Session 5 summary
Tales of the Tribes: Warli, Gond, Saora, Santhal, Tani, Lepcha and Naga Tribes
It was a practice-led project that produced a collection of five short animated films based on indigenous stories from North East and Central India. During the development and production of the series, she collaborated with artists and storytellers in Nagaland, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. She then coordinated the translation and dubbing of the program into five local languages, as well as Hindi and English. In 2017, the Tales of the Tribes was premiered at Patangarh village, in Madhya Pradesh. After that a tour followed to bring the films back to the communities from where the stories originated. This further led her to direct, film and edit a 52 minute long documentary film for Doordarshan 1, The Journey of the Tales of the Tribes (2018).
The project was a combination of Indigenous research and ethics of the tribal community which has often been told by others and dominated by colonial history of representations. Where they often describe the tribal communities as primitive, backward and unchanged. But this is not the case, they do evolve and in no way they are primitive and backward. When going through postcolonial theories, the fact that marginalized subalterns could speak and represent themselves was brought to light, as they were often misinterpreted. Tara Douglas states, how can they be accepted by the animated films? Just like the marginalized communities can speak for themselves, these communities have to have a say in their animated representation by discussing with the media professionals. In Tales of Tribes the stories were chosen from each community. These stories are from Nagaland, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. The story ‘Man, Tiger, Spirit’, was taken from Nagaland, which was very experimental, applying different forms of animation, like using artwork and CGI. In Manipur there were 33 different tribes, so it was quite difficult to choose a story among so many. In the end it ended up being a Maesri Project. In Arunachal Pradesh the Thani story was chosen. In Arunachal Pradesh the elders’ consent was constantly taken under consideration. Thefilming and animation process was done in Arunachal Pradesh and some in Ahmedabad. Jonathan Marchant, an Artist and stop-motion puppet maker helped in the animation and the presenter of Tales of the Tribes is Verrier Elwin. Thus, this gives the work a cross cultural element and helps bringing the story to many places. Inserting local languages was given emphasis to create the local version, so that the films should be available in the language of the community from which the story is taken from. Even the screening was done in Hindi language and to the local audience.
Issues Faced
There were some issues faced during the making of the film.
- Political issues and situations of ethnic conflict that impact representation.
- Discrimination against indigenous communities results in reduced support.
- Demotivation in indigenous and non-indigenous communities and participants.
- long-distance communication is poor with communities in remote areas.
Conclusion
As the younger generation is losing touch with the stories of their communities, therefore there is a rising need to sustain the stories. For this there is a need for contribution towards the stories and give them a new life for the new generation, in the end of this process the local community must benefit from it. As outsiders, the creators do not know what is going on inside the community, so they need to do a thorough research and information gathering and then proceed with the creation to avoid misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the community. It is ethical to give back to the community for developing trust; like long term commitment, transparency, giving acknowledgement and sharing the whole process and the profit, to keep a good relationship with the community for further collaborations. It is also important to know how to adapt the story in the film making, one cannot just translate and adapt, and there might be situations where some comprises have to be made like which stories go well with the theme or what the community prefers to be represented, etc. Finally, a collaboration is a two way learning process- the researchers can learn from the tribe and the indigenous participants would get more exposure and a broader scope of experience.
About the Speaker
Tara Douglas
Adivasi Arts Trust
UK
Tara Douglas is a film-maker, artist and cultural researcher. She was born in India. She graduated with BA Hons Animation from West Surrey College of Art and Design (UK) in 1993. In 2002 Tara became the coordinator in India for an indigenous animation project The Tallest Story Competition (2006), produced by West Highland Animation in Scotland. She directed and animated one of the stories in the series, How the Elephant Lost his Wings. In 2007 she screened The Tallest Story Competition to 20,000 children in schools in Central India and counted votes for the favorite story. Tara completed a Professional Doctorate Tales of the Tribes: Animation as a Tool for Indigenous Representation at Bournemouth University (UK) in 2015. She is a co-founder and Secretary of the Adivasi Arts Trust (UK) (www.adivasiartstrust.org) established in 2007, and a Trustee of the Trust for Tribal Art Culture and Knowledge (India).
The Adivasi Arts Trust received the Engo Award for Promotion of indigenous storytelling in 2017. She is associated with the North-Eastern Hill University in Shillong, Meghalaya for a postdoctoral research project titled The Stories of Our Ancestors (Narrative retellings from North East India). The project is to document the oral narratives of the Wancho and Tankhul communities in North East India and adapt astory from each for a short film. The new series of films will also include stories from Nagaland and the Great Andamanese oral traditions. Tara’s animation and research projects span collaborations with several different Adivasi communities in Central India, (Warli, Gond, Saora and Santhal), as well as with tribal societies in North East India (Naga groups, Tani tribes from Arunachal Pradesh, and Lepchas from Sikkim). She has also facilitated cultural visits between the UK and India through the Adivasi Arts Trust.
