"INTERVIEWWITH DOMINIQUE SAMSON NORMAND DE CHAMBOURG" "Translator and member of the Centre for Russian and Eurasian Research" "About the director" "Anastasia Lapsui has sent me texts." "I've been translating for her for some time." "It makes sense because I'm specialized in the history of Nenets literature." "Anastasia Lapsui is interesting because she no longer lives in her native society, she lives in Finland, but she is a kind of spokesperson for the indigenous Nenets people." "She was born in 1944, and she never returned to her birthplace because she was born out in the tundra." "Her passport says she was born in Yar-sale, but in fact, the Nenets being a nomadic people, she was born in the tundra, in the middle of nowhere, with no one around." "There's only one person alive who remembers where she was born." "This has been a source of personal pain to her, but now she's been reconciled with her birthplace -the Yamal peninsula." "She became the first Nenets journalist, and she's translated Pushkin's stories into her language." "She became interested in Nenets folklore when her son started school because it was all in Russian and she realised her language might be lost." "So she started collecting folk stories and songs so as to pass on the Nenets language and culture to her son." "When she became a journalist, she met Markku Lekhmuskallio, a Finn." "He was making a film about the Nenets, and they started working together." "They made several films together." "Seven Songs from the Tundra was the 6th." "She's both an insider and an outsider to Nenets society." "Even when she's in Finland her people are always on her mind and each film is a kind of bridge between her modern life and her people." "When she started school, all the children had to have their head shaved." "Nenets women's plaits are very important to their identity so that was very hard for her." "The next morning, she found she had gone blind." "She hid under a table and they hurt her when they tried to drag her out." "It was very traumatic, and the next day she was blind." "She was taken to hospital after hospital, but no one could cure her." "In the end she was sent back home because she was too much trouble." "Eventually, a few years later, as she came out one morning from her tent, or "chum", she found she could see again." "While she was blind, she spent all her time listening to the stories of the women in her camp." "That's one of the things that inspired her to make films." "It's amazing to think that that blind little girl is now making films for us." "The Nenets" "I mainly collect oral literature texts:" "stories, songs..." "My field is the history of literature." "I'm trying to piece together the fragments of this people's heritage." "Before the revolution literature was oral." "There's also contemporary literature;" "several writers, notably Anna Nerkagui." "It's a great job, but of course it's extremely complicated because they had no written language until the 1930s, and that didn't come about organically, it came from outside." "The Russians basically imposed it on them." "If I had to summarize the milestones of Nenets history, I'd say..." "We've known about this people for a long time." "In 10th century Russian texts, you find mentions of the Samoyeds which was the name used for the Nenets before the revolution." "There were already fur traders crossing the Urals to trade with the Samoyeds." "The major milestones are the conquest of Siberia in the 16th century, then colonization in the 17th century which for the Nenets saw the beginning of reindeer herding as a way of life." "Before that they were mainly hunter-gatherers." "In the 17th century they were developing large-scale reindeer herding which, within a century, became established." "Its success is self-evident, because when people think of the Nenets today, they think of reindeer herding." "Even they think of themselves as reindeer herders." "Another key milestone was sovietization in the 1930s." "The indigenous peoples were a source of annoyance to the regime because peasants and workers were all part of the grand plan but reindeer herders were another matter." "Nomads were seen as backwards, because humanity had developed beyond nomadism." "It was incompatible with socialism." "They were animists, shamanists, which was also disapproved of because Soviet ideology left no room for that kind of spirituality." "They had to change everything, assimilate." "Nonetheless, they did manage to preserve quite a lot of their culture by effectively leading a double life." "There was a facade, and then there was what was behind it." "They worked during the day, but at night they had their rituals and that's how things were kept alive." "After that period of hardship, there was a more "open" period in the 1960s," ""open" in inverted commas, because at that time the use of indigenous languages was banned in some schools." "They became legal again in the 1970s and 80s." "The rise of industry also had a big impact." "It began with the discovery of oil and gas reserves, 15 major gas reserves in the Yamal peninsula." "And then once the gas pipelines began to take over large areas of the tundra, their nomadic ways were restricted." "There was another incident, not quite in the 60s, but in 1957, which had a big impact on Nenets living in European Russia, West of the Urals." "They lived on the island of Novaya Zemlya, which became home to many political exiles at the turn of the century." "That saw the emergence of the first Nenets intellectuals." "In July 1957, the population were loaded onto boats, given 2500 roubles, and relocated to Arkhangel on the mainland." "The island became a Soviet nuclear test site." "They had to stop using Kazakhstan because too many Russians lived there so they found somewhere else." "And it's still a restricted area, the people can't go back." "Songs" "Songs are the main constituent of Nenets oral literature." "They are born and they die through song." "What I mean by that is every mother, and sometimes the grandmother, makes up a song for her child." "It's a combination of a description of the child and a charm for luck in the future." "They sing about what they would like the child to be." "The children keep that song until they are old enough to make up their own adult song." "There are a huge number of these birth songs, as many as there are children." "For example, if the child has a very round face, the mother may say his face is like the sun." "If he has pink cheeks, she may say he has scraps of red cloth on his cheeks." "For a clever boy, she might say when he's older fish will throw themselves onto his hooks and foxes will throw themselves into his traps." "If it's a girl, perhaps she'll say her embroidery will make the Northern lights pale in comparison." "These personal birth songs are very important." "Epic songs are another key element." "You have the "sjudbabc", which are quite old songs that tell stories of gods and spirits and heroes with flying bows, who roam through the clouds fighting monsters and gods." "Often in the end they earn a place in the pantheon of deities." "Then there's the "iarabc", derived from the word for tears, which tells of a hero's misfortunes." "It's a more male song, telling of terrible calamities befalling a hero, but in the end he succeeds in vanquishing his bad luck." "Unlike the "sjudbabc", the "iarabc" is sung in the first person as if the hero himself were telling the tale." "Another Nenets song is the "hynabc"" "which is a long song led by the spirit of song, Myneko." "They say these songs can go on for several days, certainly several hours." "The Nenets sing almost constantly, out in the tundra, while they work, with their reindeer, in their tents..." "It's an integral part of life." "With the Soviets came the tradition of patriotic songs." "The Nenets now have songs in that vein because for them it was a new theme." "They just love creating songs." "It also shows their ability to adapt." "They live in a very hostile environment, or so it seems to us, and so they have developed into a very strong people, as symbolized in their traditions, and this has enabled them to live through many things" "and to integrate many things." "So when the Soviets brought electric light bulbs, the Nenets invented a term, "cold fire"." "Coming back to oral literature, traditionally they ask riddles, but there are also riddles about contemporary things." "So an example of a riddle might be..." ""It doesn't bark, it doesn't bite, but it keeps out strangers."" "What is it?" "It's a padlock." ""They burn without burning."" "Light bulbs." "Everything gets integrated." "Even Christianity has been mixed in." "There are texts with Nicholas, which is in fact St Nicholas, working for Num, the sky god." "Everything is integrated." "Their whole history is laid out through song." "The Film" "In this film, Anastasia..." "She said from the moment she sat down to write the screenplay that only Nenets would be appearing in this film." "The film is about Nenets." "A reindeer herder is played by a reindeer herder, a teacher by a teacher, etc." "The oldest actor was 72, and the youngest was 1 month old." "By the end he was 7 months old." "And he didn't cry once during filming!" "A lot of people came together to volunteer for this project, in spite of the terrible conditions, and I think she's proud of the result." "It was people speaking for themselves, not letting anyone speak for them." "There have been other films made in Europe and elsewhere which tell their story, and that's important." "But at the same time it's not enough." "Those kinds of projects are necessary and useful, but they aren't the whole story." "For her it seemed natural for the film to be built around songs, a series of songs which also created a simple chronological structure." "It starts with a traditional scene." "Then it moves on to the coming of the Russians and the degeneration of traditional society, exploitation by traders..." "Then around the turn of the century the Soviets arrive." "So it's a progression." "The film is challenging but at the same time extremely warm." "The Future" "I think the leaders, the moral authorities, are key, but individual projects are also important." "I'm thinking of people like Anna Nerkagui or Anastasia Lapsui." "One works from within the system, one is outside." "but it's the combination that will take things forward." "Anna Nerkagui, for example, started a school in 1998." "It wasn't called a school, it was just an idea that children should be taught about their culture before it disappears." "They had workshops for girls on working with hides, how to light and maintain a fire, how to put up a "chum"." "Boys learned to find their way in the tundra, to light a fire in a snowstorm, to build a sleigh, and to make and set traps." "With time the lessons became richer and more varied, because some of the elders started getting involved." "There was funding from the autonomous local authority to buy books and to feed the children." "Anna Nerkagui also donated a lot of her own time and money." "This led to what is now a well-established programme." "And there's hope, because some children, on leaving the school, have decided they could live a traditional life." "The Soviet regime ended soon enough that Anna Nerkagui's generation, those born in the 40s and 50s, were able to pass on certain things." "These people have one foot in traditional society and one foot in the modern world, so they are in a position, through teaching or through books or film, to pass on some traditions." "They have served as aide-memoires to some of the older people, and teachers to the young." "It remains to be seen what the younger generation will do with that heritage in the future."