Team News Riveting
Jamshedpur, November 19
Samvaad, a one-of-its kind pan-India tribal conclave organised by Tata Steel Foundation, concluded today, bringing together tribal communities from across the country.
Samvaad 2021 brought together 187 outstanding tribal artists, home chefs, healers, culture crusaders and leaders in person in Jamshedpur, along with more than 4,000 women, men and children from communities of 87 tribes across 25 states and 5 union territories in India who logged in the dialogues remotely, in a bridgital format.
On the final day, Samvaad Fellowship for the year 2021 were announced. The Samvaad Fellowship provides critical gap funding and also works towards facilitating platforms at national and international levels for providing enhanced inputs to the fellows. This year, the Fellowships were awarded to:
1. Amabel Susngi, 26, Female from Khasi tribe of Meghalaya: She is from Pnar sub-tribe. Her project includes “documenting musical notations and dissemination of Khasi tribal lullabies for parents and families in Khasi and English”.
2. Pramod Bajirao Kale, 31, Male from Phase Pardhi tribe of Maharashtra: His intention, through his research is to promote the language of Pardhi tribe located in the state of Maharashtra and help in the development of the society through the study of the language
3. Makas Babison, 25, Male from Chothe tribe of Manipur: His idea is to work towards documentation and conservation of Chothe indigenous cuisine with its customary relevance.
4. Dr David Hanneng: 32, Male from Kuki tribe from Nagaland: He intends to preserve the folk tales of the Kukis of Nagaland by documenting it in a form of a book.
5. Aamna Khatun, 30, Female is from Van Gujjar tribe of Uttarakhand: Her area of research focusses on Van Gujjar Nomadic life in changing times: Stories of community women looking at indigenous knowledge, culture traditions and experiences from the lens of Van Gujjar Women.
6. Anuranjan Kiro, 26, Male from Kharia tribe from Jharkhand: His project idea if “documentation and conservation of Kharia folk Song and Folk Stories through digital medium
7. Tokalo Leeladhar, 27, Male from Chenchu tribe from Telengana: His quest into “identify our food; what our ancestors are, and go back to our roots to make sure our next generations consume the same and live a healthy life.
8. Kuvethilu Thulo, 26, Female from Chakesang tribe from Nagaland: Her idea of project is “preservation of Feast of Merit Monoliths in Phusachodu village, Phek, Nagaland”.
Samvaad Fellowship is an initiative born under the Samvaad ecosystem in 2017, which aspires to address one of the ecosystem’s core objectives “to document and hence, preserve a body of knowledge and a world view that runs the risk of being obliterated”. The Fellowship envisions supporting initiatives/ ideas which are aligned towards conservation of any lesser-known indigenous practices from tribal cultures which are vulnerable and are not part of a large conservation effort and thus run the risk of being lost. This will mean the loss of the unique identity of that particular community and therefore part of the beautiful diversity of our nation’s myriad mix of cultures. The journey has been exciting with the diversity of cultural ideas that it has witnessed. The Fellowship provides some initial financial support and mentoring towards meeting this objective.
Sumptuous Tribal Cuisine on platter on the concluding day included Handua and Sakampita prepared by Sandhya Badaik and Singho Majhi of Bhumij Tribe (Odisha), Raagi Muddu and Chicken Sambaar by Shankara and Ragini of Jenukurumba Tribe (Karnataka) and Raagi Malpowa by Mercy Manjula Bilung of Kharia Tribe (Jharkhand)
Healers’ session today mainly focussed on developing roadmap for the formation of a proposed Healers Association at national level. Consensus was reached regarding registration of the association under Society’s Registration Act where in structure of membership of healers’ association was decided. This year, total 108 healers were present online while 22 physically in the programme.
The conversation on the concluding day focused on the topic of “Who should do the Reimagination?”. The discussion centred around how people must come out of their fear and other obstacles to achieve their goals. The session was conducted online as well as offline.
Sourav Roy, Chief, Corporate Social Responsibility, Tata Steel, said: “I am honored by the trust that communities have put in us and enabled the 8th edition of Samvaad. We have been able to listen in and understand messages on aspirations that communities feel must continue moving from one milestone to the other despite challenges. We thank our participants and the audience who joined us globally, both physically and through online platforms and helped us in making this conclave a successful one.”
Over the years, the Samvaad ecosystem has brought together more than 30,000 people from 117 tribes across 27 states of India and 18 countries in the last 6 years, and is also an event that the citizens of Jamshedpur keenly look forward every year. Samvaad encourages tribal communities to take the lead in initiating discourse on issues that govern their social sustenance and development.
Jamshedpur citizens also enjoyed some sumptuous food from the traditional recipes of tribal communities by ordering them through Zomato.
