World Environment Day (5th June) is being celebrated through the month of June. We thought – what better way to celebrate this than with true children of the earth, that is, rural, nomadic, Adivasi youth. These children live close to nature, and their lifestyles are organically nature-friendly. Their lifestyle habits are not only not harmful to nature, but are loving, respectful and fiercely protective of the environment and its various beings.
Keeping this in mind, “Rainy Art Camp” on Environmental Justice were organized over 3 days in two locations – reaching over 120 children living in Kolegaon, Rahtoli and Chon villages.
They carried out beautiful stone paintings and collages depicting different elements of nature – guided by not much older youth from similar backgrounds. The art came naturally to them since the mediums are originally theirs – for eg. Warli art that is renowned globally, is a form of stone painting created and nurtured over centuries by Adivasi communities.
Discussions were carried out around this – connecting the youth’s community history and background with Environmental Justice since it has always been their people who not only lead movements for nature – many of them unknown and unappreciated – but their life itself is a movement because they follow sustainable practices at risk of their own survival against the dominant destructive ‘development’.