Skiing and Sport in the Core Sámi Area of Norway, 1927 to 1964: Organisation, Modernisation and Minority Policy

Abstract

The use of skis has a long history in the core Sámi areas of Inner Finnmark in the north of Norway. It played a central role in the lives of nomadic Sámi communities for centuries. However, as an organised sport, skiing has a much shorter history in this area. The first sport club was established in 1927, almost 60 years after the first sport club was established in Finnmark. The integration and consolidation of sport in Inner Finnmark was also a slow process not concluded until the mid-1960s; some 40 years after its breakthrough along the coast of Finnmark. The organising of sport in the Sámi villages happened during a time of radical change in society. Until 1950s, Norwegian minority policies towards the Sámi population were characterised as strict assimilationist, or Norwegianisation, policy. This gradually changed towards a policy that emphasised cultural plurality, integration and greater political and cultural rights for the Sámi. At the same time, a state-driven modernisation process radically changed all aspects of the Sámi society. Even though sport had been a central element to Norwegian nation building throughout the twentieth century and despite the important role sport has played in many states' assimilationist strategies towards their indigenous populations, Norwegian authorities never used sport consciously in its minority policy. Despite this, sport helped in shaping modern Sámi society, and in shaping and reshaping ethnic and local identities in Inner Finnmark.