PANAJI
In the absence of lack of information with regards to lives of unsung freedom fighters from the tribal community, tribal art and culture, their folklores, lifestyle and artefacts for display, the State government’s proposed first-ever Tribal Museum has hit a roadblock. The department of Tribal Welfare has now decided to approach the community for the information.
In 2016, PM Narendra Modi during his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort announced that the government will build museums to commemorate the lives of unsung freedom fighters from the tribal community. Since then the Tribal Affairs Ministry has sanctioned ten such museums including one in Goa, which will come up at Ponda on land belonging to the tourism department.
The Union Ministry has sanctioned Rs 15 crore for the project -- dedicated to the life of tribal freedom fighters and the community as a whole. The Ministry has specified that all the museums will involve the use of virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D and 7D holographic projection, etc.
Speaking to The Goan, Director Dashrath Redkar said that before going ahead with the construction of the museum, we need to have all the data in hand. He said that the department had roped in an agency, Disha Foundation to collect all the relevant information; however they failed to provide us the exact data we were looking forward to.
“Hence, we have now decided to appeal to people for help. We will also approach the tribal community for assistance, as without them the project cannot go ahead,” he said.
“We want to know the life of those unsung tribal heroes from the freedom movement, apart from tribal art and culture, folklores, lifestyle, rituals, social customs, etc,” he said.
Redkar said that the museum will have a Tribal Life Gallery, full-sized models of the tribes’ houses, dwellings, the traditional kitchen and other artefacts used by them during initial phases or are continued to be used.
“We will appeal to people to come forward and donate them to the government, if currently they are not in use, for display in the museum,” he explained.
The Director said that tribal cuisine would be an added attraction, for which we want the tribal community to set up a food-court kind of thing, where only those items cooked or produced by them would be sold.
