THE STRUGGLE OF AN INDIGENOUS YOUTH

(This article was sent by me to the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus to apply for the post of one of the Asia region writer for their book)

    Being an indigenous youth can be a world full of opportunities as well as a barrier. Youth hold the power to shift the dynamics of the world. If we want change, we must provide leadership support for youth in making change possible. Indigenous youth in particular continue to face racism and discrimination and are marginalized in society, but when they have a sense of belonging and a strong cultural identity they become resilient, powerful individuals. They have immersed roots through their ancestral lineage, wisdom, and intelligence. They are the future leaders for their communities. It is critical to restore leadership from the erosion of their traditional knowledge practices and habitat so that they can begin to create a more sustainable interdependent system for the coming generations. 

    My story is quite common to many youths of the indigenous group, the Newars. As a child, I had much problems. While studying in a school run by locals, I had not faced much problems. As the year passed and I transferred to the military school located at Bhaktapur, this was where the existence of discrimination was first introduced to me. Many of my current friends from the army school used to at first tease me a lot due to the Newari tone that was there whenever I spoke. This also caused me and my brother to stop speaking in the Nepalese language while on the spoke premises. As the army school was a boarding academy, we spent six years of our lives speaking in English. After our SLC level examinations and even today whenever we visit our school, people are shocked to hear us speak in Nepali. After the SLC examinations, the Halin Newa: Guthi (the World Newar Organization) decided to honor us along with the other Newar youths who had passed the SLC examination that year. Here, I faced quite a lot of trouble and insults. As I was in the army school for six years of my life returning home only three times a year, I had not received the opportunity to learn the Newari language. Due to this we had quite a quarrel. The older generations did not understand the reason and just took to insulting and the youths all banded together to support me and my brother. 

    The years flew by but regardless of where I went, people found my tone to be funny and many preferred to tease me due to it. However, disregarding the insults I continued to attain the respect of all. Rather than hiding from the insults, I preferred to step forward and take action. During my high school years, a terrible earthquake shook the country. Many of the people had become hopeless. During this time, I along with my brother gathered a few friends and prepared a plan to support the community with the assistance from our high school. Once the plan was approved, we collected our friends to help us. At the time when most of them were just staying at home due to the fright given by the earthquake and had no idea of what to do, we gathered them to step forward and help others. We did not believe that only those who were close to us could help. We even invited and encouraged those people who teased us in the past to step forwards. And surprisingly within a short span of two days, we had gathered three hundred people. This event in my life taught me two great lessons that I still follow; the first being that everyone has something that they can be proud of (mine was leadership as I learnt during this period) and the second being that what is needed more than anything in the present is the unity in indigenous groups. If we had gathered only indigenous youths from the Newar community, we might not have been able to do as much as we did. We would have been limited in numbers and deeds. However, unity among the indigenous youths led to greater achievements. 

    Being an indigenous youth does not mean that problems arise only from the other indigenous groups. There are some problems that arise in one’s own indigenous group. As I believe, a community needs to move on with time adopting beliefs and ideologies favorable to the present. As I said earlier, I had faced a problem regarding the indigenous language with my own community. As I grew up, I made friends with youths from various indigenous groups. I had friends from my own indigenous community but had friends from other communities as well. This did not sit well with the elders of my community. They scolded me as well as advised me to ignore other indigenous communities. But following my beliefs and heart, I disregarded that negative advice. Today, I encourage all my friends and siblings to forge the bonds of friendship with people of various communities and not limit themselves to our won community only. If I had listened and followed that piece of advice back in the past, I would never have had been able to achieve all that I have today. At present, I have been able to forge the bonds of friendship with youths not only in the various indigenous communities in Nepal but also throughout the globe. My life took a turn when I started working with the youths of the various communities. 

    The life of an indigenous youth may be hard. One may face much criticisms from the one’s own community as well as other indigenous communities. But the greatest need of today is unity, a need for youths from various communities to come together and strive for the betterment of the world. Unity is one thing that can be the greatest strength for all. As I was able to stand united with my friends as well as my family regardless of the minor problems, I believe everyone should come and stand united so that the world can be a better place. It’s better to abandon the ideologies of particular communities that reject other human being and is much better to accept those ideologies that promote unity and acceptance of all.

-abhinavjoshi875@gmail.com