Sámi Week in Tromsø (February 1. - 7.) is an event celebrating Sámi culture. Part of the significance for such an event is that Tromsø is very much a Sámi city, in that the Sámi language and cultural events are a part of city life, and Tromsø is one of the larger cities in Sápmi. There are also many famous Sámi people who make the city their home, or one of their homes.

Although I've never been around to participate in this event before, I'm excited to see it this year. The official site for the event, which is in English only for the last years festivities, shows that last year was a week full of films, art exhibits, a cooking course, and a reindeer race, amongst the many other fun events.

The program for 2010 is up (and available in English), but digging around the internet before the program was available, I also found this:

• The Faculty of Law at the University of Tromsø is having a 2 day program (4. - 5. of February) on Traditional Sámi rules of reindeer herding in refraction with reindeer herding legislation.

Also occurring during the last week of January and first week of February is the Nordlys classical music festival.

Here's some followup from the previous story about the threats of a massacre at Kongsbakken videregående skole in Tromsø. The first is an article in Nordlys, posted Monday (translation following):

New threat against Kongsbakken encouraging people to keep up with the news

On Friday a threat against Kongsbakken was repeated on the forum 4chan.org, according to the newspaper iTromsø. In a discussion thread on the site, someone wrote: "Implying I was kidding when I made that treath. Keep watching the news. I may have been foiled the first time, but time will show my seriousness."

"This sounds very scary, and I'm shocked," said Kongsbakken's Student Council leader, Kristian Støback to iTromsø. He otherwise thought it was good to come back to school to speak with other students and instructors. He believes it is important that the threat does not affect life at school.

Rector Odd Ivar Størkesen was not informed about the new threat on Sunday evening.

"I do not know of any new threat. We have been in contact with the police throughout the weekend and received an update on their work no later than Sunday", he said to iTromsø.

He says that school days rain as normal on Monday.

And another from Nordlys, which was posted Sunday:

Police believe they will find out who was behind the threat to Kongsbakken

So far in the investigation the police have not been able to uncover who is behind the threat to Kongsbakken High School.

"We still have good possibilities to solve the case. Kripos has its own system for mapping who uses the internet illegally. It will take time, but we have good hope of finding the sender of the threats to carry out a massacre at the school, says Tromsø police chief Kurt Pettersen.

He said to Kripos that the police in Tromsø are also driving some of the tactical investigation of the case.

"It is a priority both here and in Kripos to identify all factors surrounding the threat. Kripos has the expertise to identify the technological side, while we here in Tromsø hope the tactical investigation will yield results.

"It could also be someone eventually will realize the seriousness of the matter will report to the police with information," said Pettersen.

As someone who spends a good amount of time reading the news on the internet, I well know what 4chan is. 4chan may be the birthplace of LOLcats and numerous memes that go around the internet, but it's also a cesspool of ridiculousness and shock. It's not too wild of an idea that the original threat may have actually been posted by someone in town, but this follow-up threat was something continued from a random user on 4chan.

As far as the internet intelligence that Kripos is undertaking, I wonder what legal powers they have. Norway is said to have some of the strictest data privacy laws in the world, but it is reasonable that in the interest of investigating crime, Norwegian intelligence agencies may have access to quite a lot of data. If the issue is completely local, there is a good chance they will find out who did it, especially if the perpetrator has no clue what they're doing or how to anonymize their identity on the internet... Norway isn't big, so if they have an IP address, they could much more reasonably find out whose it was than could one in a much bigger country like the U.S.

I wonder what the outcome will be of this, and particularly for 4chan should it manage to be a frequent source of irritation for the police here.

This was the big news today in Norway, and a few people I know around the world have messaged me today asking if I'd heard. So far, I haven't seen any English coverage of the story, so I translated NRK's article on the issue. Added some links for more context for people not familiar with Norway, the culture.

From NRK:

Today, all 650 students at Kongsbakken high school (nor. videregående skole) were evacuated due to a perceived threat of a school massacre posted on the internet. The threat to Kongsbakken high school was aimed at Sámi people. "Scary stuff", said one Sámi student at the school.

The threat was published on Thursday under the title "School massacre" on the American internet forum, 4chan. The principal (rector) at Kongsbakken high school, Ivar Odd Størkersen, was tipped off about the threat by a journalist working at Aftenposten. As such, he immediately contacted the police.

The threat was in the form of an illustration, including a picture of a gun, a sword, the school, and a map of Tromsø. The illustration further contained the text "Targets: Sami people". The threat was later removed from 4chan for unknown reasons.

"We take a connection between weapons and the school building as a serious and severe threat. It is sad that some have felt the need to connect the school with such a serious incident, " said Rector Størkersen to NRK.

"I have no idea why Sámi people are listed as a target. There are many Sámi people in Tromsø, and there are many students with Sámi background who are students at Kongsbakken. I will not speculate on what the purpose of this threat is," said Rector Ivar Odd Størkersen.

Frightening and scary

"It is frightening and scary. Such a threat must be taken seriously," said Mihka Solbakk (18), a Sámi student at Kongsbakken.

Students who arrived at the school this morning were met by police and locked doors. The school management had decided to evacuate all students.

"I believe there are many who are afraid now," said Solbakk.

Mihka Solbakk reports that he has spoken with many of his Sámi classmates today and many of them have expressed that it is frightening that such a threat was directed against Sámi students. He has otherwise not experienced that his ethnic background has been a problem, either at school or in town.

"Of course, you get to hear the occasional derogatory comment here and there."

"Some might joke that Sámi people are inferior, you never really know if anyone believes it. It may even be that this [threat] is meant as a joke," says Solbakk.

Solbakk made it clear otherwise that such threats should be taken seriously, and he thinks that the administration of Kongsbakken has handled the matter in a good way. "There have been a number of school shootings in the U.S. and in Finland in recent months, so it's no wonder that the administration takes these attacks seriously," he says.

Losing sleep

"I received a text message about the threat when I woke up this morning. Obviously I was a little scared," said Odd Ivar Solbakk, Mihka Solbakk's father.

His son was still sleeping when the message about the threat came, and so he would not be to school until after lunchtime. Odd Ivar Solbakk said to NRK Sámi Radio that news that the threat was directed against Sámi people was a special piece of news to hear at the crack of dawn.

"Tromsø is a city with many prolific Sámis and the Sámi people are very important here. It has never seemed as if there were a threat to the Sámi youth in the city," said Solbakk.

As a parent of a student at the school, Solbakk was proud of the way the school administration and the police have handled this matter. Having learned the full extent of the situation, he says he is impressed with the response and feels the school's forthrightness is something that characterizes a good school environment. He is also impressed.

"A threat so close to us as this is something that would interfere with sleep; it's unpleasant," says Odd Ivar Solbakk.

Investigating the matter

Police chief Truls Fyhn in the Troms Police Department said in a press release that an investigation has been initiated to get more information from the site that the threat was posted to, after the police were made aware of the case on Thursday night.

"The investigation is still continuing," he wrote.

Kripos is also involved in the investigation," said Tromsø police chief, Kurt Pettersen.

School administration at Kongsbakken expects that school will resume as normal beginning on Monday. Later today, the police will have a meeting with the principal and the others in the school administration to inform them of the investigation.

Listen to interviews

• in Norwegian: Interview with Mihka Solbakk
• in North Sámi: Jearahallan Mihka Solbakkain
• in North Sámi: Jearahallan Odd Ivar Solbakkain

Read more news on NRK

• Afraid and scared
• The schools shall be safe

My own thoughts

This is hugely surprising news. On one hand, 4Chan (see Wikipedia if you don't know what it is) is full of ridiculous things and so this may have been a joke, but on the other hand, with recent school and mall shootings in Finland and the U.S., one can never be sure. I have not observed much anti-Sámi discrimination or racism here in Tromsø, aside from errant comments people make that are mostly just stupid, but then I'm not Sámi, and I haven't lived here for more than 6 months, so I know basically nothing. The history of Sámi-Norwegian relations as I know it hasn't been pretty, but things are otherwise much much better now.

Some added context is that Kongsbakken (King's Hill) is a fairly prestigious, arts-oriented, and more liberal-minded school.

I'm hoping this was all just a joke, but it looks like it's gotten damn serious.

Updates

More English-language news is available here, from My Little Norway.