Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät - Geographisches Institut

Preety Sharma & Tümüzo Katiry
HU Berlin & The Highland Institute

Beyond Rights and Autonomy: A Two-Eyed Relational Inquiry into Indigenous Youth Governance and Traditional Management Systems in Nagaland

Across many Indigenous territories worldwide, legal recognition of rights and self-governance is often assumed to support the continuity of traditional environmental management systems. Yet the persistence of rights does not necessarily guarantee the continuation of governance practices across generations. This colloquium examines this challenge through the case of Nagaland, an Indigenous-majority state in Northeast India where communities retain significant customary authority over land, resources, and local governance.

Using a Two-Eyed Relational Methodology, the study examines Indigenous youth organizations as governance actors within a plural landscape where customary and state institutions exercise authority in parallel, often overlapping ways.

The research investigates how youth organizations engage in land stewardship, community governance, and intergenerational knowledge transmission, identifying barriers – both endogenous to Indigenous governance systems and exogenous through state structures – that shape the continuation of traditional management practices, and asks what conditions may enable Indigenous youth to sustain community-based stewardship.

Mehr Informationen zur Teilnahme hier.