#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The city of Neryungri and the village of Iengre of the Saha (Yakutia) Republic hosted the 1st International Championship in Traditional Reindeer Husbandry. The competition brought together reindeer herders from the northern regions of Russia, including the Krasnoyarsk region, as well as from China, Mongolia, Iceland and Greenland.
Athletes from the Krasnoyarsk region – Victor Vengo, Zhanna Kayarina, Evgeny Kusamin, Konstantin Togi, Kristina Falkova – defended the region’s honor in the disciplines of the northern all-around. All the guys are representatives of indigenous peoples, have achievements in national sports, know national traditions and northern life.
The first competition day brought prizes to our participants – Evgeny Kusamin took second place in jumping over sleds, Kristina Falkova won a bronze medal in throwing a maut on a trochee.
As part of the championship business program, an extraordinary meeting of the World’s Reindeer Herders Association Council and the International Conference on the Development of Domestic Reindeer Husbandry in the context of global changes in the Arctic were held.
“At the championship’s business venues, the most important topics for the northern territories were raised – the strategy for modernizing the reindeer herding industry, the possibilities of public-private partnerships in this area, as well as issues of personnel training. In particular, they discussed the issues of attracting young people to the reindeer herding industry. This is a priority in our work”, said Anton Narchuganov, head of the Agency for the Development of the Northern Territories and Support of Indigenous Minorities of the Krasnoyarsk Region.
“Reindeer herding is a key factor in preserving the way of life and culture of indigenous peoples, as well as a connecting link for many generations of residents of the Arctic regions. This fishery is of great economic importance for local producers, allowing them to remain in demand as suppliers in local food markets.
In Russia, almost all indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East are engaged in reindeer herding, in total more than 52 thousand families of indigenous peoples, many of whom lead a nomadic lifestyle”, said the Arctic Council Senior Officials Committee chairman, the Russian Foreign Ministry ambassador-at-large Nikolay Korchunov.
Earlier, we reported that a draft law on nomadic schools for tundra workers was submitted to the State Duma, and it was proposed to include chum workers in the list of professions in Russia. National Geographic magazine wrote about how nomadic reindeer families live in Taimyr.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, Photo: Arctic Council Russian Chairmanship press office and the Agency for the Northern Territories and the Krasnoyarsk Region's Indigenous Minorities Support Development press service
