Paper short abstract

This paper contributes to the panel by showing how Rang Rih, the Papiackum sacred thorned chair, embodies an Indigenous jurisprudence where oral narratives inscribe justice into ecological and ancestral landscapes, resonating with global traditions of nature-rooted truth.

Paper long abstract

Among the Papiackum people, Rang Rih — the sacred thorned chair — embodies an ancestral jurisprudence where justice, truth, and reconciliation are enacted through oral tradition. Constructed from living thorn branches, Rang Rih symbolizes the paradox of justice: its thorns pierce falsehood, while truth, though painful, purifies. To approach or sit upon the chair is to enter into covenant with ancestors, community, and the natural world, where the guilty are unmasked and the truthful vindicated.

This paper examines the cosmological, ecological, and performative dimensions of Rang Rih. Drawing on oral narratives, ritual enactments, and intergenerational testimony, it traces how the thorned chair operates as both juridical instrument and symbolic archive of ethical memory. It preserves Indigenous epistemologies of justice that resist colonial erasure, while ensuring balance between human action, ancestral mandate, and ecological order.

Placed in comparative perspective, Rang Rih resonates with global Indigenous traditions where natural forms become vehicles of truth and accountability. Yet its distinctiveness lies in its refusal to separate pain from healing: thorns wound but also cleanse, ensuring justice restores both social and spiritual harmony.

Fore grounded in the panel Roots and Voices: Exploring Nature, Identity, and the Sacred in Oral Narratives from Indigenous Communities across Cultures and Continents, this contribution argues for the recognition of oral traditions as jurisprudence — living legal philosophies grounded in ecological and spiritual worlds. Rang Rih thus illuminates how Indigenous communities inscribe justice into nature and memory, embodying a thorned but healing path toward ancestral continuity.

Paper short abstract

This paper explores spirit possession rituals in Japan (Kuchiyose) and Uttarakhand, India (Jagar), highlighting their cultural, religious, and ecological roots. Through fieldwork and textual study, it examines similarities and differences, revealing shared mountain cosmologies and oral traditions.

Paper long abstract

Spirit possession rituals embody the intersection of oral tradition, spirituality, and cultural identity. This paper offers a comparative study of Japan’s Kuchiyose practice mediated by the blind shamans (Itako) of Mount Osorezan and the North Indian mountain ritual of Jagar, rooted in the ancestral and divine spirit worship of Uttarakhand. Though geographically distant, both traditions reveal striking parallels in how communities negotiate unseen worlds, resolve crises, and sustain cultural memory.

Drawing from primary fieldwork, oral narratives, and secondary scholarship, the study investigates the origins, practices, and functions of spirit possession in these two mountainous regions. While Itako channel the voices of the deceased to provide guidance, Jagaris awaken deities and ancestors through epic songs of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Both embody a living archive of ecological and spiritual knowledge, situating mountains as sacred thresholds between human and divine.

The analysis situates these traditions within broader questions: How do oral rituals transmit generational wisdom? What similarities and differences emerge across Japan and India in ritual performance, cosmology, and community participation? And how might such practices illuminate trans-regional connections between folk religion, Buddhism, and local cosmologies?

By juxtaposing Kuchiyose and Jagar, this paper contributes to discussions on spirit possession, oral tradition, and cultural resilience. It highlights how mountain communities, through ritual and song, preserve embodied knowledge of land, ancestors, and spirituality amid shifting religious and social landscapes.

Paper short abstract

In Lahaul, Western Himalayas, mountains shape the valley’s cultural discourse, and the landscape is regarded as kin. In their worldview, ritual performances and oral traditions are living conversations with the land, sustaining ways of dwelling, memory, and cosmological intimacy across generations.

Paper long abstract

Amidst the lofty valleys of Lahaul, Western Himalayas, mountains shape the cultural discourse of the valley. Rivers carve their way through glaciers, Snow marks the rhythm of life, and Mountains are not distant landscapes but kin and guardians. In Lahauli worldview, rituals and oral traditions are living conversations with the land: ways of dwelling, remembering, and sustaining cosmological intimacy across generations.

This paper explores cultural practices like Kuns (New Year rites) and Gotsi (birth rituals), and oral genres such as Sugli (laments) and Ghure (narrative ballads) as forms of ecological and sacred storytelling. Through them, humans, mountains, rivers, animals, and ancestors meet in performance, creating shared meaning that binds together life, memory, and landscape. During Kuns, villagers offer prayers to Shikhara Appa, the “grandmother of the mountains,” reminding themselves that survival is tied to agricultural cycles. The Himalayan Ibex (Tangrol), once hunted for sacrifice, now appears in fragile effigies of snow, leaves, or paper: a gesture of care that honours the land while responding to ecological change. In Gotsi, the arrival of a child is woven into networks of kinship. Sugli turns grief into shared memory, and Ghure carry the pulse of seasons, binding work, ritual, and song to the rhythms of the valley. These practices reveal Lahaul as a generative site of knowledge, care, and connection. Here, storytelling is not about the mountain; it unfolds with it, sustaining relationships between humans, spirits, and landscapes, and offering a vision of cultural life where memory, ecology, and cosmology are inseparably intertwined.

Paper short abstract

This paper explores how rice as "serahur" fundamentally shapes the Teduray and Lambangian understanding of "being" and "becoming." It examines their unique synthesis of material and spiritual realms through rice-based meaning-making as they pursue their ongoing struggle for self-determination.

Paper long abstract

In the epic Beninarew, the Teduray and Lambangian peoples speak of "serahur," their sacred rice. This religious epic chronicles the spiritual odyssey of their cultural hero, Lagey Langkuwos (also known as Seonomon), who, alongside faithful followers, confronts malevolent spirits of greed in their quest for eternal life. The narrative unfolds in three distinct phases: the sacrifice (teresay), the struggle for justice (sefebenal), and the reconciliation that leads to lasting peace—all pathways to eternal life.

Rice weaves through these phases as a profound symbol. The first phase is embodied in rice cultivation, representing the community's vital sustenance. The final phase culminates in the ritual offering of rice—now transformed into serahur—which serves as the key to Linamasan, the celestial dwelling of Tulus, the Great Creator Spirit. For the Teduray and Lambangian, rice thus becomes both origin and destination, much like the alpha and omega of existence.

This paper explores how rice fundamentally shapes the Teduray and Lambangian understanding of "being" and "becoming." It examines their unique synthesis of material and spiritual realms through rice-based meaning-making, particularly as they pursue their ongoing struggle for self-determination. This struggle takes place against the backdrop of Mindanao's complex conflict, where they face precarious circumstances amid development paradigms cloaked in rhetoric of national unity, progress, and peace. Yet within these challenges, the process of sacralization endures, transforming ordinary rice into a powerful symbol of cultural resilience and spiritual transcendence.

Paper short abstract

Shakchunni, a type of female ghost in Bengali oral tradition, is known not only for its cruelty and creepy activities but also for sensuality. They provide interesting space for women's agency and (sexual) desire.

Paper long abstract

Among the ghosts in Bangladesh, or more precisely in (oral) literary traditions of the Bengali language, Shakchunni’s place is a distinct one. They must have been married and Hindu in their worldly lives. Some argue that the prefix of the word Shakchunni, Shak, came from Shankha, a shell-made ornament that symbolizes Hindu married women. Shakchunnis are believed to have experienced an unpleasant married life with abuse and torture. Also, they while living could have been deprived of sexual pleasure. They eventually became one of the most tireless ghosts in their post-worldly mission – primarily to hunt their husbands, and then to explore sexual pleasure. Predominantly on a heterosexual narrative outlet, Shakchunnis keep on looking for attractive males, often the married ones. There are twists in the customization of ghost stories in different parts of the land and by different orators depending on their craft of storytelling. While some stories can portray the cruel and terrifying aspects of a Shakchunni, others may opt for sensual aspects. Understandably, the later genre provides space for pleasure not only for the Shakchunnis but also for the audience of these stories. One way to look into the stories is to reconceptualize women's agency and (sexual) desire.

Paper short abstract

Inuit narratives, from the Aurora to Sedna, offer insights into place. Through Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and an interdisciplinary lens of Indigenous Studies, Education, and autoethnographical reflection, I will share how Inuit voices can be shared in a respectful way across cross-cultural contexts.

Paper long abstract

From the Aurora to Sedna, Inuit narratives are insightful reflections on engagement with the environment. The offer a way of exploring the impact of place on people and people’s role in maintaining harmonious existence with all life. Grounded in the interdisciplinary intersections of Indigenous Studies, Education, contemplative inquiry, language learning, and autoethnography, I will share reflections about my experiences of drawing upon Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles through the Inuuqatigiitsiarniq (Respecting Others, Relationships, and Caring for People) strand Uqausiliriniq, which focuses on relationships, Inuuqatiqarunnaqsivallianiq (Building Relationships), and Hivitugumik Tautungniq (Taking the Long View) as a way of engaging with Inuit narratives in postsecondary literature and education classes as an interdisciplinary educator. I will share how IQ principles offer a path for non-Inuit educators to share narratives and engage in a respectful way across cross-cultural contexts. I will assert that grounding learning in place-conscious, decolonizing, Inuit narratives is a meaningful way to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action in Canada, to support the success of Indigenous learners, and to help non-Indigenous learners develop more wholistic understandings of the impact of differing relationships of Indigenous and settler people to the environment. I will advocate for amplifying Inuit stories as a means of building collaborative, mutually respectful relationships; decolonizing education; enacting social justice toward the environment and marginalized Inuit communities and narratives in public education; and a significant means of demonstrating solidarity with Inuit people by non-Inuit postsecondary educators.

Paper short abstract

Women’s folk rituals, oral narratives, and songs create a gendered counter-archive in riverine islands shaped by erosion and unhomeliness. Using hydrofeminism, folkloristics, and postcolonial archive theory, this paper claims how these voices form a memory system that resists erasure.

Paper long abstract

This paper reimagines how women’s ritualised folk practices, songs and oral traditions along the banks of rivers form a gendered ecological memory system in Adwaita Mallabarman’s Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (A River Called Titash), published in 1956. In Mallabarman’s novel, the river Titash is not simply a setting but an active agent in creating speech, narrative and kinship.

Before readers hear of climate change and erosion in riverine narratives, they hear the folk songs and stories sung by the riverside by women. The river continuously erodes and creates new “chars,” (riverine islands) and this, in turn, creates a condition of ‘unhomeliness’ (Homi K. Bhabha), a state where lives are continuously being uprooted, and there is no stability. In response, the women’s daily water-bound practices sustain a sense of identity and home in an unstable world. These daily practices become what Diana Taylor terms a “repertoire” of embodied memory. This paper contends that through these practices, the community vulnerable to ongoing destruction of their homes can sustain their ecological knowledge, preserve communal temporality and transmit feminine resilience across generations.

While the men try to institutionalise folk memory through writing, the women preserve local knowledge through water rituals, ululations and recipes. Moreover, since these practices are often not officially documented, their voices create a living counter-archive, enabling cultural survival. The paper utilises hydrofeminism, folkloristics and postcolonial archive theory to elaborate how rivers become spaces for gendered and sonic archives. Listening to these gendered contexts becomes essential in understanding how water holds memory.

Paper short abstract

Ritual songs as Sohar, Chhath Geet, central to Bihar’s festivals, childbirth, and seasonal rites, support healing and resilience. Their lyrics convey protection, blessings, and emotional release, strengthening social bonds and cultural memory, now reaching wider audiences through digital sharing.

Paper long abstract

Ritual songs such as Jhijhiya, Sohar, Kajari, and Chhath Geet form the heart of Bihar’s cultural and spiritual life, performed during festivals, childbirth, and seasonal transitions. Earlier scholarship has examined their symbolic and social meanings, but less attention has been given to how their lyrics express healing and emotional care. This study explores the narratives and imagery within these songs to understand how they nurture individual and collective resilience.

Drawing on archival and contemporary lyrics, along with observations of communal performances, the research identifies recurring themes of protection, blessings, devotion, and reassurance. These motifs are often expressed through references to seasonal cycles, fertility, and the natural environment, reflecting a worldview in which human well-being is inseparable from nature. The songs serve not only as emotional expression but as a shared act of renewal and strength, where singing together becomes a form of collective healing.

In the contemporary context, the circulation of these songs on digital platforms such as YouTube and Instagram is transforming how they are shared and experienced. Yet, their therapeutic essence continues to endure, adapting to new modes of expression while retaining their emotional depth and social meaning. By tracing these songs from the village courtyard to digital spaces, this study highlights how oral traditions continue to sustain emotional balance, inner strength, and a sense of belonging in changing cultural landscapes.

Paper short abstract

The paper examines oral narratives of myth and history as a tool of assertion by local communities in Kaziranga National Park (India) to make claims against land grab for nature conservation. These narratives invoke the question of identity, local knowledge and co-existence to ascertain legitimacy.

Paper long abstract

Nature conservation projects have been linked to marginalisation of local communities across the globe through land grab and enclosure. Conflicts in exclusionary conservation spaces generate contestations over resources and knowledge between local communities and conservation authorities. Although in unequal power relations with the authorities, local communities make claims and assertions to defend their right to land and livelihood, challenging the idea of Protected Areas and the formation of an ‘encroacher’ identity. This paper examines the invocation of oral narratives of historical belongingness as a claim-making in this process of contestation. It explores this through the case of villages in the periphery of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in Assam, India, which have been engulfed into the new ‘Additions’ to the Park’s area. The communities make claims through organised resistance in the form of public protests or legal battles, lobbying with the ones in power, everyday forms of resistance like grazing cattle in acquired lands, and through narratives disseminated in everyday conversations. In these processes of claim-making, oral narratives of myth and history become a tool to assert their rights as legitimate inhabitants of the space. Foraging, fishing, interaction with animals, migration and assistance in the creation of the Park become central to the narratives. Analysing these narratives, the paper aims to explore the manner in which they entwine with discourses on identity, local and indigenous ecological knowledge and community based conservation. Through this, the paper also portrays how oral narratives of different communities are perceived differently and given legitimacy.

Paper short abstract

This paper examines how marginalized local communities in Latvia’s historical land of Selonia construct and represent subaltern identities through narratives of intangible heritage, revealing how memory, landscape, and tradition sustain cultural resilience and regional self-identification.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores the construction and representation of subaltern community identities in Latvia through the narratives of local intangible cultural heritage communities. Drawing on the case of the historical land of Selonia, the research investigates how marginalized local communities construct, interpret, and transmit their sense of belonging and place identity amid cultural-historical and administrative transformations. The study employs a narrative analysis approach to examine how oral stories, memories, and symbolic expressions, rooted in landscapes, family histories, and traditional practices, form metanarratives that reflect both resistance to dominant regional discourses and the search for authenticity. The Selonian communities, often positioned as peripheral in Latvia’s regional development, embody characteristics of subaltern identity through self-representation that challenges-imposed hierarchies and reclaims cultural distinctiveness. Their narratives reveal a dynamic interplay between heritage, land, and identity, where nature acts as a living agent of memory and renewal. By examining these narratives as acts of cultural resilience, the paper highlights how marginalized voices contribute to reimagining the symbolic and sacred dimensions of place, thus offering insight into the broader processes of cultural continuity, empowerment, and self-identification in postcolonial and regional contexts.