Modern realities contribute to close intercultural interaction and determine its intensity, which, on the one hand, is a positive factor, facilitating a more effective solution of global problems the mankind faces, but, on the other hand, causes the dissolution of the identity of the indigenous peoples’ traditional cultures. Nowadays preservation and development of the decorative and applied art traditions are one of the most successful mechanisms of a positive sign of the uniqueness of culture in the context of multiculturalism. They promote a positive ethnic identity formation, which is particularly important for the indigenous peoples.

The article analyses Russian and international projects aimed at the development of the indigenous peoples’ decorative and applied art. It reveals a number of areas in which the projects are implemented: preservation of existing collections of the decorative and applied art memorials, preservation of the traditional skills of creating the decorative and applied art works, training new generations these skills, understanding of the possibilities to integrate traditions and innovations in practice of the decorative and applied art works creation, understanding of value of a traditional decorative and applied art for a modern human, and, finally, arrangement of the events (festivals, fairs) revealing actual meanings of the decorative and applied art works, that, in its turn, generalizes the measures mentioned above.