Alexander and Luba Arbachakov
Alexander Arbachakov was born within the Shortsi Aboriginal group of southern Siberia in 1964 and raised in the traditional indigenous village of Ust Kabyrsa. Arbachakov is an environmentalist; a forestry specialist who participated as an expert in the ecological examinations of various bills of the Kemerovskaya region. His area of expertise includes special conservation of wildlife territories as well as general ecology. As vice-president of the Shortsi People's Association, Alexander Arbachakov takes great pride in recording the beauty of his homeland and the natural beauty of the Shor Mountain region and its indigenous people through the media of photography and film. Alexander's photos have been exhibited in the Kemerovskaya region.
Luba Arbachakov (Tudegesheva) was born in 1963 in the small village of Onzas, in the heart of the Mountains Shoria. Luba grew up as one of seven children of the Tudegeshevyh family. Remoteness from the city center dictated the family's daily course of existence, conducting housekeeping for four cows, one per brother; three horses, one per sister; as well as horned cattle, hens, geese, ducks, and those animals found in any household in rural Siberia. Luba is an environmentalist as well as a folklorist and philology specialist, and she graduated from the Novokuznetsk Pedagogical Institute. She is chief field specialist of Shortsi folklore and ethnography. In addition to this work, Luba is known for her creative expression through painting and poetry.
