International Day of World’s Indigenous People observed

Dimapur, August 10 (MExN): North East Institute of Social Science and Research (NEISSR) commemorated the International Day of World’s Indigenous People on August 9 at NEISSR Conference Hall.  

Addressing the social work trainees, Dr. Toli H. Kiba, Assistant Professor highlighted that “Indigenous people have skills sets and knowledge which are indigenous and well preserved over the past many years. However, many of this traditional knowledge are obliterated or replaced by the western education that we are imparted with.”  

While acknowledging the growth and changes that are brought about with the advent of the western education and Christian missionaries, she said, “we are also quickly forgetting our roots and the traditional knowledge of our forefathers that have always hold us in good stead.”  

She urged the social work trainees to think out of the box and work towards developing models and knowledge of social work which will be suiting and fitting to the local context, instead of copying those models which were developed in a completely different context. “We should promote indigenous knowledge of social work practice,” she added.  

A press note stated that in his concluding remarks, Dr. C.P. Anto also re-asserted the same dream of training social work professionals who can contextualize, understand and make use of the indigenous knowledge in their practice. He urged the students not to be confined by conventional thinking but to have the courage to tread into the rich untrodden treasure trove of our indigenous knowledge that each community in Nagaland has to offer.