Video Bridge Joins Indigenous Peoples
The world is truly a global village, and nowhere more so than at the U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg.
Early on Wednesday morning, April 16, 2009, about 30 children, parents, teachers and community leaders traveled from the town of Ufa-Shigiri to Yekaterinburg. At the Consulate they donned national Bashkir, Tatar, and Mari traditional dress in time for the Digital Video Conference (DVC) with Kiowa Indian students at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, and Malay students at the Lincoln Center in Kuching, Malaysia. The theme of the conference was how environmental changes have affected the cultural traditions of these indigenous peoples.
The conference was organized by Dr. Jonathan Hook, Director of International Indigenous Initiatives at the University of North Texas and facilitated by the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs and the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg. This was the third annual, multi-national DVC hosted by the Consulate. Last year the DVC included students from Uganda, but because of time differences they decided to not participate this year. The presence of the participants from the Mari culture was a welcome addition to the cultural exchange.
In addition to reporting on how environmental changes have affected cultural traditions, the students shared songs and dances from their respective cultures. The effect of seeing different cultural practices from three such different corners of the earth made everyone realize that we have much more in common than our differences would suggest. One participant suggested that maybe humanity shares a common ancestor and that the links between Asia and America are more than just theoretical. On the other hand the Kiowa Indians from Oklahoma shared that they were feeling more environmental effects in the form of tornadoes and droughts, while the Russians didn’t notice as much environmental effects other than warmer winters. The Malay mentioned that they had more rains and flooding in their region which were affecting their traditional crops.
The participants enjoyed seeing and hearing each other on video and promised to see each other again next year.
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