Page 244 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

From Grindmill Songs to Cultural Action 219

8

From Grindmill SonGS

to Cultural aCtion

Tara Ubhe

Linking Up with Words of Yesteryear

Retrieving and collecting grindmill songs turned out to be an effective
medium of social awakening for rural women. In this chapter, I sum
up our initial experiment with the songs as a congenial way of initiat-
ing contact and exchange, especially with older women who would not
otherwise be receptive to modern words and perspectives.
We started the animation work ten years ago and have maintained
our commitment since then. In the beginning we were new to the whole
concept, but with a decade of experience behind us now, we have learnt
how to be effective in the process of animation work. If our intention
is that rural women should accept us in our role as animators, and not
only as rural women as themselves, we have to resort to some media for
convincing them about the genuineness of our work. Indeed, we wish
to transmit to them what experience and knowledge we have acquired
in the process of animation work.
With this purpose, we started, in particular, participating in the work
of collection and valorization of grindmill songs. All of us, as much
as other women in the villages, know them by heart. This oral tradition of
ours became a useful medium in the meetings of the rural women of