Unity in Diversity (and protest) - Cultural Diversity Festival 2010

Unity in Diversity (and protest)

A colourful indigenous cultural festival ended on December 5 with a riot of colours and emotions erupting on stage were larger-than-life exhilarating performances revealed the arts and mysteries of indigenous culture at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.

This festival is organised by UNDP's Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility (CHTDF) and Ministry of Hill Tracts Affairs every year and has become a hallmark for building awareness about indigenous communities among the population.

There were 156 stalls by indigenous communities exhibiting handicrafts, paintings, food especially different types of pies and pithas, traditional attires and ornaments and much more.

The four day long cultural events and festival saw almost 300 indigenous performers from around 23 different ethnic groups including Chakma, Marma, Bawm, Tanchangya, Rakhain, Tripura, Garo, Santal and other communities. The event included several traditional performances such as the water festival song, the funeral dance of the Marma group, the harvesting dance of the Khumi group and the famous Bamboo Dance of the Bawm.

Although the objective of the event is to showcase the rich diversity and cultural heritage of indigenous people, this year 300 ethnic minority artistes protested by going on a token hunger strike during the event because there honorarium was reduced.

Speaking to The Independent earlier, chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council (CHTRC) Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma aka Santu Larma accused the UNDP CHTDF of cultural aggression “The cultural festival, organised by the CHTDF cannot promote the genuine culture of the indigenous people, rather it is destroying the real traditional culture of the ethnic communities in the CHT.”

Photos by Safina Ilias

*This article was first published in The Independent, December 09 2010

http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=27&date=2010-12-09