NOMADIC MOTHERS

Audacious photo stories of moral imagination, by a 2014 Acumen Global Fellow, placed in Pakistan.

September, 28 2014 — Cholistan Desert, Pakistan

… And it’s this choice that makes them wonderfully free, like the modern world will never be.

Within meters of where I live, is a nomadic tribe known as the Khanabadosh, they live outside in the grueling desert heat and sandstorms. When I ask why they live outside, their reply isn’t because the world has forgotten them or because they are poor, it’s out of choice. In fact, this tradition dates back hundreds of years — their great ancestors lived this way.

The Khanabadosh have been offered permanent housing, but have turned it down because of the tremendous value they place on their freedom. They don’t consider themselves to be poor, they find their richness in freedom of movement. And it’s this choice that makes them wonderfully free, like the modern world will never be.

It's hard to imagine that in today's world, we still have nomads, not the ‘wanna be’ kind, like myself. But the kind that live life on the move from place to place with all their possessions, with no place to call their own, who belong to the earth, who trust only in mother nature and thus effortlessly in one with nature.

The Khanabadosh, migrate from place to place three times a year, they endure hundred kilometer walks and settle on the outskirts of cities. They live in makeshift tents made up of a cotton-cloth covers with sticks that hold it in place, with many of them carrying a traditional Pakistani bed known as a charpai or manji to share.

Their most prized possession is livestock; cows, goats, camels and donkeys, all of which follow them everywhere. Surprisingly enough, these nomads rarely eat meat because they consider their animals far too valuable to kill. Instead their diets comprise of animal products, like milk and cheese, seasonal fruits and vegetables that nature offers.

Whilst the men are regarded as the breadwinners, earning quick cash doing odd jobs and selling homemade artisan gifts in the city. The women are known for their assiduous spirit. They are labored with more strenuous and exhausting work, from making the artisan gifts, transporting water containers, farming, harvesting and cooking, all of this whilst taking care of the family, usually between 5 to 7 kids, sometimes even more.

The women take great pride in wearing traditional clothes, that are colorful and handmade. When inside the camp, they are either preparing food on a open fire or embroidering their clothes with traditional designs, with intricate patterns on cushions, blankets and mats with which they furnish their tents.

The women are naturally shy and require permission from the men in the tribe to do most things, including approval for these intimate close up photos. Beneath this shyness, I sense motherness — patience and kindness, resilience and grit; the kind I have never experienced before.

These photos are homage to the beautiful women, the mothers, my neighbors for a short while, of the nomadic Khanabadosh tribe. It takes a few moments and an exchange in broken Urdu for her to laugh into the camera.