From the Crossings and Connections Conference Commemorating 200 years of Norwegian Immigration to the U.S.A. at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN

First of all, I want to thank the MNCLP program for making it possible for me to attend the Crossings and Connections Conference at St. Olaf College.  It was wonderful, and I will share just a few highlights here. 

One of the most powerful sessions I attended was The Blanket Exercise, led by members of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.  The Blanket Exercise is interactive and designed to help participants, especially those who are not Native American, to understand how the arrival of Europeans affected the indigenous peoples of the Americas.  I appreciated that the conference organizers were not afraid to recognize that the success of Norwegian immigrants often came at great cost to the people who were here first.  While The Blanket Exercise was one of the sessions focused on the darker aspects of Norwegian immigration, there were also sessions about lighter topics. One of them was Laurann Gilbertson’s illustrated talk, “From T-Shirts to the Texas Bunad: Expressing Norwegian and American Identities through Dress.”  What I found most interesting was how Norwegian Americans have created their own bunader to reflect both their Norwegian and their American identities.  I had never heard of that before.  In addition, Gilbertson included information about how contemporary Norwegians are adapting the bunad.  The bunad is not a static but an evolving tradition.  Finally, I want to mention that the happy hour and pizza supper at the Red Barn Pizza Farm on Thursday evening became a mini-reunion because two of the women who were graduate students with me in the Scandinavian Department at the University of Minnesota were among the attendees.  We had a delightful time reconnecting and catching up with each other.  Finally, I want to again thank the MNCLP committee for paying my conference fees. I am still digesting what I learned over the three days.

Photo above, left to right: Nick Rogness, Signe Ilstrup and Krista Schweppe greeting people at the MNLCP table at The Exchange during the Crossings and Connections Conference at St. Olaf College in June.