Dimapur, August 23 (MExN): During the recent international 77th commemoration of Naga Independence Day organised by Global Naga Forum (GNF), Athong Makury delivered a keynote address on ‘Unity and Resilience: A Naga leader’s perspective on independence and cultural preservation.’
In his speech, Makury shared about his recent visit to Haida Gwaii, in Canada. Makury said that today, Haida Nation is considered the most successfully indigenous people in reclaiming their robbed glory. Bringing out the few points from their success stories, Makury said, “First, they know who they are and what they want.” They are focused on their goal as a community, as a people, as a Nation and when it comes to their political thing, they don’t go for piece meal deals like others do, he stated.
“They believe in strategy rather than might,” he remarked and said, “I think these things are something, a great lesson that we can also learnt because we come over, if we look at far from the British colonial time, our struggle has cross more than 100 yrs.”
“They are masters at filling the generation gap. This is so a really important point that I see,” Makury asserted. They are so rooted in their culture and expert in interpreting their culture to combat or deal with the contemporary realities without compromising the essence. They are able to decolonize the colonial legacies or instruments coming from both within and outside, he stated. “The last point I see is they are very good at building alliances and networking in order to advance their cause,” Makury also observed.
