Idital: A living art of the Lanjia Saora скачать в хорошем качестве

Idital: A living art of the Lanjia Saora

This film travels through the hills of southern Odisha to encounter Idital, the living wall paintings of the Lanjia Saura community. More than art, Idital is a form of language, memory, and healing. Painted on homes, it becomes a shelter for ancestors and a way of seeking care, protection, and balance in times of difficulty. The film features Laxmi Sabar, a Saura traditional healer, who speaks in the Saora language about her journey through Idital to the ancestral world in search of solutions for those who come to her. It also introduces Birabhadra Dalabehera, a Saura community member and artist, who reflects on painting, land, and everyday life. Through landscapes, people, and daily rhythms, this film invites viewers to move beyond narrow ideas of “tribal art” or “superstition” and to see Indigenous knowledge as contemporary, relational, and deeply sustainable. In a world marked by loneliness and anxiety, Idital offers another way of understanding care, connection, and shared responsibility. This work is offered with deep respect to the Saura people, whose knowledge and ways of living continue to guide and sustain life. Select audio and visual materials are acknowledged from SCSTRTI Odisha, the Ministry of Culture, Sarna Educational and Cultural Services, and Sitakant Mahapatra’s Saora Paintings: Essays on Life in Art. The majority of the images, sounds, and recordings are from my own fieldwork and engagement. Presented at the India Art Fair, New Delhi, 2026. — Susshri Mohaanty Traveller, hiker, and learner, whose learning resides with Indigenous people and their wisdom