Northern Valgamaa

Located on the border to Latvia, Valgamaa comprises of three main regions:

the Otepää area in the east, Valga area in the south and Tõrva area in the north.

The fi eldwork focused on the Tõrva region in northern Valgamaa, including the then-municipalities of Helme, Hummuli²³, Põdrala and the small town of Tõrva. These were merged into the new, enlarged Tõrva municipality during an amalgamation reform in 2017 (Kond 2016: ERR). As outlined above, Valga county faces noticeable socio-economic challenges, especially in terms of outward-migration due its considerably lower employment rates and income levels than the Estonian average (CS 2016, MS 2016). It moreover suff ers from a tangible invisibility. According to a study commissioned by Valga County Government, up to 36% of Estonians do not associate anything with – or even know much – about Valgamaa. If they do have a particular image in mind, then this is mainly as border region to Latvia (Annus 2011). However, the three county regions are subjected to diff erent levels of peripheralization and have applied diverging coping strategies. While Otepää has established itself as a sport and active holiday destination known as “Estonia’s winter capital,” the Valga region focuses on cross-border cooperation that is fi rst and foremost fostered by the Valga-Valka twin city initiative (Leetmaa et al. 2013, NSP 2012). Alongside ongoing active Estonian-Latvian INTERREG projects, it has lately received special attention due to the exploration of possibilities for cross-border trade (Liiva 2016, PM; Estlat.eu 2017). Tõrva in northern Valgamaa has chosen a path similar to Setomaa by building on the Mulgi heritage in the region, hence engaging in heritage culture. The region of Mulgimaa represents an area in southern Estonia that historically consisted of the parishes of Tarvastu, Paistu, Halliste, Karksi and Helme. Today, it is divided administratively between Viljandi county, and Valga county including Tõrva municipality.

Despite their later start along the heritage culture development path, decision-makers in Mulgimaa have established a comprehensive institutional framework, which above all includes the Mulgi County Development Chamber (Mulgimaa Arenduskoda) and the Mulgi Culture Institute (Mulgi Kultuuri Instituut). The former resembles the Local Action Group of the European Union LEADER initiative and concentrates on the socio-economic development²⁴ of Mulgimaa.

It operates as an inter-county LEADER group next to the Partnership Council (Valgamaa Partnerluskogu) active in the eastern and southern parts of Valga county. The Mulgi Institute focuses its activities in the fi eld of culture for example

23 For more information on the history and development of Hummuli municipality, see: Jaska 2013

24 For an overview of local and regional development plans, see: Annex 2.11.

having organized the biennial Mulgi Festival (Mulgi Pidu) and Mulgi Conference (Mulgi Konverents) since the beginning of the 2000s. There are also as schools and events (re-)introducing locals and interested people to the language, culture and history of the region (Mulgimaa.ee 2017). The Institute annually appoints the Mulgi Elder (Mulgi Vanem) who represents Mulgimaa towards the outside.

Another important representative is the previous President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who has actively supported the image-making events of his family’s home county (ibid.). As in other sparsely-populated rural areas with acknowledged cultural heritage, the region, its organizations and inhabitants are eligible for development funds from the EU LEADER program, the Cultural Program (Mulgimaa Kultuuriprogramm) and the Dispersed Settlement Program (Hajaasustuse Program).

However, there are no political and touristic organizations focusing exclusively on Mulgimaa that are comparable to the Seto Congress, the Seto Union of Rural Municipalities, or Seto Tourism. In these fi elds, local decision-makers draw on the countywide organizations such as the relevant Municipality Unions (Omavalitsuste Liit), Viljandimaa (Viljandimaa Arengukeskus) or Valgamaa Development Agencies (Valgamaa Arenguagentuur) and Tourism Agencies (Viljandimaa ja Valgamaa Turism). Beyond that, both central organizations are involved in place-marketing activities, which have contributed to the consequent development of Mulgimaa as a brand employed by local enterprises, especially in regional product labelling. Popular communication channels include national and regional newspapers such as the Postimees newspapers Valgamaalane and Sakala.²⁵ Special attention is, however, given to the Mulgi-language Üitsainus Mulgimaa newspaper published by the Mulgi Culture Institute. Moreover, as both of the organizations actively involve political leaders, they also have close ties to the Mulgimaa Support Group in the Estonian Parliament (Mulgimaa Toetusrühm).

In northern Valgamaa, this focus on heritage culture does, however, not go unquestioned, as the intense debates over the name for the new united municipalities in Viljandi and Valga counties has shown (see for example:

Allilender 2016, Lasting 2016a/b, Noorkõiv 2016, Rapp 2016). The reasons for that are manifold. On the one hand, as in Old Võrumaa, Setomaa and the islands in Western Estonia, Mulgi people have likewise been confronted with the image of an internal other (Laineste 2008, Rapp 2016, Mulgimaa.ee 2017). On the other, according to the latest population census in 2011, only about 2,000 people defi ne

25 For an overview of the media landscape in Mulgi- and Valgamaa, see: Annex 2.11; Valgamaa.ee. URL:

http://www.valgamaa.ee/uldinfo/meedia/

themselves as Mulgi (Jääts 2015). While the number of self-proclaimed speakers of the Mulgi language is considerably higher, about 10,000, they still represent only a small proportion of the current population on the territory of Mulgimaa, home to about 23,000 inhabitants (Jääts 2015, MS 2016). Moreover, in their comprehensive study on southern Estonian local languages, Eichenbaum and Korenik (2008) indicate that identifi cation with the Mulgi heritage is particularly low in Valga county, where only 14–15% identify themselves as Mulgi.