The indigenous people of Tyumen Oblast celebrated the national holiday of the arrival of spring – Crow’s Day – with the support of RN-Uvatneftegaz (part of Rosneft’s oil production complex).

Crow’s Day plays an important role in the national culture of the peoples of the North, and more than 250 guests, including people from Yugra, Yamal and other Russian regions, came to the celebration in Tyumen Oblast.

The celebration began with the performance of traditional rituals to welcome spring. The guests were also treated to a colourful concert program, including singing and dancing, and playing the national musical instrument – the vargan. For adults, there were competitions in national sports, and for children there was a themed game program and a quiz on the history of the holiday. At the exhibition “Northern Patterns” people could buy arts and crafts – amulets, dolls, jewellery.

Tyumen Region's Public Organization of Indigenous small-numbered peoples “Cedar” presented RN-Uvatneftegaz with a letter of thanks at the ceremony “for its great contribution to the development of the public movement of indigenous minorities of the north of Tyumen Oblast and for its active work in promoting the culture, customs and traditions of indigenous peoples”.

The culmination of Crow’s Day was the tasting of national cuisine – northern fish soup, tea with taiga herbs, berries and nuts.

The ethno-cultural centre Uvas Mir Khot (The House of the Northern People), which was created and is being developed with the participation of RN-Uvatneftegaz, played a central role in the celebrations. Throughout the year, the centre hosts national ritual festivals, cultural events, concerts, interactive excursions, local history and language lessons and master classes. To immerse guests in the culture and life of the indigenous peoples of the North, there is a Khanty hut, a Nenets chum (tent), a kitchen with a clay oven, a food storage lean-to, a hunter’s hut, an archery range and animal enclosures. Among the exhibits of the ethno-cultural centre are transport of the inhabitants of the North – rowboats (oblasa), reindeer sledges, fur-lined skis and other items of the traditional way of life.

Every year the number of visitors of The House of the Northern People increases – in 2023 more than 4 thousand residents of Tyumen Oblast and tourists from other regions of Russia became its guests. Popular TV programs about domestic tourism have been filmed here.

One of the key areas of Rosneft’s social policy is the preservation of the national culture of the indigenous peoples of the North and their traditional way of life. The Company’s enterprises implement numerous social projects in their regions of operation, developing infrastructure in northern villages, supporting reindeer herding families, and improving the material and technical base of educational institutions, social and medical facilities in the ancestral homelands of indigenous minorities.

RN-Uvatneftegaz, together with the administration of Uvatsky District, supports representatives of the Khanty, Mansi and Evenk peoples of Tyumen Oblast, providing comprehensive assistance in preserving their distinctive culture and way of life. The enterprise also provides access to winter roads and ice crossings built for production purposes, and organises fuel distribution in the fields closest to the camps. In recent years, the enterprise has also donated more than 140 items of equipment – snowmobiles, boat motors, petrol generators – to Khanty families. RN-Uvatneftegaz pays annual tuition fees for young people in colleges and universities and finances participation in competitions in the national sport of oblas (boat racing).

Seven years ago, RN-Uvatneftegaz organised for the first time a unique fair of goods from the indigenous people of Uvatsky District, where they sold products of traditional crafts. For the second year running, the event was held in Uvat in the expanded format of the Festival of the Indigenous Peoples of the North of Tyumen Oblast.

Rosneft
Information and Advertising Department
April 8, 2024

Keywords: Social News 2024