Adivaani

Adivaani is a media platform that aims to support indigenous expression and assertion, based in Kolkata, India. It is a publishing, archiving and chronicling outfit of and by India's Adivasi tribes.

WWW adivaani.org

History

After attending a four-month publishing course in 2012, Ruby Hembrom started Adivaani on realising the absence, invisibility, and erasure of tribal representation in media, curriculum, and societal discourse. It was registered as a non-governmental organization on 19 July 2012.
Adivaani is a combination of Sanskrit word 'adi' meaning 'first', 'original', 'ancient' or 'earliest', and 'vaani' meaning 'voice'. Adivaani translates to the 'first voices'. Adivaani is the first publishing outfit of and by indigenous people of India to publish in the English language, Hembrom co-opted two others to collaborate with, one of whom still remains with Adivaani as a volunteer.

Work

Adivaani aims to document and disseminate knowledge systems of the Adivasis in multiple languages, including English. Thereby, making indigenous knowledge and history accessible to indigenous communities.

Books

Adivaani's first two books were released at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2013: Gladson Dungdung's Whose Country is it anyway? and, Ruby Hembrom and Boski Jain's We Come from the Geese. Within a year, it had published 19 books, including to anthologies.

Movies

Adivaani made a documentary film on the making and playing of the Santhal lute and fiddle, the banam.