Nomadic Belonging: Queer Publics and Precarious Homes

A conversation between writer and artist Ju Bavyka and curator of the collection of North Africa, West and Central Asia, Dr Melanie Krebs.

Until the late 19th century, identity in multilingual Central Asia was not defined through concepts of nationhood. In the Soviet Union, nations first had to be created before they could be united. Crafts – carpets, embroidery, ceramics, clothing – were assigned to newly named nation states, showcased at fairs, and celebrated when they aligned with state policy.

A 2026 CoMuse Fellow at the Humbolt Forum, Australia-based and Kazakhstan-born writer and artist Ju Bavyka is in Berlin to research the Ethnologisches Museum’s Central Asian collection, exploring the materiality of craft objects and traditions from their queer lived experience. In this talk, they will discuss their findings from the collection and talk about the yurt (a traditional shelter used by the peoples of Central and North Asia) as an embodiment of a non-static, non-settling desire to live – flowing with the seasons and respecting available resources. Yurts are a shared inheritance for many cultural groups and ethnicities, and continue to be used – they are changing structures and places of seeking.

“My ancestors were nomads, of course I am trans,” read a placard carried by a member of the Berlin collective Slaystans at a recent Pride march. Bavyka would like to acknowledge the vibrant Central and North Asian queer community living in Berlin as part of the inspiration for this fellowship, whose members challenge exclusion and reinvent their lifestyles, reappropriating traditional symbols and crafts.