Dear All,

So the adivaani ideator is in trouble.  The idea behind making books for and by Adivasis was to challenge every misconstrued notion about us. Also, and more importantly, adivaani is a response to the indigenous peoples of India’s identity being threatened, ignored, misrepresented and supressed. The problem is we can’t do it alone.

We’re 3 books old now and we’ve got a lot of attention, expectations and responsibility. Along with the accolades, came requests and suggestions for our books. ‘We love your books.’ ‘We haven’t seen this quality in Santali publishing before.’ ‘Your books are priced well.’ ‘Your books are telling our story.’ ‘Can you do our creation stories too?’ ‘Can we have the Santal Creation story in Hindi?’

I’m elated with the response and thrilled with the promise of what we can do. With the first sale and surge in book sales and the first bookstores willing to source our books in Ranchi and Kolkata, the excitement just grew.

The second book of the Santal Creation Stories for children is ready for print and the third is in the pipeline, the Santali folklore book is also ready, and Gladson is finishing his second book in English. That is certainly to be celebrated. However they are all on hold now–waiting to be printed and I can’t actually take them to the press. What a pity!

And with that come sleepless nights, worries and utter helplessness. It’s not easy to build a time machine, which does more than time travel. It actually documents and tools adivasi history. Not only will we go back in time to rescue what we forgot to bring into the present, we’ll ensure everything preserved move with every generation of adivasis into the future.

So the idea churner is churning out idea after idea after idea–quite exhilarating but I’m beginning to think, have I bitten off more than I can chew? I’m just a regular working-class Adivasi girl, trying to make ends meet, with a treasure of an idea.

Sometimes I think of giving up. But the enormity of what adivaani and its time machine could do keeps the passion alive. I not only realize what we can and must do, but that it has to be done now. We are in a hurry. We refuse to be a forgotten peoples.

I really want our books to go from being on hold to being available for your reading pleasure and our time machine to take off. So I really am in trouble and want you to bail us out.

Will you?

Please donate at:

A time machine for Adivasis

Indiegogo (Click)

It’s a simple 3 step process. You can use your debit, credit or paypal account to donate from wherever you are. It doesn’t matter how much you contribute, we will be grateful for it.

Please spread the word of our online fundraising campaign by forwarding this message, liking our campaign on Facebook and Tweeting about it.

We need to get 5,000 USD in 60 days … we only have 30 days before the campaign closes and we’re only at 25 USD. That’s disheartening! The countdown has begun.

In hope,

Ruby Hembrom