Tromsø Museum

The Tromsø Museum is a part of the University of Tromsø contains exhibits on the history of the far North and the Saami. My friend Kurage from Japan is very interested in the Saami and has even learned a couple dialects of the language. In addition to Saami he knows Japanese, English, Norwegian, Italian, some Finnish, and a couple more languages I believe; definitely a linguistics. Kurage is not only a student at the University, but he also works at the Tromsø Museum. Today he invited us, Callie and me, to the museum since there was a Kven talk. “Kven” is the term for people from Finland that migrated to Norway in the 19^th century.

Once at the museum, there was a good amount to see. There were sections covering a broad range of topics including nature, people, and science. We looked around for a little bit and then attended the talk we had planned on seeing. Unfortunately the talk was not in English, in fact it wasn’t even in Norwegian, it was in Finnish! Even though I had no idea what this lady was saying, I sat patiently for an hour, making eye contact, and trying to be respectful. Afterwards, Kuraje gave us a brief overview of the talk, but even he had a hard time understanding her Finnish.

We spent the rest of our time there exploring the two Saami exhibits, one that focused on the old Saami and one on the modern Saami.

Reindeer pulling a sled with a Saami

The Saami are considered an indigenous people of Norway. The history and current situation of the Saami is very complex and is the focus of many researchers today. The Saami used to freely inhabit areas across the high North. There are two main types of Saami: the coastal and reindeer herders. The coastal Saami lived on the coast and used fishing as their main source of food and income through trade. The reindeer Saami on the other hand herded reindeer and thus were forced to migrate between the interior and coastal regions with the seasons. Although there are two main types, people seem to associate all Saami as reindeer herders. The reindeer herding Saami are the main focus of most tourist attractions in the far North.

As mentioned the Saami used to be spread out across the high North, however, today their territories are across the borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The formation of borders has had many consequences on the Saami including limitations in areas where reindeer can be herded. Additionally, in Norway there was a Norwegianization policy that was put into action from roughly 1945 to the 1970s. The policy aimed to assimilate non-Norwegian speaking native populations into an ethnically and culturally uniform Norwegian population. Therefore, the Saami and Kvens were repressed during this time period.

Sign showing invisible Saami discrimination; Saami is on the top, Norwegian on the bottom

Although today the policy is no longer in effect and efforts have been made to reverse the dramatic loss in culture, there are still signs of discrimination towards the Saami. For instance, the sign below was part of the modern Saami exhibit. As you can see, there are two languages on the sign, the top one Saami and the bottom one Norwegian. Even though Saami is considered a national language, people have shot at the sign making the Saami words impossible to read. This sign was added only last year. It is sad to think about the forms of invisible discrimination that are still occurring.