#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The idea to develop a board game – a trip around Taimyr – was born at the end of 2020 in the Nornickel, which financed the project.
The company presented the game trial version in Dudinka at the IV Far North Indigenous Peoples Youth Forum’s final stage. Here, in the youth center of tourism and creativity, young northerners in a playful way got acquainted with the life, traditional crafts, languages and clothing of the Taimyr indigenous peoples.
After the tests have been completed, the game will be finalized, published and sent to all Taimyr villages, cultural and educational institutions of Dudinka, and industrial companies operating on the peninsula. As conceived by the organizers, this will help to get to know the culture of the Taimyr indigenous peoples more closely.
The game, named Five Hunters – after the indigenous small-numbered ethnic groups – makes it possible to travel around Taimyr, go through all the stages of the upper, middle and lower world, imbued with their culture.
Anfisa Nikiforova, the Nornickel Polar Division’s north indigenous minorities work head, explains that the playing field is the Taimyr map:
“We’ve made the game pieces with the names of clothes and shoes of our ethnic groups, which helps to learn their languages. Through this game, people will understand who lives here, what their customs and traditions are. How to turn to sacred places in the tundra, how to cross all winter rapids. All this is reflected in the game. The winners fall on the main Taimyr holiday – the Reindeer Breeder Day. The main prize is a sacred deer”.
The artistic and technical part of the game was performed by well-known artists Evgeny and Yulia Porotov, who worked on Five Hunters throughout 2021. In it, the authors combined the folklore of the Dolgans, Nenets, Nganasans, Enets and Evenks.
According to Julia, the good forces are hunter heroes, while the evil ones are used as demons:
“My husband and I have always wanted to create a game that unites nationalities so that they are like fingers on a hand. It seems it works: every nation can consider it their own game”.
Earlier, we told about each of the five indigenous peoples of Taimyr: Dolgans, Nenets, Nganasans, Enets and Evenks.
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Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division’s press service
