Museum and tourism activities in spreading the Nanai traditional beliefs

Abstract

In the Khabarovsk Region (Russia), museums and tourist activities are supposed to safeguard traditions in favour of Nanai and other Indigenous communities. However, paradoxically, the employees of museums and travel agencies diverge from the local Nanai communities both in their business interests and in their interpretation of the nature of the traditions preserved. Without worrying about introducing some bold creative innovations and overcoming the boundaries of traditions and ethnicity, they actually strive to “safeguard the Nanai traditions” not for the Nanai and without the Nanai.However, the new format of museum and tourist activities, which involves the use of participatory methods, has recently begun to form a new innovative reality that could probably suit both opposing sides. Previously, most of the Nanai population were prejudiced against museums and tourism and wary of the risks associated with storing and publicly showing some traditional praxis and objects (especially sacred ones). Currently, however, museums and touristic organisations have started to support innovative ways of continuation of Nanai spiritual practices, bringing them, on the one hand, beyond the ethnic borders and turning museums and tourist sites into places of worship whatever their ethnicity. On the other hand, these institutions contributed to the revival of Nanai spirituality within Nanai communities, giving them a new shape in the communicative space of intercultural dialogue constituted by museums.