“Hromadskyi Prostir”, 26.07.2024
In the middle of summer, from July 19 to 21, 2024, Bohuslav city, Kyiv region, hosted a “Round-table & Networking: Ethnography. Ethnology. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)” event. Organized by NGO “Around Us. UA,” under the umbrella of the ‘Clothing and Tradition. Boguslavshchyna’ project, it gathered around 80 participants from across Ukraine. With a scientific and practical nature, this event brought a constructive dialogue between leading experts in ethnology, ethnography, intangible cultural heritage, and museology with people who are passionate about Ukrainian culture and interested in preserving and revitalising Ukrainian traditions. The meeting was held in the format of a roundtable discussion, networking, master classes in traditional singing, dancing and folk crafts, informal communication, presentations of professional publications, etc.
On the first day, the speakers of the roundtable ‘Ethnography, Ethnology, Museum Studies, ICH: Actualities and Challenges, Search for Common Solutions’ noted:
‘Culture, including traditional culture, is the main identifier and contributor to the unity of society’
Petro Honchar, Director General of the Ivan Honchar Museum
‘Tradition is a fire that burns, but you have to be vigilant so that it does not go out’
Volodymyr Shchybria, Director of the Centre for Folklore and Ethnography at the Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, PhD Candidate in History)
‘The only instrument of self-defence is culture, in particular, folk culture’
Myroslava Vertiuk, Deputy Director General of the Ivan Honchar Museum, founder of the Oreli youth folklore school
‘Today’s experts must do everything possible to bring Ukrainians back to the tradition that will become their present, their everyday life.’
Inna Kuklina, academic secretary of the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine
Volodymyr Shchybria shared his experience of the expeditions to Bohuslavshchyna that ran in May-June this year as part of the project ‘Clothing and Tradition. Bohuslavshchyna’ project. The researcher noted that as of 2024, it is getting more and more difficult to research, as there are fewer and fewer respondents who are bearers of traditions, so it is crucial to collect everything bit by bit in order to preserve this knowledge and skills and pass them on to future generations.
In addition, our speakers raised a number of important issues. In particular, the issue of training highly qualified specialists in ethnology, folklore, museum studies, cultural anthropology in higher education institutions, the problem of kitsch, the use of elements of traditional culture in everyday life, the involvement of children and young people in traditional culture, etc.
The second day was no less intense than the first. The participants discussed how public activists, local historians, and concerned people can cooperate with specialised institutions and experts in intangible cultural heritage. With the help of Valentyna Demian, Head of the Expert Council on Intangible Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, our guests drew up a roadmap for including items in the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, learned what difficulties they might face in such procedures, discussed how to communicate with communities, how to overcome bureaucratic procedures, etc.
Liudmyla Klymuk, Oksana and Oleh Mityukhin, co-founders of the Open Chest platform, stressed the importance of digitising museum and private collections for their preservation, promotion and research. Ethnologist Andriy Paslavskyi emphasised the revitalisation of culture, sharing his experience in reconstructing traditional Ukrainian jewellery and promoting traditional Ukrainian dances among young people in Kyiv.
Marharyta Skazhenyk, an ethnomusicologist and PhD Candidate in Art History, spoke about whether it was possible to record folklore during expeditions to the villages of Bohuslavshchyna in 2024. Together with the Volodar band, of which she is the head, she reconstructed the Kupala holiday and introduced our participants to traditional singing.
In the evening, all the participants went to the Ivana Kupala ethnic event in the village of Khokhytva in Bohuslavshchyna. Traditional Bohuslav cuisine, dancing, singing, master classes, swings, ethnic locations, photo area, bonfires – everyone chose something for their heart and soul, and saw that traditional culture is entertaining and exciting. And to keep it alive, it needs to be constantly practised.
The speeches on the third day definitely left no one indifferent. Members of the NGO ‘Baba Yelka’ and cultural blogger Sofia Bezverkha (krapka.krapka) spoke about their way of overcoming inferiority complexes imposed by society, the importance of traditions, their preservation and reproduction, and their popularisation on social media. It is gratifying that young people today are increasingly interested in authentic culture. The participants of the ‘Baba Yelka’ project shared with the audience life hacks on how to communicate with respondents, how to conduct interviews, and how to make elderly ladies open up for a sincere conversation.
Finally, the guests had a tour of Bohuslav. We are convinced that they discovered plenty of new and interesting things because Bohuslav has a long and interesting history.
Let’s not forget that the war with russia is not just about Ukrainian territories. It is a war for culture. For the right to be free people on our God-given land!
Round-table & Networking event: ‘Ethnography. Ethnology. ICH’ was supported by the Partnership for a Strong Ukraine, funded by the governments of Canada, Estonia, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
