#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Sevostyan Yar, an employee of the Taimyr House of Folk Art (THFA), won a grant in the amount of 300 thousand rubles as part of the Russian North annual youth forum. Thanks to financial support, the tradition of making Samoyed men’s belts will be revived in Taimyr.
“The idea of the project came up three years ago”, Natalya Sidorova, head of the Traditional Belt is the Pride of Samoyed Men project, shared. “I read a legend that once a shaman forbade the Samoyed peoples to wear identical belts: because thanks to the belts only he could find a soul in the lower world and take it to heal. In Taimyr everyone had their own belt: it was used to determine how many deer, children, wives a man had, what kind of activity he was engaged in, and so on. In the modern world, these traditions are a thing of the past, although three Samoyed ethnic groups live on the peninsula: the Nenets, the Nganasans and the Enets. I inspired Sevostyan with my idea, and he successfully presented our project at the forum”.
According to her, the Yamal ethnographer, a member of the Artists of Russia Union Sergey Alyaba will visit the peninsula and teach local craftsmen the technique of making an important attribute of the indigenous peoples of the peninsula.
“We will invite a professional who will train our masters. And they will go to the places of the Samoyed peoples’ residence: to the Taimyr rural settlement of Karaul, the villages of Potapovo and Volochanka. Thus, 50 people will recall forgotten traditions”, Natalia Sidorova noted.
After a series of master classes, the craftsmen plan to make the belts themselves, and demonstrate the result at the young reindeer festival:
“In May, we will show you how men used these belts. Few people know, but they had the function of a warehouse: pouches with tobacco, pipes and other necessary items were hidden there. This is all very interesting”, she summed up.
Note that Sevostyan Yar became the only winner from the Krasnoyarsk region at the Russian North youth forum of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, which was held from December 11 to 15 in the Moscow region. This year, over 100 young representatives of indigenous nationalities from 24 constituent entities of the Russian Federation took part in it.
Text: Anatoly Strunin and TDNT
