Hornbill Festival: Elders share tales of tradition, change and identity

December 9, 2023 37 Views No Comment

Morung Express News
Kohima | December 9

Wangkep (77) and Teilie (62) sit outside the Konyak Morung and sip on their bamboo mugs as they converse in their dialect. These elders at the Heritage Village watch the busy crowd passing them with delight.

It is for the first time, their far flung village, Yannyu, bordering Arunachal Pradesh has been selected to represent the Konyak tribe at the Hornbill Festival.

Sipping his tea, Wangkep says Konyak is a big ‘jat,’ meaning a big tribe and it is a rare opportunity for them to be chosen to come here. Every year the ‘keyu’/union selects a village to participate here, further describing the golden opportunity for them.

Defying age, Teilie says his maiden journey to Kohima was filled with excitement and curiosity as he posits, “I couldn’t eat or sleep out of excitement.” However, these elders are immediately overrun with nostalgia, as they observe that only “tribal participants” are aware of the songs and dances.

“How do we learn, if we do not practice?” Wangkep leaves us to ponder as he describes how most of the things are becoming easy and modernized; unlike traditional knowledge and practices fast diminishing.

He says tribal troupes are more than just representatives of their tribes. “Our songs or dances, that we are presented are not being taught, but it is because we have been practicing what our forefathers have been doing,” the elder asserts.

74 year old Ngauku (spelling may differ) represents his Chang Community from Tuensang village. For him, the festival is but a way of taking him back to his roots. Ngauku sees the Hornbill Festival as all tribes coming together for first time and like a big ‘Church’ programme, he said, “we had to follow the time given by the government.”

Still active in his daily farming, Ngauku says back in the village, life is monotonous in the cycle of cultivation. “One season comes, we clear jungle, we cultivate, maize, rice, paddy field,” he says, adding that the Hornbill Festival this year will enable him to contemplate the year’s hard work.

“After working for a year, we come here to celebrate,” he says. For him, singing and dancing in the Hornbill Festival is endless. “I feel very happy here. Many plain people (mainland Indian) and people who take pictures come to take our photos. And when we start beating the log drum, everyone comes and gathers to see our tribe. This gives me so much happiness,” the elder who is participating at the Hornbill Festival for the second time after 2016 says.

However, this merry making may not be just quarter of what their forefathers practiced and it’s significances may not be fully represented. The elder, in his own words and knowledge opines that traditionally women are not permitted to beat the log drum or come to sit in the Morungs or dance, sing or cry.

For instance, Wangkep says Morungs are place which are highly respected and punishment for any violations were similarly very severe.

55 year old Hetilo says he has seen how his forbears lived. This Tesophenyu village native of the Rengma tribe adorns his minimal traditional gears, a handed down cotton shawl, a cotton bag and an ornamented cotton cloth to cover his buttock and a neckpiece.

One day soon, there will not be anybody to pass this knowledge down the way it is, Hetilo says. He feels that therefore it is necessary to incorporate traditions and customs by teaching the younger generation so that they can transcend beyond the Hornbill Festival.

Hitelo suggests that elders who have strictly practiced their traditions and customs should be approached at village level to teach others what they have done in the past, be it songs, dances, dresses, or the significances behind these elements.

“If we forget our traditions and stop practicing it in the right way, we will also lose our blessings and make a mockery of ourselves,” Hitelo laments.

For Teilie, the Hornbill Festival stands out because it brings all Nagas together and tells people who they are, what defines their tribes and what binds them. However, he says that the Hornbill Festival is not because of them but because of their forefathers; for the amount of knowledge they held and the connection to their past.

Traditions flow from the old to the young because elders hold knowledge and have connection to their past. These elders however lament that these connections are being severed with the advent of modernity and technology.