A Presentation made during the visit of Ms. Niyati Mehta, Programme Officer (Media and Arts) from the Sir Dorabji Tata and Allied Trusts to evaluate NFSC and its Tamilnadu Archive at Ashakulam in Villupuram district on April 12, 2010.

1. Funded by the TATA Educational Trust

5. Traditionally, Vaagris are hunters, trappers, and fowlers.
Currently, some have become vendors of glass bangles,
beads and necklaces, needles, hair pins, kumkum
[saffron], cosmetics, dolls, safety pins, combs and toys.
Men use catapults, loaders, and portable snares for
hunting birds and animals. Womenfolk show excellent
skill in making colourful bead necklaces.

8. Being a nomadic community, the Narikuravas face extreme
discrimination in society. They are labelled thieves and
plunderers and are often not allowed to stay within villages
and towns or sell their wares. Being extremely disjointed as
a community has further weakened their voices against
oppression. Their culture, though vibrant, is a constantly
changing one, lacks any kind of documentation as does
Vaagri-boli, their language.

9.  As a nomadic community, Narikuravas face extreme
discrimination in society.
 The Narikurava tribe in the state lack solidarity and are broken
up into mutually opposing groups.
 The fast evolving culture of this nomadic community lacks any
kind of documentation.
 Vaagri-Boli the language spoken by the community too, has not
been studied or documented comprehensively

10. The need to integrate the community is of utmost importance.
So is the importance of educating the common populace about the
Narikuravas and their culture and tradition.
The DCA intends to integrate the Narikuravar in the documentation
process as participants, both as viewers and recorders, as well as
potential communicators of their own for visual production across
ethnic/social boundaries. This was in keeping with the realization
that digital documentation would need innovative and participatory
approaches.

11.  The Narikuruva Digital Community Archive [DCA] is located at Ashakulam in
Villupuram [160kms away from Chennai]
 We have collaborated with Prof. Bhakthavatsala Bharati, (Head, Department of
Anthropology, Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture, Puducherry)
 Our current staff at the archive are Lavanya, Veerappan, Raja and Latha.

13. As part of the digital archiving process, the staff has been
consistently documenting and recording life cycle ceremonies
such as:
 Marriages
 Birth ceremony
 Death ceremony
 Puberty attaining ceremony
 Rituals of local goddesses like Kali, Mariamman etc

14.  We have been constantly documenting (through
photographs, video and audio recordings) the culture and
lore of the community
 Currently our archive has:
o 13,500 photographs
o 220 hours video footage
o 80 hours of voice recording
o 1400 Vaagri words for Lexicon

15.  Following extensive fieldwork with the community, a
documentary film, “Narikuravar” was produced by NFSC in
2009.
 This movie which is now broadcasted on our new
YouTube channel, serves as an introductory film to the
community.

16. In 2009 we published “Vagri Material
Culture” -a resource book for the Vaagri
Community. The book comes through as a
collaborative effort from Prof.
Bhakthavatsala Bharathi, Ilavenil, a
professional photographer, NFSC staff and
the community members.
Eight districts in Tamilnadu were surveyed
and photographed according to
anthropological categories to make this
book which will serve as medium to bridge
the gap between the Vaagris and the rest of
the world.

17. Our second publication about the
Vaagris, Gabriele Alex’s book
“Learning and Embodying Caste,
Class and Gender—Patterns of
Childhood in Rural Tamil Nadu,”
is based on ethnographic research
carried out amongst children and
youths.

18.  NFSC is documenting the vast knowledge that the
Narikuravas have about wild herbs and medicinal plants.
 In the first leg of this documentation, we have documented
the medicinal knowledge of a settlement in Thirupathur, near
Sivagangai in Tamil Nadu.
 53 medicinal plants have been identified and documented.
The documented footage will be disseminated to the
community & thereafter we would help build networks to
assist to market and sell these unique herbal preparations.

21. NFSC has entered into collaboration with Prof. G.
Srinivasa Varma, a renowned linguist from Annamalai
University, for the publication of a dictionary of Vaagri-
boli.
Even though Vaagri-Boli is considered a dialect of Gujarati,
the syntax, grammar, lexical structure and grammatical
structure have changed because of the heavy borrowing
from other south-Indian languages and Marathi.
A dictionary in Vaagri therefore would be a definite step
forward in resource development for the community.

22. Apart from regular documentation done by fieldworkers,
NFSC conducts programmes on a regular basis for the
overall development of the Narikuravas.
These programmes conducted in collaboration with like-
minded institutions as well as enthusiastic individuals who
have something to share with the community, come under
the Civic Engagement Initiative of NFSC.

23. Young adults are being trained regularly by the NFSC staff
in the use of various equipments for audio and visual
documentation at the archive.
This was in keeping with the realization that digital
documentation would need innovative and participatory
approaches.

29.  Prof. Peter Claus from California State University conducted a
five-day workshop on documenting children’s games for students
of Dakshinachitra, Chennai, at the Ashakulam settlement.
 As part of her student internship at NFSC, Padini Nirmal, a
research student from the US, spent two weeks in Ashakulam
archive studying the Narikuravas.
 Mr. M. Manivannan, NFSC, has been engaged in theatre
workshops and games for children since August 2009.

32. The “Ashakulam Narikurava Skill Enhancement Programme”
(ANSEP) was organized in 2009 in collaboration with Nirmala
Shrethar and Ilangovan of ArtServ to train Vaagri women on bead
making and marketing their new products to a wider market.
Through this endeavour NFSC is trying to enhance the livelihood
opportunities of Vaagri women for making beads according to
modern day demands.

33. As a continuation to this initiative, a second workshop on bead
making is being planned for this year.
This time around NFSC will assist the Vaagri bead makers to avail
loans for bead making and assist them to sell their beads to a larger
market.

34. NFSC arranged a World Gypsy Music Concert at the
Ashakulam settlement in Villupuram on April 14, 2009.
The concert was performed by Gypsy musician Oliver
Rajamani and his associates, Jobi, Steve Markham, Richard
and Suresh from Texas, US.
The concert was a huge hit with the Narikuravas, both
children and elders.

37. The dissemination of “Vagri Material Culture” -The
process of returning the publication to the community as a
repository of their culture has also been undertaken.
The field staff of NFSC took the publication to 38
Narikuravar settlements in Tamil Nadu and documented
the community’s responses to the book.

42. NFSC organised a huge community gathering at
Villupuram that brought together Vaagris from several
districts to address their issues.
This gathering saw a participation of around 400 people
from Narikurava communities from all over Tamil Nadu,
close to 80 NGOs working with the Narikuravas and also
representation from the Narikurava Welfare Board.
The gathering had many audio visual presentations on
different issues concerning the Narikuravas.

47. NFSC has initiated the process of handing over the
management of the archive to the Narikurava community
itself.
For this purpose a five-member citizen’s committee has
been set up at Ashakulam.
The committee meets weekly to review the functioning of
the archive and make the necessary changes to ensure
smooth functioning.

48. NATIONAL FOLKLORE SUPPORT CENTRE
CHENNAI
Presented By: Aakaash Nair, Programme Officer, NFSC
© 2010