"make a pair of kamus skis, a sledge, a lasso and a rifle ready for your son"

nenets proverb

By 默默富酷

April 6^th, 2019

the story of igor

in mid march this year, for a little more than 48 hours , igor was my host, a fellow chum-mate and pretty much the subject of my curiosity. he was what i studied during the punctuated periods when the cryogenic cold and severe toothache did not mess with my brain.

igor is a nenets (i'm not sure if there is a singular term nenet but the singular pronunciation sounded too similar to boobies where i come from). he is one of the 5 individuals that hosted me and several others on a rather short journey to the arctic permafrost. the others were stefan (brother in law), sveltlana (sister), anastasia (mother) and alexander (younger brother).

about the nenets

this photo epitomized what the nenets are about: the cold northern siberia, the yelping laika dogs and a social contract between the nenets people and the reindeer that was forged centuries ago.

"make a pair of kamus skis, a sledge, a lasso and a rifle ready for your son"

the word nenets is derived from the term "human being". the nenets is an ethnic group of nomadic reindeer herders that live in north siberia and speak a language related to finnish. while largely modernized, they still follow their traditional customs of dressing in reindeer skins, eating raw fish, drinking reindeer blood and reside in tepee like tents called chums (made from reindeer hide and skin to withstand temperatures -50C).

unlike me, they do not practice throat singing in the morning and tap dancing in the evening.

while traditionally they have shamanistic and animistic beliefs, many of the nenets have converted to christianity (thank God). their social contract with the reindeers is still pivotal in this community: the reindeers will provide fur and food to the nenets, and in return, the nenets will offer their companionship and protection.

this "i will protect you by eating you" concept is a romantic yet abusive complicated relationship. it is like the black widow of the spider world.

the nenets will migrate up to 800 miles a year with the herd, from the yamal peninsula to the arctic coast and ending at the kara sea during summer. the journey spans across lands that is cornerstone of russia's energy strategy - natural gas. the expansion plans of exploiting the gas reserves is threatening the nenets' way of life and reindeers. some other threats the nenets face during the migration are predators - bears (both polar and brown), wolverines, wolves and more recently pesky visitors like me.

back to igor

this is igor. i don't know his last name nor his twitter handle. this is the first photo i made of him when he, alex and stefan came in their snow mobiles to greet us where our trekols ended the 6 hours ride from salekhard. i had little impression of igor during the first day because he wasn't the alpha-male of the crew. his brother-in-law stefan was. but i got to interact more with igor as i was assigned to his chum.

first impressions

the first time i started to observe igor was during the first dinner. we had vodka. presumably all 6 bottles of them in one seating. igor started to ask questions to the guide about us. besides asking about where we came from and what our ages were (thank goodness he did not question my gender), he mumbled many other questions which were not heard or ignored as he slurred, an assumption because of the sheer number of shots we were taking in between bites of reindeer chunks.

i suppose igor is around 30ish, his younger brother alex is 22 and his mum 50ish. he is unmarried, though i am certain he can afford the 40 reindeer dowry. speed dating isn't a thing at the tundra region yet - the nearest available female was nowhere near and there isn't a mall to go watch them ladies. his favourite food is probably condensed milk, seeing how he downs spoonfuls like they were fish oil. i don't know what hobbies he has but i can safely say sewing isn't one of them.

the next morning

igor is totally smashed from the vodka from the night before, presumably. he was last to be awake and was in various state of sub-consciousness throughout the morning. he continued to stammer at times and alternate betweeen hyperactive and sluggish.

despite being barely sober, he played a generous host to me (as well as to others but they were less receptive to his attempts). a majority of the crew left the chum site to see musk ox - i did not go because it wasn't a watch, hunt and eat sequence. well... mainly the eat was missing.

igor tried his best to entertain me with the following (allegedly with still alcohol in both our bloodstreams)

preparing the snowmobile for an epic roadtrip - we were quickly stopped by anastasia, his mum. it was like high school all over again. i was really looking forward to where he might have brought me and the trouble we would both get into.
asking me to make portrait of him - he was very specific. just him, not even his dogs. he chased those dogs away, who tried to be in the shot. he swung one and kicked another. it wasn't that brutal, really. girls do that all the time to each other during photo-shoots too.
he wanted to show me the finer art form of wood chopping. i was prepared to lose a finger to the frost bite but not through wood chopping, so i declined to his dismay. i told him i was more into rap music and woodwork wasn't my thing.
he insisted i shoot vodka bottles with his shotgun with an antique russian-made gun that looked more likely to backfire. i was thrilled really but he wasn't much a teacher. his clumsy assembly of the gun didn't give me much confidence either. in the end, we managed to smash up some vodka bottles.
he taught me how me how to lasso. to catch imaginary reindeer. maybe he did see some reindeers. i gotta smoke whatever he is inhaling.
he wanted me to pull a sleigh. i am not sure why. maybe it is part of their morning high intensity interval training (hiit) regime. i can't be sure. i didn't see any kettle bells around.
he showed me how to pee (elegantly) in the snow. not that i needed any training for that.
for his final attempt, he wanted to show me how to build a chum. i think he wanted me to stay, i told him i needed more time to think about a commitment. that is when anastasia came out for some frozen fish and my quick induction to becoming a nenets ended.

it was a good morning for me. i wanted to teach him throat-singing and tap-dancing but we were out of time for any cultural exchange.

after spending over 2 hours with me, igor pointed to his head repeatedly (gesturing he had a headache or i was too mental for his liking), we headed back to the chum, he asked his mother for some food and went straight back to bed. and i had a very memorable 2 hours. not many photos but plenty of memories.

igor & onions

igor was always hungry. and anastasia was always preparing food for igor. i can tell she really loves both her children, probably a little more towards igor. towards the end of our stay, anastasia also showed affection for a new-found son, b - he had a bowl of reindeer stew all to himself and the other men had to show a communal bowl. and b gets to sit on what looked like mama's special box.

igor seemed to love onions a lot. each meal he consumed one entire raw onion. i guess he ain't doing much kissing around the 66° parallel.

igor & a possible career in modelling

here are some photos of igor being staged by the guide: igor repairing a sleigh and igor reading a historical paper replica. i think he was staring at the centerfold girlie photo.

my favourite photo

this is perhaps my favourite photo of him. perhaps he can use this as his tinder profile photo if network improves over there. this is pretty much captured igor in his zone - in deep contemplation about life or just thinking about the options for lunch - broiled reindeer or raw fish.

scratch that, this is my fav photo

a triptych of igor during the portrait shoot after unsuccessfully chasing all the dogs away.

the final goodbye

this was the last photo i took at the chums. notice how everyone was waving as we departed. and notice igor - i am not sure if he was sad or if he was still recovering from those vodka shots. either way, thank you igor, my friend. you made this journey special.

and i do hope that you could one day prepare a kamus ski, a lasso, a sleigh and a gun ready for your son. till then, stay strange.

igor & family

first published on my facebook

members of chum 2

igor, 30ish, with his weapon of choice and ghost. favourite food: onion
alex, 22, igor's younger brother. favourite band: coldplay
anastasia, 55, igor's mum. favourite drink: sweet black tea

members of chum 1

sveltana, age unknown, igor's sister. best dish: reindeer biryani.
stefan, 38, igor's brother-in-law. alpha-male of the pack. favourite time of the day: lunch