Participants attending the Cultures of Peace festival day one at Testo College, Dimapur held on November 9. (Morung Photo by Soreishim Mahong)
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 9
The ‘Cultures of Peace 2018’ commenced with the Dialogue of Culture followed by a series of workshops at Testo College, Dimapur on November 9. Cultures of Peace which is Zubaan’s annual festival celebrating and highlighting culture, art, literature, media and other practitioners from and based in the North East is being organised in collaboration with The Morung Express, Zubaan and the Heinrich Böll Foundation, India.
"The purpose of the Cultures of Peace festival is to create an intervention in this state of affairs by highlighting the very thing that mainstream media is missing. Through the festival programme, it hopes to bring the peoples and cultures of the Northeast to the attention of the general public in the rest of India, and indeed to bring the northeastern states closer to each other — a lack of infrastructure in transport and communications, as a result of governmental in differences, means that there is often very little communication between people within these states as well.
The main idea behind this venture is that cultural exchanges are a way to build peace, and also go a long way in breaking down the boundaries between ‘self’ and ‘other’ — or in this case, between the ‘mainland’ Indian mainstream, and the more alienated Northeast."
The festival envisages as a series of panel discussions and workshops around the themes of Peace and how writing and culture contribute to creating an atmosphere that is conducive to peace. In addition, there is also a photo exhibition by Zubeni Lotha.
Delivering the welcome address, Hewasa Lorin of Tetso College said that the event aligns with the mission of the College which is to “develop professionally competent individuals who are committed towards lifelong excellence.” Dr. Aküm Longchari, publisher, The Morung Express also spoke during the event.
