Edge of The World

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To the
Edge
of the World
The edge of the world is where we are bound, Carolyn Hillyer
with a weapon of grace and a fine shield of sound writes about the
we can hear a familiar voice close at hand recent journey she
the primordial song of a northern land
as it races the great sun over ancient snow
and her partner, the
the drum beast is older than we can ever know composer Nigel Shaw,
we’ve heard a journey north is a dangerous one made to Arctic Siberia
so ride hard through the skin of the nameless drum… with Nenets tribal
(from the album ‘Weathered Edge’ by Carolyn Hillyer) singer Tatyana Lar
We have been heading north for a It was the archive recordings in Russia, Canada, Alaska, for
long time. The journey has unfolded that opened up a view for us contacts to connect these voices to
slowly over the last fifteen years, through to the distant north. These living people, and communities
starting with unexpected concerts in ancient voices, catalogued during where we might ask permission to
Estonia, a gift in Latvia of archive Soviet times, belonged to singers work with the songs. Failing that,
recordings by Siberian tribal singers, from Nenets, Chukchi, Yakut and we linked funds from the
and a sudden detour over the Khanti tribes amongst others, subsequent album, Ancestors, to
Russian border, without permits, to dating from the first half of the last projects run in Siberia by Survival
play to an audience of underground century. We carried them home to International. And we started to
Greenpeace members and young Dartmoor and listened to them for walk north towards the ice.
Above: army recruits heading to the several years before deciding to
herding reindeer Chechnian frontline. A journey north create a music project seeded by First, we travelled to a Sàmi
on the tundra can throw up many surprises... some of those songs. We searched region in Arctic Sweden. We
SH
32 ISSUE 70 2010
THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE. Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine
performed at the reindeer herders’ skies; she sang the calls of tundra
winter festival and sat on ancient birds and the cries that summon
ice. Over four winters we wove the herds.
songs and paintings and flutes and In the roundhouse at our farm,
drums out of these cold journeys. she showed women how to chew
We tasted silent snows and walked sinew for thread, grind birch burr
beneath polar skies. We searched for remedies, purify with spit and
for primordial echoes of our own steam, and she enacted the secret
Dartmoor hills across the white rituals of women in the chum. We
landscape; we traced a physical walked together on Dartmoor hills,
journey north in order to and she recognised the land,
understand the chronological pointing out where she would pitch
journey back into an ancestral her chum and where her reindeer
memory of our own land dating would graze.
back over twenty thousand years. She met local herders of sheep
On the frozen lakes we discovered and wild ponies, and was at once
things that felt familiar, and things familiar with their methods and
that pulled us onwards to other, philosophy; she discovered that
stranger, northern edges. the family markings cut into the
We decided to return to Russia. ears of moor animals are the same
We were invited to an Expo of as many of those used for the
Northern Indigenous Peoples in reindeer herds.
Moscow, and found ourselves We played a Dartmoor concert
offering our music (and appalling as a wild-eyed summer storm
Russian accents) at a gathering of raged around us and people sat
tribal singers and dancers from all listening to the Nenets language
across Siberia. curl around the dripping tent. She
We were given a language found a welcome among those
bridge in the person of Ruslan who came to share her culture that landed in northern Siberia with the Above: Tatyana
Alikulov, a young Russian journalist far exceeded anything she would autumn colours of the tundra singing at
with a deep love of northern tribal have imagined outside of her own stretching out all around and Tatyana the Nenets
culture. He was one of only a community, and we were proud of waiting, with other Nenets women in settlement in
small handful of Muscovites we this. Together we laid a trail to map full costume, to sing our reunion. Novy Port
saw at that event; then and since our return journey to the far north. We all dived into an intense
we realised that there is very little schedule of interviews, concerts
awareness, interest or regard Over two years we battled and formal visits. Our concerts
among most Russians for their Russian bureaucracy… indeed the were entitled ‘The Silver Deer,’ the
indigenous tribes. story was the same. Eventually, white deer or reindeer being
We met Tatyana Lar, who for with Oksana’s help, we were taken sacred to both Nenets and ancient
many years has represented the under the wing of the culture British cultures. The Silver Deer
Nenets people as their singer; she department in Salekhard, located song itself had been seeded by
told us that, although she did not in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous one of those old archive voices,
understand our words, she could Region where the Arctic circle and we had been performing it
feel the ancestors about whom we passes between the tribal lands of together, with the original chant
were singing. We made a plan to the Nenets and the Khanti people. rising via a backing track through
work together… Once local government officials our own song. But Tatyana had
Over two years we battled were behind us, doors opened, recognised this ancient voice and Below: the wide
Russian bureaucracy and the UK permits were granted, and we sent word out in Salekhard. open tundra
Border Agency for a visa to enable
Tatyana to bring her Nenets songs
to Britain. She is poor, single, and Once local government officials were behind us,
without contacts or influence – all doors opened, permits were granted,
things that immigration officers do
not like – but tenacity and luck and we landed in northern Siberia with
finally secured her a visa within
two hours of the flight to England. the autumn colours of the tundra stretching
Tatyana was accompanied by out all around and Tatyana waiting
Oksana Kharouchi as her
translator for both Nenets and
Russian languages. The concert
tour was a joy and a revelation.
Tatyana sang of her reindeer, and
we felt the tundra chill pass over
our heads. She sang of fearless
nomadic women and strong
nomadic men; she sang of the
mother in the cold mossy ground
and the father in the wide empty
After a night and a day, the
river boat reached the outpost of
Novy Port. We embarked through
a floating shop that sold
watermelons and television sets far
too expensive for most local
people to buy.
But this old Nenets settlement,
is valuable; some parts of it are
derelict, disintegrating and sinking
into mud but it rests above one of
the largest deposits of oil and gas
in the world. The authorities talk
about the gasification of the region
and this is evident. The deep heart of our
The Nenets people have little
access to this potential wealth of
journey still lay ahead,
course, although amid the wooden a long way up the Ob
shacks there is a splendid
community hall and a large new River towards the Kara
boarding school, paid for by oil
Above: the That evening a frail Nenets money and administered by
Sea and out into a wild
author in a elder, Yelena Susoy, sat in the Russians from the south. land of reindeer herds
Nenets concert hall and listened to her own Nenets children are no longer
traditional voice singing back across the many taken by force from their tundra and the solitary chum
reindeer years. Afterwards she came slowly homes and placed in state boarding
skin coat through the throng to meet us. She schools (as was Tatyana herself),
leaned close and sang into our but other pressures are applied. Second World War. The bones of
ears. This meeting was wondrous; Nomadic parents are persuaded tiny wooden shelters dating from
we knew her voice so well for she that education certificates are that time can still be seen around
had been singing us north for necessary for their children’s future, the edges of the village.
fifteen years and at last we were and from September until May the A vast network of tunnels was
able to thank her for the gift of it. tundra is emptied of children, so hacked by the prisoners into the
The deep heart of our journey that whole generations are growing permafrost directly below the
still lay ahead, a long way up the up without direct experience of settlement. These tunnels are still
Below: the Ob River towards the Kara Sea surviving the winter on open land. used: in July and August they store
Siberian town and out into a wild land of reindeer Novy Port was used as a gulag the enormous fish catch brought in
of Novy Port herds and the solitary chum. prison in the decades following the by Russian factory ships. Once the
fish have been moved
south, Nenets
After a night and a day, the river boat reached women are employed
the outpost of Novy Port... some parts of it for the rest of the
year to scrape off the
are derelict, disintegrating and sinking into stale yellow ice left
behind, then throw
mud but it rests above one of the largest water and pat fresh
deposits of oil and gas in the world snow onto the floors
and walls of the
tunnels and chambers
until the entire
labyrinth glitters and
shines with a thick
new layer of ice
crystals, ready for the
next summer’s stock
of fish. These are
grimly beautiful
tunnels, carved from
the sufferings of the
gulag population,
most of whom never
returned south.
We almost
missed the final leg
of the journey from
settlement to chum.
Word came that
SH
34 ISSUE 70 2010
The land is a flat and wide expanse

that reaches out to all sides; the lack
of high ground means that any slight
hill or raised bank becomes sacred
ground and a site for offerings of
small coins or reindeer skulls
Tatyana’s family had moved their clicked their toes across the moss. bedrock rests far below. Thus the
tents beyond a flooded river and We were not staying here but land forms a soft spongy surface
the only route was very long. collecting the animal that would be over which a sled can run when
Besides which, the settlement had eaten later that day. Radik, who there is no snow and ice cover.
run out of petrol so there was no owned part of this herd, chose and Before the winter arrives however,
means of going so far. We could roped a small deer while other and with it the ability to travel as the
go by river, and someone located men gathered five more to pull the crow flies, the tundra is covered by
boat fuel, but when we arrived at sled. During Soviet times the herds thousands of water channels, lakes
the boat, the vast river tide had were taken under state control and and pools left by the melting snow,
drawn the water far out from the run as large collectivised farming all of which must be skirted around
bank into a distant line of grey. operations. In recent years Nenets or forded so that any journey involves Above left:
Then we heard that one man people have been able to return to many winding detours. The land is a Tanya's chum
might have both a vehicle and owning and caring for their animals flat and wide expanse that reaches on the tundra
enough petrol to reach other in family groups as they once did; out to all sides; the lack of high
relatives camping closer by; lengthy for a tribe that has been so ground means that any slight hill or Above right:
negotiations ensued before vulnerable to political control and raised bank becomes sacred ground a reindeer
eventually, suddenly, we were on our commercial exploitation, this has and a site for offerings of small coins skull offering
way. A second vehicle with tow been one change of benefit to or reindeer skulls.
winch proved to be a blessing for their traditional way of life. Clusters of sleds are scattered
the first sank into a deep bog within The reindeer was trussed and across some of these low slopes,
ten minutes. calmed and loaded onto the sled, packed with clothing and tent
We travelled to two chums which set off across the tundra covers for the winter and awaiting
pitched beside a small river, which while we followed behind. The lack the return of family groups from
we crossed by balancing delicately of rock, stones, or even river migration routes further to the Below: Nenets
on a small raft made of broken gravel in the landscape surprised north. Sprigs of wild rosemary are sledges loaded
slabs of polystyrene packing tied up us; moss and low vegetation grow tucked into the sled ropes to with winter
in a fishing net. Near to the tents, to a depth of 20 centimetres discourage lemmings from possessions
around fifty reindeer grazed and above the permafrost and the chewing at the skins. on the tundra
SH ISSUE 70 2010 35
The herds, hunting and all
matters outside on the tundra, are
in the care of the men. A woman
alone, a widow with no sons for
example, would struggle with the
life; polygamy is still practised
quietly among the older generation
for this reason.
The layout of the tent is formal
and closely adhered to in each home.
There are designated places for
water, wood, stove and provisions.
Guests sit to the left, younger people
to the right. Women sleep nearest to
the door and never cross the area
behind the stove. This taboo extends
outside the chum ; women do not
walk across the back of the chum,
even to a distance of a hundred
metres from the tent. They also must
not step over the poles used for
guiding sleds or the ropes used for
catching deer; otherwise these items
become unusable. The back of the
chum is sacred and formerly housed
carved totems, the spirits of the
Above: dogs at We arrived at Radik’s mother’s Eating while the animal is still home. During the Soviet era these
the site of chum towards the end of the day warm conserves energy and saves were no longer displayed although
Radik's herd and the ritual killing of the reindeer on cooking fuel. In winter this some of the older people still have
immediately took place. The animal process happens even more them, hidden away. The taboos are
was strangled, a slow but tenderly quickly so that the meal may be ancient and part of a fixed pattern of
enacted process that ensured no eaten before the meat freezes, customs and behaviour that makes
blood was spilled and wasted. although frozen raw reindeer leg is human survival possible at this harsh
Offerings and prayers were considered by our friend Oksana to edge of the world.
made to the dying deer. The body be a great delicacy. In fact to take
was immediately skinned, the a reindeer at this time in the year The wealth of the nomadic
Below: Tanya butchering was fast and within is rare; the autumn diet is usually women is measured in part by their
carrying a bag minutes the food was ready, a red raw fish, hare, duck and goose. tea cups. Tanya and her young
of reindeer soup of raw meat and organs and Nenets people love their herds daughter-in-law Vera each have a
legs across blood stirred within the cavity of and only kill when winter sits heavy low table with drawers, in which
the tundra the warm carcass. and all other food sources have their collection of china cups and
been eaten, but the arrival of saucers are carefully wiped and
visitors, including of course their stored between newspaper after
cherished singer, was a cause for every tea drinking session.
feasting. Men and guests ate first, Skins and furs, of course, are
women next, each person using a their most valuable possessions.
hunting knife to spear pieces of Pelts of reindeer, Arctic hare and
meat from the inside of the deer. white fox are rolled in bundles
Two of us stepped out of 30 around the edges of the chum,
years of vegetarianism to squat waiting to be sewn or traded. Young
beside the reindeer and join the or baby reindeer skins are used for
meal. We drank from a pan of children’s clothing, including hoods
warm blood and walked to nearby with the tiny ears sticking up on top.
willow scrub to tip blood as thanks Each woman owns a large reindeer
over the branches. The meat was skin pouch, beautifully decorated
shared out a long way; the next and hung with metal beads; this
day a bucket of guts and a sack of contains her personal items including
legs travelled with us as we sewing kit and pieces of coloured
walked back across the tundra, a felt for creating the trimmings on
gift for family in the settlement. coats and boots. Tanya said the
We all washed and entered nomadic woman have trouble
Tanya’s chum to share tea and sourcing good strong needles; the
whisky. In Nenets culture the chum is Russian needles that reach the
owned and maintained by the settlement snap too easily.
women. During the summer the tent
cover is made from dark canvas, Women collect and dry
then thickened with layers of reindeer sphagnum moss in sacks laid on
skins before the snow arrives. poles above the stove; it is used
SH
36 ISSUE 70 2010
for washing and wiping, for
padding baby cradles, for women’s
bleeding. During the autumn they
also collect a range of berries that
grow across the tundra, but this
year was not a good harvest.
The chum is laid with skin rugs
around the sides and wooden
boards across the middle where
most of the work takes place. A
waist-high narrow plank rests by
the open door, on which animal
skins are spread for scraping and
softening. The floor is swept with
a goose wing.
Tanya and Vera each care for
one half of the chum; in this way a
younger woman can start to
establish her own household. Young
Nenets people have carried some
aspects of modern existence into
this old way of life; at our home on
Dartmoor there is no mobile signal
yet far out on this northern edge
there is a phone, hanging from one
of the chum poles, that connects
the tundra to the world. suppressed by the authorities, is memory of the ancestral landscape. Above:
still acknowledged on the tundra. They travel extensively with their work and
On Vera’s side of the chum have played regularly at major festivals
Reindeer survive
there is also an old television set, including Glastonbury and WOMAD, as on the moss and
attached to a small generator In the late night, two curtained well as hosting Rivenstone, the sacred lichen found
tucked into the moss outside some partitions were unrolled from the world music festival on Dartmoor. the tundra.
www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk
distance from the tent, on which poles of the chum so that each side Without the
the family like to watch ninja DVDs of the tent was afforded privacy. Tatyana Lar is a singer from the Siberian reindeer there
dubbed into frenetic Russian. But The cloth was tucked under the Nenets tribe who lives on the Yamal would be no
Peninsula in the Russian Arctic. She was Nenets people
primarily these people experience floor skins to keep out dogs and born into a family of reindeer herders and
life at a level of basic survival in a draughts, and add to the warmth of has been singing since the age of four;
hard land and they wear their years humans curled close together under each evening on the tundra her family
carved deep into their bodies. thick reindeer coats. would encourage her to sing about
everything they had experienced so that
I woke to the sounds of Tanya the day was lived again in a song.
Our day together folded into the stirring, grumbling about stiff In 2007 she represented the Nenets
night. We shared much tea and many limbs, muttering over the fire. I people at the Forum of Indigenous People
toasts, strips of raw fish and boiled kept very still; in that moment, with at the United Nations in New York.
hare, and the pile of sweets and eyes shut tight, I knew I was Tatyana sings a blend of traditional songs
and original compositions in her native
biscuits brought from the settlement. balanced on the tip of one toe at Nenets language. Copies of her CD
We moved through slow the very edge of this northern ‘Seihead ngada syo’ (Songs from my heart)
translated exchanges to a place world, held up by an ancient song are available from Seventh Wave Music.
where it became less necessary to of land and reindeer and nomadic See a review of Tatyana’s CD in this issue
of Sacred Hoop.
understand each other’s words. journeys and the taste of the
Women from the neighbouring chum winter to come, and that once I Ruslan Alikulov is a freelance journalist
and photographer currently writing for the
arrived, drawn in by the laughter. We moved, I would already be walking magazine Severnyie Prostory. He lives in
all offered songs; Ruslan launched a homeward trail. both Moscow and Kazan, and has made a
into a long and tragic Russian ballad number of trips into the northern Arctic
regions. He has recorded a film of the
with eighty verses but eventually we Since writing this feature the journey shared by Carolyn, Nigel and Below:
all made him stop. author has heard that one of Tatyana Lar. Tatyana
During the exchange of gifts, Tanya's neighbours on the tundra Photos © Ruslan Alikulov and Nigel Shaw performing
Nigel’s reindeer bone flute caused has died, swept away by the river;
great interest. Nenets people do this article is dedicated to her and
not have a tradition of bone flutes her family.
but Radik immediately worked out
how it was made; during our trek Carolyn Hillyer and Nigel Shaw are
musicians and artists from Dartmoor in
the next day he could be heard southwest England. Their creative output
over the tundra, playing the ranges from nearly thirty music albums to
reindeer bone. Radik had a recent paintings, woodcarvings, traditional flute
back injury and talked of finding and drum making, art installations and a
programme of workshops at their farm.
someone to take away his bad They are moorland commoners and run a
spirit; the family agreed that they small herd of wild ponies on the hills.
had only ever seen one shaman The inspiration for their work comes from
but this tradition, long ago the raw beauty, deep spirit and ancient
SH ISSUE 70 2010 37

Edge of The World

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THIS IS A FREE ARTICLE FROM SACRED HOOP MAGAZINE.

Sacred Hoop is an independent magazine

The land is a flat and wide expanse

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