Category Archives: Tribal elders

“We plant the trees for our children in the memory of our elders who planted for us.” – Fundia Bai Parte of Korku village in Betul (Madhya Pradesh), interviewed in “Protectors dubbed criminals” by Aparna Pallavi (Down To Earth, 7 June 2015)
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/protectors-dubbed-criminals-38993
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20447

“The Adivasi Munnetra Sangam, Gudalur, spearheaded a movement that prevents Adivasi children from dropping out of school, by involving local tribal communities in the process. [It] appointed village elders in all tribal hamlets and have given them the responsibility to take [2,800 tribal] children to school, wait till classes get over, and then return.” – Former Founder-Trustee of the Viswa Bharathi Vidyodaya Trust, Bhaskaran Ramdas interviewed in “Grassroots movement to keep kids in school” by Rohan Premkumar The New Indian Express, 11 August 2016)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20832

“We were there, we are here and we will be there (Hum the, hum hain aur hum rahenge).” – Vandna Tete (General secretary, Jharkhandi Bhasha Sahitya Sanskriti Akhra) during the first-ever all-India tribal women writers’ meet, quoted in “City platform for tribal women writers” (The Telegraph, 8 September 2017)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22856

“Literature on adivasis, shaped by perspectives of authors who may or may not have interacted or studied the tribals and their lives, could be romantic flights of the imagination or grim portraits about trials and tribulations of the tribals. Irked by these fanciful and wrong representations of his community, Narayan, a member of the Malaarayar tribal community in Kerala, took up the pen to write the first authentic novel written by an adivasi in South India [who] reminds us, yet again, how these children of the land were marginalised by the state, the establishment and organised religion. From proud farmers, practitioners of traditional medicine and guardians of the land, the tribals became displaced and dispossessed, dependent on the largesse of the State to protect their lands and, most importantly, their cultural identity.” – Saraswathy Nagarajan in “Found in translation” reviewing Kocharethi by Narayan, “a novel based on experiences told by the author’s elders” (The Hindu, 27 April 2011)
https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/article1772998.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1459

“By addressing the needs of users of indigenous languages and offering an adequate response to the challenges indigenous people face in maintaining and transmitting their languages from one generation to another, the global community acknowledges the wider and special significance of all indigenous languages and their role in and relevance to peacebuilding, good governance, sustainable development and reconciliation within our societies.” – “Summary report on the International Year of Indigenous Languages, 2019” (United Nations, 14 February 2020)
https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N20/040/59/PDF/N2004059.pdf?OpenElement
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=46777

“The national media focuses on the negative. We are providing positive stories- stories about who has survived and how we are all pitching in to help each other and take care of our elders.”- From the Editors in “On the front lines: Journalism may never be so needed – or so endangered” (American Indian Magazine, Smithsonian, Summer 2020)
www.AmericanIndianMagazine.org