The Nomadic Peoples Project January 2009, Documentaries Series at Rubin Museum of Art

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART and Media That Matters present

Lunch Matters: THE NOMADIC PEOPLES PROJECT
Wednesdays at 1 p.m.
$10 / Free to RMA members
(Tickets include a post-program tour of the galleries)

The Nomadic Peoples Project brings attention to the rich cultural history and challenging modern-day realities for nomadic communities in today's era of global industrialization, denuded natural resources and the marginalization of nomadic traditions.

January 7th, 2009
JUNGLE NOMADS OF THE HIMALAYAS


For centuries the Raji nomads of the Himalayan foothills have collected wild bee honey. Climbing the incredibly tall trees of the Terai jungle, they risk their lives to harvest this honey, made by the world's largest migrating bees.



January 14th, 2009
- RIDING THE RAILS


At the height of the Great Depression more than a quarter of a million teenagers lived on the road in America, many crossing the country by illegally hopping freight trains. This award-winning documentary follows the stories of ten teenage hobos while echoing the lives of today's migrant laborers, who continue this tradition of a nomadic lifestyle.
Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Michael Uys & Lexy Lovell


January 21st, 2009


Mongolia: Land Without Fences
More than half of Mongolia's two and a half million people live as nomads. Withstanding an already harsh landscape, the lives of these nomadic peoples have become even more difficult thanks to catastrophic winters, which have killed off large numbers of livestock in the country.

Post-screening Q&A with Casey Beck



Afghan Nomads: The Maldar
From the foothills of the Hindu Kush the nomadic Maldar people reflect a centuries-old mixture of faith and distrust that has kept them - and nomads around the world - both separated from and dependent on settled peoples.




‘Uncontacted Tribes’ by Survival International. This documentary conveys the urgency of the threats to nomadic hunter gathering peoples in two hemispheres. We witness the struggles of the Sentinelese known as one of the most isolated of the world’s tribes, the Andaman Islanders, the last of the Akuntsu people of Brazil and Indian tribes of Eastern Peru.



January 28th, 2009


- A NOMAD'S LIFE from the eighth annual MTM Festival
Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Lynne True & Nelson Walker
In Tibet's Kham region a young family questions whether their nomadic traditions can survive against the challenges of a rapidly modernizing world.




“Pahdopony: See How Deep the Water Is” by Hotke Productions. Comanche woman artist Pahdopony introduces us to the life of her Comanche ancestors through her art and words. The Comanche Nation’s legendary history as one of the great nomadic peoples of North America is brought to life as Pahdopony’s art speaks to the great past and present of her people’s lives.

Directed by Annette Arkeketa




‘Uncontacted Tribes’ by Survival International. This documentary conveys the urgency of the threats to nomadic hunter gathering peoples in two hemispheres. We witness the struggles of the Sentinelese known as one of the most isolated of the world’s tribes, the Andaman Islanders, the last of the Akuntsu people of Brazil and Indian tribes of Eastern Peru.
Produced by Survival International.




“Nomads” by photographer Cat Vinton takes us on an enchanting journey into the world of nomadic people in Mongolia and Inner Finmark in Norway. Cat Vinton’s breathtakingly beautiful photographs fling the viewers into the distant reaches of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert and Norway’s big sky country, where fantasy shares an interlude with the timeless beauty of a stark nomadic existence in sub-artic cold.

Created by Cat Vinton, Edited by Ed Katzler



EAT WHILE YOU WATCH:

Visitors are encouraged to bring their lunch and drinks from the Cafe @ RMA down to the theater to enjoy during Lunch Matters. The Cafe @ RMA offers a wide range of seasonal food and beverage items inspired by the regions and flavors of the Himalayas. Sample new menu items include spicy potato and cheese samosas, tandoori masala vegetable sandwiches in fresh onion naan, as well as beverages such as chai, homemade lassis, and select specialty regional teas.

PROGRAM TICKET INCLUDES ADMISSION TO:
The Last Nomads: The Wuzhu Muqin are the last remaining nomadic tribe in China, and have become Mongolian photographer A Yin's source of inspiration. Yin has become his people's advocate, exposing to the rest of the world the ancient lifestyle they maintain in the face of rapid modernization. Comprised of images captured over ten years, The Last Nomads: Photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin offers a striking visual account of daily life in the Inner Mongolian highlands: from the labors of migration to the intimacies of kinship. A Yin is a 2007 recipient of the All Roads Film and Photography Program award, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART
150 WEST 17TH STREET, NEW YORK CITY 212.620.5000 x344 www.rmanyc.org

Nomadic Peoples Art

Altaic Nomadic Finial Sculpture in Bronze of Mountain Ibex, 6th Century B.C., 18.8cm, Hermitage.

This extraordinarily beautiful bronze sculptre finial expelifies the aesthetic ideals of Mongolian/Siberian Altaic culture. Animal motifs figure prominently in the arts of the Altaic nomads societies.

Rubin Museum of Art - Nomadic Peoples Project - November 2008 "Nomadics" at RMA Events

"Mongol Nomad Home" by Ts. Tsegmed


The Last Nomads: Photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin opens

Date: Friday, October 31, 2008

A Yin is a 2007 recipient of the All Roads Film and Photography Program award, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Exhibition runs through March 2, 2009.

The Wuzhu Muqin are the last remaining nomadic tribe in China, and have become Mongolian photographer A Yin’s source of inspiration. Yin has become his people’s advocate, exposing to the rest of the world the ancient lifestyle they maintain amidst rapid modernization. Comprised of images captured over ten years, The Last Nomads: Photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin displays a striking visual account of daily life in the Inner Mongolian highlands, from the labors of migration to the intimacies of kinship. A Yin’s photographs demonstrate both his innate artistic talent and his sensitivity in documenting and displaying the inner world of his tribe.

For details on this weekend of films and talks celebrating the opening of The Last Nomads, an exhibition of photographs from Inner Mongolia by A Yin, see www.rmanyc.org/nomads.


Film & Discussion: A Man Called Nomad with discussion by Professors M. Nazif Shahrani and Thomas J. Barfield; $15

Date: Saturday, November 1, 2008
Start Time: 3:00 pm End Time: 5:00 pm

Location: Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, New York, N.Y.

"A Man Called Nomad"
by Alex Gabbay, China/Nepal/UK 2003(38 minutes)

The story of a man trying to adjust to the shifting realities of the modern world while retaining a sense of place. Looking into the life of 30-year old Choegatar, father and provider, we get a glance into a world where the temptations of the city interfere with natural life.

Followed By:

"Is There Room For Nomads?"

A discussion with anthropologists M. Nazif Shahrani and Thomas J. Barfield.

Professor M. Nazif Shahrani has conducted extensive ethnographic field research in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey, and since 1992 has carried out research work in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Professor Shahrani is author of "The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan", and co-producer of the documentary the "The Kirgiz of the Wakhan."

Professor Thomas J. Barfield has conducted extensive fieldwork among nomads in northern Afghanistan as well as having carried out research on the Kazaks in Xinjiang, China, and Uzbekistan. Professor Barfield's published work includes The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition; The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China ; The Nomadic Alternative.

The Nomadics weekend is presented in association with the National Geographic Society and The Nomadic Peoples Project.

Nomadic Peoples Project

Scythian Nomad with Wife, 6th century B.C. Gold, length 16.2 cm, Siberian collection, Peter I. Hermitage.

The programs of the Nomadic Peoples Project are designed to bring attention to and build awareness about the history and culture of nomadic peoples and their way of life in the world today. Nomads the world over are living a precarious existence predicated on a delicate balance between their struggles with sedentary peoples over land, water resources, access to pasture, migration routes and longstanding cultural conflicts.

Nomadic societies have figured large in the history of the world from earliest times when the Huns and the Scythians rode out to conquer and rule large dominions, and the Mongols built the largest empire ever known. The interactions of nomadic peoples with sedentary populations has from time immemorial been infused with intensely charged dynamics that frequently led to conflict between these societies. Contemporary nomadic communities have inherited many of the challenges of their ancestors with the added complexities of large-scale industrialization, increased sedentary populations usurping pasture-lands, loss of traditional migration routes, and global warming leading to drought and desertification.

Despite the threats faced by many nomadic peoples in the world today, nomadic civilization has survived countless threats and is still the way of life for millions of people living out this most ancient of lifestyles. The Nomadic Peoples Project is dedicated to bringing attention to the living culture and circumstances of nomadic communities in todays globally industrialized environment.