Updated on
Summary
Each Summer, indigenous people scattered over one of Russia's harshest regions travel to a beach outside Magadan city to do what their ancestors have done for generations: find partners; catch up with distant relatives; and count the dead among the tribes. The Bakyldydyak festival, held in the largest settlement of Russia's far northeast, brings together hundreds of people of the Even, Chukchi and Eskimo tribes who are otherwise scattered over the Magadan region, which is nine time zones east of Moscow. As they celebrate a tradition of their reindeer herder ancestors, they also lament how terrible living conditions have become for them in present-day Russia. Alexandra Kalkachan, a teacher of the Even language, said, We northern women lived in poverty in the past and today we still do. An educated person can maybe find a job in the city, but in the villages it is impossible, there is nothing there and schools are being closed
