Photography by Herb Ascherman, Jr.
Young girls of the Kaadar Tribe, Village of Chettichal, Kerala, India

The term ‘6 miles an hour’ means that sometimes there was a road, and sometimes there wasn’t. Sometimes there were ruts, sometimes there were rivers and sometimes there were elephant crowded grasslands. Sometimes there was almost impassible brush, sometimes there were hairpin turns around gigantic fallen trees and sometimes there was just no where to go, so we kept heading in one general direction hoping to end up somewhere. ‘Lost’ took on an entirely new meaning than the wrong turn off a highway exit. At the end of the hour we emerged onto a dirt path that lead us to the small village of the Kaadar, an indigenous and tribe of aboriginal Indians who have lived fairly isolated for thousands of years. Protected by the Keralan (one of India’s 28 states) Government, we were given permission to venture, at our own risk, into the Kaadar’s jungle.

Although the younger generation has practically abandoned their tribal traditions and adopted a more contemporary life style, these girls, dressed in traditional attire, speak a language that is a mix of Kongini and Malayalam. (India has 25 official languages with over 125 dialects. Malayalam is the language of the State of Kerala.)

The girls were photographed in front of the ‘Girls Club”, a small open air one room school. When not in school they perform household chores. The boys work cultivating fields nearby. Their income comes primarily from selling honey, which the men harvest from the jungle at night, by climbing trees and opening hives. The Kaadar have never had portraits taken of them before my arrival. I was the only white face in their village in almost 2 years, since the visit of a French ethnographer.

I will bring copies of their photos to them when I return in December.

by photographer Herb Ascherman, Jr.

This black and white image of the young girls of the Kadar tribe taken in Kerala, Southern India in 2006 has just been awarded the Human Figure Award of 2009 in the Firelands Association of Visual Arts annual exhibition in Oberlin, Ohio.

 (:divend:)