Customs

“We have a song for every situation. We feel money takes away from the enjoyment of life. But to earn a livelihood, people have to learn other languages.” – Santal teacher Pada Murmu interviewed by Nandini Nair (OPEN Magazine, 13 January 2017)
https://openthemagazine.com/features/dispatch/santali-talking-time/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21581

Shivaratri celebrations by the Kota community in the Nilgiri mountains – Tamil Nadu

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Videos taken during Shivaratri, the main annual festival celebtrated by the Kota community More videos and background information provided by Venkatesh Lakshmanan >> For an in-depth study of Kota culture and music, refer to Richard K. Wolf’s award-winning study, The Black Cow’s Footprint: Time, Space, and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South India >>

Video | Living with the cycles of nature and understanding that it is bountiful: National award winning documentary “I Cannot Give You My Forest” – Odisha

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I cannot give you my forest is a documentary directed and produced by filmmakers- Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. It has received the National Film Award for Best Environment Film in 2014. Filmed in the forests of Odisha, ‘I cannot give you my forest’ is a window into the lives of the Kondh ‘adivasis’. The … Read more

eJournal | Involving tribal communities in conservation: Sustainable resource use and forest conservation by the Kaani community of Kanyakumari – Tamil Nadu

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3. Sustainable resource use and forest conservation by the Kaani indigenous community of Kanyakumari forests in the Western Ghats, India (Ch. 3, pp. 37-55) in: “Knowing our Lands and Resources: Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices related to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Asia” by Madhav Karki, Rosemary Hill, Dayuan Xue, William Alangui, Kaoru Ichikawa … Read more

India’s tribal, folk and devotional music: Secular and ceremonial songs – An overview

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“The great diversity of music in India is a direct manifestation of the diversity and fragmentation of the population in terms of race, religion, language, and other aspects of culture. Yet the distinction between tribal music and folk music is not always clearly defined.” – N.A. Jairazbhoy To illustrate the above observation, namely “The distinction between … Read more