According to history, in 1929-1933, 1.5 million Kazakh people died of starvation, and this is forever etched in the memory of the nation. This tragic period also affected the Atyrau region. In that difficult time, one of the foods that saved the people who lived along the Naryn sands from starvation was the sacred plant – kumarshyk. While the older generation knows about kumarshyk, the younger generation is not always aware of it.
This monument is a debt of today’s generation to the older generation and a testament to the younger generation. The monument is located near the monument to the poet Fariza Ongarsynova. The composition made of bronze and granite consists of three conditional elements: a relief wall, a central element, and a pedestal.
On the front and back parts of the relief wall, there are lines of poetry about kumarshyk and the disasters of that time: confiscated livestock, starving people, the collection of kumarshyk that was a saving grace for them, and people using it for food. The granite pedestal represents the sand dunes of the Naryn sands where kumarshyk grows. The central element is a kumarshyk that has broken through the relief and figures of a boy and a girl holding hands.
The total height of the monument is 4 meters 20 centimeters. The authors of the work are: member of the Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan, public activist Tursyn Kalimova, sculptor Rinat Abenov, bronze caster Amanzhol Mukenov, member of the Union of Artists of Kazakhstan, architect Asylbek Mukhamedzhanov. The performer is stone mason of the Republic of Kazakhstan Roman Titushin.
