The Sámi people are an indigenous people that live in the northern region of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia (O’Dowd 2015, 187). They have been subjects of oppression and abuse by the majority culture for centuries. The sámi people were recognized as an indigenous people by the Swedish government in 1977 (Kvarfordt et al. 2004, 11). In Norway, they were recognized in 1989 whereas in Finland that year was 1995 (Förenta Nationerna u.å; O’Dowd 2015, 202). Therefore, the national governments of Sweden, Norway and Finland are obliged to follow a range of international treaties regarding the sámi peoples’ rights as an indigenous people (FN 2021). Nevertheless, the UN and EU have criticized the same governments for un-dermining sámi rights. This paper intends to investigate the cultural rights of the Sámi people in school with a comparison between Norway, Sweden, and Finland’s educational system. More specifically, the paper examines how the school system of Norway, Sweden, and Finland can help preserve sámi culture. In doing so, the essay explores three different cultural aspects from a sámi perspective, namely: the possibility to learn a sámi language in school, to learn sámi handicraft, and to learn about reindeer husbandry. Furthermore, the essay explores how these aspects are approached in the different nations by analyzing national school law and regulation. The material is then analyzed through the concepts of enculturation and socialization. In short, enculturation deals with different processes that aims to preserve and appropriate one’s own culture whereas socialization deals with processes that aims to assimilate people into the main culture. The results of the study show that all three nations have tendencies of preserving sami culture depending on which aspect that is studied. For instance, all countries support sámi language education but to what degree, varies between the nations. In contrast, only the Swedish educational system explicitly supports education in sámi handicraft and reindeer husbandry. Even though the results indicate differences between the countries’ educational system they also in-dicate that their national law on the matter of sámi rights are mostly similar in writing. Finally,
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-185644 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Forsberg, Emilia |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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