When the Hills Remember: Unearthing Poumai Naga Indigenous Knowledge from Seed to Spirit through the Paoki Festival
| Author |
| Paveine Taishya |
| Date of Publication: December, 2024 |
| Volume: XXIII, No.- XXVI |
| Abstract |
| In the face of global ecological crises and cultural marginalization, Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) have emerged as crucial frameworks for sustainability, resilience, and epistemic justice. Yet, within India, particularly the Northeast, minor Indigenous communities like the Poumai Nagas remain critically underrepresented in academic and policy discourse. This study centers on the Paoki Festival, a sacred agricultural ritual of the Poumai people, as a living archive of ecological intelligence, ancestral timekeeping, and intergenerational transmission of environmental ethics. Grounded in Indigenous Epistemology, Ecocriticism, and Biocultural Memory Theory, this paper examines the festival’s embedded knowledge through qualitative, interpretive methods. Rituals such as ginger divination, lunar observation, gendered labor, and symbolic hospitality are analyzed not as cultural performances, but as epistemic systems rooted in land, spirit, and community. Drawing from the works of Smith (1999), Berkes (2018), and Jessen et al. (2021), the paper presents the Paoki Festival as a pedagogical and ecological framework that holds untapped relevance for climate resilience and cultural sustainability. The study addresses the pressing problem of epistemic invisibility faced by smaller Indigenous groups and argues for the inclusion of Poumai IKS in broader discourses on education, policy, and environmental governance. By foregrounding the Paoki Festival, this research not only contributes to the growing archive of Indigenous ecological thought, but also affirms that the enduring spirit of the Poumai Nagas who are rooted in land, ritual, and remembrance, offers essential pathways for reimagining sustainability through ancestral knowledge. |
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