An ethno-examination of the factors that ensure the sustainable development of the Taimyr indigenous peoples has started. It was initiated and ordered by the Association of Indigenous Minorities of Taimyr. The financial support was taken over by the Nornickel company.
The first stage of the ethno-examination took place from January 25 to February 8, 2021 and ended with a briefing at the Taimyr Museum of Local Lore in Dudinka, which was attended by representatives of the Association of Indigenous Minorities of Taimyr of the Krasnoyarsk region, hunters and representatives of local communities.
Scientists were interested in numerous factors of the ethnic residents’ life. The questions asked by the researchers to the Taimyr people concerned the composition of families, the state and availability of crafts, problems of education, medical support, the cultural component of life in the villages, land development, the number of deer and the influence of this factor on the way of the indigenous people’s life.
Employees of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology named after N.N. Miklouho-Maclay RAS were first to come to the meeting. They visited the villages of western Taimyr: Ust-Avam, Volochanka, Vorontsovo, Baikalovsk, Karaul, Kazantsevo, Ust-Port. They have collected a rich audio material, the deciphering and analysis of which will form the main requests of residents to improve their life on the peninsula.
Scientists also held numerous meetings with indigenous communities living in Dudinka and Norilsk. They were interested in a variety of aspects of the northern peoples’ life – from the degree of preservation of traditional knowledge, culture, language, crafts to health status, living conditions in the Far North, education level, employment, and so on.
At the briefing, Anfisa Nikiforova, first vice-president of the Regional Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Krasnoyarsk region, spoke about the approval of the standards of responsibility for residents of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, which should ensure the balance and sustainable development of the indigenous people. Assistance in environmental and ethnological expertise is included in the standards as the most important point. Nikiforova stressed that such a depth of research has not been carried out in Taimyr since the 1980s.
“The main goal of the ethno-expert examination is to help our fellow countrymen: they should continue roaming safely in the tundra, the fishing and traditional economic activities of the townships should not stop. I am sure that all the work of scientists will form the basis of documents on the further development of Taimyr and our residents”, said Anfisa Nikiforova.
The interim results of the winter stage of the examination will appear after the analysis of the collected data, this will happen closer to the summer of 2021.
Text: Marina Khoroshevskaya, Photo: Marina Peshkova
