The Indigenist Turn in Mamang Dai’s Poetry

Postcolonial studies have progressed with time. With the old concepts new concepts have been brought in. “The First People’s Theory” is a recent concept of postcolonial studies. Indigenous culture all over the world which was almost erased by the Colonial rule are given importance and looked at anew through this theory. In India especially rmahin Northeast India we have many tribal communities. The endeavor to represent and reclaim the history, identity and cultures of these different communities is the domain on which this theory works on. This is also what is called the process of decolonization. There is no doubt that change is an inevitable. Cultures all over the world go through this process of change. But there has to be continuity. The present should follow from the past and the future from the present. Mamang Dai belongs to the Aadi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. Though her works she reclaims her tribe’s history and culture and explores her identity and roots. Her work also has a universal appeal. Her poetry can be taken as a quest to re-establish the roots of her culture and society and break the colonist’s re- defined ideas and ideals about her tribe and for this she uses the colonizer’s language as a tool. In this aspect she can be compared to writers like Pablo Neruda, Chinua Achebe and Derek Walcott.