Inakali Assumi receives Samvaad Fellowship 2022

November 23, 2022 35 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Kohima | November 23

Inakali Assumi, author & researcher has been awarded the prestigious Samvaad Fellowship by the Tata Steel Foundation. The Samvaad Fellowship is an initiative that was conceptualised in 2017 with the view to address one of the ecosystem’s core objectives “to document and hence, preserve a body of knowledge and a world view that runs the risk of being obliterated.”

She is among the eight fellows selected for Samvaad Fellowship 2022 and will be documenting the Vanishing Sümi Folksongs under the fellowship. The other fellows include Changam Wangsa, Kirat Brahma, Rashida Kousar, Arif Ali, Sara Batool, Suman Purty, and Bholeshwar. The eight fellows were selected from out of 176 applicants from across the country.

Inakali Assumi, who was in Jamshedpur from November 14-19 to receive the fellowship and was also part of the workshop and research field visit, said she will be documenting the vanishing Sümi Folksongs both visually as well in written form.

“For sustainability of the folksongs, I have also planned to revive some of the vanishing cultural practices such as the Morung so that the body of knowledge can be passed on to the upcoming generation”, she said. Pointing to a particular genre of song called “Isüle”, she expressed regret that “the only person who knew the 12 songs of Isüle” passed away a few years ago.”

“Most of the songs passed away with the death of the grandfather”, she said while stating that “an attempt will be made to visit some of the villages and try to find out those similar songs so that they will not face the same threat.” She also worked on some aspects of folksongs for her Ph.D as well while putting across that “this is an area that I have always been interested in.”

Mention may be made here that over the last 5 years, the Samvaad Fellowship has a cohort of 30 fellows from 27 tribes and 13 states of India. This year, there was an overwhelming 176 applications from 68 tribes from 22 states and 3 UTs of the country. These applications were scrutinised and evaluated internally and then 28 applications were sent to jury members who evaluated it and based on their scores, the best 18 pitched their project in front of the jury after which, the eight fellows were selected.

Source: https://morungexpress.com/inakali-assumi-receives-samvaad-fellowship-2022