Sami and the Reindeer

No, not a child's Christmas story about a little girl and her pet reindeer, but rather a focus on the local Sami culture and their relationship with the reindeer.

The Sami people are the indigenous people of Northern Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia - often referred to as Lapland. They utilise the reindeer as their source of income, not only for food, but also for clothing (shoes, hats etc) and the antlers and bones for tools such as knife handles, buttons, needle holders.

We visited the Aurora village where we fed the reindeer (they are smaller than I thought), and then went on a sledge ride - very slow and romantic(?) - it was a nice experience. We then had a very delicious salmon soup (chowder), in a traditional Sami teepee around a fire pit.

Drove onto Lake Inari to visit the SIIDA museum housing a collection of the spiritual and material culture of the Finnish Sami, then onto our accommodation. We got upgraded to a log cabin as our designated hut had a problem with the heating. Some of us released our inner child as we tobogganed down a snowy slope on the frozen lake.Read more