Yamal
2015-2016

«True people» (Nenei nenecha) – self-name of Nenets, the indigenous people of the Yamal peninsula, and the name of the complex 2015–2016 ethnographic expedition. Project participants and the visitors of the resource will be the part of the reindeer herders's family during the whole year just to «dive» in the casual life of the modern XXI century nomads.

 

6.04–7.04.

At last we left from Yar-Sale with our masters – Kostya and Alya. Svetlana the wife of Radik (Koastya's brother) also ride in our sledge. Our caravan formed two snowmobiles. The second buran (“buran” is a snowstorm in Russian and a type of the Soviet/Russian snowmobile, but at Yamal people call buran any snowmobile, although in our case it was the real “Buran” snowmobile) Myangcha, Radik's son carried the Spanish photographer Eduardo and his guide Dmitriy. We had to cross 260 km in tundra in special hand-made snowmobile sledge (the open wooden box fixed on solid skies without any amortization) – not the most pleasant journey full of anxities for our photo and video cameras. Moreover, to every buran sledge was one more traditional sledge (narta), so were formed two mobile argishes (argish Komi-Zyrian, the common term for the caravan of sledges).

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Our moto argish: "buran"(Yamaha Venture multi-purpose), "buran" sledge and traditional Nenets vandako sledge.

 

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During our 260 km route we stopped for a short tea-brake only once in the beginning at the Ports-Yaha factory (trading post), 63 kms from Yar-Sale. The head of the factory is Alena, Kostya's sister, who lives here with all her family.

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Ports-Yaha factory (photo from mobile phone).

 

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Stop in the midnight in the center of Yamal. 

We drove all the night and reached our chum by 11 a. m. where we met Mamanka (“mammy– Russian)Kostya's mother Sophia, Nache (“daddy” – Nenets), Kostya's father Achemboy and three Kostya's kids – Hasavako (6 years old), Semyonko (5 years old) and Pedavako (3 years old).

Our camp coordinates: N 68º50'20,7” E 069º53'36,8”.

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Our nomadic camp.

We'd like to remind that our masters are the free reindeer herders, not the employers of the collective enterprises that's why the family stays in one chum quite far from its neighbors this time of the year. The reindeer herd grazes closely, in a distance of 0,5 km (app. 300 animals – Kostya's reindeer together with part of Radik's sledge “bulls”; we can't estimate the real number right now because according the Nenets etiquette it's impolite to ask the owner how much reindeer he possesses or trying to count them). The 7 of April ended for us in the middle of the day – after the night journey we fall asleep until the evening.

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