Many objects related to the history of childhood have been lost to time, and the one I have chosen to write about is among them: collection boxes. These boxes were ephemeral objects, typically handed out by emissaries and Sunday school teachers to be filled with coins for a missionary cause. No one saw the need to archive this specific collection box for future generations, not even the missionary organisation that issued it, Norsk misjon blant hjemløse (NMBH, 1897-1987). Yet, it taught generations of Norwegian children a specific story about nationhood and their Romani neighbours.
Extant descriptions and illustrations show the box as house-shaped, made from cardboard, and brightly coloured, the walls of the house a vivid red. It was modelled on the houses in one of the work camps run by the NMBH, where Romani families were forcibly placed as part of a settlement program. The NMBH was the main actor in the forced assimilation of the Romani people in Norway, and the collection box was an important tool towards engaging children of the majority population for their cause.
The writing on the roof read “Homes for the homeless”, a credo of the NMHB – and other Norwegian actors who sought to assimilate the group from the 1840s onward. The traditional nomadic lifestyle and supposed heathendom of the Romani people was scrutinised, as was their apparent lack of a home. The home was deemed the very foundation of civilised society and a prerequisite for developing loyalty to the nation state.
In their children’s periodical, the NMBH described the toy-like box as “a faithful friend”. It was often shared among a group of children in a missionary band, but it could also be owned by individual children. Children would typically gather money by selling their handiwork at local bazaars or donating a part of their pocket money. Letters from the children’s bands recount the excitement of emptying the boxes at year’s end, studying with wide eyes “every coin that came rattling out, until there was a heap of copper on the table.”
In 1998, the Norwegian government and the Church of Norway apologised for the severe abuse the Romani people suffered at the hands of the NMBH. Still, to this day, the Romani people face racism and worse living conditions than the rest of the Norwegian population. Although both the collection box and the houses it was modelled after are long-gone, the debate over who belongs within the national home is ever-present.
Idunn Victoria Rostøl (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Intellectual History at the University of Oslo. She is writing a dissertation on how children of the majority population were involved in the forced assimilation of the Romani people in Norway. The assimilatory efforts were implemented by the missionary organisation Norsk misjon blant hjemløse (1897-1987) in close cooperation with the Norwegian state. Her work is informed by history of emotions, childhood history, and antisiganism studies.
