Minorities

Duodji, the Sami word for handicrafts/applied art, has a long and illustrious history. Handicraft has been influenced by the need to survive in a harsh arctic environment (production of clothes to keep warm and weapons to hunt with) and the nomadic nature of the Sami (leading to rounded shapes so as not to hurt reindeer), but have also been influenced latterly by the tourist market and materials from further afield. All members of the family could produce handicrafts and regional variation in handicrafts reflect ethnic identity.

A member of the Finno-Ugric language group and thus related to Finnish, Sami consists of three branches, sufficiently different from each other to be considered as separate languages.

Linguistic minorities have existed for centuries, such as the Finns and Sami in Sweden. Since 1960s minority languages have often been associated with immigration. Since 2000 and even before, policies with regard to minority languages have ranged from assimilation on the one hand, where the majority language is a necessity, to multicultural pluralism on the other, where minority languages are encouraged.

A minority is a clearly distinguishable group or category of people who comprise less than half of a national population. Minorities in the Nordic region include the indigenous people the Sami, national minorities, such as Germans in Southern Denmark, immigrants from other Nordic and neighbouring countries as well as further afield, and other groups such as Greenlanders in Denmark.