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The Istituto Geografico Polare was
founded in Forlė in 1944 by Silvio Zavatti with the aim (as stated
in the statute) of "promoting and supporting initiatives taken for
the progress of polar studies in Italy, for divulging the Italian
contribute in polar expeditions and promoting exploration trips
taken for a better knowledge of Polar Regions". Talking about the
history of our Istituto means talking about Silvio Zavatti life,
of his expeditions, of his publications, of the review "Il Polo",
of the Polar museum and of the Polar Library. Silvio Zavatti was
born in Forlė on 10 November 1917 and died in Ancona on 13 May 1985.
He has been sea
captain for two years on an English boat and was taken by "arctic-sickness"
meeting with an iceberg when he was twenty. In 1944 he founded the
Istituto Geografico Polare in Forlė and in 1945 edited the first
issue of the Bollettino "Il Polo" which, since then, is still edited
and distributed all over the world. Exchanging the Bollettino, Zavatti
established relationship with institutions, researchers and universities
all over the world. At the beginning of the institute life, Zavatti
promoted expeditions to Greenland and to Antarctic. In 1958 defined
a program to build an Italian scientific base in the Land of Queen
Maud (in the Norwegian Antarctic). In the same year of the International
Congress of Geophysics (1959), he landed to Bouvet Island trying
to establish the first Italian Antarctic base. The first phase of
the research was to find out the real possibility of establishing
an Italian permanent scientific base, what was possible, but the
lack of financial means prevented the realisation of the second
phase of the project. In the meanwhile he started his didactic and
scientific action to make Polar Regions known. He wrote hundreds
of volumes and thousands of articles. In 1958 he published the Atlante
Geografico Polare winning the CNR prize, Fondazione Vacchelli. In
1961 he left for his first Arctic expedition and in Rankin Inlet,
in the Canadian Arctic, he first met with Eskimos. He did researches
on customs of Arctic people, on their string games, on songs and
dances. Then it started his fight as champion of the people of ice.
Meeting these people would enrich his life and would change it inflexibly.
In 1962 was together with Walter Minestrini and Vladimiro Riccobelli
in Lapland, between Sami people, where he collected much ethnographical
material. In 1963 he left for East Greenland, where he followed
psychological researches, studied dances, art, songs, school system
and human ecology. In 1967 and 1969 he was in the Canadian Arctic
again. During the first expedition, led in the Eskimo town of Rankin
Inlet, Zavatti completed the researches started in 1961 and realised
two documentary videos on tundra life and on string games. With
the second expedition he reached Repulse Bay where, besides to ethnographical
researches, he made some topographical observations that will allow
to correct many mistakes on Canadian maps and studied the ruins
of Forte Hope, built in 1846 by the English explorer John Rae. With
this last expedition to Repulse Bay, the adventures of Zavatti as
an explorer stopped. In 1976, the Inuit of Canadian Arctic started
to claim their independence from Canadian Government. Zavatti supported
the birth of Inuit nation with his revue up from 1971. Fourteen
years after his death, Inuit realised their dream creating the territory
of Nunavut that means "our land" in Inuktitut language. When back
from his last expedition, he opened a museum with collected materials
in Civitanova Marche, his city of residence. In 1970 he organised
the International Polar Congress in Civitanova while in 1983 he
took part at the same Congress
in Paris. Till his death, in 1985, Zavatti lived and fought for
the knowledge and for defence of Arctic people and environment,
taken by that dream of freedom that can be explained with the words
of the famous explorer Nansen: "the ice and the moon light of Polar
nights seem to be the far dream of another world, a vanished dream.
But what would be life without dreams?". To better explain the figure
of Zavatti, it is interesting to read the poem written and dedicated
to him by the poet Aldo Severini on 31 August 1979:
Your name is written on
Arctic ice
Your house is the igloo beside Eskimos sleeping
Your clothes are made of seal and caribou skin
Your vehicle is the kayak
Your horoscope is called Akjuk (December season) There, on eternal
ice and white nights, you left the nostalgia of memories The same
nostalgia that takes you everyday
Your disease is called Thule Greenland It is in the geography of
Belcher Islands In the waters of Hudson Bay Careful on observing
Inuit life Hunting, fishing, the death, the taboo Up there we will
build a monument to your name
You will be reminded as the man of Arctic.
But Zavatti work shouldn't be
considered only from this point of view; in his writings, most of
all in the last ones, there is a precise position in favour of all
traditional societies. Nowadays, with the passion derived from love
for the people we study, we organised new expeditions to better
know populations that are disappearing, we collected documentary
materials to enrich our centre and we are co-operating with many
institutions to divulge the knowledge of Polar Countries in Italy.
Our Review has recently got two important recognition, one through
the Meeting organised by the CNR to celebrate the fiftieths years
of the review history and the other is specially due to our co-operator
Gabriella Massa who permitted the distribution of one special edition
of our review during the World Environment Day of United States.
After Zavatti's death, the museum was moved to the city of Fermo,
by the beautiful Villa Vitali. Nowadays the Ethnographical Polar
Museum is the only one in Italy dedicated to Arctic culture and
environment and it is made by five exhibition rooms, two offices,
one library, one bookshop, one didactic room for children, one projection
room and conference hall and a warehouse. It is possible to consult
books and reviews on Polar arguments kept in the rich library (about
15.000 volumes); in the library there is also the Archive of the
Istituto Geografico Polare with thousands of pictures and documents
collected by Silvio Zavatti in more than forty years of continuous
scientific work; there is also an interesting collection of Polar
stamps, given to the museum by Lino Brillarelli. The museum offers
a service of guided visits and didactic laboratories for children.
The co-operators of the museum organise lessons and conferences
on subjects linked to the institute activity. The new organisation
of the museum was made to guide visitors through the halls dedicated
to Polar environment, to the history of Italian Polar expeditions,
to Silvio Zavatti and Inuit people, to cultural minorities. Thanks to the Municipality of
Fermo, to Renato Zavatti, son of Silvio Zavatti, Director responsible
of the Review "Il Polo" and President of the Associazione Amici
del Museo Polare, and to many friends and supporters, our Istituto
is experiencing a period of great development what surely does and
will do honour to its promoter Silvio Zavatti.
Traduzione
Dot.ssa
Antonella Capriotti
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