ABSTRACT
In post-war Nordic societies, assimilationist and discriminatory policies towards the indigenous Sami population gradually began to give way to policies of recognition and respect. This chapter explores what these changing policies meant for transfers of knowledge and culture between schoolchildren and their families and local societies on the one hand and schools on the other. In the 1950s and 1960s, inter-generational transfers of Sami knowledge were threatened, although there were loopholes where Sami values remained even within schools. Thus, from a situation where most things Sami—Sami languages included—were invisible in transfers from above, Sami societies developed a stronger position vis-à-vis the state in defining what kind of Sami knowledge should be transmitted through schooling. There are now strong expectations of schools to assist in the construction of Sami identity and thus secure the future of the Sami as a people.
