Reconciliation in the Settler-Colonial State: A Decolonial Examination of the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the Sámi Indigenous Peoples

This thesis examines the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission  for the Sámi Indigenous peoples interrogating whether the commission substantively promotes structural reconciliation and reparation for a population subjected to centuries of settler-colonial violence. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions have traditionally operated in post-conflict or post-authoritarian states; Norway's commission represents a novel application of the transitional justice model to a stable liberal democracy confronting an enduring colonial legacy. Drawing on scholarship in decolonial theory, Indigenous liberation, and the normative debates surrounding TRCs, I develop three evaluative criteria — epistemological autonomy, legal and political autonomy, and material reparations and structural redress — against which I analyze the commission’s final report. I argue that by substituting symbolic gestures of apology and acknowledgment for structural reform, the Norwegian TRC ultimately reaffirms the colonial hierarchy it purports to dismantle. These findings carry implications for how established democracies may deploy transitional justice mechanisms to reckon with legacies of settler-colonial violence.