A Window into Vanishing Sámi Culture? Visual representations of Sáminess in the shared Siida exhibition by Sámi Museum Siida and Northern Lapland's Nature Centre 1

This chapter analyzes the visual representation of the Sámi in the shared main exhibition of the Sámi Museum and Metsähallitus’ Nature Centre. The chapter offers a critical reading of the photographs of one Sámi exhibition and asks what kinds of views the exhibition opens to Sáminess. According to the analysis, the black-and-white ethnographic photographs and their Sámi representations that dominate the exhibition, anchor it to Lappology and its vein to seek and present ‘authentic’ Sáminess by tracing its archaic features. Thus, in contrary of the aim of the exhibition to examine environment through Sámi eyes, in the exhibition the non-Sámi gaze that defines the Sámi – to the exclusion of Sámi perspectives.