Using art to bridge the human-elephant conflict
In a world where our youth are setting their sights on high-rise malls and greener pastures, it is indeed refreshing to come across someone like Janith Weerasinghe, a 32-year-old artist who loves this land and its true heirs –those in far-flung, remote villages who still sing folk poems from atop their huts in chenas to drive away elephant and boar, and who dip in ancient wewas for their daily bath or have thovil exorcisms as a remedy for ailments…
Janith has remarkable talent as an artist, but instead of using it for commercial purposes, he uses it for the people. A bit of a rebel he might look on the exterior (his trademark, Kaputu Art being a bit cynical in a self-deprecating way), Janith is really a son of this land who wants to give back with his visual experiments, born of his own creative insights and education.
Janith Weerasinghe: Art for the community
Having gained a degree in cinematic art from the Colombo University, Janith refused to conform to middle class norms and opted for a life as a maverick artist amongst the people.
After hosting art exhibitions with the Bakeriye Kattiya – a group of unconventional artists in Pannipitiya mostly with Rasta hair and deeply humanist views (headquartered in an old bakery), Janith, in October last year, went to a dry zone village called Sinhala Rotawewa between the Minneriya and Kaudulla national parks. His plan was to host an arts festival titled Ethinimale that will look for remedies for the human-elephant conflict – a rampant concern in those parts where the big wildlife tour operators celebrate ‘the Gathering’.
Janith put up the local fishermen’s community hall and researched on the conflict. The village had little resources and no art teachers.
Over three months spent at the village temple, Janith held workshops for over 100 children where art, music, folk poetry, dance and drama (both stage drama and jahuta- a local folk form) focused on the pachyderm and human conflict from new angles.
The children, divided into two groups, represented the conflict dramatically while girls experimented mingling the traditional Gajaga vannama with contemporary dance to bring out the plight of our elephants. Over fifty children were initiated to working on canvas with acrylics. An art therapy programme was open to all villagers while Janith exposed the children to modern folk poems about the human-elephant conflict.
Seeing things differently: Getting the children involved
The whole exercise was on the theme of ‘protecting our elephants and ensuring our safety’. The culmination of the toil and sweat (not only of Janith but his artistic friends) was the Kala Ulela on October 19, at the Rotawewa Mahasen Funeral Aid Society Hall, which ended with lots of camaraderie and a prize-giving with packs of school equipment from an organisation called Seth made up of Janith’s friends.
Following that moment of felicity in the village, Janith notes with joy that “over a hundred pachyderms came to the thotupola (a small ‘port’ of the river) in the village as if to give thanks…”
Janith and his friends hope to go further in the New Year as artists to broaden our horizons of how we perceive the human-elephant conflict.
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