Somappa Kudarihal

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will enable 28 students from the Government Lower Primary School, in Lakshmi Camp, Kuntoji, Koppala district to engage with the traditional knowledge of the Helava tribal community who archives family genealogies across north Karnataka, and through this recognise the scope of social science, math and language curriculum. Somappa Kudarihal is the Coordinator for this project.

Somappa Kudarihal is an Assistant Teacher from Gangavathi in Koppala district.  He has received many awards for his contribution to the field of Kannada literature. Being the active teacher, he has initiated various activities to connect the school with the local community. Given his experience he is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

Known as Helavaru which in Kannada translates to ‘narrate’, the members of this semi-nomadic community go about narrating histories of the families in north Karnataka districts. The traditional profession of the community also known as Helavas entails recording births, deaths, marriages and other familial issues in an encapsulated manner. The legend has it that the Helavas existed from the days of Basaveshwara in the 12^th century AD. Their inherited skills of archiving can leave modern archivists awestruck. Modernisation and digitisation however, has pushed their tradition into obsolescence.

The participatory project aims to bring together the Helava community and the school enabling the community to actively take part in various stages of the project. It provides students with an understanding of the places where their ancestors lived and unearths stories from family members. Students will record and document them. The project empowers students to become historians themselves and gives them the opportunity to experience how family history is written. Studying students’ own history fosters a heightened sense of self-worth by fostering their appreciation of their own cultural heritage.

The project also explores the traditional knowledge of the Helava community on wild and domestic plants and animals, diet and nutrition and home remedies. These explorations will add an important dimension to the science curriculum. The language arts curriculum will be enriched by a study of dialect, proverbs, jokes, and riddles of the community. The project also had possibilities for integrating mathematics education from the learning of calculations from the community.

The outcomes of the project will be a performance in the presence of school staff and a publication with the writings of the children. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, the publication and video documentation of the entire project.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Education programme in the manner in which it attempts to connect students and schools to the cultural knowledge of the local communities they live in.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.