Sámi cultural heritage project

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On a recent visit to Arkeo Net**, a Finnish portal for archaeological and prehistoric information, I found an interesting, informative and beautifully designed website: Recalling Ancestral Voices, concerning the repatriation of Sámi cultural heritage.

Recalling Ancestral Voices is a project dedicated to recording the material cultural heritage of the Sámi. The project was launched in April 2006 and will end in November 2007. In Finland, the Sámi Museum Siida is participating in the project, in Sweden, the Ájtte Museum in Sweden and Varanger Sámi Museum in Norway. The project is part of Interreg III, which is funded by the European Union.

The site is presented in Sámi, Finnish, Swedish and English, with detailed information about the project, the issue of repatriation common to all indigenous people, the people involved in the project, the artefacts and much more.

As some readers may know, I’ve been interested for quite some time in learning about this branch of the Finno-Ugric poeple so this is welcome information. Here are some related earlier posts:

the Sámi and the Siida Centre
about Baiki, the magazine about the Sámi in Alaska and North America
photographs of the Sámi by Pekka Antikainen 
some Sámi music
a Sámi and Inuit art exhibition, initiated by the Hamilton Art Gallery and now at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, both in Canada
and the North American Sámi culture and news blog Árran

(Image: Shaman drum, Sweden – from Ancestral Voices)

Later note: One small criticism though – I wish active links had been posted, such as to the various museums mentioned.
** Arkeo.net no longer exists, sadly

June 29, 2007 in Anthropology, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric, History by Marja-Leena