Muistamo
What on Earth is Muistamo?
Muistamo – recorder of stories from Päijät-Häme – is the face of participatory work of the Historical Museum. Through public forums and our partners we are able to build changing segments to our permanent exhibition.
Through the Muistamo program, our goal is to create conversation about meaningful places around Päijät-Häme. Where have we come from? Where are we now? Where are we going? We are interested in our area’s history: in how people have inhabited the area, how people have made this place a home and what things are important to people in our area. By offering space for conversation around local history we are helping people to get involved in and influence the conversation about their own surroundings. Recording of stories and oral traditions connected to our area’s history is very important to us. The cultural heritage of Päijät-Häme is diverse and lively. What kind of shared goals or engrams can we find together?
Active projects
Muistamo forums are hosted around Päijät-Häme, each focused on different subject. During the winter of 2022-2023 we discussed evacuation and sawmills. Everyone is welcome to take part in our projects!
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Muistamo has started a joint project together with nature-positive life -initiative in fall of 2024. Lahti Historical Museum hosts three discussion events at Lahti Historical museum about themes surrounding the nature of Lahti and Vesijärvi, from our history to the future.
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In the spring of 2023, there was a series of forums discussing being a evacuee in Päijät-Häme and Lahti. In Muistamo, the discussions focused on the perceptions of being Karelian and the meanings of memories and the processes surrounding them. Another theme in the conversations was the process of rebuilding one’s life in a new region also from the view of the following generations. During the forums we collected objects with interesting stories for a section of our museum exhibition. During the forums we also heard interesting speakers and live music on the subject.
In our main exhibition “A Favourable Place” there is a section built around the Muistamo program carrying the name of “In search of a new home”.
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Muistamo hosted forums in the fall of 2022 in Padasjoki focused on the Mainiemi Sawmill. During these forums we discussed the history of the sawmill and collected photos and memories connected to the sawmill. the municipality of Padasjoki also loaned objects from Mainiemi Sawmill for the exhibition.
An exhibit titled “Mainiemi Sawmill Community” is part of our “A Favourable Place” main exhibition.
Past projects
During the pilot phase of Muistamo in the spring of 2022 we did projects together with two municipalities. The purpose of these projects was to launch a new kind of a participatory program, and the results of these projects are not clearly seen at the Historical Museum as it opened. The municipalities involved in these projects were Padasjoki and Hollola. The public forums reached almost 1300 people during 2022.
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We created an exhibition at the Padasjoki library about the photographs taken by the local influential figure of Albert Theodor Böök. During the forums we discussed themes and interesting topics of the exhibition, and identified people and places that appeared in the photographs. During the project we were able to gather important oral history and mindscapes connected to the area. The exhibition reached over 800 people during the summer.
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In Hollola we hosted forums on the history of building traditions in Salpakangas. Through this we gathered material on the memories and stories connected to the Hollola municipal service centre that will be utilised later. At the same time we, alongside the municipality of Hollola, we gave the local people an opportunity to join the conversation on the built environment surrounding them. During the forums we discussed the history of Salpakangas, the different periods of building it and the future of the area. Duirng the forums we also had local influental figures and academics to move the conversations along.
Follow this page for more information about the Muistamo project.
