Modern culture and crafts, folklore groups, professional art

For a long time, the Enets language remained unrecorded. In 2020, however, things took a turn, when Zoya Bolina, a native of Potapovo, took the initiative and authored and published a few workbooks and spellers. The spellers were based on the Cyrillic alphabet. They contained 37 letters, including the ones denoting the phonemes unique to the language. In 2012, locals launched an educational project to revive the native language via the Enets language classes taught in the village of Potapovo. There, the language instructors use the so-called “language nest” method, common among the minorities of the world.  The class teaches the children whose parents do not speak the Enets language.

Despite their small numbers, the Enets take part in all the cultural events held in the Taimyr district, mainly through the Taimyr House of Folk Art in Dudinka. Its activities are aimed at preserving the folklore and ethnographic materials, popularizing the traditional culture and languages of the minorities of the Peninsula. The institution employs experts in all the Taimyr languages, including the Enets.

The annual festivals “The Folk Classics of the Taimyr” routinely have representatives of the Enets introducing others to their culture: they perform songs in their native language, tell fairy tales and legends, perform rituals. The Taimyr House keeps records of folklore texts, has dictionaries of the Enets language, exhibits research data and collects audio and video recordings of folk celebrations.

The Enets folklore ensemble “Tatuy” (“Spark”) is known throughout the Peninsula; it exists as part of the Taimyr House. The ensemble, headed by Zoya Bolina, presents the Enets culture, folklore, customs and rituals at various events. It performs ancient Enets songs and melodies, and is also engaged in collecting and restoring the disappearing rituals of their people.

Since 2011, the International Arctic Festival “The Attraction of Taimyr,” dedicated to the Taimyr Day, has been regularly held in Dudinka. The Festival presents ethnographic groups, folklore choreographic ensembles, and soloists from the northern territories of Russia, including the Taimyr-born ones (the Nenets, Nganasans, Enets, Dolgans, and Evenks - over ten groups in total). In 2018, the Festival took third place among 96 projects from 14 regions of the country, becoming a winner of the National Award in the field of event tourism in the category “Best Ethnocultural Tourism Event.”

Ethnocultural tourism, which is gaining popularity in Taimyr, has distinct ethnic, linguistic, and cultural components. The guests can learn folk customs, crafts, folklore, traditions, history, and arts of the indigenous population. In Dudinka there is an ethnic camp called “The Taimyr Oikumena.”  It was originally created for the children of the tundra nomads, who struggle in adapting to a city life.

Its goal was also to help pupils of boarding schools and the local orphanage by teaching them traditional skills and national arts. Now the camp is popular among the people interested in the traditional culture of the minorities of the North.

The children are happy to participate in master classes on amulet-making, and others can brush up on their native language. On the territory of the ethnic camp there are four traditionally stylized tents with an Entets balki one, and a Dolgan golomo chums among them. Here the residents and guests of Dudinka can get acquainted with ethnic culture, and the camp itself is a pride of the town and is included in the tourist bus routes.

The time has demonstrated that the camp serves as the most popular space for the reunions of the ethnic communities. Here, the residents of Taimyr can celebrate national and family holidays, as well as hold children's parties. “The Taimyr Oikumena” developed an interesting tourist route “Chum, a Place of Power,” which provides a short but deep dive into the wonderful world of the national culture of the Taimyr minorities: the Dolgans, the Nenets, the Nganasans, the Evenks, and the Enets.

Picture 28. Zoya Bolina (first on the left) in an Enets tent

Picture 29. Festive procession in Dudinka dedicated to the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples