ETHNOMAD
MARCH 2026
Dispatch From the Field
March Cover Story
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In Barmer, we sat with Anwar Khan, one of the great living voices of the Manganiyar tradition, as he sang in the small room where his lineage continues to be shaped. On video, the sound is powerful; in person, it is architectural, rising from the dark resonance of the kamaicha and carrying the weight of centuries of hereditary memory. As he begins a sustained note, you can see his grandson instinctively respond, hand lifted, body leaning into the rhythm, transmission unfolding in real time. This short clip is not simply a performance, it is a moment of continuity inside a desert tradition that still depends on breath, discipline and lineage.
CHANGING NATURE:NEWS UPDATES
In 2026, climate change is not arriving quietly. Rivers run lower in parts of the Amazon. Storm systems intensify across the Pacific. Legal protections for Indigenous lands expand in some countries even as enforcement weakens in others. Across continents, tribal communities are confronting a dual reality: environmental instability and political uncertainty. At the centre of this tension lies a simple truth. Climate resilience depends on land rights.
In March, as Arctic light begins its slow return, caribou rise and begin to travel. For thousands of years their migration has stitched together Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. In 2026 that movement is less certain. Ice forms differently. Snow hardens. Roads cross old routes. When the herds shift, entire human calendars shift with them.
In early 2026, thousands of Indigenous defenders gathered along Brazil’s Tapajós River to oppose a government decree that would have opened the waterway to industrial concession and dredging. After more than a month of sustained resistance, the decree was revoked. In a year marked by ecological strain, the river did not change course. The government did.
ONGOING FIELD STORIES
What The Fire Carries
Living Heritage and the Architecture of Survival
Sounds from the Field
In Barmer, we sat with Anwar Khan, one of the great living voices of the Manganiyar tradition, as he sang in the small room where his lineage continues to be shaped. On video, the sound is powerful; in person, it is architectural, rising from the dark resonance of the kamaicha and carrying the weight of centuries of hereditary memory. As he begins a sustained note, you can see his grandson instinctively respond, hand lifted, body leaning into the rhythm, transmission unfolding in real time. This short clip is not simply a performance, it is a moment of continuity inside a desert tradition that still depends on breath, discipline and lineage.
Join ETHNOMAD’s River Transect: Climate and Change, a journey tracing the Teesta River from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. Discover how tribal, Indigenous, and river-based communities live, adapt, and sustain their traditions amid shifting waters and a changing climate. Explore stories of resilience, heritage, and hope at ethnomad.com and fadingcultures.org.
The Sundarbans span 10,000 square kilometers of tidal forest shared by Bangladesh and India, the largest mangrove ecosystem on Earth and one of the most unstable landscapes ever mapped. Here the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna meet the Bay of Bengal in a shifting maze of silt and salt. Borders drown twice daily. Islands emerge and disappear. Tigers swim between creeks. Nearly four million people live on ground that offers no guarantees. As seas rise and cyclones intensify, this delta stands on the frontline of climate change. This film follows the transect from Himalaya to ocean, where sediment, culture, and survival move with the tide.
We have launched a new core section on the ETHNOMAD website: Field Notes & Foundations. This space brings together our deeper research and methodological work, including ethnographic guides, Yarning frameworks, conference papers such as From Cave to Canvas, and long-form field research across heritage, ecology, and community-led conservation. It is a living archive of how we work in the field and how knowledge is built over time, grounded in lived experience rather than abstraction.
Most Widely Read Article of February
At dusk an elephant steps to the edge of a village and is recorded as conflict, yet it is usually walking a route remembered across generations. Across South Asia, proverbs such as “Elephants do not abandon their paths” reflect ecological knowledge long understood by communities who once adjusted fields, forests, and movement to accommodate these animals. This article traces how that negotiated coexistence unraveled under land fragmentation and modern development, and asks whether what we now call conflict is in fact the collision between ancient memory and rigid contemporary maps.