Ellacarin Blind & Bruce Lambert will discuss Sami & Hawaiian experiences of displacement. Bruce aims a mild focus on examples such as how visions of “the New World” and “discovery” can be confrontational, and how Native Hawaiian inheritance might be better administered. In contrast to many island communities worldwide, US Federal law in Hawai’i allows non-resident land speculation with gravely negative social costs. The US military footprint is also severe, including seven military golf courses on the island of O’ahu.
Ellacarin recently edited a book collecting oral histories of nomad schools for the Sami:
Kaisa Huuva & Ellacarin Blind (eds.) (2016) “När jag var åtta år lämnade jag mitt hem och jag har ännu inte kommit tillbaka – minnesbilder från samernas skoltid.” Stockholm: Verbum förlag.
The nomad schools project was notably backed by the Swedish Church, which squarely aimed at unveiling and documenting the role of the Church in oppressing past generations of Sami people. The Church website statement reads (in Swedish), “In addition to the stories from the school environment, the book about nomad schools also contains different perspectives on the ideologies that led to such Sami education, including how State and Church through the education system sought to assimilate and colonize the Sami population. Particular attention is paid to the period 1913-1940, a time when racial biology ideas were prevailing.”
THE PANEL
Dr. Bruce Lambert is Development Director of Localversity, based in Stockholm. He took part in ‘Aha 2016, the recent Native Hawaiian Governance Convention which gathered a core leadership group of Hawaiians from throughout the archipelago and overseas. ‘Aha sovereignty documents may now be ratified by the wider indigenous community.
Ms. Ellacarin Blind is Counselor for Cultural & Social Issues with the National Union of the Swedish Sami (Svenska Samernas Riksförbund). Ellacarin comes from a reindeer herder family and stayed in a Sami boarding-school in Sweden from age seven to fifteen years old. She has her own reindeer-mark, and lives in Umeå.
WHEN: Wednesday, February 21st 2018, 17.30 for a free tour of Etnografiska Museet’s Sami exhibit, 18.00-19.30 for the panel discussion, 19.30-20.30 for the mingle with refreshments
WHERE: Etnografiska Museet
COST AND PAYMENT: 100 kr members, 150 kr non-members, 50 kr students, no-shows will be invoiced 200 kr. Exact cash or Swish at the door.
REGISTRATION:
INQUIRIES: events@americanclub.se