Winter Came Again And Again

For many Yakut people in Siberia, winter was a time of involuntary confinement.

Summer would bring a frenzy of activity to prepare.

These intense cycles and resistance against Soviet settlement brought them a strong collective identity.

The Yakut of Djarkhan village found unity through three cultural springs:

• A folk epic depicting the cosmological struggle between the known and unknown, played out in a tree of life.

• Shamanism as mediation between the known and unknown.

• The Olonkho folk epic as moral compass.

Every group needs an epic story to thrive.