Speakers
Aabua Paika Kabu Bageya: We Won’t Let Go of Our Paika! | 26 mins | Mundari | 2017 | India
This film screening and panel discussion explores the critical role of self-representation in reclaiming cultural identity. What changes when Adivasi culture is conveyed by Adivasis themselves, rather than through an outside lens?
The program opens with a screening of the documentary Aabua Paika Kabu Bageya: We Won’t Let Go of Our Paika!, centring on Paika, a traditional Munda martial art dance form that serves as a living archive of historical struggle, triumph, and resilience. A panel discussion follows, marking a fundamental shift in perspective: moving away from the historic, colonial lens to honour the Adivasi gaze. Tribal culture, the panel argues, is not a static object to be documented by outsiders or kept in museums, but a dynamic, living identity best understood through narratives produced directly by members of the community themselves. The event concludes with an audience Q&A.
In collaboration with:
Venue: Seminar Hall
Speakers
Sneha Mundari
Sneha Mundari is a filmmaker, visual anthropologist, and design educator belonging to the Munda indigenous community. She is the first female filmmaker from her community. Her work bridges theory and praxis across Indigenous Peoples, Craft and Culture, Cinema Studies, Design Research, critical thinking on the politics of gaze, and the ethics and aesthetics of representation in audio-visual modalities. She holds an undergraduate degree in Film & Video Communication from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, and a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She was also an educator at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. She is currently researching intergenerational knowledge transmission and identity performance in families.
Nandini Tank
Dr. Nandini Tank is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru Central Campus. She belongs to the Kurukh (Oraon) tribe of Ranchi, Jharkhand. She is the founder of AdivasiGeotags, a pioneering digital initiative dedicated to safeguarding sacred sites such as hills, forests, and groves of India’s indigenous communities. Nandini is an Associate Fellow of Adivasi Studies, University of Groningen. She has received eight national and international research grants. Her research areas include Adivasi Youth, Digital Media, Political and Religious Mobilization, and Gender.
