#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Norilsk hosted the North indigenous peoples’ communities coordinating council, which oversees the implementation of the five-year program of social and economic development of Taimyr costing two billion rubles. By analogy with last year, Nornickel has allocated an additional 100 million rubles to the communities for development.
Anfisa Nikiforova, head of the Indigenous Minorities of the North department at Nornickel’s Polar Division, noted important issues reported by community representatives: food delivery to villages during the off-season, as well as additional coal purchases.
They were also talking about the construction of three feldsher-obstetric stations with housing for medical workers in the villages of Ust-Avam, Volochanka and Ust-Port. In Nosok, Volochanka and Heta, in 2023, construction of three village houses of culture will begin.
Since the beginning of the academic year, a large project has been launched to introduce Internet education in 11 Taimyr schools.
The additional funds allocated by Nornickel this year were used to buy snowmobiles and outboard motors for fishermen. The equipment quickly delivers fuel, products, spare parts, and the caught fish and deer meat from the fishing points to the retail chains of Dudinka and Norilsk.
Snowmobiles deliver mail from helicopters, transport patients to medical flights, and even conduct search operations in the tundra. The communities Ulakan Taas and Hin Serey Tari use these vehicles to implement a project to provide social assistance to the population together with the villages of Volochanka and Ust-Aavam.
“With additional support from Nornickel, indigenous communities are working on projects to create an ethnic complex, a farm for breeding blue foxes, two woodworking shops, the Ethnocombo mobile application for the tourism development in Taimyr, and indigenous languages electronic offline translators. We plan to distribute the Five Hunters board game, developed jointly with the communities, not only among young Taimyr residents, but also among the of the company employees’ children”, the Nornickel press service noted.
Denis Yaptune, a member of the coordinating council, spoke about the project of the Hanaway community – the pantotherapy center will be opened in January.
The company also financed the construction of an ethnic camp, which, together with the Tiyaha community, will be erected a kilometer from Dudinka next summer. Without the company’s support, Denis Yaptune stressed, it would be impossible to implement such large-scale initiatives.
The Taimyr communities’ representatives expressed their gratitude to the company for significant assistance. The coordinating council members emphasized that Nornickel is ahead of their wishes.
As part of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, a Nganasan language nest will be created in the Novaya village, and after a long break, a folklore festival will be held in the village of Hatanga, which will bring together residents and guests. Cognitive routes will be developed for students on the history, culture, traditions of local ethnic groups.
In the near future, they plan to launch the second grant competition The World of Taimyr, aimed at developing and supporting the indigenous inhabitants of the peninsula.
“The goals of these important events are to preserve, support and promote the languages, traditions and rich culture of the peoples, the prominent representatives of which are the indigenous peoples of Taimyr. It is very good that there is a jointly developed plan that allows changing life in the villages for the better,” said Nikolay Utkin, Nornickel’s senior vice president, the company’s Norilsk Division’s head, at a meeting with Taimyr residents.
Recall, when opening the coordinating council, Nikolay Utkin presented orphans from among the indigenous peoples of Taimyr with the keys to apartments, as well as certificates for household appliances. Earlier, Nornickel supplied all schools in Dudinka with laptops, the company helped the community take a large batch of fish from the fishing point by helicopter and, at the request of family and tribal communities, purchased ATVs and boats. We also reported that now one of the rarest languages on the planet – Enets – can be studied online.
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Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photos: Denis Kozhevnikov, Marina Peshkova and Nikolay Shchipko
