A Fact and Reconciliation Fee has made a collection of suggestions of the best way to strengthen the Tornedalian tradition and language.
The Swedish State and the Church of Sweden ought to apologise for historic injustices dedicated in opposition to a minority group known as Tornedalians, an impartial fee has mentioned.
The Fact and Reconciliation Fee for Tornedalians discovered that Sweden’s assimilation of their communities within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries “harmed the minority and nonetheless (as we speak) makes it troublesome to guard their language, tradition and conventional industries”.
The Fee was tasked with inspecting the violations perpetrated in opposition to the Tornedalians and has been engaged on the report since June 2020. The ultimate report was revealed on Wednesday and introduced to the Swedish authorities.
“Reparation is critical with the intention to transfer ahead”, the Fee mentioned. A primary step can be to “acknowledge the historic violations which were revealed as we speak”.
Who’re Tornedalians?
Tornedalians come from the world of the Torne River valley in northern Sweden, close to the border with Finland, and are descendents of Finns who settled there within the 1800s – earlier than the river grew to become a border between the 2 nations.
Tornedalians are Swedes who communicate Meänkieli, a Finno-Ugric language very near Finnish, and though their distinct language and tradition was initially supported by the Swedish, by the Eighteen Eighties a coverage of ‘Swedishisation’ and assimilation was put in place.
A ban on youngsters talking their mom tongue, or carrying conventional clothes, was strictly enforced in faculties till early Sixties. 1000’s of youngsters had been despatched to boarding faculties run by the Lutheran Church and compelled to talk Swedish.
Traditionally, Tornedalians made a dwelling from agriculture, looking, fishing and reindeer herding, and as we speak there are round 50,000 Tornedalians dwelling in Sweden.
In 2000, the Swedish state formally recognised Tornedalians as a nationwide minority, and Meänkieli as an official language with safety within the schooling and authorized system, the media and cultural life.
The brand new report revealed by the Fee says that extra will be executed to strengthen the standing of the language by together with Meänkieli in public broadcasting and in faculties, and that the State of Sweden ought to “instantly launch an official course of” of public apology to the Tornedalians.
One other fee in Sweden is at the moment investigating the discriminatory insurance policies inflicted on the indigenous Sámi individuals. This report will likely be made public in 2025.
