Truth & Reconciliation in Norway

 

Influenced by Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 700-page final report for Norway's parliament documents the history of Norwegian contact with Indigenous Sami communities and other minority groups going back to the 14th century. (John Last/CBC)

Yesterday I wrote about National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada and if you followed the reporting you saw reminders of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which produced a series of recommendations. The United Church of Canada participated in this process because of its involvement with what were called Residential Schools even though they were largely destructive institutions of assimilation for Indigenous children.

Earlier in June there was a report with recommendations from the Truth Commission of Norway regarding the “Norwegianisation policy” refers to policies pursued by the authorities to assimilate Sámi and other minorities into Norwegian society. When I was a kid the Sami were called Laplanders, a term which is considered offensive by the Sami.

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. The report identifies forced relocations, racial abuse, languages and heritage lost. There are recommendations of ways the government could right those wrongs by boosting support for the cultures it once actively suppressed.

Does this sound familiar? The Norwegian government looked to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation process in creating its framework. I do hope they are better at implementing the recommendations. 

This news brought to mind the gripping and bleak novel The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, about events in the Finnmark region of Norway 400 years ago. John Cunningham, a Scottish nobleman and priest was sent to address what were considered heretical practices including using Sami runes alongside Christian forms of worship. There were a total of 52 trials and many women were burned at the stake as a result. Cunningham's primary target was the Sámi people  but hundreds of other Norwegian women were also executed.

This is soul-wrenching as once again we are reminded that supposedly civilized and Christian cultures engaged in systematic efforts to extinguish traditional Indigenous cultures around the world. As a life-long follower of Jesus my faith is regularly shaken by the harm done by religion organized to do harm rather than good. I won't relinquish my faith, but sometimes I want to. 

Christ have mercy.