Global Compact International Yearbook 2016

• oral traditions and expressions, including
language as a vehicle of the
intangible cultural heritage;
• performing arts;
• social practices, rituals, and festive
events;
• knowledge and practices concerning
nature and the universe;
• traditional craftsmanship.
The company’s language-support projects
first of all include the publication
of books, textbooks, and dictionaries in
indigenous languages. An example of
this is the series of publications in the
Uilta language. Until this century, the
Uilta language was a completely oral
language. With 295 Uilta people and
just several native speakers remaining,
it seemed that the Uilta language did not
have a chance and that the unique heritage
of these people will be irretrievably
lost. But the Uilta elder people, scientists,
linguists, and the company combined
their knowledge and resources and after
several years published The Orok-Russian /
Russian-Orok Dictionary, The Uilta ABC, and
The Uilta Language as Historic-Ethnographic
Source Dictionary. This is not an absolute
recovery, but it offers hope.
Sakhalin Energy provides funding for the
publication of folklore literature, such
as an unprecedented publication of The
Epic Book of Sakhalin Nivkhi, prepared by
a world-famous Nivkh writer, Vladimir
Sangi. The Epic Book is published in Nivkh
and Russian and is ranked among the
famous books The Kalevala and The Song
of Hiawatha.
In order to ensure the development of a
social-cultural environment for language
preservation, it is important to have
mass media in indigenous languages.
Sakhalin Energy provided support for
the newspaper The Nivkh Dif, which is
published in Nivkh and Russian.
There were several events supported by
the company that played a significant
role in the promotion of Sakhalin’s indigenous
languages. The key one was
the “First International Symposium in
the Languages of the Indigenous Peoples
of the Russian Far East,” which was arranged
in the town of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk,
Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. Next was the
“International Workshop Preservation
and Promotion of Cultural and Linguistic
Heritage of Sakhalin Nivkhi,” which
was held in the UNESCO Headquarters
in Paris.
When speaking about the preservation
of languages, it is equally important to
mention their development as any living
language, in comparison with the dead
ones, is a flexible mechanism and changes
influenced by society. The special project
targeted at the preservation and development
of Sakhalin’s indigenous languages
was implemented jointly by Sakhalin
Energy and the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia.
The project includes the translation of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples into the languages
of Sakhalin’s indigenous peoples. Each
declaration was published in a separate
booklet and in a joint brochure, including
as well brief information about the
peoples and a CD with recordings of the
texts read aloud by native speakers. According
to linguists’ expertise, such an
initiative gives a fresh impetus to language
development, as political vocabulary can
be new to indigenous languages and neologisms
are created. As Vladimir Sangi,
who translated both declarations into the
Nivkh language, says: “I needed to invent
the word ‘freedom’ in the Nivkh. Because
we never needed one before. The Nivkhi
had never known what ‘unfreedom’ was,
so ‘freedom’ was our natural state that did
not require a special name for it.”
Projects such as the translation of UN
declarations into indigenous languages
also increase the social prestige of the
minority languages. Another relevant
initiative was recently implemented when
the painstaking efforts of elderly people,
linguists, and the company’s employees resulted
in the illustrated corporate calendar
showing traditional culture and economic
activities of Sakhalin’s indigenous peoples,
with months’ names in their languages
and explanations provided in Russian. It
should be noted that months’ names in
languages of the indigenous peoples are
semantically related to peoples’ traditional
cultures or the natural and climate characteristics
of the territories. Along with
the Russian national holidays, the dates
important for indigenous peoples were
also highlighted: August 9 as the International
Day of the World’s Indigenous
Peoples, February 21 as International
Mother Language Day, March 30 - 31 as the
date for the establishment of the Russian
Association of Indigenous Peoples of the
North, Siberia, and Far East, etc. What is
important to mention is that this calendar
was extremely popular among both indigenous
and non-indigenous stakeholders
and won first prize in the All-Russian
Contest of Corporate Calendars 2016.
The work on language preservation is
continuing. It cannot stop until all the
languages are no longer endangered
– unfortunately, this is a hope for the
remote future.
Global Compact International Yearbook 2016 95