What has changed, and what lives on?
It is not easy to know if someone is of Tater/Romani descent these days. Their cultural markers as travelling traders and craftsmen are no longer visible, and they have become residents; their children go to school, and many have the same professions as the rest of the Norwegian community.
Despite this change, many Tater/Romani people are still conscious of their history and cultural identity and wish to pass on their cultural identity to future generations.
Below you will find five portraits of people of Tater/Romani heritage. These people share their thoughts on their cultural identity as a Tater/Romani person and their hopes for the future.
There are differing views on whether the Tater or Romani identity should be made more visible in the public sphere. Many who are of Tater/Romani heritage are afraid that this will lead to the resurgence of old prejudices. This scepticism is particularly prevalent in those who have faced discrimination and bullying in school, in the neighbourhood, in the labour market or at caravan sites.
Many still experience bullying, be it at school or at work. There are also many caravan sites where Romani people are not admitted. People will often claim that the site is full, even when it demonstrably is not. Some of Tater/Romani heritage may also face struggles trying to rent housing.
Because of this, the Tater/Romani people have - and this is especially true of the last 20 years - established their own organisations to fight discrimination, to work towards the improvement of arrangements put in place to compensate the victims of government policies, and to uphold the people’s right to retain and develop their own culture. Romanifolkets Landsforening (National Association for the Romani People) was established in 1995 and in 2005 was renamed Taternes Landsforening (National Tater Association). Since then, more organisations have been founded, including Landsorganisasjonen for Romanifolket (National Organisation for the Romani People), Romanifolkets Kystkultur (Coastal Culture of the Romani People), Romanifolkets Riksforbund (National Federation for the Romani People), and Taternes/Romanifolkets menneskerettighetsforening (The Tater/Romani Human Rights Association).
Today, only Taternes Landsforening and Landsorganisasjonen for Romanifolket are considered eligible for public financial support.
The assimilation policies vis-à-vis the Tater/Romani people in Norway are very similar to those in other countries. Countries such as the USA, Canada and Australia implemented policies that used forced placement of children in institutions or foster homes as important strategies to make minorities or indigenous people forget about their cultures. Since the Norwegian authorities first apologised to the Tater/Romani people for the policies of the past, compensatory measures have been taken.
The state and the municipalities offer compensation schemes for lost education and forced placement in orphanages, foster homes or special schools. In 2004, a specific compensation scheme for the Tater/Romani people was initiated which offered compensation for bullying, forced sterilization, or placement at the Svanviken work camp.
The authorities have also come to understand the importance of ensuring that future generations have the opportunity to move the culture forward, and they have therefore been keen to provide collective compensation to this national minority. The exhibition Latjo drom at the Anno Glomdal Museum and the Tater/Romani Cultural Fund were aspects of this initiative.
The Tater/Romani Cultural Fund was closed down by the authorities in 2016 and is currently being administered by the Arts Council Norway. The fund had been controversial, but many people of Tater/Romani heritage felt that, by losing control over it, they were subjected to yet another injustice by the authorities.
In 2011, a committee was established with the task of evaluating the implementation of official policies vis-à-vis the Tater/Romani people from 1850 to today. The committee presented its findings on 1 June 2015. One of the committee’s conclusions was that the policies that were employed with regard to the group were unsuccessful and destructive and led to the implementation of laws and regulations that were discriminatory (Official Norwegian Report 2015:7).
The committee that was looking into public policies directed at the Tater/Romani people did not specifically investigate the measures taken by child welfare services after 1986. Based on the interviews that were conducted, however, the committee observed that the interviewees expressed a significant lack of trust in the child welfare services. The committee associates this finding with the policies that were carried out between 1900 and 1986, which led to many children of Romani/Tater heritage being taken from their parents.
According to the committee, the effect of these polices is that many people of Tater/Romani heritage feel that they are treated differently by the child welfare services, or they are afraid that they will be. Some individuals who contacted the committee claimed that there is a negative attitude towards this people internally in the child welfare services. Specifically, they claim that being Tater/Romani, combined with travelling during the summer months, influences – in a negative way – the experts’ opinions regarding the parents’ capabilities to care for their children (Official Norwegian Report 2015:7).
Several child welfare cases that occurred in 2019 confirmed this suspicion. In connection with numerous custody transfer cases, forced adoption has been an issue. The European Court of Human Rights (EMD) has ruled that Norway infringed upon children’s and parents’ rights to a family life in two cases which took place in 2019.
On 1 February 1995, Norway and 21 other countries signed the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The convention is an international convention and trumps national legislation.
This law is the first legally binding, multilateral agreement for the universal protection of national minorities. The convention became legally binding in Norway in 1999. An advisory committee supervises the government’s implementation of the Framework Convention on behalf of the Council of Europe.
The convention established that national minorities shall be protected from arbitrary and capricious discrimination, and that they shall be given a reasonable opportunity to preserve their culture and their language. Forced assimilation is prohibited under the convention.
At the same time, it is important to stress that the minorities are part of a wider community, where one set of rules applies to all. In terms of national legislation, there are no laws that specifically protect national minorities in Norway. When Norway’s National Constitution (Grunnloven) was revised in 2011, mention of national minorities was avoided. Only the Samis, who are indigenous people, are granted special rights in the Constitution.
The following paragraphs in the Framework Convention may be considered central. They were referred to in the Official Norwegian Report 2015:7 (page 35):
The convention stresses the importance of respect for the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identities of the national minorities, as well as the importance of providing opportunities for these individuals to be able to express, maintain and develop their own identity.
The convention stipulates that individuals belonging to a national minority shall have equal opportunities in society, while they shall also have the opportunity to preserve and further develop their own culture. This is called pluralistic integration. National minorities shall be a part of society at large, and there shall be no establishment of “parallel societies” where they live separate lives. The convention also states that individuals who belong to a national minority shall be able to participate actively in all aspects of social life and particularly in decision-making processes that affect them specifically. This right (Article 15) is especially relevant to the Anno Glomdal Museum’s cooperation with the Tater/Romani people’s organisations.
Below you can watch four people of Romani heritage talk about family, identity and culture.
