Siberian Indigenous Recovery
Aboriginal Elder Of The Siberian Khanti Speaks About Indigenous Cultural Revival And Preservation
Excerpt from Agrafena Sopotshina's speech, "We Live On What The Earth Carries On Itself", examining how the Khanti construct Aboriginality.
Agrafena Sopotshina's Words
"Preserving the culture of the Khanty is very important to me. At this moment we can discern three different cultural forms or lifestyles.
There are
- Nature-Human-Nature-People who live in direct and authentic relation to nature as before.
- ...Nature-Human-Technology-Nature's Negation-People who deny laws of nature and the damages done by technological culture.
- ...nature-human-technology-nature-people. They have already become urbanised but are returning.
They (the third group) have preserved the real relation to nature and have the baggage of technological culture at their disposal. These people returning from the city are important from the perspective of cultural preservation as a whole. They have begun to offer advice and administer local communities carrying on trades on naturally produced goods as well as forming them into productive units."
Implications Of Agrofena's Third Category Of Identity
I have never before come across this view of previously assimilated Aborigines' reentry into Indigenous culture. It has never occurred to me that such people might have something of value to offer their Indigenous communities from their experience in the western world. But this makes sense - it would be difficult for governments to exploit and oppress Indigenous communities containing Aboriginal members who have an "insider" understanding of the invaders' cultures, languages and politics.
Perhaps this is the true reasoning behind calls for limits on claims of Indigenous descent. Perhaps this is the true reasoning behind the dominant culture's compulsion to bar a return to Aboriginality through limitations of "blood percentage". Perhaps the fear of Indigenous communities having overnight expertise in the inner workings of the invading culture represents a threat to the entire power structure of colonial nations.
Agrafena's words have the potential to help a lot of us in the third category to see our identity in a new light - perhaps with a sense of worth rather than feelings of shame and displacement.
