UK Researcher gives Arunachal Pradesh's folk tales an animation push

The evolutionary oral folk tale of a chief of the Wanchos, an indigenous community in the remote Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh that originated from a gourd and many more are likely to be available in an animation film next year for the outside world.

Thanks to Tara Douglas, a researcher and animation film maker from the UK and her project, 'Stories of Our Ancestors' that seeks to document, preserve and present before the world outside through animation, a strong form of visual media.

"There are so many different tribal communities in the Northeast India and they all have fascinating stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Some of these are creation myths; others are vivid historical accounts of conflict over land and habitat. People from outside don’t know about them, and even the younger generations in the villages are losing touch with their oral heritage. We are planning to work together to interpret this material into a contemporary presentation so that audiences worldwide will see the wisdom that they have in these village communities,” Tara told DH.

The 'Stories of our Ancestors' is a project of the North Eastern Hill University based in Shillong, Meghalaya to research and document the oral storytelling traditions of the Wancho of Arunachal Pradesh and the Tangkhul community of Manipur. The North Eastern Council is funding the project and it seeks to prepare two animation short films.

The Wanchos, with a population of nearly nearly 57,000, inhabit mostly the Longding district bordering Myanmar and the entry of tourists to the area is not allowed given its sensitive geography. Tara was granted permission to visit Longding in November last year and she stayed as a guest of a school head master at Kamhua Noknu village for a month. "As few people speak English, I depended on my colleague Jatwang Wangsa to translate the stories that I recorded," she said.

The Wancho Story of the Gourd that Tara selected for the animation is an unusual mythical narrative that tells the story of how the first Wancho Chief was believed to have emerged from a gourd. “Interestingly, through this poetic format the story also represents evolutionary history from an early primal space to then illuminate the relationship of environment and community; disputes over territory, the livelihood activities of hunter-gatherers, traditional agriculture and finally social order and village governance," Tara said.

"We will experiment by creating animated sequences using locally available materials such as clay and beads to see which techniques can be incorporated into the film to give it a specific Wancho visual identity," she added.

Tara, a graduate in animation from West Surrey College of Arts and Design in the UK, spent months in India since 2013 to document tribal folktales through animation as part of her Phd project, 'Tales of the Tribes.' The outcome was a series of short animation movies based on similar folk tales from Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Sikkim.