Siddi community members show their ‘kavadi’ preparing talent

Siddi tribal members from Haliyal taluk of Uttara Kannnada demonstrate their native ‘kavadi’ preparing skills before teachers in the three-day ‘Udaka’ regional conclave of India Foundation for the Art, which commenced in Mangaluru

Sixty-five-year-old Rajmabi, a Siddi tribal member from Haliyal taluk of Uttara Kannnada, has a passion for preparing ‘kavadi’, a razai type of blanket. She works in the agriculture field in the morning and spends her night in preparing ‘kavadi’ in different patterns.

Ms. Rajmabi and fellow tribal women, Hussainbi, Hajarambi, Basavabi, and Sakeena, demonstrated their native ‘kavadi’ preparing skills before teachers from different schools from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada districts in the three-day ‘Udaka’ regional conclave of India Foundation for the Art, which commenced in Mangaluru on Wednesday.

The teachers were divided into five groups and each of the group were given a towel-sized cloth and a set of small clothes of different shapes. Each of the tribal women sat with these groups to stitch the cloth pieces to come out with ‘kavadis’.

“We can adapt this kavadi making in our school as part of activity for lessons on geometry,” said Siddappa Biradar, an Assistant Teacher from a government school in Sirsi taluk of Uttara Kannada district, who was part of a group.

In the session on ‘Kala Shikshana: Bhaasha Kale- Anubhava Mattu Abhivyakti’ held earlier, writer Mohammed Badoor expressed the need for teachers to learn the native Tulu, Beary, Konkani languages and different dialects, by which they can effectively teach students in the school.

“These languages are the ones the students of the region have been communicating since their childhood. It is imperative for teachers to learn these languages and communicate in those dialects,” he said.

Assistant Teacher Nagaraj Huded from Haveri, who worked for 18 years in Government Lower Primary School in Bylandoor Gawaliwada in Yellapur taluk of Uttara Kannada, said he learnt the native Gawadi dialect with the help of senior students of the school and interacted with students. He narrated Kannada poems in Gawali dialect and also promoted native Gawali dance forms and musical instruments in the school. He also brought out a small Kannada-Gawali-English dictionary, Mr. Huded said.