Folk Lok responds to the needs of Nepal’s indigenous music groups. It supports them in their journey to remember, revitalize and reframe their musical tradition. We believe that indigenous music and performance are repositories of knowledge and allow indigenous people to define themselves and their world on their own terms through a process of mobilization, healing, decolonization, and transformation. Folk Lok supports this process.
Dapha Calling (DC) is an annual forum for the sharing of knowledge and practice on the Kathmandu Valley's historic Dapha music tradition. It is a platform to enjoy the beauty and creative expression of Dapha music, allowing practitioners to reclaim their space within Nepali society. It brings together Dapha practitioners, researchers, local stakeholders, and enthusiasts to share ideas, voice concerns, explore collaborative solutions and build collective agency.
Folk Lok @ Tahnani
Since 2019, Folk Lok has been working with Taḥnani Dāphā Khalaḥ (TDK), a Newa indigenous music group, in Taḥnani, Kirtipur. Dāphā is a genre of music distinct to the Newa community and has a history of over four hundred years of practice. We have supported the revival of TDK’s apprenticeship program, the creation of new dāphā songs, the archiving of dāphā practices, and hosted conferences and events on dāphā music.
We work in partnership with indigenous music groups and respond to the needs of their tradition, practitioners, and community. We work with groups we support for a minimum of three years and help them mobilize community members and engage music practitioners in a process of remembering, reclaiming, and reframing their musical tradition. We facilitate apprenticeships, encourage gender-inclusive place-making, and exercise democratic practices to support them in a process of self-determination.
We see the creative process and the articulation of new sights, sounds, and stories as integral to a process of healing, decolonization, and transformation. In the process of remembering and recalling music and musical practice, we encourage indigenous music groups to create new music, art, and narratives based on the knowledge and history of their community.
Our work is grounded on an indigenous research agenda through which we engage in a process of learning and unlearning with the indigenous music groups we work with. Based on the needs and interests of the communities we work with, we support documentation, archiving, and the use and activation of indigenous knowledge. Where necessary we produce content to highlight salient features and issues that the indigenous music groups and musical practitioners are facing.
We host conferences, workshops, and events centered on indigenous music traditions to bring people together and encourage collaboration and sharing of knowledge and experiences. We are committed to building a healthy forum for indigenous music traditions to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and navigate through opportunities and threats that lie outside in the larger creative industry.
The money you donate will help the revitalization of indigenous music traditions in Nepal by allowing them to create new music, support research, and host cross-cultural musical exchanges and conferences. Your generosity will allow us to continue our work supporting indigenous groups to tell their own stories, create their own sounds, and provide new ways of thinking and doing that can address some of our world’s most pressing challenges.
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We believe in the power of indigenous knowledge and creativity in securing the knowledge, histories and values of indigenous communities.
We collaborate and bring people together through curiosity and optimism to create a sustainable ecology for indigenous music traditions.
We choose to encourage and follow the agency of the indigenous peoples we work with. We affirm that indigenous practitioners know their tradition and its environments better and can determine their own ways forward.
We acknowledge and understand that stratifications in society are clearly visible in indigenous music traditions. We address this by encouraging inclusive place making.
We encourage dialogue and discourse among indigenous practitioners to arrive at decisions and in deciding the approaches and methodologies we adopt.
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