Kazakh students organize event to educate IU community about their country

More than 75 people gathered in the Indiana Memorial Union's State Room East Thursday night to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Republic Day of Kazakhstan, when the country declared its sovereignty within the Soviet Union in 1990. The event featured traditional and modern Kazakh music, trivia and history of the country, dinner and a presentation about Kazakhstan's past.\nThe holiday was particularly relevant given the upcoming theatrical release of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" featuring comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's portrayal of a Kazakh man, which many see as offensive to the Kazakh culture. Kazakh language professor Zaure Batayeva did not want to make the film the topic of the event, but instead hoped those who attended left with a true sense of what their culture actually is. \n"I think these kinds of celebrations are very helpful, especially about this kind of country like Kazakhstan," Batayeva said. "We were part of the Soviet Union, and people knew us as part of the Soviet Union, but now we are an independent country ... I think it's always helpful ... that we share our culture, we share our history, we show who we are." \nThe Kazakh Student Association organized the event, which was planned entirely by the students. The group's president, graduate student Gaziz Shakhanov, said students began planning for the event about two months ago. \n"We started two months ago, but since a lot of people were busy with midterm exams ... it was extremely hard to get (everything) together," Shakhanov said. "But, since our people are characterized with high responsibility, they did a lot of things by themselves, and it was very effective to just meet and coordinate everything."\nShakhanov said he was pleased with the turnout of the presentation and the reaction of the audience, much of which was made up of Kazakh students.\n"People were very engaged, and it seemed that they wanted to learn more about Kazakhstan, Kazakh people and its history," Shakhanov said. "From the reaction of the audience I am sure now that people got a lot of knowledge about our country."\nSponsors for the program included the IU Student Association, the Foster International Living-Learning Center, the Central Eurasian studies department and the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center.\nFoster International Director John Galuska said the center sponsored the event because student leaders within the organization felt it was an important cultural event to bring to the IU campus. \n"Student leaders in Foster International support a number of different events," Galuska said. "This was just one of \nthe events that the student leaders in Foster International wanted to support, especially because of the large number of Kazakh students living in the community."\nGaluska said he enjoyed the presentation and particularly enjoyed the musical aspect of the program since he said music was one of his passions. \n"I'm just impressed with the students," Galuska said. "I enjoyed the fact that they're musical. I just think that it's wonderful that they're here to learn, but they're also sharing some of their traditions from home ... I'm impressed with them on all levels." \nMusical interludes spattered throughout the program featured a mix of traditional and modern music and instrumentation. Performers played different pieces on guitars, pianos and a traditional Kazakh instrument similar to the guitar known as the dombra. \nA group primarily comprised of IU graduate students concentrating in Central Eurasian studies competed in a game of trivia, with questions written by Kazakh students. The "Intellectual Crew," as the team was called, answered every question correctly. \nThe Kazakh Student Association was formed this spring and serves a community of nearly 50 Kazakh students currently enrolled at IU. Many of those students came to IU by way of a Kazakh government initiative that seeks to send Kazakh students to leading universities all over the world, as part of the Bolashak Presidential Fellowship Program, Shakhanov said. The project seeks to place more than 3,000 Kazakh students in universities abroad. \nRepublic Day of Kazakhstan is celebrated every Oct. 25th, Batayeva said. She added the celebration enhanced the cultural significance of the evening. \n"This celebration is a very important celebration in Kazakhstan," Batayeva said. "We would celebrate this day, Republic Day (together), but now we are sharing with other people ... our point is just to share information about our country"