A digital map service will be launched on the platform of the Interactive Atlas of the Indigenous Minorities and the Far East of the Russian Federation, and its content will be translated into English in 2023. The results of the AYANA project will be used for other languages and regions, and the SNOWORD 2.0 project will become a full-fledged career guide for the youth of the Russian North, Siberia and the Far East.
The strategic session "Preservation of languages and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East using digital technologies" was organized jointly by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, RSUH and the Association of Indigenous Minorities and the Far East of the Russian Federation. It was held December 3-7.
Its participants were the winners of the Memory of Victory creative contest, which had taken place in the summer and spring of 2022, becoming the first recipients of scholarships from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science for indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.
The session held award ceremonies for the winners of the “Memory of Victory” competition, as well as conferences to discuss the possibilities of digital technologies for preserving the languages and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples, interactive and cultural and educational events, master classes on information security. The Association also held a series of evening educational trainings for the participants of the session.
During the interactive and educational part of the program, the participants of the session saw the sights of Moscow during a sightseeing tour, participated in a quest at the 3DaVinchi Museum-Laboratory of RSUH, and presented creative performances designed to reflect the richness and beauty of the culture of the small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.
The main part of the session was devoted to the presentation and discussion of digital projects created to preserve the culture and languages of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East.
Interactive Atlas of Indigenous Peoples: Languages and Cultures
At present, the Interactive Atlas contains information about 20 indigenous peoples, their languages, history and culture, social and family life, economic situation and natural environment in the regions of residence. Until the end of 2022, information about another 10 peoples will be posted. In 2023, the Interactive Atlas will also be supplemented with materials on 10 indigenous peoples. In the near future, a service will be launched on the Interactive Atlas platform that will make it possible to create digital maps without programming.
But the main thing of the Atlas that Vice-Rector Pavlenko spoke about was that the Atlas is reaching a new level and acquiring a completely different scale. More and more representatives of indigenous minorities are being involved in the work on the content of the Interactive Atlas.
Integration with other digital platforms, in particular, with the SibFU online platform SNOWORD, is being carried out. Being included are also carious cultural, educational, educational activities for researchers studying culture, history, languages of indigenous peoples of the North and the Far East of the Russian Federation.
In October 2022, classes were held at the School of Applied Big Data Analysis for SIM researchers. You can get acquainted with the work of the School, video recordings of lectures and the best projects of its students on the website of the Interactive Atlas.
IT RAIPON team projects
A team of young IT specialists of the Association of Indigenous Minorities and the Far East of the Russian Federation, united under the name IT RAIPON, implements a number of multimedia interactive projects based on one general principle: the members present ideas, choose the means of expressing them and work on these projects from the first to the last stage. One of the brightest examples of this work, which Dr. Nina Veysalova, Vice-President of the Association of the Indigenous Minorities and Far East of the Russian Federation, member of the Steering Committee of the UNESCO Global Task Force for the Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages, spoke about at the strategy session, is the digitization of the lyrics of the song "Victory Day", which was translated into the native languages of the Russian indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East. The IT RAIPON team not only digitizes texts, but also records music and creates karaoke videos so that young representatives of each nation can sing one of the most significant songs for Russians in their native languages.
AYANA
The innovative AYANA project is a universal robotic translator from Russian into Evenki. Instant voice translation into Evenki is carried out automatically. The author of the idea, Dr. Nikolay Aprosimov, Head of AYANA, a participant in the project “IT Opportunities for Preserving the Languages and Culture of the Indigenous Minorities”, emphasized in his speech at the strategic session, that such projects allowed overcoming any borders as they provided representatives of indigenous peoples living remote places access to their own heritage, facilitate the work of scientists around the world, and involve indigenous youth in the preservation and promotion of their languages and cultures.
Educational platform SNOWORD
SNOWORD, the project of the Siberian Federal University is an educational platform, the uniqueness of which lies in the balance between the use of modern technologies of distance education and live communication between students, teachers and curators.
The platform was launched in 2021 and is aimed at providing access to education for representatives of all indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, taking into account cultural, territorial, linguistic features.
Currently, 6 educational programs and 16 online courses are being implemented on the SNOWORD platform, not only for the young people who are just choosing a major, but also for the adults who would like to develop new professional competencies. Educational materials are adapted for various digital devices.
Dr. Kirill Zakharyin, Head of the IT Department at the Siberian Federal University, spoke about the possibilities of SNOWORD to integrate materials from other digital platforms. He also announced the launch of the SNOWORD 2.0 project, which will become a comprehensive career navigator and knowledge center for representatives of indigenous peoples. Its content will be formed in accordance with the demands that exist directly in the regions where the indigenous peoples of Russia dwell.
Repository of digital resources in the languages of the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
The repository of digital resources was described by Dr. Spartak Lekhanov, Leading Specialist of the Vocabulary Department of the Federal Institute of Native Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation. It is a large-scale archive of digitized scientific, educational and methodological materials in the languages of indigenous peoples.
The common goal is preserving the languages and cultural heritage of the peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East, yet one important point can be singled out: such projects are all implemented on the principles of partnership, exchange of experience, mutual enrichment of knowledge and effective practices of those who work on implementation of projects and those for whom these projects are designed. It is possible that in the future these projects and many others that have yet to appear will unite into a single interactive network.
The session is part of the project "Interactive Atlas of Indigenous Peoples: Languages and Cultures", which is implemented jointly by RSUH and the Association of Indigenous Minorities and the Far East of the Russian Federation with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science and the Federal Agency for Nationalities of Russia. More information here https://atlaskmns.ru/.
