About Norwegian House Society

Nor­we­gian House Soci­ety (NHS) is a reg­is­tered non-profit char­i­ta­ble orga­ni­za­tion formed in 1995 as a cul­tural orga­ni­za­tion rep­re­sent­ing the more than 100,000 peo­ple of Nor­we­gian descent in British Colum­bia who have deep roots in a province so much like their home country.

NHS worked with the Boards of Direc­tors and Mem­bers of Swe­den House Soci­ety, Fin­land House Soci­ety and Dan­ish House Soci­ety to raise the funds nec­es­sary to pur­chase the for­mer Nor­we­gian Seamen’s Cen­tre, the Roald Amund­sen Cen­tre, from the Nor­we­gian Gov­ern­ment and to cre­ate the cur­rent Scan­di­na­vian Com­mu­nity Centre.

With the pur­chase of this centrally-located build­ing and prop­erty, of his­tor­i­cal impor­tance to the local Nor­we­gian com­mu­nity, NHS was able to secure a cul­tural home where tra­di­tions, lan­guage and his­tory can be show­cased, pre­served and celebrated.

Besides indi­vid­ual and fam­ily mem­ber­ships open to any­one and every­one, Nor­we­gian House Soci­ety has affil­i­ate rela­tion­ships with many long-established orga­ni­za­tions such as Sons of Nor­way and Nordmannsforbundet.

NHS spear­headed the con­struc­tion of the half-sized Gok­stad replica Viking Ship Munin and sup­ports the on-going liv­ing his­tory expe­ri­ence offered to locals and vis­i­tors who can sail on the ship from Her­itage Har­bour at the Van­cou­ver Mar­itime Museum in Eng­lish Bay. You’re wel­come to become a reg­u­lar crew member.

NHS vol­un­teers orga­nize cul­tural events includ­ing the annual 17th Mai Con­sti­tu­tion Cel­e­bra­tion Din­ner, main­tain and update a library of Nor­we­gian authors in Nor­we­gian as well as sup­port the addi­tion of Nor­we­gian writ­ers trans­lated into Eng­lish to the com­mon library at the Scan­di­na­vian Com­mu­nity Cen­tre. As well, the orga­ni­za­tion offers lan­guage classes for chil­dren and adults, lan­guage reten­tion cof­fee ses­sions where you must speak Nor­we­gian so can keep you lan­guage skills alive, arts and crafts classes, fea­ture guest speaker events, etc.

NHS main­tains close con­tact with the Nor­we­gian Embassy in Ottawa and the local Con­sulate and hosts events fea­tur­ing offi­cial vis­i­tors from Nor­way, vis­it­ing Nor­we­gian media, as well as sports, busi­ness and cul­tural guests. Vol­un­teers are always happy to extend a warm wel­come to vis­i­tors to their Cana­dian home.