The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) expedition “Clean Arctic - Vostok-77” may create the world’s first methodology for determining the opinions of small indigenous peoples taking into account their mentality and culture, which will be independent of corporate influence.
“We see that in a number of countries there is even unrest among indigenous peoples who are dissatisfied with their own leaders, who do not express their opinions, but collude with corporations. To avoid similar situations in our country, there must be a scientific basis,” TASS quotes the acting head of the expedition, Dmitry Belov, as saying.
For these purposes, the expedition is creating a list of permanent research participants from representatives of 18 indigenous peoples. In one instance, researchers will try to find out how those representatives feel about the very idea of preserving and maintaining their indigenous languages, and what they expect to be done for their preservation.
“In order for us to know what, for example, representatives of the Sami people in the Murmansk region want, we must first interview a certain number of Sami in compliance with the gender and age breakdown,” Belov concluded.
Theodor Lisovoy, Editor in Chief of the European bureau, Rough&Polished
