Releases

Senate Properties, which is responsible for state facilities, has implemented an extensive renovation and expansion project at the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida in Inari. The extension was completed in spring 2021, and now the second phase of the project has been completed. It included, among other things, the renovation of workspaces and building services. The renovated Siida will open to the public in June of 2022.

The last Sámi remains excavated from cemeteries in the Sámi homeland will be reburied in Inari and Utsjoki after the Sámi Church Days on 7–8 August. The deceased were laid to rest with funeral rites at the time of their burial, and the reburials will take place in a church ceremony following the order for the burial of the dead. The remains have been stored at the Sámi Museum Siida since 2001.

Like everywhere else, the Covid-19 pandemic can be seen in the number of visitors in The Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Center Siida.

The opening of Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Center Siida’s new exhibition Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These lands are our children, will be postponed until the beginning of June 2022.

The Sámi Museum Siida will celebrate the homecoming of the Sámi collection from the National Museum of Finland by arranging an open celebration on Thursday, 9 September 2021, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Restaurant Sarrit, in the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida in Inari.

The extension project of the Sámi Museum and the Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida has come to an end and the renovation project will begin. Siida’s old main exhibition will be dismantled, and space will be created for a new exhibition where culture and nature will be combined into a single entity.

Sámi Museum and Nature Center Siida had 80 000 visitors in 2020. From these, 39 000 bought tickets to the exhibitions. In addition to exhibition visitors there are customers of Siida Shop, restaurant Sarrit, Inari tourist information and Metsähallitus customer service. The number of total visitors dropped 34 % and there were 39 % less exhibition visitors than the previous year.

The website of the project Muittut, muitalusat – The Story of the Sámi by the Sámi, run by the Sámi Museum Siida, is now available at www.muittut.com.

The Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida located in Inari village centre is undergoing big changes and renovation. The extension work is under way and the renovation of the current building will begin in spring 2021. The joint permanent exhibition of the Sámi Museum and the Nature Centre will also be renewed during the extension and renovation work.

The Sámi Museum Siida is a communal museum. It has a plan of arranging community meetings in the areas of collection and exhibition work both in the Sámi Area and elsewhere in Finland. During the Covid-19 period, the meetings are arranged virtually, using remote access facilities. The first virtual meeting will be an Inari Sámi Language Night on Thursday, October 8th 2020, which focuses on items from the Finnish National Museum that were collected in the Inari region in 1902.