Campaign Story

Why Education is a MUST for Indigenous People?

Indigenous People hold a treasure of native knowledge and culture. They are born environmentalist because all their lives revolve around nature and Mother Earth. This invaluable knowledge has been handed down from generation to generation. But unfortunately, we are confronting the disappearance of indigenous knowledge through modernization and globalization. Something needs to be done to keep the old valuable knowledge of the nomads. Moreover, the younger generation needs to be educated environmentally oriented. 

The Importance of Indigenous Education

Like any children, the children of indigenous people of Iran need education, and it is of high importance to give them the knowledge they need. Following is a list of some of the main reasons that showcase the importance of indigenous education:

–   To help preserve their culture, language, traditions, and cultural diversity.

–   To make them capable enough to keep living their lives the way they do.

–   To show them that they matter and their lifestyle is important and precious for both cultural and environmental issues.

–   To make them more capable and help them regain their self-esteem.

Despite all the concerns for indigenous education, we are facing a lack of facilities in practice.

What are the Desired Features of Indigenous Education?

The indigenous education should be:

–   Linguistically and culturally appropriate for them.

–   Different from the education taught to the general population.

–   Based on indigenous models, methods, lifestyle, and knowledge.

–   Perfectly suited depending on their needs and priorities.

What are We Aiming to Do?

There are about 1,000,000 nomads in Iran who still practice transhumance to live in better pastures and obtain food in every season. More than 10% of Iran nomads still migrate on foot and haven’t settled down. So providing an education system for the people always on the move might be a little bit tough. 

Unfortunately in Iran, like so many other countries, the specific indigenous education is neglected and they are being taught the same stuff as the general population.

We have been wandering around Iranian nomads for three years and searched for different methods to help preserve their lifestyle. An important feature to meet this aim is to provide a specific education system for them which is perfectly suited to their needs and lifestyle. 

So first things first, we get in touch with the older generation and deep into their traditions and hidden knowledge; we try to gather all the precious knowledge, traditions, and myths of nomads and then register them. 

Since nomads need specific education, so the second step is to register that knowledge and pass it through generation so that it will be kept and won’t fade away. The early step for this is to provide a book portraying the history behind the heroes. 

It is about one year that our content team is gathering these stories and writing them down for the nomads’ children. We have also an illustration team who are creating pictures out of these stories. But this is not where it ends and it is only the starting point.

Here you can check some pictures of promoting indigenous knowledge project.

Available Perks

By choosing your favorite perk, you will have a prominent role in developing an indigenous education system which is suited for Persian nomads based on their culture and language. Note that by sharing this campaign, you may even have a bigger role to make this aim come true.

Who Are Bakhtiari Nomads?

Persian Bakhtiari nomads are a group of remaining nomad tribes in the dazzling landscapes of the Zagros Mountains. They practice transhumans (Kuch) twice a year to provide their flocks with fresh grass. Once in spring, when they move to their summer pastures, and then in fall they move to lower altitudes. Here you can watch a video of their lifestyle:

Who Are We?

IRAN Nomad Tour is a travel operator company working closely with indigenous people and nomad tribes in Iran. Our tours offer transhumans with nomad families through the untouched nature of Iran. We are committed to fair trade & eco-responsibility principles, trying to help our Nomad partners preserve their culture, lifestyle, and handicrafts. We started working with Bakhtiari Tribes as our partners since Spring 2017 and aim to extend this in the Middle East in the next 3 years.