Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine’s Collaboration with the Shors Earns High Praise from the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East
In the Myskovsky Urban District’s village of Chuvashka, the association’s representatives met for a working meeting with local residents and members of Shoria, a regional public organization of the Shor people in Kemerovo Region. The participants discussed how well the rights of indigenous peoples are being observed, how to strengthen government support for their traditional economic activities, the association’s projects, and the role of business in solving urgent problems.
Shoria’s president, Nikita Shulbayev, described how the Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine has been effectively working with his organization and thanked the company for its many years of assistance and support. The company finances the construction of sports areas and children’s playgrounds, allocates funds for events celebrating traditional Shor holidays, and has been instrumental in a project that produces Shor language textbooks.
The guests were shown a Shor ethnic village that opened in May with the help of the Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine. The association’s representatives visited a hut with a wood-burning stove and a summer terrace, got acquainted with the life of the Shors. In the village’s workshops, they saw firsthand what Shor craftsmen traditionally did – forging metal, making talkan (coarse flour from roasted barley or wheat), and carving wood. In the spiritual center, local indigenous troupes performed for the guests and a shaman performed a ritual to ‘feed the spirits’: everyone threw delicious treats into a fire in turn so that prosperity would reign in the country and the world.
Grigory Ledkov, President of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East, also took part in the ceremony, noting that the unique ethnic village will attract not only the indigenous Shor people, but all the residents of the region. “I was here a few years ago, and there was only a yurt, two wolf statues, and a fenced area. Now, everything is built-up, beautiful, and cozy. There’s a place to walk, something to see! Of course, we all understand that none of this would have been possible without the collaboration of business. Therefore, I want to express my sincere gratitude to the Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine for its help in creating this village and its unflagging support of the Shor people”.
The event was also attended by the head of the Myskovsky Urban district, Yevgeny Timofeev, who commended the fruitful collaboration of the coal mining enterprise and the Shors: “We are proud that most of the Shors live in Myski. And, of course, we try to help them in every way possible. The Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine is in constant contact with this people and always responds to all their requests,” he said.
The Kiyzassky Open-Pit Mine has been providing continual assistance to the small Kuzbass ethnic group for several years now based on partnership agreements the company has signed with the Shoria association and Mountain Shoria Development, an urban charity fund.