Displaying items by tag: Tornedalians

A ‘truth and reconciliation’ commission has recommended an official apology and reparations for historic injustices against the Tornedalian minority. The commission found that assimilation policies in the 19th and 20th centuries damaged them, affecting their language, culture, and traditional industries. Tornedalians, originally from the Torne River valley near the Finnish border, are descendants of Finns who settled in the area in the 1800s. They speak Meänkieli, a language closely related to Finnish. In the 1880s, Sweden enforced a policy of 'Swedishisation', including banning their language and traditional clothing in schools and sending thousands of children to boarding schools to enforce Swedish language use. Today’s Tornedalian population is about 50,000; they rely on agriculture, hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding, Although they were recognised as a national minority in 2000, with Meänkieli as an official language, the commission suggests further measures to strengthen their language and culture, including its inclusion in public broadcasting and education. This report coincides with another ongoing investigation into policies against the indigenous Sámi people: see