2000s: “Protecting” THEN
Dukha Meet with Mongolian Government: Totem Peoples’ Preservation Project
A delegation of six Dukha (Tuvan) reindeer herders met in June 2003 with Mongolian government officials in Ulan Bator to speak about their culture and the challenges their people faced for survival. It was the first time a group of Dukha had ever met with the Mongolian government. The delegation’s meetings with leaders and representatives of the Mongolian government, parliament, and ministries of environment, education, and social affairs were covered in Mongolia’s national press. The trip was supported by the Totem Peoples’ Preservation Project, a Cultural Survival Special Project. In March 2005, Cultural Survival sponsored a Dukha delegation to participate in the International Reindeer Herders Congress in Yakutia, Russia, to exchange information and increase cooperation on initiatives that affect their livelihoods.
Read more
"What you have done, no one else has ever accomplished in the history of Mongolia. Never before has an outside non-government organization been permitted to lead representative meetings of an ethnic minority before our government. Not even such organizations within our own country. The Dukha delegation effort spearheaded by the Totem Project over these past two years has today opened the door for all 16 of Mongolia’s ethnic minorities.” -Radnaa Yenchev, Mongolian government affairs coordinator for Taiga Nature |
|
