Sami museum in Finland

The Siida Museum is located in Inari, Finland. The museum consists of an indoor section showcasing the life of the Sami. The flora and fauna of Finnish Lapland are also on display here. In addition, there is a large outdoor exhibition. This displays the structures that the Sami use or have used: houses and various everyday objects, including bear traps and all kinds of boats. In 2024, the museum was named European Museum of the Year. Are you familiar with Sami culture?

Breaking news: Heat record

Due to the heat, more and more travelers are no longer going to Southern Europe but are visiting the Scandinavian countries during their holidays instead. This is called a 'coolcation' vacation. But at the end of July 2025, this news reached us. In Finland, it has been warmer than 30 degrees for fourteen days in a row. With this, the heatwave record in the Northern European country has been broken after 53 years, the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) reported on X on Friday. Heatwaves like this are exceptional in Finland. “Temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius are extremely rare here,” FMI meteorologist Jaakko Savela told the BBC. In Finland, a heatwave is officially declared when the temperature is above 25 degrees for at least three consecutive days. Finland last experienced such a long heatwave in 1972. At that time, temperatures were above 30 degrees for thirteen consecutive days during the summer. The data has been recorded since 1961. The heatwave record was first reported on Friday morning in Parikkala, close to the Russian border. However, higher temperatures have also been occurring for some time in more northerly regions. For instance, Lapland, the region stretching across northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and part of Russia, experienced its warmest summer in two thousand years.  

Sami culture (1)

The Sámi are an originally nomadic people who inhabit Northern European Lapland. They were formerly also known by the name Lapps, a term considered offensive by the Sámi. Today, they possess their own parliament, the Sameting, in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, which has a say in matters concerning the Sámi and their territory within the national governments of the states to which Lapland belongs. Most Sámi live in Norway, about 50.000. In Sweden, there are approximately 20.000, in Finland 6.000, and in Russia 1.800. According to the European Union for Minority Languages, there are 70.000 to 100.000 Sámi, of whom fewer than 20.000 speak Sámi. There is no standard Sámi language. Spoken Sámi has many distinct variants distributed across a number of separate languages. Sámi is related to Finnish and Estonian and belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family.

Some of the Sami traditionally lived as nomads, following reindeer herds on their annual migration for food. The reindeer provided the Sami with milk, meat, and hides. Furthermore, they served as draft animals for sleds, the primary means of transport in this region. Other Sami traditionally lived from fishing, particularly along the Norwegian coast. Hunting was also an important occupation. The Sami flag consists of the colors blue, red, yellow, and green. They frequently appear in gáktis, a traditional Sami garment. The blue-red circle refers to the sun and the moon, important symbols in Sami mythology. The red part of the circle symbolizes the sun; the blue the moon. The motif was chosen with the poem Päiven parneh (“Sons of the Sun”) in mind. This poem by the Sami pastor Anders Fjellner (1795–1876), in the form of a joik, contains much Sami mythological symbolism. The poem describes the Sami as “sons and daughters of the sun,” through the union of a female Jötun from the “House of Death” in the far north with the offspring of the sun. In the Sami national anthem, the Sami are also referred to as the “offspring of the Sons of the Sun.” The Sami flag was deliberately designed differently from Nordic cross flags and does not comply with the rules of European heraldry. This is partly intended to demonstrate that the Sami nation is not part of the European national system. The nomadic Sami lived in tents (lavvu) that were easy to dismantle and transport. Only in winter did the Sami and reindeer remain in one place. Instead of tents, they then lived in low, dome-shaped huts, which were covered with earth to protect them against the severe frost. Further south, traditional housing consisted of square wooden huts. Since the 17th century, the Sami way of life has changed significantly. Only a small percentage still lead a nomadic existence, and then usually only for part of the year. Most Sami have settled as fishermen, farmers, or independent entrepreneurs, or hold regular jobs. Some Sami have fully integrated into Scandinavian society and their lives today differ little from those of other Scandinavians, but a significant portion of them strive to develop their own culture and language. In daily life, they wear waterproof Gore-Tex suits, but the traditional colorful clothing is increasingly considered folklore, as is the traditional Sami music, the so-called joik. They have been using snowmobiles for herding reindeer since the 1960s and GPS since the 2000s. Sami parliaments were established in Finland in Inari (1973), in Norway in Karasjok (1989), and in Sweden in Kiruna (1993), serving as the representative bodies for the Sami population. Russia has not recognized the Sami as a minority and therefore does not recognize a Sami parliament, even though the Sami have formed an unrecognized Sami parliament in Russia. There is no single, unified Sami parliament encompassing the Scandinavian countries. Instead, each of the aforementioned three countries has established its own parliament for the Sami, although the three Sami parliaments often cooperate on cross-border issues. In all three countries, they function as an institution of cultural autonomy for the indigenous Sami. The parliaments have very limited political influence, far removed from autonomy. Formally, they are public authorities governed by the Scandinavian governments, but they have democratically elected parliamentarians dedicated to the Sami people and culture. The election promises of candidates often clash with the subjugation of institutions to their governments, but as authorities, they do have some influence on the government.  

Sami culture (2)

Sami culture is celebrated with a miniature sheet modeled after the floor plan of the Sami Cultural Center SAJOS, which opened in Inari in January 2012. The self-adhesive stamps are shaped like mountains. The sheet with the troll drum pattern illustrates the three daughters of Sami Mother Doddess, a reindeer village, and shelters.  

 

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Sami museum (Inari): https://siida.fi/en/ Artist Olof Marsja draws from his Sámi heritage, the only officially recognized indigenous people of Europe. Through his sculptures, installations, and deeply poetic approach, Marsja delves into his background. He connects this complex history with contemporary times and challenges. Exhibition at 1646 (The Hague) from September 6 to November 2, 2025: https://1646.nl/nl/programma/to-carry-this-body-of-an-animal-forth-olof-marsja/ Pacific Sámi Society: https://pacificsami.org/