"Sakha Open World" Web Project

Cultural and informational opportunities it can provide

Nowadays, many people from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) live in different countries around the world. They find themselves in new environments that are different in many aspects, and must overcome cultural and linguistic challenges.  Nevertheless, Yakutians abroad strive to preserve their culture and traditions, and pass them on to the next generation.

 Three years ago a group of enthusiasts from Sakha-Yakutia started the web project "Sakha Diaspora" with the goal of providing support to Yakutians who live outside their native land. Today, the project has outgrown the initial plans, and the name has been changed to "Sakha Open World".  Currently the project includes sites in Sakha and Russian. Yakutians who live in 21 countries regularly visit the web sites and make use of the resources found there. The project received an important and well needed boost when it received the "Yakutians Abroad" award from the Ministry of External Relations of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in 2004. Hosting of the mirror of the electronic version of the magazine "Ilin" ("East") has become another significant step in the further development of the project. The magazine writes extensively on such topics as history, geography, and cultural studies.

 The Russian language site, "Sakha Diaspora", was designed by Ron and Galina Williams who live in Athens, Ohio. Visitors of this site can find electronic addresses of Yakutians who live in different countries and want to find new friends. Visitors can also participate in web discussions, share their opinions, talk about countries they live in, etc. Recently, a number of interesting articles written by Marina Yakovleva (USA), Aitalina and Mads Fegteborg (Denmark), Zoya Alekseeva (USA), Svetlana Kobyakova (Yakutia), Nadezhda Semenova (Russia), and Olga Basharina (USA) have been published on this web site.

 "Sakha Open World" wants to help people from the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) to adapt to their new environment quicker and easier. Marina Yakovleva is a host of the column "Consultations" where she shares useful and practical information and gives advice on everyday problems and issues. The column "Cooking Together" by Sargilana Kyraha publishes recipes of the Sakha cuisine and other world ethnic cuisines. The column "the Playground" discusses such issues as, for example, the problems parents may encounter while raising their children in a foreign environment.

 The site "Orto Doidu" ("The Middle Earth") is a project done by Mikhail Kyraha (USA), Katerina Potapova, a linguist from Germany, and Yakov Alexandrov, an audio-video engineer of Sakha Television. The website is interactive, and its visitors can have their materials in the Sakha language published on the site.  They can also make audio and video files, photographs, and books available for others to see. The first significant achievement of the "Orto Doidu" team is a creation of professional terminology used to translate software products to Sakha language. In addition, "Orto Doidu" will help those who want to learn Sakha but do not have an opportunity to practice Sakha with native speakers.

 The next goal of the "Sakha Open World" project is the creation of an English version of the site that would provide better opportunities for an inter-cultural dialog.

 Sakha people who live in other countries want to maintain close relationship with Sakha-Yakutia. They also want to give back in some way to their motherland. "Sakha Open World" could become a link between the Sakha Republic and foreign cultural, ecological, and educational organizations. This project could promote new initiatives and help to bring them to life; for example, it could provide organizational and informational support to festivals and art exhibitions. It would be interesting to show foreign audiences documentaries about Yakutia, its nature, culture, and traditions, or to help our artists to showcase their work.

 The main goal of this web project is to contribute to the dialog of cultures, establish informational contacts and disseminate knowledge about Sakha-Yakutia to the rest of the world.

Vera Solovyeva, Zhargal Solovyev

 Translation from Russian by Galina Williams