Sami or Norwegian – yes please, both!

If you make a statement that you perceive yourself as the same, and have Sami as a home language, or have or have a parent, grandparent or great -grandparent with Sami as a home language, you can demand to get into the Sami Parliament’s election figures.

The fact that Sami is a home language means that it is used daily, but it does not have to be the only language used. In my mother’s upbringing in Kåfjord in Lyngen in the early 1900s, it was common for the kids to be trilingual, with Norwegian, Finnish and Sami as a home language.

He writes that our identity consists of a number of dimensions such as gender, family, home, ethnic affiliation, language, religion, nationality, age, education, class, lifestyle, political view, etc. Each dimension gives us belonging to specific groups or community.

The typical of fundamentalists, whether they are religious, ethnic or political, is that they require a single affiliation to dominate the others, according to Hylland Eriksen. In his model, it is possible to express a Sami and a Norwegian affiliation at the same time, although the two affiliations can sometimes make conflicting demands.

The model therefore offers an opportunity to be the same, without waiving its Norwegian affiliation. Such a view can more easily make visible and public Sami presence on the coast. The Sami Parliament itself writes on its website that the Sami Parliament’s election figures are not an ethnic register.

Kjell E. Pedersen

Hammerfest