Joint Press Release by the Sámi Museum Siida and Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland

Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland and the Sámi Museum Siida have agreed that all exhibition activities at Siida will be transferred entirely under the museum’s administration. The change will take effect in July 2025.

Located in Inari, Siida has operated since 1998 as both the Sámi Museum and the Northern Lapland Nature Centre. Its main exhibition, Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These Lands Are Our Children, presents Sámi culture and the nature of Northern Lapland. The exhibition was renewed between 2020 and 2022 in cooperation between the Sámi Museum and Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland and has received widespread acclaim. In 2024, the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida was named Museum of the Year in Finland, and the Sámi Museum was also recognized as European Museum of the Year.

With the new agreement, the administration, costs, and revenues of the exhibition activities – including ticket sales – will be fully transferred to the Sámi Museum Siida. This change applies to both the main exhibition and the two spaces for temporary exhibitions. Until now, ticket revenues have been shared between Metsähallitus and the Sámi Museum.

The transfer of exhibition activities aligns with the aim of Parks & Wildlife Finland to focus more clearly on its core duties – nature conservation and providing outdoor recreation services – in response to a changing funding landscape.

“Metsähallitus’ nature content will remain a part of the main exhibition. Additionally, Parks & Wildlife Finland will continue to operate customer service and maintain facilities at Siida, which will remain unchanged,” says Service Owner Katja Heikkinen from Metsähallitus Parks & Wildlife Finland.

As a result of this change, the name “Siida” will be used solely by the Sámi Museum.

“This change gives the Sámi Museum even better opportunities to present Sámi culture and art in Siida’s exhibitions. However, the museum’s facility costs will increase, which is why we need support from the state,” says Museum Director Taina Máret Pieski.

The Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida achieved historic visitor numbers in 2024. According to statistics, Siida’s events and exhibitions attracted over 82,000 visitors, more than 20 percent higher than the previous record of 68,000 set in 2023. July was especially busy, with a record-breaking 14,000 monthly exhibition visitors.

In addition to exhibitions, visitors actively utilized Siida’s other services, such as Metsähallitus’ Upper Lapland Nature Centre customer service, tourist information point, Restaurant Sarrit, and the museum shop Siida Shop. Door counters recorded an impressive total of 140,000 visitors to Siida throughout the year.

“We are grateful that the joint exhibition by the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida, Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These Lands Are Our Children, has resonated with visitors and been recognized with the Museum of the Year Award by the Finnish Museum Association,” says Kirsi Ukkonen, Senior Specialist at the Upper Lapland Nature Centre Siida.

“Our exhibition highlights the close connection between nature and culture, emphasizing the importance of preserving both for future generations. We sincerely thank all exhibition visitors for their support,” Ukkonen adds.

The success of 2024 was significantly influenced by the Sámi Museum’s European Museum of the Year Award and the Museum of the Year Award granted by the Finnish Museum Association and ICOM Finland. These accolades boosted interest, particularly after May, leading to a substantial increase in exhibition ticket purchases compared to previous years. Traditionally quieter months, such as April-May and October-November, also saw a clear uptick in activity.

Of the visitors, 37 percent were Finnish, and 63 percent were international. Among international visitors, Germans and French were the most represented. Overall, Siida welcomed individuals from 110 different nationalities during the year. Group travelers accounted for approximately 30 percent of visitors, consistent with previous years. Additionally, a record-breaking 455 guided tours were organized.

“It is heartening to see Sámi culture gaining widespread international interest. The museum’s awards have further heightened this attention. However, our most important work takes place beyond large visitor numbers, in community-based efforts with the Sámi people,” says Taina Máret Pieski, Director of the Sámi Museum.

The year 2024 was remarkable for the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida in many ways, demonstrating the profound impact of showcasing the connection between nature and culture. Siida will continue its work to provide high-quality, memorable experiences while raising awareness of Sámi culture and the unique features of the northern natural environment.

More information: Head of marketing, Taija Aikio, taija.aikio(at)samimuseum.fi, +35840 484 7329

This week, the Sámi Museum Siida is hosting a delegation from Upopoy, the National Ainu Museum and Park, in Hokkaido, Japan. During the visit, the Ainu Culture Foundation and the Sámi Museum are renewing their partnership agreement, which aims to promote cultural collaboration between Indigenous peoples, including through museum exhibitions and staff exchanges.

The Sámi Museum has collaborated with Japan’s Indigenous people, the Ainu, since the 1980s. During that time, reciprocal visits were organized between the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi, Hokkaido, and the Sámi Museum in Inari, along with Sámi Radio and the Sámi Delegation. In 1984, the Ainu Folk Museum and the Sámi Museum in Inari signed a declaration of partnership and friendship to advance the “study and preservation of our cultures, histories, and identities.”

This week, the Sámi Museum in Inari is hosting Noriyuki Abe, Senior Deputy Director of Upopoy, Hikaru Jono from the Ainu Culture Foundation, Masahiro Nomoto, Vice President, and Yomaru Yamamichi, a craftsman from the National Ainu Museum and Park, along with interpreter Mio Yachita. The purpose of the visit is to renew the partnership agreement and strengthen collaboration, especially between museum organizations. The visitors will also tour the renewed Sámi Museum and its exhibitions.

The Ainu are an Indigenous people of Japan whose traditional homelands are located on the northern island of Hokkaido, as well as in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The Upopoy Center, located on the shore of Lake Poroto in Hokkaido, serves as the national center for the revitalization and development of Ainu culture. In the Ainu language, “Upopoy” means “singing together in a large group.” Upopoy consists of the National Ainu Museum and Park, where Ainu culture is preserved and showcased. The center also includes a Memorial Area with facilities for commemorative ceremonies and the preservation of Ainu ancestral remains that were previously excavated for research purposes from various universities and have since been returned.

More information: Museum director, Taina Máret Pieski, taina.pieski(at)samimuseum.fi,Tel. 050 5351574

The Museum of the Year 2024 award was presented today, May 23, at the Museum Award Gala organized by the Finnish Museums Association and the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in Jyväskylä.

The Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida has become the most significant visitor destination and tourist attraction in Northern Lapland. Our exhibition, “Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These Lands Are Our Children,” which opened in 2022 in the expanded and renovated Siida building, has been a success. The new joint exhibition, the repatriation work carried out by the Sámi Museum, and community collection work have significantly advanced the national and international societal visibility and impact of the museum field.

We are very happy and satisfied that the diverse work of the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida for Sámi cultural heritage and northern nature has received the most significant recognition in the Finnish museum sector.

“The award for the wonderful and heartfelt work belongs to the entire staff of the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida and to all those who have participated in the exhibition and renovation projects over the past years. The Sámi Museum especially wants to thank the Sámi community, which has participated in the exhibition renewal, repatriation work, and community work, and supported the museum’s work,” said chief curator Eija Ojanlatva, accepting the award on behalf of the Sámi Museum.

“We at Metsähallitus highly value the more than 25 years of cooperation between the Nature Centre and Sámi Museum at Siida. It has taken us far, and together we have been pioneers. When the first exhibition opened, the joint exhibition of the two organizations was the first of its kind. In our new exhibition, we created a new way of storytelling by using art in our displays. The concept of combining two exhibition scripts into one still works,” rejoices Kirsi Ukkonen, a special expert in recreational use at Metsähallitus.

“This is a significant recognition alongside the European Museum of the Year award. We hope that these awards will also be reflected in the appreciation and funding of Sámi Museum Siida’s national work,” says museum director Taina Pieski.

The new exhibition at the Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida has been a success, as we have surpassed previous visitor records. Since the reopening, we have had 226,000 visitors in a year and a half, with nearly 120,000 of them visiting our exhibition. Over half of our exhibition visitors are international guests.

In addition to Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centre Siida, four other museums competed for the award: Chappe Contemporary Art Museum in Raseborg, the Luostarinmäki Museum Quarter in Turku, the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju, and the Museum Centre Konsti in Varkaus. The award was presented for the tenth time.

Giitu! Takkâ! Späʹsseb! Kiitos!

For more information:
Museum Director Taina Pieski, taina.pieski(at)samimuseum.fi, +358 50 5351574
Special Expert in Recreational Use Kirsi Ukkonen, kirsi.ukkonen(at)metsa.fi, +358 400 479 986

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/siidainari/albums/72177720317204179

The European Museum of the Year award was presented today on May 4th in Portimão, Portugal, at the EMYA conference organized by the European Museum Forum.

Sámi Museum would like to thank the EMYA jury, the European Museum Forum, the city of Portimão, and ICOM Finland for this award and the opportunity to participate in the 2024 EMYA conference.

We are very pleased that the renewal of Siida and our diverse work for Sámi cultural heritage has been recognized throughout Europe.

“Sámi Museum Siida, as an indigenous museum, is primarily for the Sámi people themselves. But we are extremely pleased to see how our Sámi story resonates with the entire European museum community and people around the world,” said museum director Taina Pieski in her acceptance speech.

This award belongs to the entire Sámi community, its elders who have supported our work with their knowledge and skills, and the entire staff of the Sámi Museum for their heartfelt efforts. In Siida’s new main exhibition, the Sámi themselves tell their own story. Over 300 members of the Sámi community participated in the preparation of the exhibition on Sámi culture.

We want to thank also our ancestors for their strength, love and support.

We hope that this award gives us strength to continue our important repatriation work for our community. For this work, we need the support of the entire European museum community so that the artifacts of our ancestors return home to Sápmi.

We want to extend our warm congratulations for all the museums awarded at EMYA2024!

Giitu! Takkâ! Späʹsseb! Thank you!

More information: Museum director Taina Pieski, taina.pieski(at)samimuseum.fi, +358 50 5351574

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/siidainari/albums/72177720316701063/

Press release from the European Museum forum here.

Sámi Museum Siida is among the finalists for the European Museum of the Year Award 2024. The selection will be made at the European Museum of the Year Award conference in Portimão, Portugal, on May 4th. The five-day conference brings together experts and organizations in the museum sector from across Europe to discuss current challenges, societal significance, and impact.

“We are very pleased that Siida’s renovation and our diverse national work for Sámi cultural heritage have been recognized on a European scale,” says museum director Taina Pieski.

Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida has become the most significant tourist destination in Northern Lapland. We broke all previous visitor records last year. Siida was visited by 138 000 people, of which 68 000 visited our exhibitions. This winter has also been exceptionally busy.

In Siida’s new main exhibition, the Sámi people themselves tell their own story. Over 300 members of the Sámi community participated in the preparation of the exhibition on Sámi culture from 2021 to 2022.

“This is reflected in the diversity of expression and storytelling in the exhibition. All three Sámi languages spoken in Finland are represented. Thanks for the successful work of the Sámi Museum Siida belongs to the entire Sámi community,” says Pieski.

Fifty museums from 24 countries are competing for the title of European Museum of the Year. This award has been given for 47 years.

The joint main exhibition of the Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Center, “Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These Lands Are Our Children,” opens and interprets the layers of the landscape through the concept of Sámi cultural environment. According to it, nature and culture are closely interconnected. In Sámi cultural environment, the connection to the land and the environment is built through oral storytelling and traditions. The story of Sámi culture reveals how the past lives within us.

The exhibition’s title comes from a poem written by Inari Sámi poet Matti Morottaja. The script for the exhibition on Sámi culture is provided by emeritus professor Veli-Pekka Lehtola.

Link to our EMYA video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU-QgA7pk6k&t=1s

Link to the conference website:
https://emya2024portimao.com

Additional information: Museum Director Taina Pieski, tel. +358 50 535 1574

The Sámi Museum and Northern Lapland Nature Centra Siida had a little over 68 000 exhibition visitors in 2023. Visitor numbers are back to, and even past, pre-covid numbers.

The past year broke the previous exhibition visitor record from 2019 by about six percent. The increase from the previous year of 2022 was 33 %.

The automatic visitor counter at the main entrance ticked to a record breaking 138 000 visitors overall. This number includes Metsähallitus customer service, tourist info, restaurant Sarrit, and the museum shop Siida Shop’s customers in addition to the exhibition visitors.

Another record broken this year was the daily record of visitors, as in the autumn season we saw a day with over 850 exhibition visitors in a single day, the previous record was thus surpassed by over two hundred.

The overall normalization of the travel industry post-covid, as well as the attractive renewed main exhibition Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These Lands are our Children, have clearly affected the rise of visitors. The renewed exhibition has now been seen by over 113 000 people since it’s opening June 1^st, 2022.

– It is delightful to see that Siida has broken all previous visitor records. An exhibition curated by the Sámi themselves of their own culture clearly speaks to both outsiders as well as the Sámi community themselves, says Sámi Museum Siida’s director Taina Pieski.

– The exhibition also works as a unique lure to the northern Lapland nature. The overall visitor number tells us about the scale of the travel industry in the area. In addition to the exhibition experience there is a need to receive diverse services and specified information about the nature and how and where to travel in it, all under one roof, says Recreational Amenity Specialist Tarja Tuovinen from Metsähallitus.

About 42% of all visitors came from outside of Finland, the ratio between Finnish and foreign visitors is moving closer to pre-covid level each year. Most of the foreign visitors were from Germany and France, but Hong Kong and Australia have now risen in the statistics as well, after a few years absence.

The number of guided tours has skyrocketed since the opening of the new main exhibition. In 2023 there were 400 guided tours, in five different languages, when the previous record from 2019 is 292 guided tours.

Sámi Museum’s Skolt Sámi Heritage House in Sevettijärvi had an overall of 1311 visitors in 2023. The Heritage House was open from June 20^th until September 23^rd (Tue-Sat, 10-16). The busiest season at the Heritage House was the autumn season with 30% of the whole year’s visitors.

The launching of the collection provides an opportunity to study Sámi traditional clothing digitally no matter where you live.

The Sámi living in Finland wear five different Sámi attires depending on which family and area they come from. The collections of the Sámi Museum contain almost three hundred dresses from different areas and periods. The launching of the collection in the Finna Services provides an opportunity to study Sámi traditional clothing digitally no matter where you live. In the autumn of 2022 the attires were photographed anew, and details of the dresses can also be studied better now.

As an estimated 60 percent of the Finnish Sámi live outside the Finnish Sámi Area, the Museum also wants to be accessible to them. You can get more information on the dresses and the photographs on them from the Collection Services of the Sámi Museum. The photographs presented in Finna are not reproducable in print, and they have been licensed with the licence Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

The ten-year-old Finna Service is a combination of several search services and home to millions of items of cultural and academic materials in Finland. Hundreds of Finnish organisations such as archives, libraries and museums offer their unique contents in Finna. The Finna Service is kept up and developed by the National Library of Finland in cooperation with archives, libraries, museums and other partners. The Sámi Museum has its own Finna view at https://siida.finna.fi.

The Sámi National Day in Siida also launches the ten-year anniversary of the Finna Service. During the day, Finna’s experts show the Finna search services to the public, giving guidance on their use.

“During the anniversary of Finna, we want to inspire people to have a look at millions of items of materials, so we are happy to be able to open this jubilee year with the launching of such an important collection. Starting the year with hundreds of Sámi dresses is also in order because we will be working on a North Sámi version of the Finna Services during the year”, Erkki Tolonen, Finna’s Head of Development, says.

Have a great Sámi National Day! Buori sámi álbmotbeaivvi!

Pyeri säämi aalmugpeivi! Šiõǥǥ saaʹmi meeʹrsažpeeiʹv!

Further information:

Sámi Museum Siida

Marjo-Riitta Rantamäki, Deputy Curator, tel. +358 40 5715670, marjo-riitta.rantamaki(at)samimuseum.fi

Finna

Erkki Tolonen, Head of Development, tel. +358 29 414 4588, erkki.tolonen(at)helsinki.fi