Cultural Recovery and Reformation: Tourism and the Hornbill Festival at Kisama

Abstract

The organic nature of cultural forms is often taken for granted. In indigenous cultures there is an organic connection between celebration, ritual, natural environment and way of life. While celebrations in the form of music, dance, food and dress comprise essential yet peripheral aspects of any festival, its ritualistic meaning gives a festival its core significance and makes it an indispensable part of a community’s cultural life. It is this core that colonialism to a lesser degree and missionization more invasively has cut away from our traditional festivals. To the extent that, I contend, traditional festivals had fallen into varying states of atrophy; their hearts having been transplanted into Christian festivals of Christmas, Easter and other significant church events. Within this scenario, I would like to make a case for the Hornbill Festival at Kisama Heritage Complex as a cultural form in the making; beginning as an entirely concocted pastiche of the different festivals of the tribes of Nagaland state but gradually evolving into some semblance of a traditional festival with, if not a spiritual heart, at least one with emotive and affective resonance among the indigenous people of Nagaland. I would like to further argue that the promotion of tourism in and through the Hornbill Festival has led to a resurgence of pride in our indigenous heritage thereby revitalizing celebrations of traditional indigenous festivals.