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Life in Territories

Tea and coffee plantations in southern India encroach on Indigenous Peoples’ ways of life and territories, threatening the protection of their sacred groves. WORDS AND IMAGES Lakshmi Unnithan   . Are our modern temples different from sacred groves? Sacred groves are patches of trees on forestland, representations and remains of what forests used to be

Flower Gardens and Collective Knowledge

A Phool Mali youth connects with the gardening and agricultural traditions of her ancestors. Geeta Vishnu Ingle . What is common to honeybees and Phool Mali people? Flower gardens and collective knowledge! I am Geeta Vishnu Ingle, a twenty-six-year-old native of Pimpri Mali village, Mehkar Taluka, Buldhana district of the Indian state of Maharashtra. I

A Journey into the Heart of Dayak Farming

After two decades in the city, a young Dayak woman reconnects with the land and the traditional farming practices of her ancestors. WORDS AND IMAGES Sumarni Laman . At the heart of the Dayak Ngaju community of Borneo lies a farming tradition deeply intertwined with nature — a practice so harmonious that it forms a

Revisiting Abandoned Footpaths and Values

A quest to uncover the Feast of Merit leads a young Naga woman to rediscover her culture and homeland. WORDS Küvethilü Thülüo | IMAGES Küthonüyi Chotso . My earliest memory of visiting my paternal grandparents was when my grandmother Azutsa told me to avoid sitting in certain spots in her kitchen because a bird was

Whispers of the Forest

An ancient healing practice persists and thrives in the forests of a territory of life in central India. Shubham A. Agrawal . Whispers of a hidden community, nestled within the heart of Chhattisgarh’s ancient forests, have captivated explorers for a long time. Tales of Dewari healers wielding nature’s secrets, their remedies carried on the wind,

Enspirited Landscapes

In the heart of the Hengduan Mountains of southwest China, Qiangic-speaking peoples maintain their bond with culture, place, and the spirit world. Dan Meir . I first became interested in Indigenous mountain peoples when I worked in the Inner Himalaya region of Nepal as a community forester from 1984 to 1991. Back then, though, I

The Past Is Our Future

During our visit to her millet farm, Pagung Tomi shared stories.

In the mountains of Taiwan, Tayal community members reaffirm their ancestral knowledge and cultural identity to protect their territory of life. WORDS Manju Maharjan and Yih-Ren Lin | IMAGES Manju Maharjan   . Taiwan has many Indigenous groups, of which sixteen are officially recognized today. In 2005, the national government promulgated the Indigenous Peoples’ Basic

My Body, My Ancestor, My Home

Lacking roots in either of his ancestral places of origin, a Chinese-French dancer learns to inhabit his own body as a territory of life. Chang Liu I am having an intense “in-of-body” experience. In the forty-degree-Celsius heat, my white shirt is plastered to my skin, and the folds of my johng-graben — the red sarong

Homecoming

In a fictional account set in the near future, a Badaga woman finds her way back home to the forest of her dreams in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India. WORDS Monisha Raman | IMAGES Sindha Joghee “We have honored the past and we have not blindly adopted the new.” — Badaga proverb . As

Fishing in Troubled Waters

Loktak Lake fishers in Northeast India assert their inherent right to their territory of life. WORDS AND IMAGES Salam Rajesh . In the cold, misty winter morning before daybreak, Koi Tomba huddled in his dugout canoe stretching out the length of his gillnet that must be laid on the water, the upper line just below