Kelundzyuga, Valentina Tunsyanovna

Valentina Tunsyanovna was born on January 9, 1936 in the Chuken clan camp , located between two large choral tributaries of Chuken and Sukpai, in the family of Udege hunters of the Kimonko clan: the famous hunter Tunsyan Chengesovich ^[2] and his wife, the Udege craftswoman and the equally successful hunter Yapcha . In addition to Vali, the family had three more children - brothers Stepan, Kuku and sister Sophia. Children spent a lot of time with their parents in the taiga in the fishery.

“We lived in the Udege dwellings of kava made of tree bark ... like all children, in the taiga I was attracted to work from an early age. From the age of five or six, I went with my parents to fish, helped my mother process fish skin and pachyderm skin, and then sew clothes and shoes ”, recalls her childhood, Valentina Tunsyanovna. Already at four years old, little Valya knew how to throw firewood into the furnace and was not afraid to leave it one in a hunting booth for the whole day, where she was expecting parents from the hunt. Here in the taiga, among the hills of turbulent river flows, she absorbed love for her native nature, studied craftsmanship, listened to the tales of her mother and beloved grandmother Lumdak ^[3] .

In the 1920s, work began in Soviet Russia on the co-operation of the indigenous population, the creation of fishing cooperatives began, and the resettlement of Udege families from camps to villages began in the 1930s. In 1934, the Chuken artel appeared in the Chuken settlement, log huts were built, forest areas were cleared for collective farm gardens. There was a period of collectivization and the transfer of nomadic peoples to a settled life. In the camp of Django, where the Djangovskiy village council was organized, a hunting and fishing artel “Percussion Hunter” was created, which included the Chuken artel, where Valentina’s parents worked. There, in the village of Dzhango, the first seven-year school was created, where Valya went to study, but after a few years, the school was transferred to the village of Gvasiugi, which later became the center of compact residence of the Udege choir. At the age of ten, Valentina loses her mother, but father and grandmother continue to be engaged in raising children. There was not a day that Valya did not enjoy grandmother's tales, did not comprehend the secrets of the traditional life of her people. Her activity and curiosity grew every day.

Having graduated from the seven-year plan, Valentina went to continue her studies in the city of Khabarovsk, where she graduated from the preparatory department of the Khabarovsk Pedagogical Institute and entered the Faculty of History and Philology there. But unfortunately, due to deteriorating health, training had to be abandoned.

Returning home to the village of Gvasiugi, Valentina began an active working activity. She worked as an accountant, librarian, club manager, organized a “Women's Council” in the club, which conducted social work - helped large families, spent Sundays, rendered all possible assistance to different sections of the population, contributing to the improvement of the village’s life. The club regularly held theme nights, gatherings, and it was on them that Valentina Tunsyanovna was fond of collecting and recording Udege folklore and traditions, and made efforts to maintain and develop the decorative and applied art of the Udege.

Her activity, determination, honesty led her to administrative work.

Since 1960, Valentina Tunsyanovna was elected as a deputy of the Dzhangovsky Village Council, in 1968, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Dzhangovsky Village Council.

From 1992 to 1998, she headed the administration of the rural settlement "Gvasyugi Village" of the district named after Lazo, where she dealt with the construction of new houses, secondary school, providing firewood for the population and budget organizations, fought for the conservation of forests in the Chuken River Basin and many other issues.

In the 1990s, thanks to her efforts and village deputies, the Chukensky Nature Reserve was organized with the right to preserve the traditional nature management of the Udege people. When the regional organization “Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Khabarovsk Territory” was established in Khabarovsk, she was elected the first Chairman of the Board.

In 1998, she headed the national community “Ude”, which regulates hunting issues: providing hunting plots with licenses, fishing gear, and resolving internal and administrative issues of community members.

Her forces and like-minded forces in the early 1960s organized the folklore ensemble Su Gakpai (Rays of the Sun), which successfully performed in Western Europe: France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, as well as at the International Folklore Festival in Canada ^[4]

An ethnocultural center and an open-air museum were created to recreate the traditional Udege buildings that existed before the beginning of the 20th century.

After retiring in 1998, Valentina Tunsyanovna was actively engaged in the preservation of the Udege language, folklore and traditions. Since that time, close work has begun with scientific researchers, linguists, folklorists, ethnographers not only from Russia, but from other countries. Thanks to the joint work, collections of Udege folklore, an ABC book in Udege, and textbooks on teaching in Udege were published. Compiled educational programs for teaching children the Udege language that are still used in school.

Until today, Valentina Tunsyanovna has been actively involved in the maintenance of traditional culture, heads the ethnocultural museum p. Gvasyugi, who continues to be the chief consultant and adviser to the Ude community, is a member of the Council of Elders of the regional public organization “Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Khabarovsk Territory”.

Community Activities

• since 1960 - deputy of the Dzhangovsky village council;
• from 1969-1998 - chairman of the Dzhangovsky village council, and then head of the administration of the rural settlement "Gvasiugi Village" district named after Lazo;
• 1964 - organizer of the folk ensemble "Su gakpai" ("Rays of the Sun");
• 1998 - leads the national fishing community “Ude;
• Since the 1990s, he has been Deputy Chairman of the Board of the regional organization “Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Khabarovsk Territory”, and is currently a member of the Council of Elders ^[5] from the district named after Lazo in the regional public organization “Association of Indigenous Minorities of the North of the Khabarovsk Territory”.

Creative activity

For more than 40 years, V. T. Kelundziuga has been collecting and processing folklore material, which has become the basis of reference publications on Udege folklore and language. He entered the collections published not only by Russian, but also by foreign publishers. Valentina Tunsyanovna put a lot of strength and energy into the preservation and revival of the traditional Udege culture. The result of this work is the publication of reference, educational and popular publications on language and folklore. All of them are made either by the writer herself, or in collaboration with scientific and creative teams.

Bibliography

• Fairy tale collection “Two Suns”, illustrations by G. Pavlishin, 2nd ed., Khabarovsk: JSC “Khabarovsk Regional Printing House”, 2018
• A collection of fairy tales “Once upon a time Egdyga”, illustrations by S. Cheshkin
• “Ude Alphabet” - Udege alphabet, 1st grade (together with a team of authors).
• “Ude Kayeni” - study guide 1 class, 2 class, Udege language + workbooks “Write in Udege” (together with a team of authors).
• Collection “Folklore of the Udege” in the series Monuments of Folklore of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East ”(Siberian Branch of the RAS) 6 1998
• Udege-Russian dictionary in 3 volumes, published in Poland.
• Electronic phonetic reference manual "Udi Keiweni" on the study of the Udege language (issued jointly with a team of scientists from the faculty of the peoples of the North DGGU)
• “The World of the Master of the Lungie Water” / V. T. Kelundziuga, N. E. Kimonko. - Khabarovsk: 2016. A book dedicated to the spiritual heritage of the Udege people, including a dictionary of deciphering the meaning of toponyms and hydronyms of the Khor river basin, the author’s biography, the history of the Udege choirs and several fairy tales.
• Two books by the Japanese scholar of the Tungusian languages, Shindeiro Kazama, “Tales and Legends of the Udege”, were released after working together with V. Kelundziug

Merit

Kelundziuga Valentina Tunsyanovna is an Honorary Resident of the Lazo District.

In 2003, she became a laureate of the Prize of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation "Soul of Russia" in the nomination "Narrator".

She was awarded the Sholokhov Medal from the Moscow Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation.

Sources

• http://gvasugi.ru/mo/istoriya-mo.html - the official website of the administration of the village of Gvasyugi.
• https://gvasugi.edu.27.ru/?page=84 - the site of the school of the village of Gvasyugi.
• Kjalundziuga V. T. .. Kimonko V. E. "The world of the owner of the Longunge water." - Khabarovsk: 2016 .-- 92 s.