“[I]n Arunachal Pradesh change as much through creative innovation as through passive adaptation. […] Cultural change is everywhere apparent: textile designs of one tribe are borrowed by others; local festivals are centralised and refashioned as community events; oral traditions are printed and discussed as ‘cultural heritage’. One tribe regularly holds a ‘Fashion Show’ in which young men and women display the latest innovations in traditional dress. Some traditional practices (such as tattooing) have been banned by tribal organisations, while others (woodcarving, for example) are expanding.” – Research Description “Tribal Transitions at SOAS”
https://www.soas.ac.uk/tribaltransitions/description/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=9346
Rites of Passage | Read the full article with illustrations here >> In general, women have a strong connection with the idea of a “vital cycle” not only as life givers, care-takers of children and the home; and their own monthly menstrual cycles. Some women, especially those from the tattoo community within the Gond tribe have a strong … Read more
Anyone who has had some meaningful interaction with India’s indigenous or adivasi people, cannot fail to be touched by the encounter. There is a directness in them, an absence of artifice or guile, an almost childlike innocence, born of simplicity combined with a lack of greed and avarice. The more interior and untouched a village, … Read more
ANTHONY KURIAKOSE narrates how each Naga shawl is a thing of beauty, mystery, history and eternal appeal. And how each shawl wraps in its folds, a unique narrative. In the textile history of India, the warrior shawls of Nagaland have a special place and like their counterpart, the Scottish kilt, these too need to be … Read more
At a time when most art forms of the Scheduled Tribes in the country have faded into oblivion, the Kerala Institute for Research, Training and Development Studies of Scheduled Castes and Tribes (KIRTADS) in Kozhikode is on a mission to revive and reacquaint them to the new generation of the respective tribes. ‘Kol attai, Thotti Attai, Sododimi…’ … Read more
A digital typeface based on Godna tattoo art from Chhattisgarh, and designed in collaboration with three tribal women (Ram Keli, Sunita and Sumitra) from the marginalised in partnership with Dutch designers, origanisations and educational institutions | Continue reading: https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21844