The younger generation amongst the tribal communities are losing touch with their indigenous knowledge systems and oral traditions because of the increasing loss of language, acculturation, urban pressures, paucity of opportunity and time for inter-generational interactivity. Amidst this, the rich tradition of knowledge transfer that usually happens orally from one generation to another is being disrupted.
As part of the Open Elective Course of the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Bengaluru campuses) themed Play Paradigms, the Tribal Design Forum conducted a workshop for fifteen multidisciplinary students from February 14 to 25, 2022 called Tribal Culture and Play.
The workshop explored how various myths, stories, knowledge, skills and technologies of a various tribes could be transferred to the present and the upcoming generations through play.The workshop sought to find ways in which audiences/users/players from tribal communities can be educated and informed about the tribal knowledge systems using myths, stories, knowledge, skill or technology through play – online and offline, individual activity and community activity. This workshop also explored how these activities can be also be extended to the non-tribal population to enable them to understand and appreciate the rich values and nuances of tribal culture.
One of the students from the Tribal Culture and Play workshop, Abhishek Sahu, Strategic Design Management, NID Gandhinagar, will be presenting his learnings from the Baiga community and sharing some of his concepts that could possibly evolve into engaging play to inform audiences about the values and the indigenous knowledge systems of the Baiga community.