Speaking is Silver, Silence is Gold - A decolonial study examining Swedish exceptionalism and colonialism and the struggle of the Sámi people in Swedish elementary school textbooks from 1930-2013.

Sammanfattning

The narrative regarding Sweden and the self-understanding often excludes its colonial past and instead presents a “moral superpower”, deeply connected to the welfare state. While the nation has described itself as exceptional, the Sámi people have struggled for rights, acknowledgement and visibility over a long period of time. Previous research on the subject has repeatedly been studied with a postcolonial theory and method. The thesis aims to fill an academic gap by using a decolonial theory and a decolonial discourse analysis to answer the questions: (1) How and why are the Sámi people silenced in Swedish history? (2) In what way is the silence connected to Swedish exceptionalism? By studying textbooks used in Swedish schools between 1930 and 2013 and comparing the narratives to the Preparations for the Truth Commission by Sametinget, the study follows how coloniality/modernity has changed and with it silence. The study finds that Swedish exceptionalism is constructed upon modernity/coloniality and that the silencing of Sámi knowledge is crucial to continue the narrative of modernity, namely exceptionalism. While criticism is directed outwards against colonialism, Swedish colonialism is silenced and continues to naturalise power relations in Sweden.