Kainun Institutti - Kvensk  Institutt
Kventunet
9716 Børselv

e-mail: kaisa.maliniemi@kvenskinstitutt.no
website: http://www.kvenskinstitutt.no

Responsible: Kaisa Maliniemi

The Kven institute (Kainun institutti in Kven/Finnish and Kvensk institutt in Norwegian) is a national center for Kven culture and language located in Børselv in Porsangi (Porsanger) municipality in North of Norway. The institute was officially launched in 2007. Kvens (kveeni in Kven language / Finnish) are an ethnic minority in Norway who are descended from Finnish peasants and fishermen who emigrated from the northern parts of Finland and Sweden to Northern Norway mainly in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, many of Kvens settled in Norway befor the border between Norway, Sweden and Russia was officially established in 1751. Today, the Kven people are one of the the five officially recognized national minorities in Norway. I 1999, the State of Norway ratified the Council of Europe´s "Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities", and in 2005 the Kven language was recognized as a minority language in Norway. The Kven institute takes care of developing, documentation and disseminating of knowledge of Kven language and culture. The Kven institute has participiated in many projects and workshops where the aim has been to make language and culture visible in Northern Scandinavia and in Norwagian society generally where they have been a quite unknown minority.