Vaacha

A place where the voice of Adivasis is heard

Where voices speak about traditional knowledge

Where voices are released from the objects, through display, association with other objects, talks,workshops, performances.

An environment in which oral expression is valued through narratives, music, dialogue and performance.

The Vaacha Museum of Voice forms part of the Adivasi Academy's campus at Tejgadh. Museumization of culture is not on the Academy's agenda. Vaacha is created as a national level Resource Centre for Conservation and Promotion of the Culture and Craft of the Marginalised Communities in India. The Museum is a resource centre of tribal voice, whose expressions in every cultural, social and public form are being silenced with a 'structured' amnesia.

Vaacha functions more as a forum and a platform for expression of adivasi creativity. It offers intellectual space for adivasis interested in documenting social practices, and creating dynamic displays of adivasi expressions, both artistic and cultural, in the form of objects, artifacts, performances and digitized multimedia images.

Vaacha has archived an extensive collection of audio-visual documentation related to life-styles, cultural histories, bio-contexts, agro-practices, emotional complexes, attitudes, perceptions, commentary on contemporary world of the tribals and nomadic communities as well as other marginalized groups, together with audio recordings of testimonies, stories, memories, oral and local histories, songs and speech varieties. The Museum is seen as the 'laboratory' for contemporary ethnic, anthropological and artistic studies carried out from the perspective of adivasis themselves.

The Museum building combines features of local architecture and historical monuments found in the area. The floor spaces are left open for the participants to walk, perform, draw, write, or simply sit and watch. The Museum does not expect a reverential attitude from the viewer. The architectural style is fluid with no clear boundaries between inside and outside, no walls dividing the Museum from the Artists' Workshop. It is a 'museum without walls': inclusive in terms of what comprises the collection, creative in terms of how it may develop, and open to all who may find it relevant to their interest in adivasi culture.