Cindy Zothanpuii Tlau

This Foundation Project, implemented by IFA, aims to explore the megaliths in Mizoram as archives that shape contemporary Mizo identity and aesthetics. Through a combination of ethnographic study and artistic collaboration, the project will examine how megaliths function as repositories of indigenous imagination and how they resonate within contemporary artistic practices, including painting, sculpture, and digital media. Cindy Zothanpuii Tlau is the Coordinator of this project.

Cindy Zothanpuii Tlau is a researcher, writer, and cultural practitioner from Mizoram and based in New Delhi. She is a doctoral candidate in Visual Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a recipient of several research grants and fellowships. She works at the intersection of indigenous knowledge systems, visual culture, and identity across Northeast India, bringing a deeply rooted, practice-led approach to this research. Given her background in cultural studies and experience with oral histories and visual traditions, she is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

Concentrated largely in the Champhai District, these engraved and carved megalithic stones stand in stark contrast to Mizo contemporary cultural life. And yet, as has been observed, they continue to inspire aesthetic re-imaginings of Mizo history and what it means to be ‘Mizo.’  As artists engage with these motifs today, they are not merely appropriating imagery but actively reaffirming connections to ancestral knowledge and collective memory. This complex intersection of memory, materiality, and imagination calls for an in-depth study.

The methodology for this project is anchored in practice-led ethnography, combining field-based research with artistic collaboration. Fieldwork will involve participant observation, semi-structured interviews, photography, and community dialogues with local custodians of megalith sites, elders, and cultural practitioners to gather narratives and understandings of the stones. In addition to field research, secondary sources such as newspapers, books, existing research, and magazines will be consulted to situate Mizo megaliths within historical and contemporary discourses. Translation work will be carried out where necessary. In parallel, the project will collaborate with selected contemporary artists, inviting them to produce new works that respond to megalithic traditions. Additionally, a series of participatory workshops will bring together youth, artists, and community members to share, debate, and document cultural expressions, with a particular focus on emerging digital practices and urban cultural forms.

The outcome of this project will include a visual archive of photographs, a bilingual photo book, a critical essay examining the megaliths as indigenous archives and their contemporary reinterpretations, new artworks created in collaboration with contemporary artists, and participatory workshops and dialogues engaging youth and community members in Mizoram. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will include the photo book and the research essay, and fieldwork documentation.

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme by foregrounding indigenous knowledge systems and their reanimation through contemporary art. The project is unique in its claim that the megaliths must be understood as indigenous archives of memory and imagination, shaping Mizo understandings of their past outside the colonial and state-sponsored narratives.

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.

The Project is part-supported by BNP Paribas India.