Between 19th and 23rd January 2023, the Living and Learning Design Centre Museum, Bhuj, Kachchh will host the ‘Living Lightly- Journeys with Pastoralists’ exhibition and event for their annual winter festival. Over many years, Shrujan LLDC has been engaged in bringing to the world the exquisite art and craft traditions of the artisan communities of Kachchh. This year, in partnership with the Centre for Pastoralism, the winter festival will celebrate pastoral communities of the region.

In 2018 LLDC organised its first winter festival and showcased Kachchh communities through their folk dances, music, cuisine, arts and crafts. Subsequently, LLDC celebrated this festival as an annual engagement in 2019 & 2020 in collaboration with different states. In 2019, LLDC stepped forward and began to celebrate this festival in a cross-cultural style with the title NAMASTE, which showcased the rich cultural heritage of five of the northeastern Indian states. WZCC (West Zone Cultural Centre, Udaipur) & NEZCC (North East Zone Cultural Centre, Chandigarh) rendered support in organizing this festival. In the year 2020, LLDC invited the state of Jammu & Kashmir to Kachchh and the confluence of two different cultures, ranging from music & dance to food & crafts, was exhibited to thousands of people who attended the festival.

Due to the pandemic, an inevitable gap in this chain of cultural celebrations has occurred in the last two years – 2021 & 2022. From 2023 LLDC is bringing back the tradition of celebrating crafts and cultures via the Living Lightly- Journeys with Pastoralists’ exhibition and event with equal zest as it has in the past years. The Living Lightly Exhibition will be accompanied by a range of events- performances, film screenings, a pastoral food festival, the Sanjha bazaar, workshops, immersive field experiences, curated programmes for children and consultations with the pastoral communities from across the country.

This festival is a joint endeavour of LLDC, Centre for Pastoralism & Sahjeevan on the land, lives and culture of the pastoralists of India, to showcase the world of Maaldharis to not only sensitize people about it but also to create a space for visitors to experience and understand the concept of Living Lightly in the true sense of the words!