The Contribution of Pārdaugava Residents to the Latvian Folklore Archives
The UL ILFA project “Experience in the City: Narratives, Memories, and the Heritage of Place” has come to a close. During the project, the Latvian Folklore Archives were enriched with several new collections.
The collection “Stories of Pārdaugava” consists of 74 interviews with residents of Pārdaugava, including recordings of storytelling evenings in Zasulauks, Āgenskalns, Bieriņi, and Lucavsala, as well as 486 photographs from fieldwork and personal archives of local residents. The images and interview metadata are freely accessible in the Latvian Folklore Archives’ digital repository garamantas.lv.
This collection is complemented by responses to the digital survey “Stories of Pārdaugava”, which records 60 local stories from the area. The survey remains open for further participation.
The archives have also received the diaries of Lucavsala resident Zelma Indriksone (1906–1990) — available for open reading — and the memoirs of her son, Gunārs Indriksons (1940–2023), documenting the history of Lucavsala and the everyday life of its inhabitants from the 1950s onward, as well as memories reaching back even further.
On social media, a digital photo collection of Pārdaugava is being created under the hashtags #apsleptaPardaugava and #hiddenPardaugava.
The research results have already been presented at 15 international conferences and 6 public lectures, discussed in several publications, and are contributing to an upcoming special issue of the journal Letonica on urban folklore and urban studies, as well as to a forthcoming book “Rīgas nostāsti” (Tales of Riga). From June 13 to October 13, 2023, the outdoor exhibition “Hidden Pārdaugava” was open to visitors at the Jaunatnes Garden in Āgenskalns.
Photo: Āgenskalns Free Tour, 2016. From the archive of Linda Zonne-Zumberga (LFK Dig-2-282).
https://garamantas.lv/lv/illustration/1710068/Agenskalna-brivtures-ekskursija
New resources:
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Collection “Stories of Pārdaugava” (LFK Dig 2):
https://garamantas.lv/lv/collection/1564706/Pardaugavas-stasti -
Survey “Stories of Pārdaugava” (responses):
https://garamantas.lv/lv/survey/1550695 -
Survey form for participation:
https://jauta.garamantas.lv/lv/survey/view?survey-id=1550695 -
Autobiographical materials of Zelma Indriksone (LFK Ak 214):
https://garamantas.lv/lv/collection/1778010/Zelmas-Indriksones-autobiografiskie-materiali
Project “Experience in the City: Narratives, Memories, and the Heritage of Place” (No. lzp-2020/1-0096).