Mongolia Update

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Mongolia  Update: 17 June 2021

Every two years the ANU Mongolia Institute sponsors a Mongolia Update. These Updates aim to inform the public about Mongolia’s social, political and environmental factors. In 2021 we will be presenting two Updates: an online (Zoom-based) Update on 17 June and a full, hybrid online and in-person Update in November. The theme for both of these Updates will be Health and Wellbeing. In these pandemic times it is easy to forget the wide range of other health and wellbeing issues that confront us, so in these Updates will provide a scholarly but non-technical view of a variety of such issues and responses to them.

The June Update will feature presenters from around the globe, and is presented in an early morning session and a late afternoon session to accommodate wide-spread time zones. It also features a special online screening of a new documentary by Sas Carey about the daughter of reindeer-herding nomads who becomes a doctor and is torn between roles in the Mongolian taiga and in the bustling capital of Ulaanbaatar. This screening is sponsored by the Mongolia Institute and will be available online prior to the Update, followed by a presentation from Sas Carey about her films, engagement with medicine and healing and over 25 years of experience in her second home of Mongolia.

This Update is presented by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Mongolia Institute in collaboration with the ANU School of Culture, History and Language and the Embassy of Mongolia. The full June Update schedule is shown below.

2021 Mongolia Update: Health and Wellbeing

17 June 2021
Presented online via Zoom; we will soon have a free Eventbrite link to register to attend the Update and also receive access to the film.

 2021 June Mongolia Update Program

Note: All times shown are Canberra time (AEST)

Special Screening: Transitions: Journey with Khongoroo A documentary film by Sas Carey Available online from 9AM on 15 June until 9AM 18 June 2021 View the film trailer at https://vimeo.com/369469345

Update Presentation Schedule:
Thursday, 17 June 2021

	Morning Session
	9:00	Simon Haberle	Welcome and Opening Remarks
	9:10	Sas Carey	Reindeer herders in my heart
	10:00	Bob Cumming	Use of health services by older people in Mongolia: findings from a population-based survey
	10:30	Session end
	Afternoon Session
	4:00	Bertsetseg Vanjil	Using a Mongolian Bankhar dog stuffed toy as a security object for vulnerable children to improve social and emotional skills
	4:30	Björn Reichhardt	Noticing microbes in pastoral dairying in Mongolia: the lives of starter cultures
	5:00	Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh	Mongolian attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination
	5:30	Li Narangoa	Comments and Closing of the June Update

 

Presentation Abstracts

 

	Dr Simon Haberle	Welcome and Opening Remarks   Dr Simon Haberle is Director of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, and Professor of Palaeoecology.
	Ms Sas Carey	Reindeer Herders in My Heart   In this presentation Sas Carey will explain how she came to travel to the taiga and assist Dukha reindeer herders, even though she had no formal education in anthropology or in Mongolian studies. She was able to use her nursing skills in combination with Mongolian medicine. Curious and interested, she learned about shamanism and the use of herbs from the taiga for healing. By listening to what the Dukha needed, in terms of health care, she created a seven-year health database, while learning their needs in the area of health and wellbeing. Sas also began to document their lives in films, sharing with the herders, Mongolians, and audiences across the world.   Ms Carey founded Nomadicare Inc. (nomadicare.org) in 2010 as a non-profit to support and preserve traditional Mongolian nomadic culture through healthcare, films and stories. She has produced and directed four feature documentaries and written a book, Reindeer Herders in My Heart.
	Dr Bob Cumming	Use of health services by older people in Mongolia: findings from a population-based survey   As in many countries, Mongolia’s demographics are changing and its population is getting older. Dr Cummings will first provide a general overview on health in Mongolia, including some discussion of the COVID pandemic, and then present health-related results from a survey of 1000 older people in Mongolia conducted during 2019.   Dr Robert Cumming AO is Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales.
	Ms Bertsetseg (Beree) Vanjil	Using a Mongolian Bankhar dog stuffed toy as a security object for vulnerable children to improve social and emotional skills   The Bankhar portable art therapy project aims to help vulnerable children increase self-awareness and self-control, regulate emotion, increase empathy, improve relationships with others, and create a positive relationship between children, parents, and institutions such as school, kindergarten, child protection centers, and child care centers. We also aim to improve the household income of vulnerable children during the COVID lockdown. We have been utilizing a Mongolian Bankhar dog stuffed toy as a security object for orphanages, children who experience violence or neglect, autistic children, children with Down syndrome, children with cancer and disabled children. The project has been underway for six months, with funding from the Australian Embassy in Mongolia.
	Mr Björn Reichhardt	Noticing microbes in pastoral dairying in Mongolia: the lives of starter cultures   In this presentation, I will introduce insights into dairying practices and the lives of microbial starter cultures in various regions of rural Mongolia. Milk is a central part of Mongolian cuisine and diet. Processed into fluid and solid foods through various fermentation techniques it provides valuable nutrition for pastoralists. But milk is more than food: it is sacred, represents purity, and is deeply integrated in relationships between humans, animals, spirits and environments. Dairy microbes occupy a key role in these relationships. However, invisible to the human eye, studying dairy microbes is challenging. Are microbes noticed by herders? How do herders interact with these invisible entities? Milk fermentation and microbial starter cultures offer potential answers to these questions. The Mongolian word for starter culture is khöröngö, which also means capital and heritage. In order to produce the best fermented mare’s milk, herders travel hundreds of miles for a reliable starter culture. Yoghurt starter cultures, in turn, are shared across generations and between neighbouring households in order to provide for successful fermentation cycles. Accordingly, khöröngö forms complex biosocial assemblages with biogeographies that are difficult, if not impossible, to trace. In this context, approaching the study of dairying from the angle of multispecies ethnography sheds new light on the role of microbes in pastoral dairying and starter cultures as mobile entities of value across space and time.   Bjorn Reichhardt is a doctoral candidate in Central Asian Studies at Humboldt-University of Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeogenetics.
	Dr Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh	Mongolian attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination   Dr Tsetsegsaikhan Batmunkh, MPH/MHM is Director of the Medicine and Medical Devices Regulatory Agency in Ulaanbaatar. The MMDRA is responsible for controlling and regulating medicines and medical devices, developing laws and regulations, controlling the implementation of medicines and medical devices, strengthening the human resource capacity of pharmacists and medical engineers, and controlling post marketing quality of the medicines. Dr Batmunkh until January 2021 was CEO of the National Cancer Council of Mongolia and principal investigator for the project “Prevalence of HPV among young women in Mongolia 5 years after vaccination”.
	Dr Li Narangoa	Comments and Closing of the June Update   Dr Li Narangoa is Professor of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University, and was the founding director of the ANU Mongolia Institute.