Yurt
Community

Yurt Community was established in London in September 2022 as an anti-war coalition of Indigenous peoples from Russia. We organised and joined anti-war protests in London to raise visibility and represent anti-war voices of ethnic minority groups within Russia who are silenced to speak up due to draconian repression laws introduced by the Russian government. Initially formed in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and forced mobilization of people from indigenous communities within Russian to go to war, the organization evolved into a multicultural diaspora community, uniting individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences under a common cause. Now our core team members are based in London and Berlin. Our mission is to empower people of indigenous and multicultural backgrounds to be agents of positive change for their communities. We unite and support the Indigenous peoples of Russia by fostering diaspora development abroad and promoting cultural initiatives. By producing educational content, we strive to raise visibility and awareness of the issues faced by indigenous and multicultural peoples of Russia. We aim to educate people about the history and culture of the indigenous peoples of Russia, and about the current challenges these peoples face, by organising lectures with researchers and various other education sessions. We create educational online content dedicated to topics of ethnic identity, culture and languages of indigenous peoples of Russia, rights of indigenous peoples, etc We launched Yurt Business Network to develop a professional community to promote, support and empower talents belonging to indigenous and multi-cultural backgrounds. We also started ‘Navigator of the Languages of Indigenous People of Russia’ - a project to build a platform to connect language activists and language enthusiasts with those who are keen to learn languages of indigenous peoples of Russia, for example in many families younger generation lost their ancestors’ language and now with the rise of interest to their ethnic identity a lot of people want to restore and help preserve disappearing indigenous languages of Russia. Today, the Yurt Community is a dynamic, ever-growing multicultural diaspora network. It remains dedicated to empowering its members and effecting positive change in communities of indigenous and ethnic minority groups of Russia. Looking forward, Yurt Community is enthusiastic about its ongoing growth, learning opportunities, and the impact it can continue to make.