ON EFFIGIES, ART AND THE NANAI PEOPLE - Anatol Donkan

ANATOL DONKAN Artist - In conversation with ROLAND URBAN

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR PEOPLE, THE NANAI?

Alright, so I was born by the Amur, the city is called Tunguska. In my time, all children were sent to homes. The Sovjets thought that the Nanai were not good for the Sovjet idea. I myself lived in three different children’s homes fora total of 15 years. The other Nanai children were there too. Other than that, I only saw Nanai people when I was out with my uncle, for example. Or when parents of the other children came. I myself didn’t have any parents. My passport says: “Russian citizen, nationality Nanai”. After living in the homes, I completed a marine training in the fishing fleet and then studied for the second time – art. I had known about art before, had always done practical work, painted, built. But art studies were not possible before perestroika. Moreover, people said that it wasn’t a job. Fortunately, there was a scientific centre for Geography in Wladiwostok. And there worked an older man, Nikolai Batanowitsch Kielje, also Nanai (...)

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