Dignitaries during the launch of Tetso College’s Digital Language Archive on November 2.
DIMAPUR, NOVEMBER 2 (MExN): Tetso College launched its Digital Language Archive called North East India Indigenous People’s Archive (NEIIPA) on November 2 during the inaugural programme of The Listener Nagaland - A Festival of Orality which is being held at the college from November 2 to 4.
The digital website was officially launched by Prof Dr Gilvan Muller D Oliviera, Head of the UNESCO Chair in Language Policies for Multilingualism, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil; Dr Hewasa L Khing, Principal, Tetso College; and Dr Wichamdinbo Mataina, Asst. Professor, Tetso College and Convenor of the NEIIPA project.
Speaking during the launch, Dr Hewasa stated that NEIIPA arose out of the visible lack of availability of material and readily available knowledge for researchers, scholars or just anyone wanting to know or see more about the tribals of North East India.
"It is a sincere and genuine attempt to provide reliable cultural and historical content of northeast India to the global audience through a sustainable community of engaged thinkers. That is the vision of NEIIPA," she highlighted. Hewasa also expressed hope that it will be able to aid research scholars in their work and promote further research studies from the data available on the site.
An initiative by Tetso College, NEIIPA is a comprehensive digital repository dedicated to host cultural and linguistics materials of the region and is one of the first of this kind in the region. The initiative stresses our commitment and the love to preserve and promote our indigenous knowledges and cultural heritage which are embedded in our language and are at risk to be lost slowly due to extreme influence of globalization upon lesser known languages and culture.
The materials at NEIIPA will be a valuable resource for linguists, researchers, language enthusiasts, offering a vast collection of audio-visual recordings, written and multimedia resources from diverse linguistic communities.
Tetso College invites the public, the academic community and cultural enthusiasts to explore our digital archive and engage in the exoneration of these incredible linguistic treasures. We also welcome researchers and scholars and native language activists to submit any linguistic materials to be archived at the NEIIPA which can be accessed at www.neiipa.in.
