The Sámi Museum Siida, located in Inari in Northern Finland, serves as the national museum responsible for Sámi culture, and as the regional museum for the Sámi cultural environment on the Finnish side of Sápmi. These dual roles define its mission: to preserve, research, and exhibit Sámi culture and cultural heritage, and to support cultural continuity through museum work grounded in Sámi perspectives. As the only museum in Finland dedicated to the Sámi, Siida’s operations are centered on the representation, interpretation, and safeguarding of Sámi cultural heritage. The museum’s activities are carried out in close dialogue with Sámi communities and experts, with the goal of supporting cultural self-esteem and knowledge transmission across generations.
In 2024, Sámi Museum Siida received two significant recognitions: the European Museum of the Year Award by the European Museum Forum and Finland’s Museum of the Year. Both awards highlighted Siida’s strong commitment to community-based museum work carried out in close collaboration with Sámi communities. The recognitions affirmed the museum’s role as a trusted institution working from Sámi perspectives and contributing to cultural continuity through inclusive, ethical, and locally grounded practices.
A National Responsibility
The Sámi Museum Foundation, which maintains Siida, was established in 1986, although Sámi-led collecting and curatorial work began decades earlier in the late 1950’s. The museum has been entrusted with a national responsibility for Sámi cultural heritage in Finland. This responsibility includes documenting both historical and contemporary Sámi culture, preserving heritage, and presenting exhibitions that reflect the diversity and continuity of Sámi life.
The museum’s collections, exhibitions, and public programs aim to represent Sámi knowledge and experiences in an authentic and respectful manner. In line with its public mission, Siida contributes to the long-term safeguarding of Sámi culture while serving as an educational and research institution.
Renewed Exhibition, Renewed Emphasis
In 2022, Siida opened a new permanent exhibition called Enâmeh láá mii párnááh – These lands are our children, following a major renewal of its facilities and exhibition content. The updated exhibition presents Sámi culture and the surrounding environment in a modern way, reflecting the connection between people, land, and nature in Sámi lives.
The exhibition combines museum objects, audiovisual materials, photographs, texts, and contemporary Sámi voices to provide a multifaceted understanding of Sámi culture. Thematically, it covers key areas such as language, traditional livelihoods, duodji (Sámi handicrafts), worldview, and social and political structures. Importantly, Sámi languages are used alongside Finnish, Swedish and English, reflecting the linguistic diversity of the Sámi community and contributing to language visibility and revitalization.
Working from Sámi Perspectives
A central principle of Siida’s work is that Sámi culture should be presented from Sámi perspectives. This includes involving Sámi experts, artists, and community members in content creation, exhibition design, and interpretation. It also involves respecting Sámi knowledge systems and understanding how they differ from majority-society frameworks.
Sámi history in the Nordic context has often been shaped by external narratives—colonial, ethnographic, and state-driven. Siida’s work contributes to rebalancing these narratives by offering Sámi interpretations of their own heritage. This is visible both in the tone and structure of exhibitions, and in the growing body of Sámi-led research that informs the museum’s work.
Regional Museum Role
In addition to its national tasks, Siida also operates as the regional museum for the Sámi cultural environment in the Finnish side of Sápmi. This regional role involves protecting, documenting, and interpreting the Sámi cultural landscape, including built heritage and traditional land use patterns. Sámi cultural landscapes often consist of elements such as sacred sites, seasonal dwellings, old reindeer migration routes, and fishing areas, which are tied to both tangible and intangible heritage.
The museum works with local communities, municipalities, and heritage authorities to ensure that the cultural environment is recognized and preserved. As land use pressures increase across Northern Finland, the documentation and safeguarding of Sámi cultural landscapes have become more urgent and more complex. Siida’s expertise in this area supports both heritage preservation and broader efforts toward Sámi rights recognition.
Supporting Cultural Continuity
Museums can play a role not only in preserving the past but also in supporting cultural continuity. Siida contributes to this goal through educational work, collaboration with Sámi organizations and schools, and the facilitation of intergenerational knowledge transfer. For Sámi youth, the museum offers a space where their culture is represented, affirmed, and treated as a living and evolving entity.
Exhibitions and programs are designed to serve both Sámi and non-Sámi audiences. For Sámi visitors, Siida offers connection, reflection, and recognition. For others, the museum provides a framework for learning about Sámi history, culture, and present-day realities in a way that counters stereotypes and deepens understanding.
From Repatriation to Rematriation – Returning Sámi Cultural Heritage
The return of Sámi cultural heritage is a central focus in Siida’s future work. Repatriation—bringing home objects held in external collections—is a matter of both ethical responsibility and cultural revitalization. For Sámi communities, it supports the reconnection of people, knowledge, and traditions that have been disrupted by colonial practices.
Siida is committed to advancing repatriation through collaborative, community-led processes. This includes identifying Sámi collections held in other institutions, developing appropriate facilities for their care, and ensuring that returning objects are received in culturally meaningful ways. Our work moves beyond repatriation toward rematriation—a concept that emphasizes not only the return of material heritage but the restoration of relationships and knowledge systems tied to those objects.
Rematriated items can support language revitalisation, inspire contemporary duodji (Sámi handicrafts), and strengthen intergenerational learning. Their return affirms the Sámi right to care for and interpret their own heritage on their own terms.
Siida plays an active role in national and international dialogue on ethical returns, bringing forward Sámi perspectives and priorities. Repatriation is not a single act but an ongoing process that requires trust, dialogue, and sustained commitment.
Through this work, Siida contributes to restoring cultural integrity and empowering Sámi futures—ensuring that heritage taken in the past can once again serve Sámi communities in the present.
Looking Forward
Siida’s continued development is shaped by both internal priorities and broader societal changes. The institutional emphasis on Sámi-led approaches, ethical collecting, and cultural sustainability reflects an ongoing commitment to community engagement and responsibility. The museum also engages in national and international cooperation, sharing expertise on Indigenous museology, language revitalization, and cultural landscape preservation.
Participation in networks such as The Best in Heritage contributes to the museum’s visibility and supports professional exchange across borders. At the same time, Siida’s core task remains clear: to act as a museum for the Sámi, with a focus on Sámi-defined needs, narratives, and futures.
Conclusion
As a national and regional museum, Siida plays a specific and important role in the cultural life of the Sámi in Finland. Its work contributes to cultural self-esteem by affirming Sámi heritage, language, and knowledge in a museum context that respects community perspectives and priorities.
Through its collections, exhibitions, and regional responsibilities, Siida creates space for Sámi voices to be heard and recognized—today and into the future.