Mokokchung, January 21 (MExN): With the aim of preserving the rich traditional attires and ornaments in the society, the Watsu Mungdang (apex organization of the Ao women) will be coming out with a book which will document the history, the significance, the design, and cultural significance behind the attires and ornaments in the Ao society.
This gigantic task was started in the year 2009 after a committee was formed to document the attires and ornaments in the Ao society, disclosed the Watsu Mungdang President, Dr Imlirenla at a press conference held at the WM office here today.
She disclosed that the Watsu Mungdang visited all the Ao villages, interviewed the elders, documented the attires and ornaments and drafted the raw materials into a book form. However, to avoid any ‘criticism’ or controversy, the Watsu Mungdang sent the book to the different village councils and the Ao Senden (Ao Hoho) to go through it and give their approval. The Mungdang has stipulated February 25 as the last date for submission of the document by the village councils, after which the Watsu Mungdang will pursue means to publish the book.
“Since we have an oral tradition, the significance of the designs on the attires, or the dresses of different clans etc is being forgotten slowly. Most of the youngsters don’t know about the dresses worn by the different clans, the designs etc and if we forget about the importance of our dresses and the significance behind every dress, then we will lose our identity and also forget our roots. Therefore, we decided to document the dresses and adornments to preserve and protect our culture,” informed Dr Imlirenla. Over the last three years, the Watsu Mungdang has intensively documented more than a hundred Ao attires and adornments of both the male and female. The Watsu Mungdang hopes the book to be not only a document preserving the culture but also a reference book for the researchers studying about the Ao attires and adornments.
“While talking about the need of documenting the attires and adornments, we felt that it was such an enormous task which cannot be undertaken by an individual. We felt that the Watsu Mungdang should take up the challenge, and it was approved by the Executive, thereafter a committee was formed and have been working tirelessly to bring out the book,” said a Watsu Mungdang official.
The Watsu Mungdang informed that after the book is published they will try patent the designs so that it will come under the intellectual property rights which will disallow others to misuse the designs. The Mungdang expressed happiness to the Ao Senden, Ao Students’ Conference, Dobashis, village councils and all concerned for their help and support rendered to the Watsu Mungdang in its project.
Nonetheless, Watsu Mungdang disclosed that the task of documenting the whole attires and adornments involved a lot of expenses and time. The Mungdang did not approach any government agency or other sources but undertook the whole project through their own generated fund.
After three years, since the project started, the Watsu Mungdang is now ready with the ‘raw material’ and ready to go to the final stage of publishing the book. But the Mungdang is running out of resources. Therefore, it has decided to organize an Ethnic Treasures Extravaganza to raise funds for the project. The extravaganza will be held on January 24-26 and will feature different activities; however the main attraction will be a fashion show showcasing Ao attires and adornments at Multi Sports complex, Mokokchung. While appealing all the citizens to come forward and attend the extravaganza the Watsu Mungdang also made a special appeal.
“It all the Aos come forward and help publish the book then we can preserve and protect our culture for posterity to come. Everyone should contribute,” the women leaders stated.
