Indigenous (tribal) communities such as the Jenu Kuruba community (traditional collectors of honey) in Mysore district, Karnataka, have been long fighting for their rights on land, housing and entitlements. Kaveri Mahila Mahasangha (KMM), is a federation representing this forest-based community, on issues related to women’s rights, tribal rights and development. KMM, a 22-year-old grassroots organization is witnessing the phenomena of aging leadership. Power dynamics often prevent younger leaders, who represent the future of the tribal women’s movement from participating in decision-making processes.
Towards building indigenous youth leadership, a core component of organizational sustainability, Best Practices Foundation (BPF) and KMM are co creating an intergenerational process to innovate a model that allows both generations to engage in dialogues, design pathways for change around issues related to land, forest resources and access to basic needs.
The intergenerational dialogues will begin with older leaders discussing the legacy of the tribal movement, struggles and achievements, followed by dialogues on proposed strategies to bring out the similarities and differences in perspectives of the two generations. The last part of the dialogues will be on structured changes in roles played currently by older leaders who can decide on mentoring the younger leaders.
BPF will use process documentation and participatory observation of these dialogues on the transition of the indigenous youth into active leadership roles. The paper will encapsulate the methodology used and track evidence of the degree to which the dialogues were able to facilitate the communication and cooperation between the older and younger indigenous leaders and attitudinal changes, if any. It will also look at the degree to which the youth own and are willing to work on tribal issues and the unique perspectives and skills they bring to this process and to the larger movement.
