Millo Ankha

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Explorations will delve into the mythological world of nature worship in the ancestral land of Ziro valley, Arunachal Pradesh. In collaboration with the elders, women and girls of Apatani community, a speculative visual archive will be staged through performance, drawing, and photography. Millo Ankha is the Coordinator for this project. 

Millo Ankha is a former dentist turned artist and poet from Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. She is the founder and member of AAMA Collective, a collective of women photographers from the Northeast region of India. She has participated in Angkor Photo Workshops, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Millo Ankha has been the recipient of Zubaan-Sasakawa Peace Foundation Grant in 2020, Iyarkai Grant for Conservation & Photography and Chennai Photo Biennale in 2021, and the Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in 2023. Given her experience, Millo Ankha is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

This project, titled Birii Lembo Soh, will explore the intricate relationships of the Apatani community with the natural world of their ancestral land, the Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh. Birii Lembo Soh in Apatani language means the path to Birii - the first dwelling of the Apatani community according to the oral traditions. The Apatanis, as a nature-worshipping tribe, identify ecological nomenclatures like sacred groves, forests, grazing fields and farms, which are protected through taboos and totem concepts. Due to the lack of a script, storytelling and ceremonies, based on folklore and mythologies have been mnemonic devices for the Apatanis to keep the memory of nature, ancestors, and nature spirits alive They are deeply embedded in the animal and plant world, and consider this natural world as a source of aesthetic and medicinal knowledge. The mythologies, folk tales and folk songs associated with the natural world of the community will form the background to create a speculative visual archive that will be staged through performance, drawing and photography, which will be compiled as a zine, by the Project Coordinator who is a cultural insider. 

The outcome of the project will be a speculative visual archive created as a zine. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be a zine, and selected images from the visual archive.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it forges a dialogue between folk-storytelling traditions and contemporary art, especially performance photography, as a speculative visual archive, derived from a folk cosmology, where the nature-culture dyad is dissolved in the way the tribal life is embedded in nature.

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 by convening an online gathering of artists coordinating Explorations projects. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

This project is made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.