Anna Pinto
Meitei community, India
India’s indigenous Meitei community has been feeling the impact of climate change for nearly two decades. Anna Pinto talks to Farah Mihlar about the community and the effects of climate change.
Can you tell us a little about your community?
The Meitei are a river dwelling community in India but are also found in Burma and hill areas of Bangladesh. They claim their origins from the Infal valley. They are agriculture based, they harvest the wetlands around the mountain valley system, they also grow rice and they are also fisher people.
How has the community been noticing the impact of climate change?
Yes through glacier melts. The first time I ever heard about climate change was from a Meitei farmer, 22 years ago. He said the weather is not what it is supposed to be. It is not just a small shift, it is a big change and we don’t know what it is.
What kind of impact are you seeing?
Glaciers melt at the same time as the monsoons so by July you have massive flooding. In Assam last year 10 million people were displaced, 20-30 percent of that was indigenous people.
The situation is aggravated more because the Meitei community are in an armed conflict with India, so India is reluctant to have aid coming in, because when aid comes in people will see what is happening.
They are not subject to pressures because nobody knows what happens there. There is no international news about it, no buzz in the aid community, they are alone in their troubles.
What kind of special relationship does your community have with the environment?
Among the Meitei the traditional religion is a myth between animalism and ancestor worship, so the earth is our mother, the rivers and lakes are our sisters and they are worshiped as elder sisters and goddesses. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge and it is dying because it is not respected. How do you think South Asians would see a woman practice as a priest? Traditional Meitei have priestesses.
Every year they participate in a sacred ritual across 385 sacred sites in 2000 sq km valley. It is a 40-day ritual that recreates the earth and renews it. It is entirely oral, it’s done through dance and chants.
Indigenous communities keep referring to traditional knowledge they have about the environment, can you explain what this knowledge is?
It is not just knowledge in terms of discrete giga bites, it is an attitude, it is an approach. It’s a real understanding that the earth is alive not a dead thing. We understand that if you pour poison in the lake, the lake cannot feed fish, it is like any organic creature it dies. If you pour poison in your throat you cant expect to have healthy children you cant have a healthy life.
Indigenous people don’t just think like that - they know it, it is part of who they are.
It is an approach that consults with the earth. We don’t say ‘the earth is too dry to plant rice and so we will try corn’ - these formulas people are so fond of and then they slap across everything. That’s not going to work, it is not going to happen.
Do you think the world wants to listen to what indigenous people have to say?
If we will not learn we will be taught. It does not matter if you listen or not, you will be taught. If you don’t respect indigenous peoples’ knowledge, we will be taken away from you and our knowledge will be lost.
Indigenous communities will become extinct soon as a result of climate change, If there is no care given to them, they will not be able to adapt to other environment.
In the US there are entire clans that are getting wiped out. This is in the US, what do you think will happen in India or Burma? All that knowledge will be lost, medicine sources will be lost.
What would you ask of the international community?
Don’t live to get taught. Don’t wait to get taught – learn.