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Notes
1 In this article ‘museum’ designates a memory institution, helping – in one way or another– the local community to evaluate, recognise, preserve and discuss their own (tangible and intangible) heritage. Within ICOM, the definition of the museum is currently being re-evaluated for the first time since the 1970s. The current museum definition arguably fails to reflect and address the profoundly dissimilar conditions under which museums work across the world. The profound, global dilemmas, such as climate change, destruction of nature, inequality, social injustice and racism and sexism, are changing the ways museums are seen and how they define their task and place in society (Sandahl Citation2019).
2 ‘Natural heritage’ usually designates natural sites that either require protection or are protected. In 1972, the World Heritage Convention defined natural heritage as ‘natural features consisting of physical and biological formations or groups of such formations, which are of outstanding value from the aesthetic or scientific point of view’ (Biodiversity a–z 2014).
3 In 1967, Sweden took the initiative to arrange an international environmental meeting, which led to the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. Altogether, 114 countries took part in the conference, and it was the starting point of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP (Grieger 2012.) ICOM arranged the very same year a conference in Istres and Bordeaux on a similar theme, as it revoled around museums and the environment. In particular, it delved into human/nature-relationship, as its title suggests. The role of museums in the current ecological crisis was envisaged.
4 Laurajane Smith (Citation2006) has emphasised the need to critically assess the selection processes that result in ‘cultural heritage’. Smith argues that heritage is not primarily an object or a site, but a cultural process, and therefore all heritage is intangible. ‘Historic’ heritage refers to tangible sites and buildings, but can also be approached from the point of view of cultural heritage processes.
5 The term ‘public memory’ refers to the circulation of recollections among members of a given community. A wide variety of artefacts offer evidence of public memory, including public speeches, memorials, museums, holidays and films (Houdek and Phillips Citation2017).
6 This article is a part of a research project at the University of Eastern Finland and funded by the Kone Foundation (project no. 64 737, 2017–2020), Lively Border. Nature Tourism and History Politics in the Finnish-Russian-Norwegian Border Region. The Head of Project is Professor Maria Lähteenmäki and researchers are. Oona Ilmolahti (PhD), Jani Karhu (MA) and Alexander Osipov (MA). The aim of the project is to explore new ways of seeing the relationship between nature and people in the fields of nature and ecological tourism and public remembrance. For more information, see: http://www.uef.fi/en/web/ greenzoneproject/home
7 The Finnish-Russian borderland has been the subject of increasing academic interest since 1991, but even prior to that, in 1971, the Karelian Research Institute was established at the University of Joensuu. Eskelinen, Liikanen and Oksa (eds.) 1999.
8 The European Green Belt Association has highlighted the connections between nature, culture and locality. The European Green Belt stipulates that ‘our shared natural heritage along the line of the former Iron Curtain is to be conserved and restored to work as an ecological network connecting high-value natural and cultural landscapes, whilst respecting the economic, social and cultural needs of local communities’ (European Green Belt Association online homepage).
9 Karelia Studies is a special and popular genre in Finnish historiography; the fields, most noteworthy pioneer scholars were professors Hannes Sihvo and Heikki Kirkinen; Sihvo Citation1969; Nevalainen and Sihvo (eds.) 1998.
10 Finnish Karelia (the administrative provinces of North Karelia and South Karelia) is part of a transnational cultural region, which continues across the border as Russian Karelia. It contains the subregions of White Karelia, Olonets Karelia and Ladoga Karelia, which are parts of the Karelian Republic in Russia, and the historically Finnish Karelian Isthmus, which is nowadays part of Leningrad Oblast in Russia.
11 The Green Museum Survey 2017–2018 was conducted by the project Lively Border. Nature Tourism and History Politics in the Finnish-Russian-Norwegian Border Region. The data is currently owned by the project and will be archived at the Finnish Literature Society Archives Joensuu branch.
12 In 1950, ethnologist Kustaa Vilkuna (Citation1950, p. 13) argued that answers to many cultural questions could be discerned directly from nature. The only way to counter rapid industrialisation was to form natural reserves and regard them both as important cultural monuments and museum objects. He stressed that Finland should maintain some typical areas of coniferous forest, allowing researchers to gain a realistic picture of virgin forest and copse, where the Karelian ‘swidden peasant’ penetrated while subjecting the land to farming. According to Vilkuna, without widespread conservation areas, Finnish museum institutions and cultural monuments were like a crumbling building without a stone foundation. Already in the 19th and early 20th centuries ideas on national parks aimed above all to preserve samples of the living environment of the ancestors. A. E. Nordenskilöd, considered to be the father of the Finnish national park idea, saw the national parks as ‘museums’ and ‘living paintings’ (Kalliola, 1954, p. 18; Palmgren, Citation1922, p. 52). These notions resonate with ideas from Ulrich Beck (1990), who has called national parks ‘civilisation parks’ or ‘nature museums’.
13 During the so-called Winter War, from November 1939 to March 1940, Finns fought against Soviet troops and lost the eastern parts of the Finnish Karelia. During the so-called Continuation War and following a short period of peace, Finns and German forces fought against the Soviet troops from June 1941 to September 1944. Finns took back the ceded area of Karelia, but lost it again to the Soviet Union in Sep. 1944.
14 In the exhibition, media artist and photographer Kai Kuntola, who regarded his work as a protest, captured the natural environment around Lake Saimaa with his mobile phone in order to show that one does not need the latest equipment to take nature photographs. He wanted to remind people of their carbon footprint and the significance of nearby nature. By noticing the spectacular lake area in their backyards, locals were trusted to advance nature conservation and protection of the local environment. (Lappeenranta City Museums’ Report 2014, p. 18).
15 Over three quarters of the museums find ecological aspects important in their work. The ecological emphasis is particularly strong in North Karelia. Green Museum Survey 2017–2018.
16 Professor Yrjö Haila (Citation2004) stated that a ‘common’ Finnish relationship with nature is quite recent, and the personal relationship with nature is dependent on one’s working environment and personal experience. From the 16th century onwards, the consumers and protectors of nature have been separated in the nature discourse (Williams Citation1980, pp. 79–85).
17 Established as a tourist attraction in 1896, Koli harbours the oldest nature trail and travellers’ hostel in Finland. The Finnish government purchased the Koli hostel in 1907; by that time the park’s iconic landscape had become a sanctuary for national romantic artists and was the most famous scenery in the Finnish national imagery.
18 The museums involved are the North Karelia Museum (Joensuu), The Outokumpu Mining Museum, Ilomantsi Museum Foundation, The National Museum of the Republic of Karelia (Petrozavodsk), The Olonets National Museum and Kurkijoki Local History Center.
19 Kellokoski, R. is the project coordinator of InterActive History Project. Email correspondence to Oona Ilmolahti 26 November 2019.
20 The first and only Finnish museum to be called an ecomuseum was established in eastern Finland in 1981 (Liehtalanniemi ecomuseum in Puumala). Later, the name was changed to ‘museum estate’. The open-air museum, nature trail and nature conservation area of 22 hectares are a local natural site. The place is defined by the archipelago scenery, and the museum also takes care of the meadows and sheep (Green Museum Survey). There is one existing ecomuseum project in Paltamo, in northeastern Finland, the Paltamon ekomuseo. The first project started in 2012 in cooperation with Italian ecomuseums.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Maria Lähteenmäki
Maria Lähteenmäki is Professor of History at the University of Eastern Finland and Adjunct Professor of Finnish and Scandinavian History at the University of Helsinki. She is specialised in socio-cultural histories and encounters of border communities and sub-arctic northern regions.
Oona Ilmolahti
Oona Ilmolahti holds a PhD in History and is a project researcher. Her latest articles deal with museums and the human-nature relationship.
Alfred Colpaert
Alfred Colpaert is a Professor of Geography, at the University of Eastern Finland. He has studied geoinformatics and use of land in Finnish Lapland.