{"id":52714,"date":"2018-01-30T22:24:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T13:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saoriogura.info\/portfolio\/?p=52714"},"modified":"2023-04-07T03:51:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T18:51:49","slug":"arts-based-approach-learning-from-rong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saoriogura.info\/arts-based-approach-learning-from-rong\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from Rong – Award-winning exhibition at Nikon Salon, Tokyo & Osaka"},"content":{"rendered":"
~The way of life outside of modern industrialized societies~<\/p>\n
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The Indigenous Lepcha People call themselves Rong. They have been living in the Sikkim Himalaya for hundreds of years, interacting with the biodiverse forest. A hundred years ago, the Rong were cultivating a variety of traditional crops, including rice, buckwheat and millet, in shifting agricultural fields. With the expansion of monocultural cash crops, like cardamom, many of these traditional crops have been replaced. However, diversity of traditional crops\u2014which have high nutritional value and are often resistant to drought\u2014is key in creating resilient communities that can adapt to climate change.<\/p>\n
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I lived in Lepcha villages, learning from the forest the way the Rong do in the hopes to see the world through their eyes. Through these experiences and interactions with these communities, I became more conscious of what it means to be human and exist on Earth.<\/p>\n
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I believe combining Indigenous and scientific perspectives on traditional plants will foster our understanding of human\u2013nature relationships. I also believe that collaborative community art projects enable us to better observe and capture the knowledge and wisdom of local people, the life of plants, and interrelations between people and plants.<\/p>\n
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My photographs were selected by the Nikon competition, Juna21. I exhibited my photographs and illustrations from Sikkim and Darjeeling in the Nikon Salons in Tokyo and Osaka for two weeks. I was awarded the Miki Jun Inspiration Award from Nikon for this exhibition, and gained an opportunity to have another exhibitions in Japan in December 2017 to January 2018.<\/p>\n
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