At the SIIDA, The National Museum of Finnish Sami Culture.  Sami are the indigenous people.

The Sami hat was derived from the Russian mariners. The gift store had some interesting contemporary art.  A catalog of contemporary Sami artists had a realistic depiction of Elvis in Lapland sharing a fire with a Sami in full festive dress! 

Below is a political protest sticker using Munch's "The Scream".  Notice the Sami hat and the windmills on the horizon.  Former president of the Sami parliament Lars Anders Baer points out:

The issue is that today’s global climate debate focuses primarily on the symptoms of climate change. From a Sami perspective this is not good enough. Our holistic approach dictates that we all have to look at the underlying causes of climate change – the processes of industrialization and globalization, our lifestyles, our consumption habits, and the continuing large-scale exploitation of natural resources (Baer 2011).

Protest sticker about the use of Saami reindeer herding land being used for wind farms.

Helsinki Public Art by Ernst Billgren

 In a the middle of Helsinki we found this arrangement of art pieces involving a little brick building.

 Ernst Billgren has described the idea behind his work: "In mountainous countries, they have a tradition of building little houses at suitable intervals where tired travellers can find safety and rest for a while. The Kampintori square is like a valley in the large cityscape, and 'Meeting Places' helps people to find their orientation on a human scale. Mountain cabins are cultural ambassadors to nature, and I like to think of 'Meeting Places' as an ambassador of nature in the City of Helsinki."

Reindeers! In the Sami language, there are about 520 words to distiguish the different kinds of reindeers.

We frequently had to stop driving to allow them to cross.

Finland has a lot of lakes!

      Finland's fresh bodies of water cover 33,000 km, accounting for one tenth of Finland’s area.  We are staying in a cabin on Lake Inari, noted in red.  We are way above the arctic circle in Lapland.

There are at least 55,000 lakes that are at least 200 metres wide. If lake is defined to be a body of standing water larger than 500 square metres, then there are 187,888 lakes in Finland.

The wood fired sauna is on the left. There were no visible neighbors.  It was cool, 60 F. weather.

The Rock Church in Helsinki

Temppeliaukio Church is a Lutheran church in the Töölö neighborhood of Helsinki. The church was designed by architects and brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and opened in 1969.  Our cab driver commented that he loved going here because it evoked feelings about the 12 apostles meeting in a cave.

The Lutheran Helsinki Cathedral on the left is part of the stately public plaza, Senate Square.  The central monument is of Alexander II, the tzar of Russia 1855-1881.  The monument was built in 1894 to commemorate the establishment of Finland's autonomy within the Russian Empire. Finland achieved independence from Russia in 1917.

commons.wikimedia.org

Finland is one of the few countries where growing genetically modified food is banned.

Flying in to Helsinki airport we saw the patchwork of small family farms.  The beautiful scenery indicates Finnish respect for nature. "Farmers use relatively fewer pesticides than any other EU country."


.http://www.foodfromfinland.com/finnish