The presentation explores notions of memory, heritage, and tradition and their respective domains vis-à-vis a reading of the museum exhibition "Ingrians – The Forgotten Finns" held at the National Museum of Finland in 2020. Ingrian Finns are a Finnish-speaking historical minority of Russia and the Soviet Union. During Soviet terror in the early twentieth century, they went through forced collectivizations of farms, deportations, imprisonments, and executions. Simultaneously with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990s, migration of Ingrian Finns to Finland started. History of Ingrian Finns is entangled with the history of Finland in many ways, and these entanglements give rise to various tensions as well as negotiations of memory, entitlement, and belonging. The aim of our presentation is to discuss contemporary memory culture surrounding Ingrian Finns' history, and to open perspectives on memory issues relating to minority groups in general. We also wish to explore ideologies and epistemologies associated with past presencing with an aim to promote a dialog between research fields that center on concepts of memory, heritage, and tradition.
