The access to autonomous communication and documentation systems for Indigenous communities has been recognised by the Indigenous Partnership playing a fundamental role in the pathway for the recognition of their right to selfdetermined development and knowledge sharing. Therefore, a Participatory Video Training, supported by the Indigenous Partnership and Insightshare,took place in Northeast India, in the remote village of Nongtraw. It resulted in three short films about local food practices that were shown at Indigenous Terra Madre 2011 in Jokmokk, Sweden. Community members decided to focalise the Participatory video on local millet cultivation, medicinal root harvesting for tea, and beekeeping for honey collection, underling the importance of millet as an emerging local food resource strongly related to local traditional culture. They identified Participatory Video as a suitable instrument to implement awareness on the importance of local knowledge in conserving food and agrobiodiversity, especially on the meaning of millet. A second training was conducted by Insigtshare in December 2011, giving to the community members the possibility to improve their technical skills and to use Participatory Video in their millet campaign, involving 170 participants directly or indirectly. At the time of making the first film, only four people in the village of 285 were growing and eating millet. Nine months later, 15 households were growing millet.
To learn more…
Ngim Khuslai – No Need to Worry (Participatory Video, Nongtraw village, Megahlaya, India)