Helinä Rautavaara (24 March 1929 Helsinki, Finland - 27 February 1998 Helsinki) was a Finnish explorer, adventurer, collector and journalist. She traveled in Africa, Asia and Latin America and collected ethnographic artefacts and information about cultures. Her collection is now displayed in The Helinä Rautavaara Museum in Espoo. She returned to studies twice: 1958-1959 in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and 1972 in Helsinki University studying research of religions. She was collecting material for a doctoral thesis, but she never wrote the thesis.