Church of Sweden apologizes and commits to reconciliation with indigenous Sami people
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In Uppsala Cathedral, the heart of Swedish Christianity, Archbishop Antje Jackelén this week sat in front of a circle of Sami leaders in traditional dress and the television cameras of the Swedish public broadcaster, listing past crimes of his church.
âYou told us about forced Christianization and Swedish colonialism. The Sami culture has been denied,â Jackelén said, in Swedish. “Today we recognize this and, on behalf of the Church of Sweden, I apologize.”
Wednesday’s apology service in Uppsala, the culmination of more than 30 years of discussions and advocacy, marked a big step forward for reconciliation in Sweden, where the indigenous Sami people continue to fight for self-determination and recognition of past wrongs committed by church and state. .
After studying the Canadian experience of reconciliation, figures from the Church and the Sami stressed that apologies must be followed by concrete action and that they have not been accompanied by any expectation of forgiveness.
âAs we apologize to you today, we cannot determine how you will receive this apology. It is not for us to demand to know when a response will be given,â Jackelén said in his speech.
“While we wait, we pray to God⦠that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
Among its commitments, the church is committed to recognizing the importance of Sami spirituality and even integrating it into Christian worship after centuries of exclusion and demonization.
Ingrid Inga, president of the church’s internal Sami council, called it “the starting point of a new relationship between the Church of Sweden and the Sami people”.
Assimilation crimes
The Sami are native to the vast forests and tundra of arctic Europe, traditionally herding reindeer, hunting and fishing in Norway, Sweden, Finland and parts of northern Russia. For centuries they have been divided by the borders of these countries, which have all embarked on different programs of forced assimilation.
Although the first Christian missionaries visited Sápmi, the traditional territory of the Sami, in the 11th century, the Sami say that the process of forced Christianization of the Church began in earnest some 500 years later, when the Reformation unified the Church. and the state.
In a 1,100-page anthology produced for the Church of Sweden in 2019 – seen as an essential prerequisite for an apology – historians have documented how the Church has supported the state in the erasure and deletion process of Sami identity.
Christian preachers condemned the Sami religion as devil worship, banning the joik, a form of spiritual song used by noaidi, Where Sami shamans, to communicate with the spirit world.
The 17th century saw a wave of Puritan witch trials, in which Swedish church and state authorities waged an intense campaign against Sami worship, which they termed witchcraft. A noaïdi, Lars Nilsson, was burned alive, and many others were tried for witchcraft.
In search of converts, the Swedish church produced the first writing in Sami languages, in translated Bibles. But in the 20th century, he actively suppressed the Sami languages ââin denominational schools.
The reindeer herders were separated into below average “nomadic schools”, which sought to “protect” them from civilization as an “inferior race”.
As in Canada, these Church-run schools have become theaters of humiliating scientific experiments and abuse by the clergy. Racial biologists also conspired with bishops to unearth the remains of Sami children and elders, many of which are still in museum collections across Europe.
Other Samis, considered insufficiently nomadic by the Swedish authorities, were forced to assimilate, causing divisions within the community that still exist to this day.
Christianity an “indigenous religion”
Yet today, many Sami are still devout Christians. A 19th century revival movement produced an indigenous form of Lutheranism that transformed communities damaged by the suppression of traditional activities.
âMany Sami believe that Christianity is their native religion because the Sami have dealt with Christianity for centuries,â said Helga West, a Sami theologian who studies the reconciliation processes underway in the three Nordic countries. (His Sami name is BiennaÅ¡-Jon Jovnna Piera Helga.)
“Yet⦠there are a lot of Sami people who don’t want to be involved in these churches at all.”
Thomas Colbengtson, originally from Tärnaby, grew up in the Lutheran Church and attended a nomadic school. He says the experience left him with a “mixed feeling” about his own identity.
“In a way you have double guilt – the guilt [for] to be sami guilt [for] to be swedish guilt [for] maybe not practicing the christian religion, guilt [for] to be a Christianâ¦. This is the delicate thing to talk about. “
In a former glassworks on the outskirts of Stockholm, Colbengtson struggles with this tension as a Sami artist. His most recent work, based on a noaidi drum, will be on display near the altar of the Swedish church.
âPartly it’s provocation,â he said, âand⦠part is visualizing the Sami presence in the area and the Sami culture that [they have] tried to erase. “
Spiritual destruction – and renewal
Guided by the Canadian process of truth and reconciliation, the Church has largely focused on documenting historical wrongs. But West says he hasn’t yet figured out how he transformed Sami spirituality forever.
âChristianity in general brought this hierarchical and linear view of the world which was very different from the Sami cosmic view, which was pluralistic,â she said. “They were forced to think differently about the world, their ancestors, their practices, which were labeled as pagan and backward.”
Some Sami Christians have succeeded in reconciling these identities within themselves. Nilla and Nik Märak, two sisters from Jokkmokk, learned from their father, Johan, a renowned Sami priest, who broke barriers by bringing to joke in the church for the first time.
âHe used to say, ‘God was with the Sami people before church,’â Nik said with a laugh.
“He knew that by … being a minister in the church, and bringing the two worlds together, he could, just by his presence, go very far. [toward] reconciliation, âNilla said.
For Nilla, who handed out hosts during Wednesday’s service in Uppsala, the church’s recognition of past wrongs is a milestone in itself.
âA big part of the reconciliation and healing that will come, we hope⦠is realizing that there has been damage,â she said. “The Sami religion has been damaged, and the Sami soul has been damaged.”
Wednesday’s service included eight concrete pledges to reverse the historic erasure of Sami culture, intended to counter early perceptions among the Sami that public apologies, like Canada’s, are simply performative.
These include promises to preach in the Sami language, educate congregations about past crimes and make Sami traditions a more visible part of Christian worship.
“I hope the Sami people really trust the Church of Sweden, that it is real, that we want Sami spirituality to be part of the church,” said Bishop à sa Nyström, whose diocese de LuleÃ¥ covers the northern third of Sweden and includes many Sami communities. . “It is so important that the Sami people can have priests and deacons … from their own people.”
Absent state
Some say there is still more the church could do. Northern dioceses like Nyström derive their income from the vast forests they manage. But à sa Larsson Blind, vice president of the Sami Transnational Council, said they were not looking for international certifications that would require co-management with the Sami.
For critics, perhaps the biggest flaw in Wednesday’s church apology is that the Swedish government was nowhere to be found.
“It’s only the church that does the work,” said Nilla Märak. “The Swedish government is doing nothing. They barely recognize the need for a reconciliation process.”
Many of the crimes documented by the church were committed in the service of a colonizing Swedish state, which sought to drive the Sami people from profitable lands and divide them by borders.
Yet the state’s reconciliation process has barely begun. First discussed over 15 years ago, the Swedish government this month announced only one truth commission, which will focus primarily on fact-finding during its four-year tenure.
âIt’s very, very important, but it’s not a process of reconciliation,â Nyström said.
Meanwhile, the Swedish government continues to fight in court against Sami reindeer herders for the right to build mines and power plants on their land. He refused to ratify international conventions recognizing the rights of indigenous peoples.
A landmark Supreme Court decision in the Sami village of Girjas appears to have established a duty to consult the Sami people. But the government continues to interpret it narrowly.
âThey’re dodging the whole problem,â Larsson Blind said. “And by not tackling the issues, they’re letting business as usual⦠go on.”
As part of his evidence in court, the government official read a statement from 1884 that Sami herdsmen live “on a less cultivated level” and must “give way to the more civilized”.
Two Swedish government ministries responsible for Sami issues declined CBC’s requests for comment.
Make yourself an ally of the church
Many in attendance at Wednesday’s service hope the apology will be a turning point for the church, making it a crucial ally in the push for the government’s return.
âI think the church having the platform and the voice that they have in Sweden, they can actually play a huge role in that,â said Larsson Blind.
Within the church, meanwhile, the long and difficult work begins to regain the trust of Sami Christians and their communities.
“In some time … the [Sámi people may] take these excuses and forgive the church, “said Inga, president of the Sami church board.” But now is not the right time for that. “
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