Narratives in the history of northern Norwegian minorities

Narratives in the history of northern Norwegian minorities This historiographical article analyzes the narratives produced in studies on the history of the two northern Norwegian minorities, the Sami and the Kvens, written in Norway since the early 1970s. Three main narrative forms, established side by side rather than as successive stages, may be identified in the histories of these minorities. In the field of Kven history, narratives produced in the 1970s chiefly aimed at making the Kven minority visible in history. In the following decade this was supplied, and to a certain degree substituted, by a narrative of assimilation. The narrative of assimilation also dominates the histories of the Sami, but because of a longer historiographical tradition and the work of Sami historians, counter-narratives focusing on the role of the state of Norway have had a more prevalent place in Semi than in Kven history. The need to make the Sami visible in history was not as pressing; instead, from the very start it was typical to discuss Sami history in relation to the state of Norway, which in turn was demonized for annihilating Sami cultural identity. In both Sami and Kven histories the agency of the minorities was represented as severely diminished and/or limited to ethnic reaction. In recent decades, scholars have begun to question this and to seek out differing minority agencies and rationalities that were earlier labelled as "Norwegianized". The article charts recent efforts to do this and discusses possible ways to develop this view of the history of minorities further.