MARCO MARCONE

Contest: Landscape in the Arctic
Note: Nenets herders have always moved seasonally with their reindeer, travelling along ancient migration routes. During the winter, when temperatures can plummet to – 50 °C, most Nenets graze their reindeer on moss and lichen pastures in the southern forests, or taigá. In the summer months, when the midnight sun turns night into day, they leave the larch and willow trees behind to migrate north. By the time they have crossed the frozen waters of the Ob River and reached the treeless tundra on the shores of the Kara Sea, they might have travelled up to 1,000 km. Today, however, the Nenets’ migration routes are now affected by the infrastructure associated with resource extraction; roads are difficult for the reindeer to cross and they say pollution threatens the quality of the pastures. They are afraid that with all these new industries, they will not be able to migrate anymore. And if they cannot migrate anymore, people may just disappear altogether. For the Nenets who are still nomadic, their lands and reindeer herds remain vitally important to their collective identity. Land is everything to them. Everything. The reindeer is their home, their food, their warmth and their transportation, Nenets’ coats are made from reindeer hide, and threaded together with reindeer sinew. Lassoos are crafted from reindeer tendons; tools and sledge parts from bone. The covers of the conical-shaped tents – called choom or mya, – are also made from reindeer hide and mounted on heavy poles. Every Nenets has a sacred reindeer, which must not be harnessed or slaughtered until it is no longer able to walk.
Locate: YAMAL PENINSULA
City: SALECHARD

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