Transforming Travels
Goluri's Story
The Goluri story is the story of a team that has conducted research on topics such as ecology, nature culture, and traditional life practices in the Eastern Black Sea region for many years; and has carried out protection and improvement projects. Through our association, Gola Culture, Art and Ecology Association, the years spent in the region have been a process in which the ancient life knowledge that is at the core of nature and shapes the traditional life of indigenous people has been recorded. During this process, we have witnessed the life practices of people who have established strong ties with nature, understand it, and respect its functioning, and sometimes their separation from nature. We wanted to convey the knowledge and experiences inherited from grandfathers, grandmothers, shepherds, beekeepers, those who protect their seeds, waters, mountains, people who see themselves as part of wildlife, wolves, birds and thousands of other creatures.
What does goluri mean?
Goluri means "high native", "highland", "mountaineer" in Laz language. We took this name from the name of our civil society organization, Gola. Gola also means high land, plateau, mountain.
Transforming Travels
Goluri's "Transforming travels" have a slow and calm travel approach with a small number of people. Welcome to Goluri to accompany our efforts to allow transformation, to travel together, to understand together, to meet and multiply.
Among our motivations, we want to create a "responsible tourism model" in the Eastern Black Sea region that is globally environmentally friendly, sustainable, fair, supportive of local development, in cooperation with the local people, and to mediate the spread of this model all over the world.
Sevilay Refika Kadıoğlu
Sevilay Refika grew up in an average urban culture in Gölcük. After receiving tourism education in Eskişehir, she worked as a manager in business hotels in Istanbul.
Her hometown is the Fındıklı district of Rize. Her father is from Arılı/Pi3xala village, her mother is from Derbent/Trevendi village. She first heard Laz language from her grandmother and grandfather. She followed her story through music. She participated in traditional Laz music and dance compilations in Turkey and Georgia. She made the album “Ar Lazi Oxorca” consisting of the songs she learned during this process under the name Eka. She took on the role of coordinator of the Yeşil Yayla Culture, Art and Environment Festival under the roof of the Gola Culture, Art and Ecology Association, of which she was one of the founders. This process allowed her to get to know the Eastern Black Sea and the cultures it hosts closely.
She worked mainly on topics such as nature culture, traditional life practices, music and dance in the Eastern Black Sea. The ancient knowledge contained in Laz, the language of an autochthonous people of thousands of years, brought her closer to nature. She said goodbye to Istanbul, the city where she lived for over 25 years, and realized her childhood dream. She lives in a coastal town on the skirts of the Kaçkar Mountains with her son Şina. Sevilay Refika is an information artist who continues to collect under the roof of the Gola Association and share in the trips she designs through Goluri.
Güneşin Oya Aydemir
Güneşin was born in Ankara. She is the founder and coordinator of Çamtepe Ecological Life Center and the idea of School of Life. She has been working in Buğday Association since its establishment. She is also one of the founders of Bir Tohum Foundation. Güneşin Aydemir, who studied biology, has devoted herself to the science of ecology. She has been working in civil society for the protection of nature for over 25 years, and she looks at nature, the natural and the human species, which are a part of nature, as a human being and observes. According to Güneşin, the greatest sorrow of a human is the fact that he has broken the bond between himself and other beings by defining himself as “other”. This bond is not broken in essence, the human being is mentally disconnected. Therefore, for the last 10 years, she has been curating education and workshops and creating learning areas with the mission of repairing this bond and bringing people closer to nature. She is a part of the Gola Association family and an information artist who inspired Goluri with the School of Life.
Tamer and Caner Karataş
They were born as twins in 1986 in the Fındıklı district of Rize. As the sons of a wonderful father (Osman Karataş), who is a darkroom photographer, they experience the advantages of being born in a wonderful village in their education and professional work. After working as regional representatives of national news agencies, they took part in performing arts shows along with their current and main profession of theater acting. They added energy to the festivals they attended, from stage management to presenter, from children's workshops to dances and finally with their art performances, and they continue to do so.
They achieved high viewing rates by publishing the video works they prepared for awareness in society on their social media pages.In the videos; they worked on issues such as violence against women, substance abuse, child brides, animal rights, education and training awareness. Tamer and Caner Gola are volunteers of the Culture, Art and Ecology Association, and they also share their experiences and knowledge in Goluri and Transforming Travels. They transformed the Ali Rıza Bey Mansion in Hopa into the NOVELİ Culture and Art Venue and run artistic productions, activities and drama workshops for children.
Evrim Aykan
A minimalist Industrial Product Designer sensitive to environmental issues. Her professional experience covers a wide range of spatial designs. She spent 12 years of her working life in Istanbul and the last 5 years in Africa and India as a project/field manager for various NGOs. She carries out sustainable development projects (water, energy, agriculture, education) in coordination with local governments, contractors, suppliers and local communities. Her travels to 4 continents and 10 different countries on the globe, sometimes for her personal journey and sometimes for business purposes, taught her to closely connect with our entire planet and all cultures. In this way, she saw that she could adapt to all living conditions. The experiences she gained gave her a versatile personality, including first-class leadership and collaboration skills.
She is deeply interested in universal art and literature. She is a storyteller who loves writing stories and living them. She believes in the power of "creative visualization", an art of mental imagery, to create positive changes in our lives.
In 2021, the year when she decided to complete her journey, she went to the village where she was born to learn "the ancient knowledge of the geography and land of her birth" from her farming family and to practice perma culture; She settled in Artvin. Her acquaintance with Gola and the Goluri team began after this date. Today, she still works as a Design Consultant and Project Coordinator at home and abroad, sometimes part-time and sometimes full-time.