First settlers - will they last?

Samath BALACHANDRA

VANNIYALAETTO: A hot evening sun and a gale of dust greeted us - a group of journalists from Colombo - at the Kotabakiniya village in Dambana.

Kotabakiniya was the venue of a unique event, a 'conference'. But, it was not of course the BMICH style one. There were no comfy chairs, no ACs or fans to cool you off, no costly decorations and no public address system.

Instead the 'delegates', clad in sarongs and carrying short axes on their bear chests, sat on reed mats under the shady trees. The cool jungle breeze made the hot rays of the sun almost ineffective.

Hidden among the huge tree canopy were a myriad of feathered songsters and songstresses of varying hues and they sang a sweet, melodious evening song.

The Adivasis, Veddhas or Vanniyalaetto - as they proudly called themselves - the Sri Lanka's aboriginal inhabitants, marked this year's World Indigenous People's Day with a conference at Kotabakiniya village in Dambana. Dambana, the last Bastian of the Veddhas or Adivasis was a hive of activity on August 8 - the World Indigenous People's Day.

The Adivasi community, displaced by the accelerated Mahaweli Development Project, are living at Danigala, Dalukana, Pollebedda, Nilgala and Rathugala areas of the Uva, North Central and Eastern Provinces.

The primary objective of this year's World Indigenous People's Day was to gather together all of the Adivasi families.

The four clans of the Adivasi community living scattered across the above areas were brought together for a conference organised by the Vanniyaletto Sanvidhanaya and assisted by the Green Movement of Sri Lanka.

Although Dambana had hosted such Adivasi meetings on several occasions earlier, this was the first time that all the four clans of the Adivasis were gathered for a conference.

Represented by the respective clan heads and headed by the Adivasi chieftain Uruwarige Vanniyalaetto, they jointly aired their problems and grievances to the world.

The 'conference' made an ideal platform for them to make a strong voice for the protection of their cultural heritage.

The four clans of Adivasis had somewhat similar problems. They focused their attention on the effects of Government legislature on their cultural integrity. Headed by Chieftain Uruwarige Vanniyalaetto, they made a strong plea and appealed to the authorities to find viable and sustainable solutions to their problems.

Among the major problems they shared was the lack of adequate lands for their community.

Their pleas on this particular problem, though the circumstances were different, reminded one of that great Red Indian Chief Seattle's reply to a US Government official when he came to buy Red Indian lands.

The accelerated Mahaweli Development Project compelled them to leave their traditional lands and relocate on new Mahaweli lands. Although they may have benefited from the Mahaweli Development Project, it dealt a final blow to what was left of their hunter-gatherer mode of existence.

The accelerated Mahaweli Development Project made many wild animals including elephants 'homeless' and to accommodate those wild denizens, the Maduru Oya National Park was created. This saw the eviction of Veddhas from their traditional hunting grounds.

Since then they have been re-located elsewhere on new Mahaweli lands. This forced them to completely give up their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life and take up farming instead.

Though some of the Adivasis have been issued with an 'identity card' by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC) to enter into national parks to engage in their traditional way of life on a limited scale, its value had been made useless by some of the stubborn officials manning those parks.

When one considers the damage inflicted on National Parks and protected wilderness areas by organised gangs with political patronage, who engage in illegal logging, the flourishing bush meat trade and the damage done by chena cultivators, the use of the forest by the Adivasis is of negligible proportions.

The majority of the Adivasis, young and old alike, to whom we have spoken, spoke very highly of their culture and the dire necessity to protect same from the outside influences. Especially the cultural shock they experience when they are visited by foreign and local tourists is enormous.

Those visitors carrying cellular phones, digital cameras, sporting high fashions and flashy autos will surely make a devastating impact on their fragile and humble way of life.

It was heartening to see that apart from the aged or middle aged Adivasis, most of the younger generation showed a remarkable interest in safeguarding their culture and traditions.

Almost all the older generation of Adivasis said they could still vividly remember with veneration the 'Hudu Hura' - Dr. R. L. Spittel, that legendary friend of the Veddhas.

Dr. Spittel was greatly fascinated by the Veddhas of Lanka and it made him spend much of his time with his treasured 'friends' deep in the jungles of Mahiyangana. He had converted those memorable experiences with the Veddhas into best selling books which are hot favourites among the nature-mad.

Though they are numerically insignificant today, there had been a healthy population covering almost all parts of the island. Now numbering less than 3,000 individuals, they have almost equalled Lanka's dwindling wild elephant population numerically.

Both species are threatened with extinction and are confronted with somewhat similar factors for their numerical depletion.

Headed by their chieftain Uruwarige Vanniyalaetto, the Adivasi community is making great efforts to protect and nurture their cultural heritage. They are not only a part of our great heritage but also of the world heritage.

With modernisation and industrialisation staring at them and threatening their very existence, only we, the so-called civilised world can lend a helping hand and ensure them that their days are not numbered.

With malnutrition high among the younger generation coupled with lack of proper healthcare facilities these last remnants of the original Veddhas have a bleak future.

Now surrounded by Sinhala villages and sprawling cities with most modern amenities aplenty and the inter marriage with Sinhalese, the threat to their very existence is real.

In a fast changing world, where globalisation spreading its tentacles far and wide encompassing every nook and corner of the remotest places of the world and specially the modernisation and industrialisation inching towards them and pushing them to the walls, the Adivasis cannot simply bury their heads in sand like the proverbial ostrich.

They, while safeguarding their cultural identity, have to accept modernisation in a controlled way for their own betterment. Then only their future will not be a doomed one.

Their voice is loud and clear and their plea to protect their culture is fair and just. They want the Government to protect their cultural heritage.

As the name - Adivasi - indicates, they have been living in this island from time immemorial and their hands should be strengthened in their quest to protect their unique culture from oblivion.

On our home-ward journey via the awesome Daha-ata vangu or 18 hairpin bends the heavenly scenery and the soft cool breeze kept me in silent meditation and my mind started to recount my maiden experience with those fascinating people.

Among them was the little boy, clad in a dusty little sarong and boarded the bus almost uninvited to sing a beautiful Veddha song.

His high pitched youthful voice successfully challenged and over powered the noise emanating from the mighty six-cylinder engine of the Leyland.

Though I could not recollect the exact lyrics of the beautiful song, it still reverberates in my ears.

In Dambana, it pays to teach without pay

SERVICE: The Adivasi children, except for a handful do not show great interest in education. They too, do not attend school regularly.

Most of them come to school on an empty stomach, said Delsy Warusamana and Chandrani, the two volunteer teachers at Dambana Kanishta Vidyalaya. The two young teachers, wearing beautiful sarees, have been teaching at Dambana Kanishta Vidyalaya for the past two years as volunteers.

According to them, their dedicated service has not been paid for by the education authorities. Yet they showed a lot of enthusiasm towards their service. They spoke emotionally about the plight of the Adivasi children's education.

The two teachers said the Dambana Kanishta Vidyalaya has a student population of about 230 and 60-70 per cent of the students are Adivasi children.

They said though the school needs 14 teachers, the staff is only about eight. The scarcity of teachers has compelled them to teach almost every subject. The Adivasi children due to poverty are suffering from malnutrition and constantly fall sick, the duo said.

"They regularly keep away from school and some of them prefer begging from visitors to schooling and luring them back to school is somewhat impossible," said Warusamana.

The two teachers said only a handful study seriously and pursue higher studies. They also said the existing educational set-up and the school syllabus which compels the Adivasi children to study in Sinhalese is not fair.

Also the school timetable does not have a special period for them to learn their mother tongue.

With bare minimum facilities, these two volunteer teachers are doing a great service to the Adivasi children. Their service is worthy of emulation.

Pictures Courtesy Green Movement of Sri Lanka