Meeting the Mansi of Sverdlovsk region
On October 20, in a ceremony at a boarding school in the village of Polunochnoye, Consul General Tim Sandusky announced the award of a $20,000 grant to the NGO Social Organization for the Social and Economic Development of the Mansi People. The purpose of the grant, which is sponsored by the State Department’s Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, is to support the establishment of the Traditional Mansi Crafts Educational and Cultural Center (TMCECC). The Center will research, document and restore the traditional crafts of the Mansi people, provide employment to local Mansi master craftsmen, create an electronic book of the Mansi traditional crafts for display at a regional museum, teach multi-ethnic groups of students about Mansi culture through training in producing traditional Mansi crafts, and promote public support for cultural diversity and tolerance towards the Mansi population. The village of Polunochnoye is located near the town of Ivdel, 540 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg in Sverdlovsk Region. Mansi children from remote villages attend the school.
The Mansi are a Finno-Ugric ethnic and linguistic group of tribes residing in the Northern Urals. Mansi settled in the Sverdlovsk region hundreds of years before the first Russian explorers arrived. They are part of Russia's multi-ethnic heritage. For many centuries, Mansi clans lived in relative isolation in the harsh mountain environment, and thus preserved their culture and language. During the Soviet period, the Mansi were encouraged to abandon their traditions and language, and to assimilate. Mansi people, however, suffered from discrimination which resulted in marginalization and an accumulation of social problems. According to the 2002 national census, there are approximately 11,400 ethnic Mansi in Russia. However, only about 150 live in the vast Sverdlovsk region, including the four main clans: Anyamov, Pakin, Khandybin, Kurikov and Bakhtiarov. Unemployment is high, and many communities survive by hunting, fishing, gathering berries, nuts and mushrooms, and sewing traditional footwear for sale.
Sverdlovsk Region Human Rights Ombudsman Tatyana Merzlyakova participated in the opening ceremony, which was hosted by school director Nadezhda Vildanova. NGO co-leader Zoya Scherbak presented plans for the development of the Mansi Crafts Center. Director of the Ivdel Ethnographic Museum Vera Aleksandrovna Bellendir spoke about the importance of the joint efforts on saving the unique indigenous culture of the Mansi people and confirmed the museum’s support to the project. A small exhibit of the Mansi crafts was organized in the school library, along with a master class on beads decorations provided by one of the teachers. Mansi NGO activists and graduates of the Polunochnoye boarding school Valeriy and Nikolay Anyamov took part in the meeting, providing valuable comments on the exhibit objects and linguistic particulars. They expressed appreciation of the assistance provided by the U.S. Ambassador’s Fund. Completion of the project will be marked in August 2010 by a regional conference on Mansi ethnic history, traditions and crafts, as well as an exhibit of craftworks created by the students.
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