Kaiti Tornionlaakson myseymhiin is a guide to our permanent exhibition in Meänkieli. Visitors can borrow the guide during their visit and purchase it in the museum shop. We also adapted the guide into audio and video guides, which you can access here:
Audio Guide
The guide is about 1 hour 20 minutes long. The map below shows you the location of the different themes in the exhibition. You don’t have to listen to the guide in numerical order!
Video Guide
The video guides are on our museum’s page on the Tornio channel. The entire guided tour takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes. We will be adding English subtitles on the videos one by one during 2025. Below are the links to each video:
Kaiti: Tervetuloa (Welcome)
1. Tornionlaakso ja meänkieli (Torne Valley and Meänkieli)
2. Esihistuuria (Prehistory)
3. Rakanmäki ja vene (Rakanmäki and the Boat)
4. Keskiaika/medeltiden ja kaupunkiarkeolokii (Middle Ages and Urban Archaeology)
5. Mitat ja rahat (Measures and Money)
6. Kalastus (Fishing)
7. Kaupanteko (Trade)
8. Hantvärkki (Craftsmanship)
9. Karjanhoito (Animal Husbandry)
10. Kansan mööpelit (Folk Furniture)
11. Lovikkavanthuut (Lovikka Mittens)
12. Rakentaminen (Construction)
13. Jahti (Hunting)
14. Meän yhtheinen kaupunki (Our Shared Town)
15. Kaupunkikuva (Townscape)
16. Kaupunkilaiset (Town Residents)
17. Hantvärkkarit (Craftsmen)
18. Merelä liikkuminen (Seafaring)
19. Joppaus (Smuggling)
20. Puuintystrii (Timber Industry)
21. Kruuat (Mines)
22. Metalli-intystrii (Metal Industry)
23. Prykkeriit (Breweries)
24. Haaparannan intystrii (Industry in Haparanda)
25. Vaateintystrii (Textile Industry)
26. Rajakauppa (Border Trade)
27. Tyrismi (Tourism)
28. Tutkimusreissaajat (Explorers)
29. Ryssäläinen aika (The Russian Era)
30. Suomen sota ja ensimäinen mailmansota (The Finnish War and the First World War)
31. Lapin sota ja Tornion maihinnousu (Lapland War and the Landing in Tornio)
32. Koulut (Schools)
33. Kirkot (Churches)
34. Lestaatialaisuus (Laestadianism)
What’s Kaiti? – Our Guide in Meänkieli
The Tornionlaakson Museo – Tornedalens Museum is the shared museum of Tornio and Haparanda. As a cross-border museum we present the shared roots and history of the people of the Torne Valley on both sides of the national border, including topics like local identity, language, and dialects.
Meänkieli is an important part of Torne Valley’s cultural identity and history. Literally translated as “our language” Meänkieli is a minority language in Sweden. The roots of the language lie in the Torne Valley Finnish that was spoken in both Sweden and Finland before the border was established in 1809. In the 1890s, a policy of assimilation began in elementary schools in Sweden, and Finnish was no longer spoken or taught in schools. Despite this, the language was preserved as a spoken language in the Swedish Torne Valley, which remains partially bilingual to this day.
The language has developed its unique character with new expressions through influence from Swedish and preserved old expressions that have disappeared from modern Finnish. Meänkieli is officially recognized as a minority language in Sweden and is actively being revitalized and supported. In Finland, linguists have classified Torne Valley Finnish as a North Bothnian dialect.
In 2024, we celebrated 10 years as a shared museum and 110 years of operation. The theme of the anniversary year was Our Shared Museum – Meän Museo. As part of the celebrations, we translated the permanent exhibition‘s texts to Meänkieli. We published the texts as a guidebook of the exhibition. Visitors can borrow the guide during their visit and also purchase it in the museum shop. We also adapted the guide into audio and video guides and compiled them into this digital exhibition, for our visitors to listen to the guide during their visit or to see it remotely.
The translations to Meänkieli were done by Bertil Isaksson and Maria Vanhapiha Bergström. The layout of the guidebook was designed by Saana Ikonen and Juho Nevalainen. Adam Huuva read the texts in Meänkieli for the audio and video guide. The recording was done at the XBit Tornio studio of Lapland University of Applied Sciences. The project was supported by the Swedish-Finnish Cultural Foundation and Haparanda’s Minority Language Advisory Group.
The visual design of Our Shared Museum – Meän Museo by Juho-Antti Mäkitalo combines the colors of the cities of Tornio and Haparanda, as well as patterns of roses and earthy tones from Tornedalen’s traditional painting.
