A Sámi - That's it!

In 2009–2011, the Sámi Museum Siida documented the lives of Sámi young people together with other Nordic Sámi museums. One of the objectives of the project was to activate Sámi young people to define and record their own cultural heritage.

During the project, the museum staffs, the project workers and the young of each area reflected together on the kind of things about life today that should be recorded in museums and archives. The short films made by the young themselves and the quotations from their interviews show what it is like to be a young Sámi today and what the young think about the future.

During the project, each partner museum in Sweden and Norway involved a school in its vicinity in the cooperation. In Finland, the partners in documentation were, for the sake of comparison, urban young Sámi that live putside the Sámi region.

In the project, the young documented their lives through photographing and filming. The young people who participated in the project were given video cameras and instruction in photographing, filming and editing. They made “home albums” that contained stories, photos and drawings on their own lives, childhoods and families.

The young participated actively in updating the website of the project by writing blogs and submitting photographs and films to the site. The website is available at www.samiyouth.org.

The Sámi Youth project was a joint project of Nordic Sámi museums and Sámi young people. It was launched by Ájtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum in Jokkmokk, Sweden. The partners of the project were the Sámi Museum Siida from Inari, the Coastal Sámi Museum on the Varangerfjord in Norway, and the association Saemien Sijte in Snåsa, the South Sámi area of Norway. The project was financed through the Interreg IV/A Nord program.

The Sámi Youth project was a joint project of Nordic Sámi museums and Sámi young people. It was launched by Ájtte, the Swedish Mountain and Sámi Museum in Jokkmokk, Sweden. The partners of the project were the Sámi Museum Siida from Inari, the Coastal Sámi Museum on the Varangerfjord in Norway, and the association Saemien Sijte in Snåsa, the South Sámi area of Norway. The project was financed through the Interreg IV/A Nord program.

The exhibition also shows the results of tune-up workshops held in different parts of the Sámi Area. The workshops were arranged in cooperation with the Sámi Children’s Cultural Centre in the autumn of 2011.

More information:
Head Curator Arja Hartikainen. Sámi Museum Siida, tel +358 (0)40 579 3313, arja.hartikainen(at)samimuseum.fi, and www.samiyouth.org