Introduction
The perspective of the Culture & People Group is to strengthen culture and traditions especially when indigenous people are unable to continue them. There is a growing awareness among our people on the need for keeping the traditions. Nowadays, most folks think only of their economic status while some are migrating to other places, this Read more »
Small Steps
Keystone’s new Programme area of Institutional Development & Local Governance, is progressing at the conceptual level & with a concept note on institutions, including both Keystone and village level institutions. Some initial discussions have been done with village groups to judge their initial reactions. A local group of Adivasis youth formed a group called `Ajile Read more »
Conservation Award & Seemai Hubba
Keystone organized a Conservation Village Award and Seemai Hubba (Festival on Ancestral Domains) on 24th and 25th June 2010. Indigenous communities from places like Kotagiri, Coonoor, Sigur, Pillur, Hasanur, Punanjanur and Nilambur participated. The purpose, as seen from the title above, was 2 fold -firstly, to get communities to start thinking and acting on conservation Read more »
Crafts Revival Project
A crafts revival project has been undertaken among three of the Nilgiri’s indigenous groups, the Kurumbas, the Kotas and the Todas. Funded by Toyota Foundation, the aim of this project is to revive the traditional crafts of these groups which are the major ways of expressing their cultural history. Kurumba paintings inspired by rock art Read more »
Community Radio Project
Information is power and conversely lack of information is often lack of power. Whether it is information regarding the various schemes/programmes that are available for their benefit or about their land records or about the special legal provisions for their protection, there is a whole range of issues where information denied translates into denial of Read more »
Ajile Bottu
Among the various forms of art, painting was known to be used right from the ancient cave paintings to capture the emotions & expressions. Painting is the visual documentation of man’s thought and experience which can be retained for a long period. Nestled in the Nilgiris are indigenous people who survive on forest produce and Read more »
USHA Silai (Thayyal) School
A project of Usha International Limited, the “USHA Silai School” is a school for teaching girls and women in the village to sew, to be operated and maintained by a Woman Entrepreneur using an USHA sewing machine. The project involves setting up of USHA Silai Schools in villages all over India, with a capacity to Read more »
Conserving the Sacred
The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is identified as being a representative of the bio geographical zone of the Western Ghats and has rich tracts of biodiversity and home to indigenous communities. The sacred groves in the reserve have had deep and ancient association with the indigenous communities. These sacred groves were considered as sacred burial grounds Read more »
