From my field notes: “It is still early morning, 4th of August, 2021. I am waiting for a telephone call from a Nenets woman whom I had met yesterday in Aksarka. She had said that she is from Laborovaia and is going to travel there by a rented car. For her it was the only opportunity to travel to the tundra with her three little children. The price of the trip is rather high, therefore she was looking for poputchiki – ‘fellow travellers’. We had made an agreement that she would call me when she would arrive in Salekhard, the capital city of the Yamal region, which is along the way to Laborovaia, another village near the Ural Mountains”.

I did all the necessary shopping and bought a big bag of fresh bread, too, which is a classical way of travelling to the tundra, with no bakery around for many kilometers. When, at last, a car, called in Russian bukhanka – “a loaf of bread” because of it’s form, arrived at Salekhard, it was around lunch time. I loaded all my bags into the car and we started our long trip. 

Originally, we had planned that the trip to Laborovaia would take us 5 hours. In reality, it took much more time. 

We only left Labytnangy and went for 10 kilometers along the moto-way to the north, when our driver said that the car needs reparation. We returned back to Labytnangy and stayed there for three more hours. Even after checking out three different car service centres, no one wanted to repair our old bukhanka. So, our driver asked somebody to help him.

The road Labytnangy-Laborovaia. Photo. Roza Laptander.

Only at six o’clock in the evening the car got the needed repairs and was ready to travel along the mountains and rocky road to our final destination – the village of Laborovaia. At that point we were tired and hungry, but only a few kilometers away from the crowded human habitation, when we saw the beautiful landscape of the Ural Mountains, we forgot about our difficult beginning of the trip.

On some points of the rocky road, with pits and potholes, our wreck of a car could only drive 20 km/h. We arrived at Laborovaia at night, around two o’clock. After a quick tea and putting on tundra clothes, we started another exciting part of our trip to the tundra, this time on a snowmobile. It was much easier and faster than by car. 

People in the tundra had started to use their snowmobiles for travelling in the summer several years ago.

Even though some people have ATVs and they are aware it is not good for the condition of the vehicles, it is still the only means of transportation, which is very suitable and good for travelling in the tundra, even in the summer. This means that tundra people use means of transportation in a way that is suitable for their contemporary life.  As I understand, they use the snowmobiles for travelling in the summer only on the wet and flat landscape. While in the rocky mountains it is better to travel on ATVs. 

It has been one year since the coronavirus pandemic became a part of our life and changed it in a very radical way. We follow the rules of the government, we developed some rules for ourselves – and every one of these is made to stay safe and alive. From the beginning of the pandemic until today, people all around the world are shocked by the high number of deaths. 

Here is an interview with the Nenets writer Anna Nerkagi. She has contracted covid and has since recovered. Anna lives in the little village of Laborovaya near the Polar Ural Mountains. She was the only person there who got the virus, and was taken to the regional hospital. But Anna does not remember how she was taken there. For her this was equal to “a little death”, as if she was symbolically killed. Even when she was unconscious, she had heard a voice. She understood perfectly what it was telling her, without any words. This voice told her that Life and Death are two brothers. They have one mother, they have the same blood. They live in the same chum [tent]. Anna is familiar what a chum is, since she has lived in the chum for many years. 

“Life and Death live in the same chum. They have one fire. They love each other. But most of all they love people and they work to serve them. Life and Death – they are like two banks of the same river. That is why they are concerned that people die when it is their time. People must remember this while they are still in their bodies. People should remember this… I can’t say that I love death. Because this is the highest state of a saintly person, to love death and to be ready for that death. Although our ancestors, our fathers, were taught how to be prepared for their death. For example, I remember my grandmother, she died quite calmly, without any panic. That was the first time I realized that death can be quiet and calm. This voice told me that Life and Death are brothers. They have one mother. They have one fire. They have the same blood. And they do one job. They prepare people for death. Because after our human lives we will die. What awaits us is Death. And this death we must later learn to love, understand and accept. And besides knowledge that you must die one day, you should think how you should appear in front of the angel of death. There is a belief that the angel of death is an old ugly woman with a scythe. On the contrary, it is a beautiful angel. But the people to whom it comes, should not be ugly: they should not be drunk, should not be killed, should not use drugs, but should die their own natural death. I must have been given this knowledge to tell people that Life and Death are brothers. They love humans. They want people to live beautifully and die when they are too old to live any more. In the world of the dead people, this person is loved. All their ancestors are waiting for them there. And God awaits them, too.”

This was told to Anna, in order to pass this knowledge to you. Because everyone is going to die, but when it is their own time. People should die but not because of covid, or any other diseases. And not at a young age, because of drugs and alcohol. They should not be killed. Children should also live their lives long and beautifully. Well, the Angel of Death and the Angel of Life, I think, have a lot of work to do right now. And this work is not always joyful. 

Read and watch more here: Анна Неркаги-о воспоминаниях детства, востребованности творчества, о том, чему её учат приёмные дети https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPiUlDZgApc

Last week on the Internet was published a short video about two very old Nenets Syadei with the following text:

• Cambridge University Museums have been running a project called ‘Museum Remix – Unheard’ during lockdown. It’s an invitation to re-interpret the stories museums tell. Each month they have released a challenge – this month’s is ‘Video’. Curators present a selection of objects from Cambridge collections using short videos; viewers are invited to respond by making a 3-minute video in any format by September 30. The information is here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/museumremix Absolutely anyone over the age of 16 is very welcome to participate.The selection of objects includes two Syadei (sacred wooden figures) made by members of the Siberian Nenets community, held at the Scott Polar Research Institute Museum. Here’s the video about them, which I made over the summer: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/magic/syadei-sacred-objects You’ll find a Russian version there too.The SPRI museum team would love to get some feedback from Russia, and especially from the Nenets community; this feedback doesn’t necessarily have to fall within the Museum Remix project. We are also hoping simply to let members of the Nenets community know that we hold these objects. I would be very grateful if you could circulate these links to people who might be interested – and/or let me know if there’s anyone in particular I should contact. Thanks!

After this publication, I asked my daughter´s opinion about these Nenets Syadeis and their story which is now published on the Internet. It was interesting to know this young Nenets opinion about using Nenets religious items for the public performance. What surprised me was that my daughter reacted quite emotionally to this video and said that she does not agree that this Syadei on the video is undressed. She said that according to Nenets customs and ethics it is not allowed to show a naked body to anybody, therefore even Nenets wooden idols, like Syadei and other domestic family religious items, should have own clothes. Also, the Nenets researcher Galina Kharuchi said, that it is quite common to give to Nenets idols sometimes presents. It can be new clothes or coins from white metal, even if they are in a museum. So, maybe it is a good advice for museum curators how they can thank these idols for their work. However, I do not think that these Syadeis are an example of the exploitation of the indigenous religious heritage since they are now museum objects.

Since my very first visit to the Netherlands, I have been surprised at the interest of Dutch people in one of the islands in the North of Russia, which they call Nova Zembla, from the Russian name Novaya Zemlya (“New Land”).

This topic of Novaya Zemlya drew attention since the time of the first Dutch explorer of the Arctic – Willem Barentsz, who died there in 1597. After him, this route was never followed by any of his countrymen. However, at the end of the XIX century, there was an expedition on the Dutch schooner Willem Barentsz to Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean. This trip was well organized and well equipped. For better documenting the polar landscape, it was accompanied by a Dutch artist Louis Apol (1850-1936). Continue reading “Louis Apol, the painter of Novaya Zemlya” →