Deputy Minister Johanne Gaup, Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development

Legislation to Support and Reinforce Lesser Used Languages

Dublin, 15. October 1998

Ladies and gentlemen,

it is a great honour to be invited to participate in this conference on Legislation to Support and Reinforce Lesser Used Languages.

As a representative of the Norwegian Government and as a Sami I have strong convictions of the importance of the theme for this conference. I will start this speech by telling you a bit about my self, as my history illustrates the language situation many of Samies.

I was born of Sami parents on the coast of Norway in an area where the Sami people have been under strong pressure for assimilation through generations. The result of this pressure is that my parents, as well as most Sami parents in this area, used Norwegian and not Sami in the upbringing of their children. Many of my generation born in this area has therefore lost their mothertongue, and hence a very important factor of identification with their own culture and their own people.

At 16 I moved to Kautokeino, a Sami village in the main Sami area in Finnmark. In this village the Sami are in majority and Sami is everyday language in most families and in the local community. While working in the area, I started picking up the Sami language. Later I also took language courses to improve my command of the language. Today I speak Sami fluently.

As a result of my own experience the question of perseverance and development of the Sami language has been very much on my mind. In 1991 I did a survey for the Nordic Sami Institute on the question of the bilingualism in Sami local communities in Inner Finnmark, the main Sami area in Norway. The survey showed that spoken Sami was used frequently in the municipal offices in these communities, but that it was great need for knowledge in written Sami.

Since then I have been highly aware of the need of using all possible resources to maintain the Sami language.

Today I am in a position to work from the Government’s side to secure the best possible conditions for this work, and for other important Sami matters.

In the last decades there has been a positive change in the awareness of the need to revitalise the Sami language and culture in the whole Sami region. Especially young people and the people of my generation has started to reclaim Sami identity and Sami culture and language.

The tribute for this change has to be given to the Sami ethnic movements which has been working for rights for the Sami people and a change of the Government policy towards the Sami since the beginning of this century.

The great change in the Norwegian understanding of the Sami came with the conflict of the Alta River in 1979-1981. During this conflict the Sami movement and the environmental movement in Norway worked together against a dam project for hydro-electric power in the Alta River in the main Sami area. Through the immense press coverage the general Norwegian public became aware of the Sami people and the problems they were facing fighting for their cultural rights. This conflict revealed the need for clarifying the legal status of the Sami in Norway.

As a result the Government appointed the Sami Rights Committee in 1980. The committee submitted their first report in 1984. The report confirmed the fact that the Sami people is an indigenous people in Norway, and hence have the right to special measures and legal protection of their culture, language and way of life. The report concluded with the need to introduce special legal instruments to protect Sami culture, language and society. Secondly, the report concluded with the need to form a special representative body elected by the Sami people.

In 1988 Norway adopted Article 110 a in the Constitution and in 1987 the Act concerning the Sami Parliament and other Sami legal matters.

The Article 110 A of the Constitution establishes the responsibility of the State authorities to create conditions enabling the Sami people to safeguard and develop their language, culture and way of life.

The amendment was made to verify the historical fact that the state of Norway was formed on the territory of two peoples, Norwegians and Sami.

The Sami Act establishes the responsibilities and powers of the Sami Parliament. It states that Sami and Norwegian are equal languages, and that they shall be languages with equal status pursuant to the provisions concerning the Sami language. It contains provisions concerning the establishment of an administrative area for the Sami language in which certain rights and obligations concerning the use of the Sami language in public affairs apply. This administrative area consists of 6 municipalities in the two northernmost regions in Norway.

Chapter 3 of the Sami Act, the Sami Language gives provisions for the use of Sami language in contact with municipal, county or state bodies in these areas. Further, it gives provisions for the use of Sami language in courts, in the health and social welfare sector, etc. Certain public documents shall be translated into Sami. Civil servants are entitled to paid leave to learn the Sami language. There shall be general access to education in the Sami language. The Act also provides for the establishment of a Sami Language Council.

In 1989 the first election to the Sami Parliament occurred. For the purpose of the election to the Sami Parliament the country is divided into thirteen constituencies. Each constituency has 3 seats in the Sami parliament. The representatives are elected by direct ballot and among the Sami people who are registered in the Sami electoral register. Those entitled to register are those who regard themselves as Sami people and who use the Sami language, or have a parent, grandparent or great grandparent who does or have done so.

The initial role of the Sami Parliament was an advisory one, but the Government decided that the decisionmaking competence of the Sami Parliament shall be developed in line with the body’s own opinions and the general view of society as expressed by the Norwegian Parliament - the Storting. The Sami Parliament has unlimited right to take initiative and to raise whatever questions the body itself considers to be of relevance to the Sami people.

Since the establishment of the Sami Parliament there has been a continuing process of transferring tasks and decisionmaking power from the Government to the Sami Parliament. As a result the Sami Parliament today has extensive power in cultural and linguistic matters. It does, however, not have legislative power.

To implement the responsibility of the Sami Parliament it has taken over or built their own decisionmaking and administrative bodies. The Sami Language Council that Johan Daniel Hætta is representing is one of these bodies. The Sami Language Council is funded over the budget for the Sami Parliament. The Sami Language Council allocates funds for Sami translation service in the municipalities, and bilingualism in the administrative area of the Sami language.

A survey done by the Language Council showed that there has been a positive development in the use of Sami language and bilingualism in the municipal administrations in this area.

Johan Daniel Hætta will tell you more about the Sami Language Council and the language situation in Sami areas from a Sami point of view.

The Government’s main objective is that the Sami Parliament as a representative body for the Sami people shall be the main initiator in the development of the Sami society. This means that the Sami Parliament itself shall be able to make their own priorities when it comes to decisions concerning culture and language, for example allocation of funds to enhance Sami culture and industry.

On 19 June 1990, Norway ratified ILO convention No. 169 concerning indigenous peoples in independent countries. This ratification confirmed Norway’s responsibility to create conditions for the Sami Parliament so that it has an active role in the development of Sami culture and in the co-operation between the Government and the Sami people in making and implement the Sami policy. To ensure a central role for the Sami Parliament in the consideration of legislative and administrative measures that effect the Sami people, it is of great importance to include the Sami Parliament in the discussions as early as possible in the preceding process. This is being done on many important fields of policymaking such as Sami education, Sami industry, environmental questions in the Sami area, and the budget for the Sami Parliament.

From this year onward the Minister responsible for Sami affairs has initiated a closer co-operation with the Sami Parliament in the work for the annual budget. From 1999 onwards the Sami Parliament will be free to make their own priorities within the budget frame.

Education in Sami and the fact that the entire education is given in the Sami language is of great importance for the development of Sami language. During the last decades there has been a great growth in the possibilities given to the students to learn Sami language and culture in school.

In the main Sami area it is possible to get your whole education in and on Sami in compulsory school. You also have special Sami upper secondary schools and a Sami College.

The right of education in Sami language and Sami language education is established in the Primary and Lower Secondary Education Act of 1969. This act ensures the right to learn Sami and being taught in Sami for children in Sami regions, and the right to learn Sami outside this region when at least three pupils in a school demands it.

In spring 1998 the Government presented before Parliament a proposition for a new educational act. This included an individual right for all Sami people in Norway to receive education in Sami language, and a transference of power on Sami educational matters from the Government to the Sami Parliament. This means that the Sami parliament from January 1 ^st> 2000 will have the decisionmaking power when it comes to the curriculum in Sami language for primary and lower secondary school and the special Sami courses in upper secondary school. Further, the Sami Parliament will have the right to co-operate with the Ministry of Education on the whole curriculum for the Sami school. The Norwegian Parliament acceded to the proposed act.

The Sami Educational Council was founded in December 1975 as an advisory council to the Ministry of Education on issues concerning education for Sami people. The administration of the council is in Kautokeino. The Educational Council is responsible for the development of Sami curriculum, the approval of Sami textbooks for use in Sami compulsory school and upper secondary school. The Educational Council does also have a centre for Sami textbooks which is responsible for development of Sami textbooks for compulsory school and upper secondary school. The Sami Educational Council will be transferred to the Sami Parliament in year 2000.

The main objective of the transference of power in the educational area to the Sami Parliament is that the Sami Parliament shall have the active role in the definition of the values and attitudes forming the foundation of the education for the Sami children

Another important reform concerning the Sami education has been the new Sami curriculum for the compulsory school that was adopted in the summer 1989. The whole idea of the new Sami curriculum is an education that builds on Sami culture and society as well as the general Norwegian society and culture. The Sami curriculum is compulsory for all pupils, independent of ethnic background, in the administrative area for Sami language.

To increase the knowledge and understanding of Sami culture and society among the general Norwegian public, Sami culture, language, history and society are included in the common curricula of several subjects.

The education of Sami teachers is of great importance to meet the need for educated Sami speaking staff in the Sami school. The Sami College in my hometown Kautokeino offers a wide range of education. There you can study Sami language up to undergraduate level. They also have Sami teacher programmes and programmes for Sami nurses. The tuition is in Sami and is aimed at work in the Sami society. The college is run by Samis. The fact that the college is situated in the middle of the main Sami area helps the recruitment to the college. This is of great importance because the Sami society has a great need for competence in a lot of fields to fulfil the society’s demands for knowledge of Sami matters and Sami language.

I hope my speech has given you a clearer image of the Norwegian experiences when it comes to measures and legal instruments that are designed to enforce the maintenance and development of the Sami language. I am sorry I can`t attend the whole conference, but I am sure you know as a politician I have a lot of fields of responsibility to attend to.

I will however listen with great interest to the speeches I will attend. For me as a representative of the Norwegian Government it is of great importance to be able to share our own experiences and the experiences done by other countries on this matter.

Thank you and good luck with the conference !