Kari Greiner grew up in Bevkop in Lakselv. She is one of those who have told her story to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. On Thursday, the commission presents its report after five years of work. Here they will, among other things, come up with proposals for measures for reconciliation. The report is based, among other things, on around 760 stories from Sami, Kven/Norwegian Finns and Skog Finns who have told their story about how they have experienced the policy of Norwegianization and assimilation in Norwegian society firsthand. Little contact with adults and tough conditions In her written report, Kari Greiner tells, among other things, about life at boarding school. She lived here since she was in the 1st grade. There was six-day school for six weeks before they were allowed to come home for a trip. Kari Greiner as first grader. Photo: private It was a tough day at school with a lack of contact with adults, few teachers present and bullying from other children, and a lot happened that shouldn’t have happened, she writes. For Kari, the more she thinks about it now as the report approaches, the more memories come to mind. And thoughts. – Think how frightening and traumatizing it was to be put away as a 7-year-old, and into a hierarchy with only strangers, where the right of the strongest applied. There were no adults to go to, she says. She summarizes that they should learn Norwegian and become Norwegian. But they did not learn to take care of each other and to talk about feelings, not even between siblings. Because they didn’t talk about what they had experienced. – I guess we also didn’t have the ability and concepts to communicate feelings well enough. I think many of us boarding school children were quite blunted during school, she writes in her report. Kari says that when they were invited to the 40th anniversary of the end of primary school, it was boarding school children who did not want to participate. – Some of those who came did not want to enter the boarding school, because it brought up too many bad memories. They feared the big buildings with strange basement rooms. She believes the commission’s report will now awaken memories for many, memories that they have repressed and not talked about. Therefore, it must be an important part of the reconciliation work that those who went through this and are now adults, receive psychological lessons or other treatment. She will assess such help herself. – Boarding school life has led to more or less ruined lives for people I know, she says. Became a stranger to their parents Kari Greiner also confirms what the exhibition Always a Stranger tells, that the boarding school children felt like strangers, at school they were strangers, but also at home. She writes to the commission: “Gradually I felt a bit of a stranger to my own parents and lost familiarity. It was therefore not natural to communicate about the experiences at school with them. They had their language, their life and reality, and we our children.” She had forgotten the color of their house while she was away. Today, she describes what it meant that the bond with her parents was cut in this way. – Missed being able to talk to parents, go to mother and father, get comfort, get care. Sitting on a lap, meeting grandparents and a daily life. Daily security. At the boarding school, she was separated from her brothers because girls and boys lived separately from each other. “I was very uncomfortable and almost went into a state of shock in first class. The brain displaced memories of home.” Pride today Kari Greier took part in the exhibition “Met olema ja tulma olemhaan – Kväänit Porsangissa / We have come to stay – Kvener in Porsanger” in 2019. Here the history of 25 kvener in Porsanger was shown. This is where her Kven background came to the fore. Her great-grandparents/great-great-grandparents came from Kuusamo, Peltuvuoma, Kemi and Tornedalen in the latter half of the 19th century. With them they had the names Uusitalo-Määtää, Nikkinen, Torpo and Grape. They settled in the villages of Gjøkenes, Oldereidet and Kvalsund, where there was a women’s environment. Here they found spouses who spoke their language. Illustration: Hanne S. Landa Framnes / Trykkeriservice AS Eventually her paternal grandparents settled in Porsanger, Ruđonpää / Skogende where Kari’s father grew up. The father remembered well the grandfather who lived with them for many years. – He was musical and had a string instrument. My father knew many of the Finnish songs he had heard growing up, which unfortunately have not been preserved for posterity, she says. The loss of the language must be remedied The expectations for the commission’s report and the measures they come up with are great. But a report from the research project TRUCOM, which has followed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s work since 2020, shows that fewer than before believe in reconciliation. Kari Greiner believes that one of the measures to contribute to reconciliation is that those who have lost their language must be offered training. Money must be allocated, among other things to more language centres, so that people can use the language as they learn it. – Even when I was growing up, the language was heard everywhere, today it is more rare. Loss of the language is the worst consequence of the policy that was pursued. You also lost your culture because you were at the boarding school and were not allowed to participate in the work of the adults throughout the year, she says. Recently, a majority in the Storting decided on a new education act, but without extending the right to learn Swedish. Today, the right only applies in Troms and Finnmark. When the report is to be read out in its entirety from mid-day on Thursday, Kari will follow along. Her report comes at night. – I have plans to follow along, says Kari Greiner.
ttn-69
Kari Greiner has told her story to the truth commission – news Kveeni
