SHILLONG, Feb 25: Folk-fusion troupe Summersalt took the music of the Khasi Hills to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, beginning with a workshop on Khasi music on February 21 and a panel discussion on ‘Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices’ during an international conference hosted and organised by Anant National University in the city for its annual indigenous ‘WITH Festival’.
The band then gave a full-blown live performance on the following day (February 22).
The workshop covered a range of themes from how music is embedded in the DNA of the Khasi people, the Khasi way of song writing, ‘Ka Sur Iawbei’ or the Heart Song of the Khatarshnong villages to Khasi musical instruments and the role of music in the Khasi way of life.
The workshop was well-received by the design-background students of the university who were introduced to Khasi music for the first time.
WITH is a globally distributed festival celebrating and connecting artists, media makers, storytellers from around the world to build a community of change makers. This year’s festival was held simultaneously in Ahmedabad-India, Quito-Equador, Miami-USA and Sao Paulo-Brazil on February 21 and 22.
From this year, WITH is embarking on the theme ‘Global Indigenous Futures’, calling leaders and change makers from across the world to join hands. This year’s festival is celebrated with the International Conference on Indigenous knowledge systems and practices for a sustainable future at Anant. WITH attracted cultural practitioners from Chambal-Rajasthan, Majuli-Assam, Shillong-Meghalaya, Bhopal-Madhya Pradesh, Janwaar-Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir. These practitioners will also offer workshops at Anant for students and others to learn, engage and exchange knowledge. This year WITH had more than 40 artists from Meghalaya, Assam, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
Dr Anunaya Chaubey, Provost, Anant National University, remarked: “WITH is organised in only four cities globally, and Anant is the proud host of the Indian edition. The festival aligns with our core philosophy of celebrating inclusivity, diversity and Indigenous knowledge—elements that hold the key to developing a sustainable future.”
Meanwhile, Prof Vijay Sekhon, Associate Professor and Lead, Interaction Design, School of Design and Director of WITH Festival at Anant National University, added, “WITH is a culture-building initiative that enables students to work together, experiment, broaden their worldviews and collaborate with global artists. As the exclusive host of WITH in India, Anant remains committed to amplifying Indigenous stories and fostering meaningful knowledge exchange.”
For Summersalt, this is another step to traditional cultural discourse that has been an intentional practice when the band gets an opportunity to talk about ethos of Khasi music and the recently concluded festival proved that much more of this story-sharing needs to happen in the future.
The workshop gave opportunities for the students to learn not just about Khasi music but the Khasi traditional way of life and identity.
“It is very encouraging to see how young people from India’s western states taking so much interest to learn about the richness of Khasi music, it gave us so much hope to repurpose our music which is largely based on the richness of Khasi music. We could feel the kind of respect and how young people in Ahmedabad’s premiere university value the traditional ethos of a small indigenous community, which sometimes, we feel it is lacking among our people”, said Kit Shangpliang, the lead band member of Summersalt.
In the coming months, the band, with the support of well-wishers and fans, intends to engage in more cultural centric events to help spread the knowledge of Khasi music and promote meaningful cultural tourism in Meghalaya and Northeast India at large.
