The case in summary: Tuva Svendsen and her family moved from Oslo to Karasjok when she was 9 years old. After a short time, Tuva spoke Sami, because she was allowed to use Sami every day in the core Sami village. Researcher Kamil Øzerk warns that the Sami-speaking environment in Karasjok may weaken in the future, as the number of students and the population decline. Øzerk has written a report on the situation, and believes that it is important to investigate why pupils leave Sami education. Mayor Svein Atle Somby believes that a community effort is necessary to solve the challenges, and that the municipality should use Øzerk’s report to reverse the negative trends. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Loga ášši sámegillii. – I didn’t understand a single word in Sami, everything was foreign to me, says Tuva Svendsen. She and her family moved from Oslo to Kárášjohka when Tuva was 9 years old. An exciting job opportunity and life in a Sami village enticed the family to try village life in 2003. Tuva started the Norwegian class, and discovered that it was Sami she had to learn in order to get to know the children in the Sami classes. – It happened quite naturally, within a year I had switched to the Sami class. Many people around me were positive that I should learn Sami, and I was probably quite fearless and didn’t care too much if I said something wrong, Tuva recalls. Tuva and mum Ingeborg have spent many hours with the homework books on the table. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news 20 years later, Tuva speaks fluent Sami, her three siblings speak and understand Sami, and her two sons are now also growing up with Sami. Sami core area is weakening Researcher Kamil Øzerk now fears that there may be fewer sunshine stories like Tuva’s in the Kárášjohka of the future. He is afraid that one of the few Sami core areas will be pulverized. Kamil Øzerk is professor of pedagogy and bilingualism. Photo: Wenche Marie Hætta / news – The new generation will not see their future in Kárášjohka. The number of students and the population will decrease a lot in 25 years, and that means that the Sami-speaking environment is weakened, and the future preservation and revitalization of Sami is weakened, says Øzerk. He is a professor of pedagogy and bilingualism at Sami University, and has recently written a 115-page report commissioned by Kárášjohka municipality. Øzerk’s conclusion and measures are not easy reading. According to him, it is a massive task for the municipality: Øzerk has found that: People are moving from Karasjok, and in 23 years the municipality lost 357 people. The population is now at its lowest since 1987. Since 2000, 50 per cent of pupils have disappeared from school. In 50 years, the education model in primary school has not been renewed. The pupils are divided into Sami and Norwegian classes, where all training takes place in Sami or Norwegian. A large number of pupils leave the Sami class and start in the Norwegian class during their schooling. – Do you think that Norwegian will be the main language in the future Kárášjohka? – We don’t know what the future will bring, but when more and more students leave teaching in and in Sami and people move, there is a great risk that the core Sami area will weaken, Øzerk believes. Kárášjohka municipality is one of Norway’s two largest Sami municipalities, where Sami has always been the majority language. Here you can find, among other things, the Sami Parliament, and the village is referred to by many as the capital of the Sami in Norway. Even the freezer counter at the grocery store is labeled in Sami. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news But even here it seems that it will be more difficult to keep a vibrant Sami society, if Øzerk’s report is to be believed. An important discovery he has come to is that the students who stay in the Sami community stop with Sami education. The school divides the pupils into Sami and Norwegian classes, where all teaching takes place in one of the languages. – And no one has reacted to this before. I believe that it is important to investigate why pupils leave Sami education or refuse it, says Øzerk. The language dream Tuva never left the Sami class, and in that way she became steady in speaking Sami. Many Sámi dream of it, to take back the language that the family has lost over generations. Tuva believes that the environment in Kárášjohka was an important factor in her learning Sami. – We lived in Oslo and I didn’t learn Sami there. Here in Kárášjohka, I got the language “for free”, because you hear it at school, in the village, at the shop and training. I heard Sami everywhere, says Tuva. Ingeborg Larssen. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news Mum Ingeborg Larssen had little hope when they moved, that the children would become Sami-speaking. – It wasn’t something the children had to do, but it would have been nice. There were many people who helped us, and said that we can achieve this, says Ingeborg. – And when we had more children, it became even easier, because they grew up with the language from birth. Don’t blame the children Ingeborg recognizes some of the report’s content, such as this with class types by language. She believes it is time to ask current and former students about what can be improved at the school. Although many in the village were positive about her children learning Sami, some thought they should switch to the Norwegian class. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news – I heard that many times. It has been difficult to think that they should be in the Sami class, but I knew that they have the right to learn Sami, says Ingeborg, who is a lawyer. She also suggested several times that the school could work differently, but the ideas were never heard. – I was aware that those of us who had Norwegian as our home language had to take extra responsibility. I asked if we could practice something extra at home, or bring a vocabulary list home. I never got that, it’s a bit sad to think about. At the same time, she is clear that it is not the children who are responsible if the Sami language is weakened. – One must never inflict guilt and shame on children because they do not know Sami well enough, or do not learn fast enough. Then you have to look around you, and think differently in pedagogy and how you make arrangements for students, says Ingeborg. Asking “everyone” to stand up Mayor Svein Atle Somby has recently received the report in his hands, when news meets him. – This is a big job, and we need the whole of society to help solve the challenges we face, says Somby. Kárášjohka’s mayor Svein Atle Somby. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news During the winter and spring, the municipality will look at how they can use Øzerk’s report to reverse the negative trends. – It is not a good feeling to know that some pupils leave primary school and do not know Sami, it is not acceptable, says Somby. – How can you turn this around? – We have to get families with children to stay here, offer them leisure activities. We must like our language and our culture, and promote it more throughout the municipality. And we must have opportunities to use Sami, it is not a given even here, says Somby. Mayor Somby will use the time ahead to familiarize himself with the report to Øzerk. Photo: Dragan Cubrilo / news Øzerk agrees that people in Kárášjohka need help from several quarters. – It is possible to turn it around, but then the Sámi Parliament, Kárášjohka municipality, the central federation of municipalities and the Directorate of Education must take up the matter and do something about it. The legislation and the school’s educational organization must be changed, says Øzerk. Tuva, the mother of two, believes that you must talk about all the positive things you have in the municipality, and is positive about the life the family has in Kárášjohka, with its proximity to nature and friends and family. – We have a lot of good things here, people move back and stay here. We must keep the positive feeling and all the good things we have must seem, says Tuva. Hello! Do you have any input or tips regarding the matter? Feel free to contact me via e-mail.
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Fears that the Sami “capital” Karasjok will become Norwegian-speaking in the future – news Sápmi
