we should be aware that there are trends of separatism also in Norway. I do not think there is any imminent danger of parts of Norway trying to break free, but the trends can nevertheless be felt and seen.

I will not discuss the separatist attitudes in the western parts of Norway that Professor Frank Aarebrot warns against. What I would like to focus on, is the Northern parts, from where I come.

Without going excessively into detail, I will sketch out some of the historical background of the indigenous Sami people in Finnmark, the northernmost administrative region of Norway. For more detail, check out the article on Wikipedia about the Samis.

The Samis are believed to have populated the northern areas around 2500 years. The first written record about the Samis, or Fennis as he called them, is from the Roman historian Tacitus from 98 BC. The lifestyle of the Samis was largely nomadic, and closely bound up to the reindeer herding or hunting.

Except taxing them, the Norwegian-Danish government basically left the Sami people to their own up until the 18. century. At that time, it initiated policies of christianisation and assimiliation of the Samis. These policies culminated from 1900 to the 1940s, when the government basically tried to wipe out the Sami culture. Some of techniques used to achieve this was lobotomy, sterilization, removal of Sami children from their parents, etc. Of course, speaking Sami language in schools, etc., was forbidden.

After the Second World War, things have gradually improved for the Sami people. Today they are recognized as a minority, and have a large degree of influence in Finnmark and the other northern regions. In 1989, Sámediggi (pictured), an elected Sami parliament, was founded, with the overarching goal of furthering Sami language, culture, and society.

Since the late 1970s there has been a great deal of debate around the rights of the Sami people in the northern regions. Central in this debate has been the Sami right to use of land and water. As of 2005, according to the Finnmark Act, all of Finnmark is governed by the Finnmark Estate on behalf of the population of the region. As stated on the Act's official website, "The objective [of the Act] is to ensure that the land and natural resources in Finnmark are managed in the best interests of the inhabitants of the county and as the basis for the Sami culture and the Sami economy."

What non-Samis in the region perceive as an ongoing grab at power is creating a great deal of antagonism towards the Sami population. The Finnmark Act is seen by many non-Samis as unfairly favoring Samis. The Samis are only part of the population in Finnmark, and other people can claim equally strong historical usage of land and water resources.

There is a joke in Norwegian, which goes like this; What is the first word a Sami child learns? "Restitution". What is the second word it learns? "Our Sami rights". Part of the non-Sami antagonism towards Samis is based on this perception of Samis' endless clamour for their Sami rights, and their claiming resitution for all sorts of more or less legitimate reasons. And for this purpose, they are using the history of Norwegian policies towards Samis for all it is worth.

Apart from the political side, there is also a strong Sami nation-building effort that has been going on for quite some time. The Samis have come a long way from the immediate post-World-War-2 era, when most Samis tried to hide their ethnicity. Today, there is a prevalent pride of being Sami. Many Samis wear their national dress, the Sami language is spoken on an everyday basis (it is also one of Norway's two official languages), and there has been an upswing in promotion of the Sami culture. Sami parents put their children to expressedly Sami kindergardens, to foster a clear sense of belonging to Sami culture from an early age.

While there is nothing wrong with expressing your cultural heritage, whether that is Norwegian, Sami or Pakistani, it cannot be denied that this nation-building effort is accentuating differences between "Norwegian" and Sami, and furthering the belief that being Sami is fundamentally different than being of "Norwegian" cultural heritage. Another symptom of this feeling of otherness, can be seen with the desire to flag with the Sami flag on the national holiday, May 17.

I must point out that most people of Sami origin are good and sensible Norwegians. Still, there is a part of the Sami population expressing separatist attitudes. Among them is the highly controversial Sámediggi representative Janos Trosten (pictured). According to Trosten, the Norwegian government is to be considered colonialists, and that the Samis should be the undisputed rulers of Finnmark and the northern regions. Among Trostens other claims is that the Samis have the sole ownership of the Snow White natural gas fields off the coast of Norway.

While I hope that it will not happen at all, and I am sure that it will not for a long time, I fear that if the trends are strengthened, we could have a potential separatist movement going on at some point in the future. Trosten's following is very small, but if the Samis' perception of themselves as being not Norwegian are strengthened, it could become larger. And especially if the government is caving in to claims such as Samis having some kind of sole ownership to the huge riches off the coast, this could get to be the economic backbone enabling them to create a separate Sami state.