The national task of the Sámi Museum is to acquire and document Sámi cultural heritage in Finland. Our collection, which includes artefacts, photographs, art, the buildings of our open-air museum, and archival and reference material, is at the core of this work. We store, maintain, manage and show our collections and do research connected with them.
Our collections activities are guided by the Collection Management Policy of the Sámi Museum. We mainly accumulate our collections through donations and, more actively, through the documentation of today’s phenomena. As our collections are already fairly extensive, any acquisitions we make are a result of careful consideration.
Our collections can be studied in Siida and on the Internet
You can look at our collections on the culture and the views of the Sámi in the different periods in Siida’s main exhibition and changing exhibitions. You can also browse the treasures of the Museum’s collections online in the Finna Information Service, and look at the 3D models of our artefacts on the website of Sketchfab
Current information on the Museum’s collections activities can be found on Siida’s website and social media channels.
The collections are meant for the users
Community is the primary value of our work on our collections. Our work is based on interaction and the participation of the community in our museum work and its planning and development. The collections of the Sámi Museum are meant for the audience interested in them, but especially for their active users – the members and the researchers of the Sámi community. In our collections work, we especially want to take into consideration the needs and hopes of these groups.
Our collection personnel answer to customers’ questions on our collections through e-mail and telephone. Customers can study the artefacts of our collections at an agreed time and also order photographs of the objects. We loan our museum artefacts to other museums, and artefacts from our working collection to other actors too. We hope that, in matters dealing with research and loans, you will contact us two weeks in advance!
Further information: Curator, p. 040 571 5670, marjo-riitta.rantamaki(at)samimuseum.fi