Survival ambassador and celebrated jewellery designer Pippa Small recently made the journey to Orissa state, India. She witnessed the dire situation as Vedanta prepares to wreak havoc in the home of the Dongria Kondh. Here she describes her poignant journey.

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When Survival suggested that, as I was in India working, I may be able to go to meet the Dongria people in order to have a better understanding of the situation facing them regarding the mine and also to get inspiration for a small collection that we could make and sell in order to raise funds and awareness to help their campaign, I was thrilled.

Travelling through the Indian state of Orissa to reach the home of the Dongria Kondh people was a fascinating journey. After leaving the unpronounceable capital Bhubaneswar, we drove through the green countryside, past mosaics of tiny rice fields where lines of men and women were bent double planting clumps of rice shoots. They wore large woven straw hats to keep the sun and rain off their backs. Through the window I could see rivers swollen with monsoon waters and small mud and thatch villages and markets selling vegetables and fish caught in the nearby rivers and lakes.

Once we reached the tribal areas in the south of the state we came across groups of women walking home to their villages balancing brass water jugs on their heads, their noses heavily pierced with brass, silver and gold rings. Precise, beautiful tattoos adorned faces and arms. They wore white cloths knotted at the neck and waist wraps too. Huge trees, laden with mangoes and all kinds of fruit were everywhere. Signs of shifting cultivation chequered the hills.

I arrived after nearly two days drive at a small but busy market town where the roads were deep in monsoon mud and filth. Trucks roared by spewing fumes. Every now and again a convoy of vehicles belonging to the mining industry would pass by, laden with materials for the Vedanta concession. It was a dirty, polluted, poor and crowded town, full of rude, angry people and a constant drizzle. The air was thick with noxious fumes. The place – like a vision of hell or perhaps our future – left your mind reeling and your ears ringing.

Early the next morning I met Jitu, a young charismatic and dedicated Dongria man who has taken time off from his studies to help his people fight the mining giant Vedanta. The company plans to start mining bauxite on a mountain sacred to the Dongria, a mountain that supports a rich and unique eco system that includes wild elephants and tigers. If the mine is built this will all be destroyed – forever.

The Dongria have seen first hand what happens when a small amount of compensation is accepted in lieu of land. Another group of Kondh, who are related to the Dongria, lost their land to the Vedanta refinery. Roads criss-cross places where trees used to stand. The rivers are polluted. The birds and animals are gone. For them it is too late. But the Dongira still have time and have organised to fight the mine and to protect their land. Even though the Indian Supreme Court recently found in favour of the mine the Dongria are determined not to give up. They have started creating barricades to block trucks from entering their land. So far they have succeeded. But how long can this last?

As I walked out of the town the sun came out and the rain stopped. Leaving the town behind was like entering a different world. A world that was the world of the Dongria. A land where there are no roads, where there is no noise other than birds and wind in the trees, where there is no pollution, where there is no litter, where there is no yelling. I felt as if I’d wandered into Eden. We climbed up into the mountains for about two hours, and waded across a river whose limpid waters sparkled in the sun. A water snake swum gracefully downstream. Clouds of butterflies filled the air and everywhere around stood fruit trees heavy with ripeness. Along the way girls with baskets of bamboo on their heads stopped to chat to Jitu’s brothers. Their long hair was elaborately plaited, combed and pinned back with chains and silver flowers. Both the men and women wore rows of brass hairpins. Boys with tresses and ropes of beads around their necks carried axes or bows and arrows for bird hunting.

We arrived at the village of Gorta where a meeting was being held. Men women and chiefs had gathered here to discuss the court’s decision and plan their next course of action. As they sat outside the meetinghouse they organised themselves into groups which would watch, plan and act to protect their land.

The main argument governments and companies use to persuade communities like the Dongria is always ‘development’, often to great effect. They say that businesses and profit making will bring ‘development’ in the form of schools, hospitals, roads, jobs and money. Which is all very well on paper. But in practice the benefits of enforced so-called development in the name of aggressive capitalist ventures are rarely seen by indigenous peoples. Their land is destroyed and they end up living in slums on the outskirts of towns with no way of making a living. They are marginalised by the non-tribal populations, and their lives are no longer theirs.

Still the Dongria are not opposed to certain kinds of ‘change’ but they want change on their own terms and in their own time. They need to be able to control what comes in and how. First and foremost they need to protect the land. The potential damage the mine might cause would be irreparable. Once the land has been destroyed it can never be the same again.

The Dongria went on discussing these matters late into the afternoon. Little children slept on their mothers laps and others played under the trees. The women started to prepare the fires and cook. Walking back down the mountain that evening I felt filled with a feeling of peacefulness that was as strong as my conviction that Vedanta must be stopped from destroying all this.

I am designing some pieces of jewellery inspired by the Dongria. The profits from the sale of these pieces will go towards Survival’s campaign to help the Dongria save their land.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Supporters, Survival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.