The museum exhibitions tell about the Sámi history, tradition, local history and traditional knowledge, means of livelihood, duodji (traditional handicrafts), arts, religion and spirituality. Our museum has the largest collection of the Sámi national costumes and clothing.

There are approx. 5000 objects in museum collections, in exhibitions and in museum storages. The objects originate from the entire Sápmi. The museum presents in its exhibitions Sámi cultural history that covers most Sámi areas:

• One of the largest collections of traditional Sámi dresses and clothing
• Duodji (traditional Sámi handicraft) and crafts tools
• Hunting and hunting gear
• Objects related to the indigenous Sámi religion: the drum of Anders Poulsen from 1692 and sieidi (sacrificial stone)
• Objects and tools from reindeer husbandry
• Tools used in traditional Sami agriculture
• Bealljegoahti (bow rod tent)
• Means of transport: riverboat and reindeer with a sledge

Other objects in our collections:

• Historical photographies, films and voice recordnings

The interior artistic design of the museum building:

 

The Sámi artist Iver Jåks made the interior design of the museum building.

For questions concerning museum collections, historical photographies, film and recordnings, please send us an email:

post@rdm.no

Or contact the museum curator: Paula Rauhala paula@rdm.no

Outdoor museum

• – Buildings and constructions, which show the way of life and use of natural resources by the Sámi people. Among other things, a farm from Jávrebainjárga and the old forest lodge from Beaivvášgieddi from the beginning of the 19th century. In summer, one can see a traditional Sámi tent called lávvu.
• – In the Outdoor Museum there are ancient pitfalls, which are about 4000 years old. These pitfalls were used to hunt wild reindeer.

We offer digital guided tours at our Outdoor Museum.  VAPPUS is the museum’s official digital application, which guides visitors as they move through the outdoor museum. The digitally guided tours contain text, pictures, maps, audio and video. The VAPPUS application is free for museum visitors and can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play.

VAPPUS means a pathfinder in Sámi . The term derives from the word oahpis which means “the one who knows”. The term VAPPUS comes from the time before the entry of motorized vehicles, when reindeer and horses were used for transport.

 

VAPPUS is available in Sámi , English, Finnish and Norwegian. 

RiddoDuottarMuseat publishes information about some parts of their Collections in the museum data base  Digitalt Museum.

The Sámi Museum in Karasjok  is working aiming to publish some information about its collections during Spring 2020.

For questions about purchases of photographies published on Digitalt Museum, contact our museum  post@rdm.no