Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy: Arts institutions must take responsibility for upholding the Sámi people’s rights
“We are committed to providing teaching that increases people’s knowledge of the Sámi history and culture and what the Sámi status as an Indigenous people means legally,” a statement released by the Theatre Academy community says.
The Finnish Government appointed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi People in 2021.The commission has now finished its work, and it will submit its final report to the Government, the Sámi Parliament and the Skolt Saami Siida Council on 4 December 2025. The objective of the commission’s work has been to gather Sámi people’s experiences of the actions of the Finnish state and authorities and their effects on the Sámi people and to make this information visible.
Arts institutions must contribute to taking responsibility for upholding the Sámi people’s rights in Finland. Uniarts Helsinki’s Theatre Academy is committed to taking responsibility for ensuring that Sámi rights are fulfilled in its activities. We aim to do this by increasing people’s knowledge. The past and present of the Sámi people is filled with great original cultural richness but also multi-layered state-wide and other discrimination and violation of rights, and yet, Finnish people have very limited knowledge of this whole topic.
We commit to providing teaching and other activities that increase people’s knowledge of the Sámi history and culture and what the Sámi status as an Indigenous people means legally and culturally. We also commit to examining our own internal and public activities critically from the perspective of fulfilment of Indigenous peoples’ rights. We take these actions in cooperation with our Sámi students and other operators. Thirdly, we commit to sharing these actions and the insights we gain in the process with the public. Our goal with these measures is to uphold Sámi rights, enable more in-depth understanding of our shared history and its effects and to contribute to a better life alongside one another after healing from the past.
We challenge other Finnish institutions in the arts to make a statement on how they plan to take responsibility for upholding Sámi rights.
Otso Huopaniemi, dean of the Theatre Academy
Theatre Academy executive group and community
The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi People will culminate in the reading of the historic final report on 4–6 December 2025 at the Finnish National Theatre. Read more about the event.
Save the date: 5 February 2026
Save the date: The Theatre Academy is hosting a discussion event on the eve of the Sámi National Day on 5 February 2026 at 17:30. Participants will discuss how to take the remarks made in the final report submitted by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Concerning the Sámi People into consideration in the Theatre Academy’s teaching and other activities.