Sami culture and language in
the new teacher training
program in Norway
By
Kjellrunn Kr. Trohaug
Associate Professor
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
2
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
3
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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?
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
10
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
11
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
13
”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.”
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
14
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)
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
15
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
16
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
17
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.
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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)
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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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
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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Litterature
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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 1/2000
Fiction:
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
Associate Professor Kjellrunn Kr.
Trohaug, Bodø University College
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