Culture
Adivasi Academy
India
The Adivasi – an umbrella term for the tribal groups considered to be the aboriginal population of India – are facing powerful social and economic pressures that lead many to abandon their own language in favor of Hindi, Gujarati, or English. Adivasi Academy, based in Tejgadh, Gujarat, is working to save the many endangered languages of the linguistically diverse Indian subcontinent by seeking to show its students that their native languages and cultures are worth preserving. To learn more, read this piece about Adivasi Academy on the Vikalp Sangam website.
Photo by Sonal Baxi, Bhasha Research and Publication Centre
Babahan Subak Association
Indonesia
The Babahan Subak Association in the Tabanan province of Bali is a water-sharing farmer cooperative that upholds traditional organic farming methods and maintains an educational gathering space to share the practice, history, and spiritual and cultural significance of rice farming with locals and visitors. Learn more on the Uma Wali Facebook page (in Indonesian), and by contacting Emas Hitam Indonesia (English and Indonesian).
https://www.facebook.com/umawali.bali
Building A Local Economy (BALE)
USA
BALE engages in a number of grassroots community localization initiatives from their home base in the White River watershed of Vermont. The overarching goal of these efforts is “to build appropriately scaled solutions from the ground up, taking back, as much as possible, our economy, our culture, and our democratic instruments by re-injecting humanity and authentic relationships into all that we do.” Projects include The Commons @ BALE (a community space open to all and used most evenings of the year), a community solar initiative, a local investment club, a documentary film series, and a Locally Grown Guide to local businesses. Learn about these projects and more at https://balevt.org.
Honey Bee Network
India
The Honey Bee Network is a collective of organizations that share information about appropriate technology, grassroots innovation, folklore, and medicinal plants, sourced from villages throughout India. Honey Bee travels to rural areas to seek out local people who have developed innovative human-scale solutions to everyday problems; so far it has documented more than 100,000 ideas and traditional practices. The network publishes this collective wisdom in an online database, and publishes a quarterly newsletter in English and seven Indian languages. Browse the database and learn about Honey Bee’s many other activities on their website.
Indonesia Biru
Indonesia
Inspired by Gunter Pauli’s concept of the Blue Economy, Indonesia Biru (“Blue Indonesia”) is a video series documenting traditional local practices throughout the archipelago which put Blue Economy principles into action. Two journalists traveled by motorbike around the country for one year, creating 32 short videos that highlight examples of indigenous wisdom and locally-adapted innovation, covering alternative energy, farming practices, natural resource management, conservation and social justice issues, traditional village organization, governance practices, and more. Watch the video series and read this article to learn more (links in Indonesian).
Photo: Paul Hessels/Flickr
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpXudXDFSnuqPoc4xnNq2uEM4PkzITNkH