Collective
Collective Awakening: Learning to document everyday lives of people
Dates: September 1st – September 30, 2024
Location: Online
About the Programme
What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.Dr. Jane Goodall
Collective awakening envisions to make a difference by imparting the art of capturing stories or lived realities of everyday people, who do exceptional – yet seemingly ordinary things for a living. This programme aims to nurture collective awareness to document people’s aspirations, transformations and challenges to drive social change in the dire issues of our times, through storytelling.
India is in many ways the most diverse part of the planet. Be it the language we speak or the food we eat, diverse arts and crafts, culture and literature. Eminent thinkers, activists, academicians and journalists are pointing out to the transformations that our countryside is undergoing, many of these features disappear leaving us poorer. There are for instance diverse styles of weaving with yarn and fibre to handcraft a range of products. Even the artistry of pottery and blacksmithing, crafting implements essential for farming to make ornate household items are integral to the daily lives of the local communities. Many of these crafts are slowly withering away with time and modernity. These communities face real collapse, which would rob the world of some of its greatest gifts. Some unique occupations — professional storytellers, epic poem singers — are also in danger of extinction.
Other professions like toddy tappers, who climb up a palm tree, a height greater than New York’s Empire State Building, sometimes thrice in a season are rapidly losing their livelihoods. Such unique professions and many other highly skilled occupations are dying. We are also simultaneously losing the voices within rural India of which the present and future generation will know little or nothing.
There is surely much in rural areas that needs to change. Be it the caste or gender discriminations, untouchability, bonded labour, exploitation, oppression and regressive practices and more. P. Sainath from PARI network says, “The tragedy, though, is that the nature of the transformation underway more often tends to bolster the regressive and the barbaric, while undermining the best and the diverse”.
We must capture this plurality of perspectives, voices, languages that are different from ours and the occupations that are on the verge of extinction. This is where we come in. Through this workshop we intend to introduce the learners to methods of observation, techniques of recording people’s lives – writing and skills of employing visual media.
- Ideal participants are:
- Passionate about building narratives and telling stories to help spread awareness and create a meaningful impact on our society.
- Highly motivated people who are engaged in storytelling/research/journalism
- Highly motivated and possess a strong interest in the theme, but lack experience – able to contribute different perspectives
Expectations
- Participate in the entire programme
- Deliver a story in text/audio/video/photo essay format in your local context with the cohort
- Participate in a follow-up reflection session to integrate learning (or provide feedback via email/survey)
- Provide input into phase two (optional)
Estimated time commitment: 20-22 hours
- Pre-program orientation: 30 minutes
- During the workshop: 2 x 2-hour sessions, once a week over 4 weeks
- Additional team meetings with mentors as needed: 30 mins/week over 4 weeks: 2 hours
- Final presentation session: 2 hours
- Reflection session/ feedback and evaluation via email: 1 hour
Dates:-
One month Online program
Begins at 11 a.m. on 14 September and ends on 15th October 2024.
Participation fee is 500/-
Application Process
It is a three step process:
Step 1: Filling the application form
Step 2: Confirmation on your participation and sharing the programme joining details.
Application deadline: August 15, 2024.
For more information, please contact
Sanchita Das