Sesam Seminar

Tekst: Irina Haugane 23.07 2010

Riddu Riđđu 2010. Kristian Aambø and Ivalu Søvndahl Pedersen held lectures at todays' seminar. Aambø talked about the oil production and about the dialog between the oil company Eni Norway, the state, the locals and the Sami Parliament. Essentially, he concluded that is has been a lot of consensus among the parties, possibly because they have similar motives and goals.

Ivalu Søvndahl Pedersen is born and raised in Nuuk, Greenland. She has a father from Denmark and a mother from Greenland. Pedersen talked about the politics around the language planning in Greenland. She brought ut the challenges in the schools education system where some children only speak Greenlandic, while other children only speak Danish, and the rest are bilingual. She also mentioned those who wanted to undertake secondary education and had to go to Denmark to get it, with the exception of a few courses. Therefore, much skilled labor in Greenland is imported from Denmark.

The Seminar was led by Siri Johnsen from the University in Tromsø. Before the Seminar started, the seminar visitors were served a traditional local dish, Bidos.