As a direct result of the people-to-people cooperation with indigenous peoples in Russia, the Riddu Riđđu festival is invited to participate in the first Arctic Taimyr Festival in Dudinka, Taimyr, on 8-12 December 2011. As a part of the official program, Sámi artists will display various arts and culture from Sáomi, the Sámi homeland area. 

Alexey Chunanchar at the 20th Riddu Riđđu festival in 2010

The following artists are on their way to Dudinka; Ánte Mihkkal Gaup (yoik/storytelling), Lawra Somby (yoik), Sigbjørn Skåden (writer/poet), dancer and moviemaker Elle-Sofe Henriksen, designer Line Nilsen and Niillas Holmberg (writer/musician), together with representatives from the Riddu administration, the Centre for Northern Peoples and their Moscow branch, as well as the Saami Parliament in Norway.

- Riddu Riđđu is proud to be represented by this delegation at the festival, as they are all excellent representatives for Sápmi, says the festival director, Kirsti Lervoll.

This visit is the first initiated and financed by the Russian partner, and the festival director describes the events as historical.

- This is the direct result from many years of people-to-people cooperation between indigenous peoples in Norway and Russia, and it also shows that the Moscow branch of Centre for Northern Peoples is an important link for this contact. Also, Riddu Riđđu has a responsibility to make visible Sámi arts and culture to an international audience, and this visit is an example of that, Lervoll says.

Altogether 5 indigenous peoples (Evenk, Dolgan, Nenets, Enets, Nganasan) inhabit the Taimyr Peninsula in Krasnoyarsk Kray, Russian Federation, and the Taimyr peoples visited the Riddu Riđđu festival in 2010 as Northern People of the Year.

Elle-Sofe Henriksen (dancer and film maker)