Living the dream: Nanai shamanic experiments and porous engagements in the Siberian Far East

Abstract

This article is about the ways in which shamanic practice is engaged in navigating and responding to the current climatic and geopolitical crisis in Far East Siberia, Russia, through proposing experimental multiversal projects. It traces the manner in which a Nanai (Indigenous peoples of Siberia, Russia; literally, people of the Earth) sama (shaman), hereafter, shaman, brings together diverse techniques, such as shamanic dreams, storytelling, Christian prayers and game playing to materialise fragile moments of what this article names ontological porosity between different systems of knowing-being-doing. Focusing further on the tensions that this process implies, the article offers reflections on the notions of protest movements and resistance in areas of enforced silence and neglect.