WHY DO WE NEED TO RECORD ANCESTRAL STORIES?

As global challenges call for more inclusive and regenerative futures, there is a growing recognition of the value embedded in Indigenous knowledge systems.

The Bioultural Diversity Toolkit by Terralingua (2010) emphasizes that oral traditions are vital to identity, ecological stewardship, and place-based knowledge, but remain vulnerable to erasure due to systemic neglect.
 

This project was situated in Dzongu, a protected Indigenous territory in North Sikkim, home to the Lepcha community. Many of these narratives, rooted in animist cosmologies, speak of descent from lakes, animals, and mountains, forming deeply ecological and identity-forming worldviews.