Tamyr Bazaar – Winter 2025: The 4th edition

2025-12-09 00:47

I still remember the first time we organized Tamyr Bazaar. It was a modest initiative — just a few stalls, a handful of artists, and a lot of heart. I never imagined that a few years later, this little spark would grow into something so deeply woven into the soul of our university.

In November 2025, the 4th edition of Tamyr Bazaar took place, and this time, it was part of something much bigger. As our team at NURCE hosted the international conference Voices at the Margins: Rethinking Gender, Labor, and Belonging, Tamyr Bazaar became its beating heart — a place where ideas met aesthetics, and theory touched lived experience.

Over four days, the NU atrium was transformed. Artists and craftswomen from across Qazaqstan brought not just their products but their stories, their philosophies, and their hopes. From the vibrant textures of Biz Keste embroidery to the earthy calm of pottery classes, we created a space of sensory learning and cultural care. Children’s voices from the Kazakh National University of Art filled the air during the opening performance, lifting the conference atmosphere with purity and power.

Tamyr is more than a bazaar. It’s a philosophy of rooted entrepreneurship, a living thread between heritage and innovation. In many ways, it embodies the decolonial spirit of the Voices at the Margins conference. While scholars discussed epistemic injustice and social belonging inside the seminar rooms, Tamyr was outside in full bloom, demonstrating what those words mean in practice — community, care, rootedness, and dignity.

We also expanded the educational side of Tamyr. Our workshops on Kazakh ornamentation, yurt culture, clay work, and creative entrepreneurship became hubs of conversation and community. People weren’t just buying and selling; they were listening, sharing, and building new understandings of what it means to create, belong, and contribute.

Once again, Waqar Ahmad, President of Nazarbayev University, opened the event, positioning it not as a peripheral initiative but as an institutionally grounded practice supported by sustained leadership. Enabled by the NU Impact Foundation, this commitment translated into concrete capacity to take creative risks — inviting rare artisans and expanding the program’s scope — reinforcing the event as a tradition in the making rather than a one-off experiment.

Even in complete exhaustion, as the last stall was packed away and the lights dimmed, I felt a distinct sense of joy — the kind that comes from seeing something meaningful take shape through collective effort. Tamyr Bazaar has become part of both my own rhythm and the university’s, demonstrating how culture, commerce, and care can be braided together into an economy grounded not only in exchange, but in responsibility and belonging.

Alua Nurbai

PhD candidate, GSB NU

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