In Norwegian, a national minority is characterized as “groups with a long-standing attachment to the country” (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX).
When looking at ethnic minorities in Norwegian one has to consider, that Norwegian had in its historical background many times of being occupied by its neighbour states and is still not a member of the European Union.
Due to above mentioned reasons the Norwegian population can be characterized as a very homogenous population including about six official accepted national minorities. However, official numbers of appendant persons of these minorities do not exist, since there were no censuses of population at all.
Nevertheless, the Sami are the largest minority group with a calculated number of about 50,000-100,000 in total, about 70 % of these live in Norway, the second largest group, namely the Kven has about 10-15,000 inhabitants whereas Romani’s are about 2,000 to 3,000 people estimated, the Jewish minority has about 1,500 to 2,000 people and finally Skogfins and Romas are just a few hundred people over all in Norwegian (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX).
Historical Background – The Sami
The above mentioned numbers show, that the Sami population in Norway is the highest of all national minorities. Therefore, it is important to state out, that the Sami are often described as indigenous of Norway, consequently, their historical background is documented long ago in the foretime.
The first written evidence of the Sami can be found in the book `De Origine et situ Germanorum`, written in 98 A.D. by the Roman historian Tacitus, in which he denominates those inhabitants as `fenni´. Taken down at the end of the ninth century, the writings of Ottar are a better proof of the existence of the Sami, Ottar specified, his main means of existence were tax-payments from the Sami.
During the following decades and centuries, the Sami suffered a lot of repressions, such as the `Norwegianization`, which interdicted to sell land to anyone who was not able to speak Norwegian, until the end of World War II. Later on, the Norwegian politicians and the Norwegian inhabitants diversified their attitude concerning the Sami and searched a new approach on them.
In 1990, Norway ratified the ILO Convention. Article 1b, concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent countries (C169,1989), defines the indigenous people of a state as follows:
“peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonisation or the establishment or present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.”
The Norwegian Supreme Court confirmed this in the Selbu case of 21 June 2001 (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). However, this has not been always the case, in the 18th century the Sami were discriminated similar to any other minority in the world, they were exposed to a lot of repression and proscriptions regarding their religion, their language and the ownership of land by the Norwegianization. The Norwegian school laws from the 19th century for example instructed the schools to teach only in Norwegian language.
Legal Situation of the Sami in Norway
As mentioned above the Sami people are since 1990 seen as the indigenous people of Norway. Due to this decision, the Sami can rely on various legal norms, which relate to indigenous people such as the UN Declaration on the rights for indigenous people, stating out in Article 1 that indigenous people can rely on the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). Another international legal basis is the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which shall enforce and protect the language of minorities or specific regions. Furthermore, there are national prescriptions like the Norwegian constitution, which guarantees in Article 110a that the authorities of the State have to create and warrant conditions to strengthen and develop the language, culture and way of life of the Sami. Not less important than Article 110a, is Article 110c that stipulates the state to respect and ensure human rights of any citizen of Norway.
Yet another important national legal basis is the Sami Act from 1987. It is divided into four chapters, its first chapter comprehends general provisions such as the purpose of the Act, the right to have an own parliament the so-called Sameting and the equalization of the Sami and the Norwegian language. (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). The second chapter gives attention to the Sameting more in detail concerning its authority, election method, distribution of seats or the right to vote. Chapter three regards to the Sami language whereas chapter four consists transitional rules and commencement of the Sameting.
A closer look on the Sami Act in addition to Article 110a of the Norwegian Constitution indicates, the Sameting is an own parliament for the Sami, which of course is subordinated to the crown of Norway but has equal rights as the Norwegian Parliament, the Storting. The Sameting deliberates any topic which refers in the view of the Storting to the Sami people (§2.1, Sami Act). Furthermore, the members of the Sameting have the opportunity to raise an opinion on any other topic that may affect the Sami people. Moreover, Article 2.6 construes how the Sami define themselves, namely anyone who considers him or herself to be Sami and who either uses Sami as domestic language or whose origins had Sami as domestic language or whoever is the child of someone who has been registered in the Sami electoral register (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). The Sami have the right to get a reply to an application in Sami language as well as the right to use Sami in the judicial system.
All provisions mentioned in the Sami Act are a minimum requirement to the authorities and good Norwegian administrative practices state out that it is important to answer a Sami-written application in Sami (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX). Furthermore, the Sami Act offers any citizen of Norway either Sami or non-Sami the right to learn the Sami-language through the education system.
In year 2010, the Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Inclusion published an Action Plan for Sami Languages. This Plan was legislated because the government released in spring 2008 a report, which criticized the situation about the Sami language.
This plan is based on the legal basis of the Sami Act and the Education Act. The structure of this plan is divided into three main aspects: learn, use and see. Learn connotes to give information about kindergartens for Sami children and develop educational materials in Sami language to give the opportunity to teach and raise even infants the Sami language.
As many Sami people use their language barely in written texts or applications than in oral form, the usage of the language in written form has consequentially to be strengthened. To guarantee the regulations of the Sami-Act concerning the usage of Sami-language in written form an adoption of Sami interpreters and training programs shall be provided to improve the staff of the municipalities.
The third step to enforce the Sami language is “see” which signifies that the publicity shall observe, and the Sami present more of their language. Examples for this are TV and Radio shows, signs on buildings or in traffic or publish texts in the internet in Sami language.
The Sami-Culture
Culture of the Sami nowadays is in main aspects a result of historical influences and their main traditions of hunting and fishing. Within the 16th century, where Norway became more settled, the Sami began to change from just hunting reindeers to herding them, following that they became Nomads. Nowadays, barely ten percent of them are reindeer-herders.
On the other side, the yoik, a traditional form of Sami music is still very popular within the Sami population. As the yoik was in the past a part of indigenous shamanism, the songs are often sung slowly, sad, joyful or melancholic and comprehends emotional content. Furthermore, the artists often perform on traditional instruments such as the fadno, a reedpipe or flutes made of barks.
Important for the ceremonies is not only the music, also the clothing has a long tradition. In the past nearly all clothes were made of reindeer leather and fur. Conversely, nowadays the use wool or cotton for their Gakti, which consists for woman of a dress, a shawl and boots. The Gakti, men wear is a shorter jacket. The used colours, brooches and jewellery on the Gakti give information about the person, regarding location, marital status and sometimes even specific to every family.