What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?
Hyvää iltaa/Buorre eahket!
(Good evening/God kveld)
Note: maybe kind of longer text
In addition to being Scandinavian I’m also very Finnish origins, especially Kven group and Sámi indigenous as well. I’m interested and proud about this part of my cultural heritage because it was taken away from my recent ancestors as part of forced assimilation policies like the type Fornorskning/Norwegianization that include the Reisende and Romani Traveller groups further South even if they are not mentioned anywhere near the times the Sámi are mentioned. It’s not fair because the Reisende suffered at least as much, sometimes more in fact.
But to be on this topic I love Finnish cultural features like the Finnish type sauna experience and the language. Finnish sounds awesome compared to English and Norwegian, it’s in a completely different language family called Uralic language family of Finno-Ugric linguistic heritage including Sámi languages like North Sámi that my Finnmark ancestors spoke in everyday life hundreds years ago. I know some Finnish, Kven and Sámi from education and cultural activities including school lessons language courses and just listening to Sámi media like Ođđasat with some Norwegian language subtitles to understand better.
So it’s also the Finnish sisu and the forests of Northern Finland, when I was visiting/travelling along Torne River Valley in 2016 with our group trip it was a big part of the experience to see the forests when we were driving in the tourist bus to truly explore this region our roots are deeply tied to.
I like to speak about this in social gathering with other passionate people around these subjects, it’s a great way to get to know new interesting people without boring small talk. I’m autistic btw. The languages are important to preserve, and especially the Kven language that is endangered category. There is discussions of creating a Kven Parliament (Kventinget) like the Sámi Parliament (Sametinget/Sámediggi) in Norway.
I support this personally especially if it means Kven people are given equal rights to the Sámi and the cultural heritage is important. I’m not anti-Sámi at all, we all matter to the Spirit in the Sky.
Giitu/Kiitos!
cloudB 