Newsletter 53 - Jacinta Kerketta: to listen to the voice of Adivasis
A poet who transforms the memory, the land, and the life of her people into words
Jacinta Kerketta is an Adivasi poet, journalist, and activist from the Oraon community in Jharkhand, in northeastern India. Her poetry stems from personal experience, the observation of her communities, and the pain caused by violence and the loss of land.
She herself explains that she never imagined she would end up writing poetry. She began by writing journalistic reports after an uncle of hers was killed in a land-related conflict. The emotions that this experience stirred gradually transformed into poems. Since then, writing has become a way for her to give a voice to her people.
«The Adivasi people and their worldview are my main inspiration.»
Her poetry collection Angor, comprising 41 poems, speaks of water, forests, and the land, but also of displacement, violence, inequality, and the loss of cultural identity. Her perspective begins with the reality of the Oraon community, yet it extends far beyond that. For Jacinta, many of the struggles faced by the Adivasi peoples of India share common ground with those of indigenous peoples elsewhere in the world: the defense of their territory, natural resources, and a way of life deeply connected to nature.
When trees also have a voice
In her poetry, nature is not merely a landscape. Trees, rivers, and mountains are part of a community of life shared with human beings.
In El llenguatge de l’home [The Language of Man], Jacinta describes this bond through a silent encounter between a person and a leaf:
«Suddenly, a leaf comes to rest beside me, as if it wished to converse with me. Such are the ways of two worlds… And thus, in the silence, two souls from two worlds speak to one another…»
These words express a way of understanding the world in which nature is not separate from human life. Listening to a tree, a leaf, or a river is also listening to a part of ourselves.
This relationship is threatened when forests disappear, rivers dry up, or communities are driven from their lands. For this reason, the defense of nature is inseparable from the defense of culture and the rights of the peoples who have lived there for generations.
Making invisible voices visible
For Jacinta, writing is also a responsibility. She believes that Adivasi peoples have often been described by others, and that it is necessary for them to be the ones to explain their own reality.
Her poetry seeks to help break this invisibility and to carry these voices beyond their own communities.
In an interview published by La Raza Cómica, she expresses her hope as follows:
«My only hope is that the voices of Adivasi, tribal, indigenous, and native peoples from every corner of the world reach the center of the world.»
It is a hope that resonates deeply with the work of ADA Món Adivasi. We, too, believe that listening to, making space for, and accompanying these communities is a way to help preserve their culture, their dignity, and their future opportunities.
Jacinta’s voice reminds us that Adivasi peoples are not merely a reality of the past to be preserved. They are living communities, possessing knowledge, cultures, and worldviews that have much to contribute to the present and the future.
And perhaps, as her poetry suggests, before speaking about these peoples, we should begin with something very simple: learning to listen to them.
Article prepared from the interview with Jacinta Kerketta published in La Raza Cómica on June 3, 2025.
Andreu Gusi
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