Nordic Colonialism, Religious Minorities, and Contemporary Eugenics in Canada
Abstract
In the 20th century, religious minority Laestadian Finnish and Sámi women historically perceived as Asiatic living in northern Sweden were psychopathologized as genetically suspectable to mental illness in experimental research. Their stigmatization as racially vulnerable carriers of disease was rooted in early 20th-century eugenic ideas, deeming so-called non-Aryans, as a threat to the health of nation-states. Yet to be redressed, dedicated studies from the 1940s to the 1980s rooted in discredited race anthropometric studies rationalized the forced sterilization of pronatalist Laestadian women diagnosed with major psychoses. My presentation discusses Swedish psychiatric genetics allied with Nazi race hygiene, exploiting Laestadian family genealogies to advance a heritable cause of psychiatric disability. Additionally, the forced sterilization of women to eliminate racial traits in Swedish society presented as medical treatment. It addresses genocidal intervention in Laestadian women's reproduction and the medicalization of Laestadian beliefs in targeted medical racism. From a post-genomic lens, ethical considerations on contemporary eugenic sterilization are highlighted from a survivor perspective in relation to developing euthanasia policy constructed as therapy for mental illness in Canada. It is argued that diverse disabled people exposed to ongoing colonialism and eugenics must be meaningfully engaged in dialogue, policy development, and the education of Canadian medical practitioners and the public. Indeed global dialogue and actions are warranted to confront the growing revitalization of eugenics during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Paper:
Marttinen, Terry-Lee. (2022). Eugenics, Admixture, and Multiculturalism in Twentieth-Century Northern Sweden: Contesting Disability and Sámi Genocide. 10.13140/RG.2.2.32472.37125/1.
Biography
Terry-Lee Marttinen is a PhD candidate in the Centre for Medical Humanities (CMH) at Oxford Brookes University and a member of the Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism (CEMFOR) at Uppsala University. Her inter-university-community collaborative research is part of the Sijddaj máhttsat or Coming Home project at CEMFOR. Among its aims, Sijddaj máhttsat seeks to further research ethics built on Indigenous – Sámi perspectives. A second-generation immigrant from Finland and Karelia, Terry-Lee grew up in a 19th-century Sámi mission religion instrumental in the assimilation of Sámi people. Her PhD research explores transcolonial eugenics manifesting gender violence in the isolationist Western Laestadian movement assumed to be amplified in interaction with social and medical systems in Canada. The study is approached from a secular religious minority, sterilization survivor, and disability perspective. Terry-Lee embraces Sámi feminist storytelling to visibilize complex Laestadian (cis) women and queer experiences of settler colonialism. She has authored two peer-reviewed articles on the history of Swedish eugenics. She co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on the co-optation of participatory research methods informed by lived experiences of mental health challenges, addiction, trauma, and/or disability.
Alisa Lombard is a lawyer working in matters relating to Indigenous-Crown relations, particularly specific claims, human rights and reproductive rights, and Indigenous governance issues. She is a member of the Ontario and Saskatchewan Law Societies and is completing an LLM where her research focuses on systemic reform in health to hold wrongdoers in the medical profession to account using constitutional instruments. Alisa is a mom to two young girls, who she shares with her husband Allan LaPlante, a citizen of the Nehiyewak Nation (originates from English River First Nation and Moosomin First Nation, SK), and is a devoted citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation (originates from Elsipogtog First Nation in NB).
