Narrative Objects: The Sakha Summer Festival and Cultural Revitalization

该项目将调查历史文物如何成为思考过去、铭记族裔认同的集体做法和促进文化复兴进程的工具，特别是在经历过政治和仪式压迫的地区。该地区的重点是俄罗斯联邦的萨哈共和国(雅库蒂亚)，该项目的中心是一个独特的雅库特人夏季节日Ysyakh的巨大象牙模型，自1867年以来一直被项目合作伙伴大英博物馆(BM)收藏。在苏联时代，包括ysyakh在内的许多萨哈文化表达都受到了压制。自1990年代和苏联解体以来，文化复兴和建立政治自治的尝试引起了人们对这些表述及其历史和当代形式的交集的极大兴趣。访问萨哈历史文物是这些过程的关键，这些文物现在分散在世界各地的博物馆中。虽然北美已经做了大量工作，将博物馆藏品与后代社区联系起来，但在俄罗斯，几乎没有关于这类项目的学术研究。因此，该项目将成为俄罗斯联邦内外博物馆之间发展文化间关系的典范，并将有助于更广泛地了解后苏联国家的文化运动。“夏令营模型”描绘了一个来自ysyakh的场景，是已知的最早的这个节日的代表。尽管它被认为是萨哈的精华之作，但很少有萨哈人直接接触到这个模型，而且它通常不会公开展示。通过项目合作伙伴雅库茨克萨哈共和国国家艺术博物馆的模型展览，以及相关的档案和人种学研究，以探索其历史和当代意义，我们将：-探索意识形态压迫时代文化记忆的沉默；-调查历史文物支持文化复兴的能力；-检查历史文物、文化记忆、叙事和沉默的表达，并询问它如何为当代博物馆实践提供信息；-通过交流策展专业知识，为俄罗斯和英国博物馆同行的专业发展做出贡献；-通过各种形式传播我们的研究，例如学术和流行出版物、会议演讲、两次展览和一个项目网站，其中有英语、俄语和萨哈语的教育资源；-通过第一个涉及英国和俄罗斯北部文化机构的合作项目，促进和加强英国和俄罗斯联邦之间的关系。该项目将吸引萨哈共和国、英国和国际上的利益相关者参与。项目团队(Alison Brown博士、Tatiana Argounova-Low博士和一名博士后研究助理)将直接与使用萨哈传统形式的当代艺术家、文化从业者和雅雅卡庆祝者合作。我们的研究方法包括档案研究、文物分析、访谈、参与雅萨克活动、观察和讨论艺术实践。该项目的主要社会影响将在文化和福利领域。它还有可能影响博物馆的实践。受益者包括中小学生、大学生、艺术家、博物馆专业人员、人类学、博物馆研究、视觉文化和历史等学科的学者，以及对其他文化及其艺术和仪式传统感兴趣的更广泛的公众。

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.