Gerd Mikalsens Farsmålet i engelsk oversettelse.

Romanen skildrer oppvekst i en bygd i Nord-Troms preget av fornorskning og læstadianisme. Vi følger jenta Alma fra førskolealder til hun er godt voksen. Forholdet mellom Alma og hennes far er en sentral del av skildringen.
Mikalsen forteller at det var to ting som var strengt forbudt for barn i Manndalen. Det ene var det å snakke samisk og det andre å snakke om noe som hadde med kjønnsdrift å gjøre. Lenge trodde hun at det var samme sak, slik at når de voksne snakket samisk så trodde hun at de snakket om det tabubelagte temaet sex.

Kaija Anttonen har oversatt til engelsk.

In the 1900s, the Sámi in Norway were forcibly assimilated into Norwegian society. In this novel, Gerd Mikalsen, who comes from Northern Norway, telles how it felt for a Sami girl growing up during the assimilation of the post-war period. The inhabitants of a small community lose their mother tongue and have to deny their ethnic background. Even today, the loss of language and one’s culture is an unhealed wound for indigenous peoples.

Throughout the novel, Mikalsen shows the wounds that are created when people lose their identity and dignity. It also tells about healing and taking back one’s culture. The novel was warmly recived in Norway, and, as an account of how assimilation transforms a community, resonates with indigenous people all around the world.

ISBN: 978-82-92473-33-7. Gollegiella, 2019. 148 s. Innb. 350.- (kan bestilles fra gollegiella@online.no)