‘Phir Ugana’: How Tribal Poet Parvati Tirkey Gave Voice to a Silenced Culture

New Delhi: Parvati Tirkey, a young tribal poet from Jharkhand, has won the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2025 for her poetry collection ‘Phir Ugana’, published by Rajkamal Prakashan.

Rooted in the Kurukh tribal culture, the poems reflect the traditions, beliefs and changing lives of her community. At just 36, she has become a rare voice representing Adivasi life and language in mainstream Indian literature.

“My poems are soaked in the language of my people, the Kurukh community. They speak of what we had, what we have lost and what we are desperately trying to hold on to,” she told TwoCircles.net.

Tirkey grew up in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, close to her maternal grandfather’s farmland.

“My grandfather was a farmer, my father worked in a government office. But more than that, I was raised among stories, beliefs and customs that shaped my soul. We lived near the jungle. I remember the sounds, the rituals and the gatherings at the akhra. All of that shaped the way I see the world,” she said.

Educated at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Gumla and later at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), her academic path was not planned. She never imagined she would one day write poems that would stir a nation’s conscience.

“I topped my school in Arts after Grade 12, and one of my teachers filled out my BHU application without telling me,” she laughed, adding, “That is how I got in. Later, I did my PhD on tribal culture. But my real education began at home – watching my grandmother perform rituals and listening to her stories. She was my true inspiration.”

In ‘Phir Ugana’, Tirkey documents a way of life at risk of disappearing. Her poems are both lyrical and urgent, touching on lost traditions like Dhumkudiya (an indigenous education system), Pahada (a tribal justice mechanism) and Jatra (gatherings of collective celebration and solidarity).

“When I was a child, our lives had a rhythm. We had rules, rituals and a strong community structure. Now, all that is breaking down. If our generation does not recognise the change, the next one will not even know what we have lost,” she said.

Writing, for her, is resistance. “I write not just to remember, but to preserve. To warn. To remind,” she said.

When she received the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar, she was stunned, not by the honour, but by the reaction around her.

“People were shocked. They said, ‘A tribal woman, writing in Hindi, getting this big an award?’ I was shocked too,” she admitted with humility and added, “But it also made me realise how few of us get seen, get heard.”

She does not believe the award will change her life dramatically. “I was simple before, I will remain simple now. The only thing that has changed is I have more work and more people wanting to talk to me,” she said.

But she does see a larger significance. “When women are acknowledged, it shifts something. Especially tribal women. We are not just surviving, we are creating, leading and writing our histories,” she said.

Tirkey speaks candidly about how patriarchy is creeping into tribal life, something earlier generations did not face.

“Our grandmothers danced with men at the akhra. No one saw it as shameful. Now, those spaces are closed. Tribal women were once fearless and economically independent. They sold vegetables and managed forests. But now, I see fear. I see restrictions,” she said.

What changed? She does not hesitate.

“There is a growing insecurity around women. And patriarchy, an outside influence, is tightening its grip. Earlier, we governed ourselves. Now, others are governing us,” she said.

Tirkey’s activism is as powerful as her art. She has travelled to remote tribal villages where state neglect is visible in every cracked road and crumbling school wall.

“I have been to places where there is no school, no hospital and not even a proper path to walk. People live off the forest. And then they are branded as Naxals (Maoists). Their homes are raided. Their lives are broken,” she alleged.

Her voice trembles as she continues, “Why do they punish us for living on our own land, in our own way? The administration sees guns where there are only sickles and stories.”

She demanded, “Stop criminalising our existence. Stop killing our people in the name of Naxalism.”

More than being a title, ‘Phir Ugana’ is a philosophy. For Tirkey, writing is how she tills the land of memory and sows the seeds of identity.

“It is about renewal. No matter how much they erase us, we will keep coming back. Like spring. Like truth,” she said.

As she prepares for her next book, she hopes more tribal women will write their own stories before others do it for them. “We are not victims. We are witnesses. We are warriors. And we are poets,” she said.