This thesis paper documents the research and process into Kyrgyzstan’s history and the notion of post-Soviet identity through the research-creation and decolonizing methodologies. The study focuses on personal narratives, mythologies and Indigenous Central Asian knowledge to analyze Kyrgyzstan’s turbulent history and cultural memory loss as a result of that. As an artist, I explore the notion of losing one’s identity in colonization and its residue in the current times. Through illustrating an ancient Turkic legend called the Legend of the Mankurt, I am making open source material that is educational and interactive.

Keywords: imperialism, postcolonial, Post-Soviet, mankurt, memory, decolonizing methodologies.

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