Tribal festival rocks Songadh in Tapi district

A two-day festival organised specially for tribals kicked-off at Songadh village in Tapi district on Saturday, in which thousands of tribals from south Gujarat and Maharashtra, participated. The festival aimed to exhibit cultural heritage and other skills of tribals.

The Adivasi Cultural Festival and Competition was organised by a local NGO at Songadh. Apart from dance, singing and traditional dress contest, organisers also held sports competitions like archery and catapult. More than 500 participants took part in various competitions, while thousands joined to cheer them. Tribals from Tapi, Valsad, Navsari, Dangs, Narmada, Nandurbar and Navapur districts joined in the festival, which has been organised for the second time.

"Our main aim is to protect old tribal legacy, which is fast eroding due to lack of interest among youths. Today tribal youths don't wear ethnic tribal wear even in homes, nor do they practice traditional dance or music. This is an attempt to bind our population that is scattered and ignorant towards their culture," Suresh Gamit, organiser of the festival, said.

He added that tribal customs like rodali party - a story-telling song of interior villages in Dangs and Maharashtra, musical instruments like tarpon, duggi and others will be performed during the festival.

"Such types of cultural programmes are badly needed as we don't have any other platform to exhibit our tradition. Our archery technique is more than 300 years old and we received it from our grand-fathers, but our kins are not interested in it," Lavji Gamit, a villager of Sangpada in Dangs said, after winning the archery competition.