In the past week, Nagaland University, Kohima Campus had been marked by a vibrant atmosphere as a result of the organization of two seminars. The first seminar, which was organized by the department of teacher education, focused on the “Integration of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) in teacher education: opportunities and challenges in North East India.” Secondly, which was focused on “Purvottar ka Adivasi Samaj: Sahitya, Sanskriti aur Parampara” organized by the department of Hindi. As a curious and attentive listener, I found one discussion to be common by almost all the key resource person in both seminars. It was about the challenges for preserving the indigenous knowledge to ensure that the next generation would be well-informed and inspire to adopt cultural diversity in different aspects of their life, rather than blindly embracing western culture in the name of modernisation.
Furthermore, a significant consensus was found during technical sessions that, indigenous knowledge does not live in books in many villages across Nagaland. it is the integral part of naga people’ daily life practice where naga indigenous knowledge lives in. I listened in different sessions by several speakers that 16 tribes and 18 folk naga languages are recognised and 3 more tribes are awaited to get recognised by the government. In fact, Elders of these tribes carry memories of farming cycles, forest practices, healing methods, treating illnesses, and cultural traditions with their own languages. But as the time is being passed, this knowledge is slowly fading due to lack of dedicated effort to preserve those scattered knowledges in modern way. As an active research scholar as well as always inspired to contribute in Naga society eagerly, I was pondering a solution-oriented query regarding the nexus of AI, digital tools, and the Naga Indigenous Knowledge? how can we preserve it for the next generation? Finally, I found one simple yet powerful answer, that is campaign for developing the dedicated “DIGITAL VILLAGE REPOSITORY FOR NAGA INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE MAPPING (DVR-NIKM).”
The DVR-NIKM conceptualize the development of a digital repository of naga indigenous knowledge through a pan Nagaland Campaign. However, the state government has already implemented digital village knowledge mapping, rural knowledge management, and smart village-like initiatives, which involve the recording of land uses, village resources, roads, and dwellings. Still, these initiatives are not dedicated intend to safeguard the indigenous knowledge of the Naga people and are not functioning in all the districts of Nagaland. Therefore, schools and their students at village level should be recognised as the main stakeholder of this DVR-NIKM campaign. Shashank Shekhar Singh (IAS), the principal director of the school board in Nagaland highlighted in his speech that the majority of districts were made based on tribes in past, where at present around 2000 schools are working. And, I feel that, these schools have the potential to preserve and protect the traditional indigenous knowledge of the naga society in more authentic, effective and rapidly through a village level school base campaign itself.
How should we run the seven stages of campaign strategically?
Firstly, subject wise teachers or group of subject teachers should be recognised or nominated by school principal as the discipline head of campaign for safeguarding the indigenous knowledge at the village level. Secondly, these recognised discipline heads will collaborate with the class teachers (from Class- VI-XII) and run the campaign with the help of class wise students. Thirdly, teachers can give the group assignment to the students for collecting GPS location images or making videos of any one traditional practice in their own homes or villages. Students can do that given assignment with the help of their family or village elders and submit to their class teachers within a certain timeframe. They will be given academic marks for these assignment and handsome money prize along with recognition certificate at district level to top 10 groups of students in each school. Fourth, all the class teachers will classify that collected GPS location images and videos of indigenous knowledge in discipline wise and further submit to discipline head. Sixth, they will consult village head and confirm the knowledge and upload on the digital village repository website, discipline and village wise. This website should be designed and maintain by department of education or school board of Nagaland government. Seventh, class teachers and discipline head should also be given recognition certificate at the district or state level and money incentive for their better work motivation. In that way, every stakeholder of this campaign can be motivated so that they could perform like a team for saving the indigenous knowledge. The schools should also be upgraded for their better performance and coordination. We should always remember that “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” as Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a Jamaican political activist has said.
Practical Examples
In a village of Kohima, elders may know exactly which forest areas are sacred, where medicinal plants grow, and which fields are best for jhum cultivation. If this real indigenous knowledge is recorded as the class assignment by village school students using mobile phones. This digitally recorded assignment will be submitted to class teachers and further to discipline head so that they can refine it with the consultation of village head and will upload on digital village repository website to preserve it for future generations. Discipline wise Indigenous knowledge will display by this digital repository such as illness treatment practices and medicinal plants, agricultural practices based on wind patterns, bird behaviour, or seasonal changes, forest zones and its cultural values, water sources and traditional utilizing practices, cultural sites like morungs or festival grounds and earned knowledge by their life experience. In this way, real and experiential learning will connect to students’ own lives.
If such traditional practices are digitally mapped and recorded by this campaign, it can be compared with modern weather data with AI tools and improves decision-making for the future. Therefore, teachers should play a key role in this process by guiding students to turn this digital repository and mapping into classroom assignments. For instance, geography teachers can include local land use maps, environmental studies’ teachers can focus on nearby forests, and social science teachers can explore cultural heritage. This campaign will change teaching-learning process more meaningful and rooted in local reality as well as safeguard and share the indigenous knowledge or practices to the young generation of Nagaland.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ethical Issues
Additionally, AI can support this effort by organizing the digital data, translating into different local Indian languages, and identifying useful patterns. However, it is important to remember that this knowledge belongs to the community. Therefore, proper consent and protection of sensitive information should be taken care. Because, the idea of DVR-NIKM is not just about safeguarding the naga indigenous knowledge but it is about respect of naga society, respects the wisdom of elders, respect the identity of communities, and the future generation. This idea may the potential to create a model of culturally responsive school education.
Anshu Chandra,
Research Scholar (PhD/TED/01011)
Department of Teacher Education,
Nagaland University,
Kohima Campus
Tuesday, March 24, 2026