Narrative Objects: The Sakha Summer Festival and Cultural Revitalization

This project will investigate the ways in which historic artefacts are tools for contemplating the past, for remembering collective practices of ethnic identity, and for contributing to cultural revitalization processes, particularly in areas that have experienced political and ceremonial suppression. The regional focus is the Sakha Republic (Yakutiia), Russian Federation, and the centrepiece of the project is a unique mammoth ivory model of ysyakh, the summer festival of the Sakha (Yakut) people, which has been in the collection of project partner, the British Museum (BM), since 1867. During the Soviet era, many Sakha cultural expressions, including ysyakh, were suppressed. Since the 1990s, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, cultural revitalization and attempts to establish political autonomy have generated considerable interest in these expressions and in the intersection of their historic and contemporary forms. Accessing Sakha historic artefacts, now scattered in museums worldwide, is key to these processes. While considerable work has been done in North America to link museum collections with descendent communities, there is virtually no scholarship regarding such projects in Russia. This project will thus be a model for developing inter-cultural relations between museums in the Russian Federation and beyond, and will contribute to better understanding cultural movements in post-Soviet states more broadly.

"Model of a Summer Camp" depicts a scene from ysyakh and is the earliest known representation of this festival. Although it is regarded as a quintessentially Sakha work, few Sakha people have engaged directly with the model and it is not normally on public display. Through the exhibition of the model in project partner, the National Arts Museum of the Sakha Republic, Yakutsk, timed to coincide with the ysyakh celebrations of 2015, and associated archival and ethnographic research to explore its historical and contemporary relevance, we will:
- explore the silencing of cultural memory during times of ideological oppression;
- investigate the capacity of historic artefacts to support cultural revitalization;
- examine the articulation of historic artefacts, cultural memory, narratives and silence and to ask how it might inform contemporary museum practice;
- contribute to the professional development of museum colleagues in Russia and the UK through the exchange of curatorial expertise;
- disseminate our research through a range of formats, e.g., scholarly and popular publications, conference presentations, two exhibitions, and a project website with educational resources in English, Russian and Sakha;
- promote and strengthen relations between the UK and the Russian Federation through the first collaborative project involving cultural institutions in Britain and the Russian North.

This project will engage stakeholders in the Sakha Republic, the UK, and internationally. The project team (Dr. Alison Brown, Dr. Tatiana Argounova-Low, and a postdoctoral Research Assistant) will work directly with contemporary artists utilising Sakha traditional forms, cultural practitioners, and ysyakh celebrants. Our research methods include archival research, artefact analysis, interviews, participation in ysyakh events, and observation and discussion of arts practices. The project's main societal impacts will be in the areas of culture and well-being. It also has the potential to influence museum practice. Beneficiaries include school, college and university students; artists; museum professionals; scholars in disciplines such as Anthropology, Museum Studies, Visual Culture, and History; the wider public with interests in other cultures and their artistic and ceremonial traditions.

Who will benefit from this research?: This project will engage stakeholders in the Sakha Republic, the UK, and internationally. Its main societal impacts will be in the areas of culture and well-being. It also has the potential to influence museum practice. Beneficiaries include school, college and university students; artists; museum professionals; scholars; the wider public with interests in other cultures and in artistic and ceremonial traditions.

How will they benefit from this research?: In April 2013, Brown and Argounova-Low met with potential beneficiaries in Yakutsk. These included Sakha artists; students and staff at the North-Eastern Federal University; cultural practitioners; staff from the Ministries of Education and Culture and Spiritual Development. Senior artists hoped that access to the model will lead to inter-generational knowledge transmission and will encourage younger artists to adopt traditional techniques. As there are no pieces in the Sakha Republic of a comparable age or quality the project will enable artists to learn from the unknown master craftsman who created the model, and from one another. This will inspire them to incorporate Sakha creative knowledge into their practice. Cultural practitioners told us that the model contains original ideas about ysyakh, and that studying its details (clothing, structure, placement) and sharing memories of historic practices will lead to the recovery of cultural knowledge that was suppressed during the Soviet era. University staff and students suggested that the project will stimulate debates about ethnic identity, thus contributing to well-being and enhancing cultural pride. "National Culture" is a compulsory subject in high schools, and we anticipate heavy demand from schools and colleges to bring students to the exhibition and to incorporate knowledge encoded within the model into their classroom discussions.
To date few Sakha people have accessed the model. In contrast, visitors to the British Museum (BM) saw it in the immensely popular 2012 exhibition, Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. As that exhibition did not include Sakha interpretations of the piece, our outreach events and outputs will allow for the dissemination of culturally informed data to audiences beyond the Sakha Republic. This process will raise awareness of how unfamiliar cultural perspectives can enrich our understanding of diversity, adding to the potential reach of the project's societal impact. Our commitment to professional development and knowledge exchange within the museum sector, through the secondment of a National Arts Museum (NAM) curator and the research visit of two additional collections specialists, will support the flourishing of cultural awareness through future curatorial projects. We note that the University of Aberdeen is an RCUK Catalyst for Public Engagement, and the project team will work with the Public Engagement with Research Unit to communicate awareness of cultural issues in other countries at diverse outreach events, e.g., the May Festival, Café Scientifique and PechaKucha Nights. We will also liaise with the BM Education Department to contribute to initiatives such as 'Talking Objects', an object-based engagement programme that connects young people with collections, in order to interpret them creatively.
The project will be promoted through existing mechanisms, e.g., the NAM marketing department, media appearances, participation in ysyakh, articles for the Sakha press, professional journals. Collectively, the website, publications, and curriculum materials will provide access to project data long after the exhibition ends. These resources will be produced as the project progresses, appropriate to the identified milestones. We are confident that the project's events and outputs will enrich our core research activity, and enhance understanding of the model's contemporary meanings.