Local partner: Kandyk Initiative Group
Country: Russian Federation (Altai Republic)
Background and objective
Altai is increasingly praised for its natural resources and medicinal plants. The traditional cultural history of its indigenous population contains a significant amount of information and observations on the use of plants for nutrition and healing activities. However, much of that knowledge has been lost as a result of current worldview systems that completely disregard non-material culture. In the last 15 to 20 years, cancer rates have increased dramatically and a high number of children suffer from a variety of allergies and orthopedic diseases. This trend can be connected to extreme nutritional changes, where commercial foods are greatly increased. If one considers that traditional holistic knowledge is closely related to traditional economic activities and practices (including nutrition), then it can be expected that Altai’s indigenous peoples are not only worsening their health but are also losing vital knowledge.
The goal of the project is to renew the tradition of holistic education and improve nutrition by establishing a traditional healing center. This project will be executed within the framework of developing the AruSvati Ethnocultural Scientific Education Center as well as promoting traditional knowledge and teaching indigenous children the foundations of holistic knowledge.
We gathered, published, and distributed the initiative’s ethnographically-leaning publication “Altaian plant foods” to a variety of libraries and archives.
Local partner information
The AruSvati Ethnocultural Scientific Education Center (formerly The Tengri School of the Ecology of the Spirit) was established in 1995 to protect the sacred Karakol Valley of Altai in Russia as well as its traditional knowledge and Indigenous culture. By 2001, the Tengri School established Uch Enmek Nature Park – named after the sacred Uch Enmek Mountain that is at the core of the valley. The park’s status as a protected area makes it possible to help guide the social and economic development of the Karakol Valley on the basis of traditional knowledge and to involve the local community and government in this process.
