Big Picture

1. Progress Overview of Community Digital Archives of AdibasiSanskrutiGabesanaParishad,Sinapali ,Orissa supported by National Folklore Support Center Chennai MKMishra

2. Big Picture The DCA aims at • Understanding Indian tribal culture and its epistemology in relation to their space and power • Knowing the cultural biodiversity of tribal people from their life cycle and practice • Exploring their eco-cultural system and their ideological processes to know how they construct their world view and religious symbols • Understand how they maintain their harmony with others maintaining their identity in diverse socio-cultural environments

3. Objective • Connect local with global • Document the local knowledge cultural practices and place them in digital systems for a global readership • Recognise community knowledge and develop self-respect • Create a network of community and researchers to give new meaning to their culture through mutual interpretations and sharing

4. Methodology • Community as the provider of information through: • Questionnaires • Discussion • Documentation – in-performance • Analysis of information from context • Sharing with researchers • Using documentation devices such as video and audio recorder and writing ethnography

5. Phase I (April –Sept.08 ) • Selection of community ( Gond/Bhunjia) • Selection of villages after discussion with community leaders • Setting up digital archives in ASGP to provide logistic support • Selection of two research associates • Training of field workers at NFSC, Chennai, on archiving, operation of digital equipment and methods of data collection in the community

6. Initial meetingsMay 08 • ASGP researcher group discussed on CDA • Community welcomes efforts with hope that their culture will be disseminated everywhere. It was a grand recognition of their culture • Leaders of the community shared their views and took the responsibility to document ethnographic information with the help of ASGP. • Educated Lecturers/High School Teachers who are engaged in local knowledge research agreed to translate ethnographic data from Oriya to English .

7. Documentation of EthnographyJune 08 Space : Documentation of whole village as a cultural unit Time : One calendar year Events: All important socio-religious events that take place in the village at different times • Two Gond villages: Litiguda and Arshapara • Two Bhunjia villages: Khalna and Babebir • Chief consultant for Gond : Puturam Majhi and …. • Chief Consultant for Bhunjia : Mohan Chinda and ….

8. Documentation in July 08 • Researchers in the Gond and Bhunjia villages conducted their field work • Community provided support • it was participatory, where children, women and adults were taking part. While adults were taking major role, others were also involved • Video documentation attracted them to capture their performance. • NFSC provided technical support to the Researchers on how the community have access to the digital equipments and archives • Khalna and Arshapara were taken for digital documentation

9. August – September 08 • Two Researchers from ASGP conducted intensive field work to document the questionaires and covered part I , II and 75 % of Part 3.( 3.6.4.5) • Detail narration of socio- cultural practices based on the questions in Oriya language for translation in to English • Details of fairs and festivals and rituals are being documented in Oriya folowing the content, context, and steps of the events

10. October -08 • October is the month of Goddess ( dehelia maas) • Dasahara festival in the selected villages were documented • Gods and goddesses of these four villages have their own family history , clans, and kinship which reveals that the Gond and Bhujia Gods and Goddesses have their own space, territory, family and kins in the locality Gods and goddess assemble in Dasahara and worshipped by the villagers. They bless the people from house to house. • A great philosophy of invisible and visible world is manifested in the Dasahara festival

11. Documentation • Audio-Video: • Seed receiving festival ( BihanChhinajatra) • Dasahara ( worship of village goddesses/gods) • Marriage ceremony of Bhunjia Audio : Bhunjia marriage song( Dharamkota song) Hand written notes: about 400 pages Photographs : about 950

12. What have we done so far ? Community is involved in the programme and they have seen the help video documentation Video CDs are given to the community and they see the performance Every one in the community see the video which is a new experience to see themselves in the screen They discuss how( sarkar) technology has developed to capture their picture, voice, and everything. They discuss the necessity of the event any now think what they have already lost. And what they have remained

13. Reflection • Reflection • The initiative taken to document the Gond and Bhunjia ethnography will reveal the deep meaning of their culture • Local knowledge ( content and process ) will be revealed through the direct/active participation of the community • Esoteric knowledge of the Gond and Bhunjia tribe will explain how they maintain the tradition and identity • even though they change in material world, they are the authority of tradition in ideological world and they understand their space from their worldview. • They understand how they are changing and why their knowledge is important for their politics and identity • Researchers are learners and thus meaning from the researchers is revalidated through meaning from the community . • CDA is to connect the inaccessible local to accessible global.