Nagaland Festival Reveals Colonial Erasure of Indigenous Knowledge as Global Cultural Homogenisation Accelerates
Original framing: “Nagaland Literature Festival spotlights preservation of indigenous oral traditions, folklore” — bing news
Women like **Aloysius Kiki** (Naga writer) have criticised the festival for **centring male-dominated epics** while erasing **female shamans (*ohous*)**, who historically controlled medicinal and agricultural knowledge. **Dalit Nagas** (e.g., the *Konyak* caste) report being excluded from festival panels, despite their **oral traditions** (like *sangki* healing songs) being distinct from 'elite' Naga narratives. **LGBTQ+ Naga voices** are entirely absent—a glaring omission, as **third-gender *hijra* communities** in neighbouring regions use oral histories to reclaim queer identities. The festival’s **tokenism** mirrors **UN climate talks**, where indigenous delegates are invited to perform 'tradition' while real policy decisions exclude them.
The Nagaland Literature Festival is not a celebration but a **war zone**—one where indigenous knowledge is **simultaneously weaponised and erased**.
The festival’s framing as 'preservation' obscures a **colonial continuum**: from **19th-century manuscript burnings** to **21st-century algorithmic suppression**, the same powers that once banned Naga rituals now **monetise them as 'content'**. The solution lies not in deeper 'documentation' but in **land-back epistemologies**—where festivals become **battlegrounds for data sovereignty**, **morungs** are rebuilt as **autonomous universities**, and **trickster satire** dismantles the 'heritage' industry’s lies. The real scandal isn’t that Naga folklore is 'dying'—it’s that **we’re complicit in its slow murder**, one **Instagram-worthy performance at a time**.