The parliament chamber
Circular, with a timber ceiling like a woven basket.
Helge Høifødt — CC BY-SA 3.0 · JIP — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Kimberli Mäkäräinen — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tevfik Teker — CC BY 3.0
The seat of the **Finnish Sámi Parliament** and their cultural centre, opened in 2012 on the bank of the Juutuanjoki river. The building is itself a statement: clad entirely in **local pine** in long vertical boards, curved with no sharp corners, and designed to read as part of the landscape rather than imposed on it. Two Finnish architects designed it in consultation with the Sámi community. At its heart is the circular **parliament chamber**, its domed timber ceiling like the inside of a woven basket. It is a **working parliament chamber** — elected representatives meet here to decide matters of language, education, culture and rights. The building also holds a Sámi library, an archive, a concert hall, a restaurant serving Lapland cooking, and a film library. Note: **this is a working institution**: the foyer, library and restaurant are open to everyone free, while the parliament chamber is seen on a guided tour or when it is not sitting. Note: **the visit is short by nature** — half an hour to an hour, and normally combined with Siida nearby.
Circular, with a timber ceiling like a woven basket.
Long vertical pine boards, and a form with no sharp corners.
A restaurant inside serving the region's dishes.
Menesjärventie 2A, Inari
It is a **culturally self-governing representative body**, not a state parliament. It is elected every four years by registered Sámi in Finland, and its core role is to represent them to the state and to decide matters of **language, education and culture** and the budgets allocated to them. Finnish authorities are **obliged to negotiate with it** on decisions affecting the Sámi homeland — mining, forestry and land use. But its authority on those files is **essentially consultative**: it holds no veto. That is precisely the point of continuing political argument in Finland, particularly over **who is entitled to register as a voter** and over ILO Convention 169, which Finland has not ratified.
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