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doi:10.1111/sjtg.12022

Contested identities of indigenous people:

Indigenization or integration of the Veddas in
Sri Lanka
Chamila T. Attanapola1 and Ragnhild Lund2
1
Administration, Faculty of Humanities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
2
Department of Geography, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Correspondence: Chamila T. Attanapola (email: chamila.attanapola@ntnu.no)

Traditionally, the identity of indigenous people was defined in relation to closeness to nature and
use of wildlife resources. Such an identity has been put under pressure due to development
programmes, neo-liberal policies and increasing market economy, forcing these people to redefine
their identity within new socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. Based on ethnographic
research, the situation of the Vedda people in Sri Lanka is analysed. First, we unravel how they
define their identity through a ‘meaningful relationship’ with the place in which they used to live
prior to their displacement because of a large scale development project. Second, we analyse how
the Veddas (re-)negotiate their identity in a context of limited access to land, lack of education,
unemployment, and an increasing demand for indigenous tourism. It is found that the Veddas
redefine their identity by pursuing two survival strategies: tourist development and
re-indigenization, and integration into mainstream Sinhalese society. Both strategies pose chal-
lenges and opportunities.

Keywords: indigenous identity, re-indigenization, integration, Sri Lanka, Vedda

Introduction
Indigenous people have been historically linked to land as their main source of survival
and as an essential element in the preservation of their culture and distinctive identities.
Indigenous people are known variously as ethnic groups, ethnic minorities, and in the
case of South Asia, adivasi. They are normally associated with a definite geographical
area, and have a distinctive culture that includes a wide spectrum of ethnic ways of life,
including language, customs, traditions and religious beliefs. They are often character-
ized by having livelihoods that are closely connected to nature, lower levels of education
and technological development, and being less integrated into the market economy.
However, indigenous people are not monoliths and their levels of deprivation and
integration with mainstream society vary greatly (World Bank, 2010). As they develop
their identities based on meaningful relationships with land and the places in which
they dwell, work on and move about in during everyday life (Bolanos, 2011), it
becomes necessary for them to redefine their identities when their relationship with the
land is disturbed (Relph, 1976; Bhabha, 1994; Rose, 1995).
The strong perceptions of the ethnic identities of indigenous people are not neces-
sarily respected or recognized by state administrations, which may try to play down the
differences in order to ‘integrate’ them into mainstream society (Pholsena &
Banomyong, 2004). Even though indigenous people are marked by their distinctive
culture, often the contextualized and nuanced differences have not been taken into
consideration in some of the national studies on indigenous people. Rather, they are
presented as exotic (especially women) or blamed for being backward. The identities

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 34 (2013) 172–187

© 2013 The Authors
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography © 2013 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and
Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 173

and culture of indigenous people can thus be an object of exotification and commer-
cialization, rendering their communities as ‘living museums’ (Xu & Salas, 2003).
Recently, a discourse has emerged on how ‘indigenous’ has become a marker of
strategic importance for people to justify their claims to their rights, as well as claiming
an identity with a new strategic meaning (Bijoy, 1993; Rao, 2003; Bauer, 2010; Idrus,
2010; Bolanos, 2011; Lund & Panda, 2011). Some scholars have termed the ability of
indigenous people to strategize on their ethnicity ‘professional primitivism’ (Bastin,
2003), referring to activities whereby they make a living from their cultural identity,
such as through tourism. This generally happens in areas where indigenous people have
been denied their access to ancestral lands and resources, as has been documented for
all continents (Bauer, 2010; Erazo, 2010).
In this article we discuss the ability of indigenous people to (re)define their cultural
identity as part of a survival strategy. We aim to unravel how they strategize to survive
by claiming identity as Veddas in marginalized positions. When previously culturally
defined boundaries of land have become politically contested territories due to coloni-
zation, modernization, neo-liberal policies and market adjustments, their practices and
identities change. The Veddas in Sri Lanka have faced deteriorating livelihoods and
relative deprivation compared to dominant ethnic groups in the country throughout
history, and particularly during the twentieth century when large-scale irrigation,
colonization schemes and conservation projects were implemented (Lund, 2000; 2003).
We ask how the Veddas themselves define and redefine their identity within a rapidly
changing socio-economic and geopolitical context, which play a decisive role in this
process, and also how important the Veddas’ ability is to (re)negotiate their cultural
identity as part of a survival strategy.
By describing the case of the Vedda communities in two villages, Dambane and
Henanigala South,1 we will first present how indigenous groups, including the Veddas,
define their identities through a ‘meaningful relationship’ with the place in which they
used to live. A brief methodological section follows, before we describe how indigenous
people have been understood in Sri Lanka and how the Veddas themselves perceive
their identity. The empirical investigation of the two villages shows that they handle
their identity differently. In Dambane, Veddas (re)negotiate their cultural identity
through ‘professional primitivism’, which is understood as encompassing processes of
re-indigenization. In Henanigala South, Veddas attempt to integrate into mainstream
society, but with great difficulty as they are marginalized in almost every aspect of their
lives.

Identity – re-indigenization through professional primitivism or integration

Identity is not only changeable over time and through space but is also potentially
voluntaristic in that individuals may work out new forms of identification and differ-
entiation within and against the social relations of their everyday lives (Katz, 2003).
According to Pratt (1998), a place-based identity results when powerful meanings of
the landscape influence people to the extent that their behaviours and self-identity or
their collective group belonging become equated with a particular locale. Processes
of colonization and modernization have changed the habitats and daily lifestyles of
indigenous people and marginalized them in many societies. They have become
poorer and landless, their traditional culture is under threat of becoming extinct
(Lund, 2003), and they are forced to adopt new livelihoods and lifestyles in order to
survive.
174 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

Several scholars have documented how indigenous people transform or strategize

on their identity. Scott’s (2009) seminal study on indigenous people in Southeast Asia
explains the capabilities of indigenous people and documents that they always have
known how to strategize on their identity. He argues that highland indigenous peoples
in Southeast Asia have been able to efficiently manage their linguistic variety, swidden
agriculture and ethnic identity by avoiding state control over agriculture and labour
throughout history.
Tooker’s (2004) study of Akha people in northern Thailand also shows that during
the 1980s, increased capitalist penetration, including the introduction of cash crop
production and wage labour in agriculture, establishment of settlements and urban-
ization, media and new political structures, have changed their everyday practices and
livelihoods. Akha identity is presented as hybrid, consisting of elements of Christianity,
mainstream Thai culture and political structure, and to some extent traditional Akha
ethnic cultural practices that are relegated only to special occasions and social domains
and observable in dress styles, ritual practices and language use. Similarly, Escobar
(1995) points out that many traditional cultures survive through their transformative
engagement in ‘modernity’ in Latin America. Indigenous people recognize the mar-
keting opportunities and value of their culture rather than perceiving them as authen-
tic survival from their past. Such adaptation to modernity creates a new sense
of indigenous identity, which is a combination of the traditional and the modern.
Indigenous people reinsert traditional cultural elements into a new setting (re-
indigenization). By exploring the case of the Ecuadorian coastal village Macaboa,
Bauer (2010) studied how an indigenous community was successful in resisting priva-
tization of land by emphasizing their indigenous identity through rights to land. Such
re-indigenization was necessary to mobilize the community and to convince the state
of the community’s right to access their land and maintain their livelihoods. Other-
wise, the community’s struggle against capitalist land buyers and the state would just
be articulated as a class struggle alone, which cannot be won in an era when capitalism
and neoliberal policies dominate every aspect of people’s everyday life. Thus, an
emphasis on indigenousness becomes important. Similarly, studies of Brazilian
Amazon Ribeirinho people (Bolanos, 2011), Alaskan Natives (Dombrowski, 2007),
Indian adivasi people (Rao, 2003; Lund & Panda, 2011) and Australian aboriginals
(Tonkinson, 2007) show that re-indigenization is a strategy to claim indigenous
rights.
The Veddas in Sri Lanka have been perceived as the ‘others’ since colonial times. In
their search for ‘true Veddas’ in Ceylon, anthropologists Charles Gabriel and Brenda
Zara Seligmann came across ‘professional primitive men’ who presented themselves as
Veddas (Bastin, 2003). Recently, wealthy people’s desire to experience exotic places and
people, authentic cultures, and search for adventure have increased the demand for
indigenous culture; hence, indigenousness has obtained a market value. Sri Lanka
promotes ecotourism (also called indigenous tourism, ethnic tourism) as a development
strategy, which allows tourists to have exotic cultural experiences through visiting
historical and ethnic villages, minority homes, engaging in ethnic events and festivals,
watching traditional dances or ceremonies, or just shopping for ethnic handicrafts
(Assenov & Ratnayake, 2008; Yang et al., 2008). When traditional artefacts and access to
the practices of everyday life of people are sold, indigenous identity is produced and
consumed as a commodity (Guneratne, 2001; Hunter, 2011; Yang, 2011). As profes-
sional primitivism has become a way to earn a living, indigenous people continue to live
as ‘primitive’, ‘backward’ and ‘exotic’ (Bastin, 2003; Yang, 2011).
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 175

Against this background, we use the concept ‘professional primitivism’ about Veddas
who live in the traditional way and engage in income generating activities for tourist
purposes. With reference to the village which has actively engaged in tourism,
Dambane, we ask whether professional primitivism is voluntary or a must within the
socio-economic and political system they live in. This means that they re-indigenize
their culture by returning to traditional ways of life and embrace traditional cultural
identity in the new market economy. Alternatively, as in Henanigala South, which is a
relatively new settlement, people respond to the transformations brought about by
processes of modernity and the new market economy by trying to co-opt to the ways
and means of majority ethnic groups. Such an approach leads to cultural hybridization,
which may be seen as a response and an adaptation to modernity by encompassing both
modern and traditional ways of life.

Researching the Veddas

This article is primarily based on information gained during field visits to Dambane and
Henanigala South in February 2011. The day before our visit, a leading Sri Lankan
Newspaper carried a story with the headline ‘Veddahs reduced to research objects!’
(The Island, 2011). The article described the extreme poverty and marginalization of
the Vedda community in Henanigala South, a part of Mahaweli development area. We
were somewhat disinclined to revisit this village after reading the article because we
did not want to intrude on the lives of the Veddas by questioning them about sensitive
issues. However, during earlier visits (1991, 1999, 2003, 2006), one of the authors had
developed a good rapport with the Vedda chief and people, and found that they were
very interested in giving voice to their story of displacement (Lund, 2000; 2003).
Hence, we decided to visit the two Vedda communities, to collect their narratives
about their identity within the present sociocultural and geopolitical environment in
Sri Lanka.
Dambane and Henanigala South villages are located 26 km apart in Uva Province in
Sri Lanka, c. 200 km east of Colombo (Figure 1). At present there are about 350 families
living in Dambane village who identify themselves as Veddas (pers. comm., Vedda chief,
Dambane, 21 February 2011). The families live under the guidance of their chief. In
Henanigala South there are about 500 families (The Island, 2011). Compared to the rest
of the population in the country, the Veddas are economically very poor and live under
harsh conditions without access to basic needs such as clean water, roads and proper
housing.
During our visit in 2011, we conducted informal and in-depth interviews in com-
bination with observations and photography. In addition to talking informally with
several villagers in both the communities, we formally interviewed the paramount
Vedda chief who resides in Dambane and seven villagers there (three young men, eldest
son of the chief, the daughter of the chief who lived in a neighboring village and two
other Vedda women). In Henanigala South, we interviewed a group of senior elders, the
old and new chief, and seven other villagers (three young women and four men,
including the grandson of Henanigala South’s old chief).
The re-visit provided the opportunity to build on old relationships. Young members
of the two Vedda communities volunteered to take us around their villages, showed us
‘important’ places and invited us to their homes for interview. Through observations it
was possible to gain insights into how tourist practices in Dambane were organized
and how the Vedda identity was used in this regard. Observations and interviews in
176 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

Figure 1 Map of Sri Lanka and study area

Henanigala South provided insights into recent changes, further marginalization and
deprivations caused by lack of access to land and unemployment. Further, earlier
research documents, related newspaper articles, books and websites were analysed to
provide background information for this article.
In this paper, we give some emphasis to the role of the paramount chief in
Dambane to ‘protect indigenous cultural identity’ because he represents the official
voice of Veddas, and particularly that of those who engage in tourism. The Dambane
chief represents the indigenous people of the country in national and international
events, and Dambane village has become known as the major Vedda village even
though Vedda communities exist in several parts of the country. Therefore, the views
of the Dambane chief are relevant to the issues we analyse. However we are aware
of his powerful position to achieve his goals, particularly to protect the Vedda cultural
identity in Dambane. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of Veddas who
engage in other income generating activities. Furthermore, in Dambane we were able
to interview only those who were involved in tourism and had positive experiences
about it. Recruiting participants who engaged in other activities was a methodological
challenge for three reasons. First, the Veddas who had migrated were unavailable for
interviews, and second, visitors were not allowed to contact villagers who did not
engage in tourism. Third, as researchers, we were less powerful than the chief and
had to abide by the rules. On one occasion we witnessed his reactions towards an
unwelcome researcher who was asked to leave the village. Hence, we were cautious
not to contact people outside the areas accessible to visitors in Dambane. To manage
these ethical and methodological issues we instead included views and experiences of
Henanigala South Veddas, who had independent livelihoods from Dambane and also
had critical views on the role of the Dambane chief as official representative of the
Veddas.
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 177

The indigenous inhabitants of Sri Lanka

The Veddas in Sri Lanka fit the World Bank’s (2010) definition of indigenous people.
The existence of the Veddas as indigenous people was documented as early as the
seventeenth century (Knox, 1681), and identified as Veddas by the Sinhalese people
and as Vedainam by the Tamil people (Bastin, 2003). Until the 1990s, academic and
popular literature and official documents used the term Vedda. After 1993, which the
UN designated the International Year of the World’s Indigenous People, the official
term was changed from Vedda to adivasi. The Veddas identify themselves as Wan-
niyelatto, ‘the people of the forest’ (Living Heritage Network, 2011). However, global
institutions’ recognition of indigenous rights and changing the formal name from
Vedda to adivasi has had a positive effect on the image of the Veddas: The term
adivasi means ‘original inhabitant’ and has positive connotations. Thus, the term was
easily adopted by Veddas and the rest of Sri Lankan society.2 Even though the indig-
enousness of the Veddas is not in question, their identity is constantly challenged
because their traditional livelihoods and lifestyles have been threatened throughout
history.
As recommended by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
the post-independence Sri Lankan governments have adopted a modernization strategy
to develop the country through agricultural modernization and industrialization. In
such a modernization paradigm, traditions and local knowledge are understood as
indicative of backwardness and underdevelopment (Lakshman, 1997). Hence, disap-
pearance of those elements from society, including indigenous people, was regarded as
an irreversible and desirable process.
In 1977, the Sri Lankan government initiated a large-scale irrigation project known
as the Mahaweli Development Project, which covered one-third of the country’s land
area. Large forested areas were cleared for irrigation and colonization (Lund, 2000;
2003). Still, the Veddas had access to 145 450 acres (588.6 km2) of forest for hunter-
gatherer activities. However, in 1983, the government declared this area part of the
Maduru Oya National Park and consequently, resettlement of Vedda communities
which were located within the forest was deemed ‘necessary’. Five traditional Vedda
villages were recommended to be relocated into newly established resettlements, under
the Mahaweli System C. There, the Veddas were supposed to engage in agricultural
activities and become successful paddy farmers by abandoning their hunter-gatherer
tradition. During the period 1982–84, the resettled people were given land, homestead
plots and subsidies for three years (Lund, 2000; 2003). Henanigala South is one such
settlement.
Although almost all of the Veddas were successfully moved out of their traditional
homeland, their chief, Thisahami, and several other families in one village, Dambane,
refused to move. Successive governments allowed the families to live in the old village
until the chief’s death, but even after his death in 1998 the families who had allied with
him continued to live in Dambane, led by his son, Uru Warige Wanniya. Their mobility
and resource use in the traditional forest land have since then become significantly
restricted and people have had to find new livelihoods.

Memory and collective identity as Wanniyelatto

During our interviews, old Veddas from both Dambane and Henanigala South talked
enthusiastically about their ‘good and peaceful life in the forest’. The 105-year-old chief
178 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

in Henanigala South recalled ‘the jungle, the water, streams, hills and the food. How I
hunted, honey and flowers. These are in my mind all the time. We had a good life in the
forest.’ They seemed to romanticize the life in the forest as simple and sustainable. That
life was also free from other concerns such as poverty, sicknesses or criminal behaviour,
which have become prevalent in the daily life of Henanigala South Veddas, particularly.
People identify their limited access to jungles in the present village as the main cause of
their destitute conditions.
According to Vedda chief in Dambane, even though most of their traditions are now
only memories of their parents’ practices and experiences of their ancestors, the forest
is still a place which remains powerfully important in framing and sustaining the
collective identity of Vedda people as ‘people of the forest’. For them, life in the forest
does not imply wilderness, backwardness or isolation, but signifies a simple and peaceful
existence:

Kele-pojje [The forest] is our home. Forest and the Wanniyelatto are not two things that exist
separately. We are interdependent and coexist. Forest provided us what we need – food, water
and shelter – and we protected the forest. Our customs and religion, and our songs and dances
all are based on and about the forest. We cannot imagine a life of Wanniyelatto without forest.
If we intend to protect our culture and identity, we must protect the forest (pers. comm., Vedda
chief, Dambane, 21 February 2011).

Thus, powerful meanings of the forest have influenced the Veddas to the extent that
their behaviour and identity as individual Veddas and belonging to an adivasi group are
equated with a particular locale. However, the chief in Dambane does not romanticize
their relationship with the forest. Instead he recognizes the need to protect the Veddas’
cultural identity by emphasizing their traditional relationship with the forest while
finding new means of living. Below, we present how national development programmes
set the foundation that destroyed traditional livelihood practices and hence their tradi-
tional identity.

Commodification of cultural identity – the case of Dambane

At present, the livelihoods of those living in the Vedda community in Dambane are
based on permanent agriculture. At the time of the interview only 12 people have
identity cards which allow them to enter the Maduru Oya National Park to collect fruits,
yams and honey from the forest. Since the government promoted ecotourism in 2007,
several private ventures have organized camps in Vedda villages, where visitors are
shown how to collect honey and hunt, and can attend displays of dancing and rituals.
Dambane has become one of the ecotourist attractions in the country. According to the
chief, approximately 40 families in Dambane have chosen to live as traditional Wan-
niyelatto in order to protect their cultural identity by engaging in organized tourism,
such as by working as tour guides, cultural performers, including traditional dancers,
singers, drummers and traditional medicine practitioners, and as vendors. In addition to
performing for tourists visiting the village, a dance group consisting of young Veddas
gives public performances of traditional dances and songs all over the country. They are
often invited to perform at government functions.
Evidences of the Veddas’ attempts to gain a livelihood by promoting their cultural
identity were observed in the village. At the junction where the Mahiyangana-
Batticaloa road turns towards Dambane village, we saw several indigenous men sitting
under a tree in the shade. Our guide informed that they were waiting for tourist buses.
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 179

He introduced us to the eldest son of the Vedda chief, who was wearing the traditional
Vedda dress: a loincloth, an axe on his right shoulder, a piece of cloth on his left shoulder
and a small textile bag (containing betel) in one hand. On the previous day our guide
had informed the Vedda about our visit by mobile phone.
When we had driven along this road during earlier visits it had been bustling with
activity: women were selling tea and honey in small cadjan huts (huts built from woven
coco palm leaves) and we were approached by young and old Veddas who wanted to be
our guide or sell items to us whenever we stopped. By comparison, in 2011 the road
seemed quiet because by then all tourist traffic was directed to the centre of the village.
Today, the main road leads to the Adivasi Cultural Centre, which was established in
2009 with financial assistance from the Ministry of National Heritage and Cultural
Affairs. We observed several Vedda men and women around the Adivasi Cultural
Centre, dressed in their traditional clothes, and selling items such as honey and medici-
nal plants collected from the forest and also ornaments made out of beads and wood. An
old Vedda woman said:

We have permission from Wanniyelatto [chief] to sell here. I sell items such as necklaces and
baskets to foreign tourists. I earn more money by selling to foreign tourists. I offer higher price
for them, they buy our items without bargaining. (Local) tourists also buy our things. They do
not bargain either. Those visitors do not bother us. I think it is because they respect our chief
very much (pers. comm., 74-year-old woman, vendor, Dambane, 22 February 2011).

As tourism grows, the demand for ‘indigenous’ items increases. However, traditional
Vedda people do not have many marketable items, only items collected from the forest
such as honey, medicinal plants, and bows and arrows. Recently, women have been
encouraged to learn activities that are new to them, such as producing items made from
forest products and weaving clothes. Several families, including the village chief’s sons,
are engaged in producing ornaments as an income generating activity. A newly estab-
lished weaving centre provides income generating opportunities for several young
women in the village. Women receive threads from non-governmental organizations to
weave cloth, which they sell to tourists. Further into the forest, an outdoor theatre has
been constructed. According to a young Vedda informant, only paying tourists, whose
visits are organized by tourist agents, have access to the theatre to watch traditional
dancing and listen to traditional songs. Special guests such as government representa-
tives are also entertained at the theatre.
The chief recognizes that the changes happening around him may be destructive to
the Veddas traditional identity as ‘people of the forest’, but accepts them as inevitable.
He is determined to ‘go with the flow’ and take advantage of the change in order to
survive in the market oriented society, but at the same time he is concerned about the
need to prevent the cultural identity of the Veddas from being destroyed. He said, ‘If we
want to protect our identity as people of the forest, we must maintain our traditional
lifestyles relating to the forest.’ The chief sees the tourism as the way to protect their
culture and identity – which include language, clan names, customs, rituals, songs and
dances related to religion, hunting and gathering, traditional farming, health and medi-
cine, and child birth and burial ceremonies – by practising them as livelihoods. In doing
so, the Vedda chief encourages members of the young generation to maintain their
traditions.
Two of the three men we interviewed (between 16–20 years old) had previously
worked outside Dambane as casual labourers in construction sites. After a while, they
returned home to pursue their life as traditional Wanniyelatto since they preferred ‘the
180 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

peaceful environment and the relaxed lifestyle in the village to a chaotic lifestyle based
on money in other areas’. Further they told us that ‘in the village, we can live as our
ancestors did and protect our culture’. They now engage in traditional farming and
collecting forest items for sale. The third young man who has never lived outside
Dambane said:

I am an active dancer of the traditional dancing group. I travel with the group all the time. I have
been to Colombo a number of times. I receive money when I perform at arrangements outside
the village and for the tourists . . . I do not want to work outside village [as a casual worker]. I
like the life in the forest. I engage in traditional dancing because it is an important part of
Wanniyelatto’s culture. Performing traditional dancing is one way of protecting our cultural
identity (pers. comm., 18-year-old man, traditional dancer, Dambane, 22 February 2011).

Young men are involved in tourism as traditional dancers, guides and medicine
sellers. They always speak the Vedda language and wear only traditional loin cloths.
They demonstrate that they live as traditional Veddas because it is their choice. None of
them mentioned ‘engaging in tourist activities’ when we asked about their livelihoods.
They identify traditional paddy and chena farming and collecting honey and medicinal
plants for sale as their livelihoods. The two men who had experienced an alternative
way of life felt ‘out of place’ when they were engaged in non-traditional work tasks, and
particularly they missed the living environment near the forest. Other young men too
said that they never intended to work outside the village since they loved the traditional
way of life. These men were satisfied with the choice they made – (returning to) live as
traditional Veddas – not only because they felt ‘in-place’ by living closer to the forest and
engaging in traditional activities, but also because it had increased their self-respect, as
they could contribute to protect their culture by practising traditional activities within
tourism. Hence, professional primitivism may be perceived as a voluntary act which
enables people to maintain their traditional habitat.
During our visit to Dambane we witnessed an efficient paramount chief, who
negotiated with the authorities and other outsiders to protect their cultural identity by
offering experiences of their culture to those who are willing to pay. Upon arrival in
Dambane, we first visited the chief’s hut, since it was appropriate to obtain permission
from him before we could wander around the village and talk to the villagers. The chief
greeted us politely and asked us to come back the following day, because, he explained,
‘today the Minister of Cultural Affairs is visiting the village, and I am in a hurry to attend
the welcome ceremony at the Cultural Centre’. We also went to the Adivasi Cultural
Centre where a large number of local and foreign tourists had gathered. The Veddas
were visible in the crowd because they were wearing the traditional dress. We watched
the chief accompany the minister and several local politicians. A group of Veddas
welcomed the honoured guests by performing traditional dances and playing traditional
Vedda rhythms. Several TV and newspaper journalists covered the event, which was
broadcasted as the news highlight of the day.
The Veddas in Dambane have thus become an important part of Sri Lanka’s heritage,
and the chief has gained a symbolic value as the leader of the country’s indigenous
people and an honoured figure in the Vedda community. The chief commented:

Until recently we were ignored by the governments. It is after 1993, when the international
community [the UN] declared the Adivasi Year that the government began to show concern for
us. Actually, they pretended to be concerned because the international community asked the
governments to do so (pers. comm., Vedda chief, Dambane, 21 February 2011).
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 181

According to the chief, he has a good relationship with the president. His people are
often invited to attend government functions as performers and also as special guests,
and consequently media coverage increased their visibility. Further, following the estab-
lishment of the Adivasi Cultural Centre in 2009, an Indigenous Medicine Centre was
established in June 2011 to protect indigenous medicine and to promote it as an income
source.
However, although the chief had opened the village to local and foreign tourists in
order to gain an income, he protected his people from being exposed to mass commodi-
fication. Tourists are allowed to wander only in limited areas of Dambane village. In
general, local visitors start their tour at the Adivasi Cultural Centre. After visiting the
museum, they walk a short distance along a path through the forest to the veranda of
the chief’s hut. Since our last visit, the chief’s hut has been extended by the addition of
a large veranda, on which several ornaments made of wood and seeds, bottles of honey,
and some other herbal preparations for sale are displayed. Photos of Veddas and chiefs
engaging in different public activities are hanging on the wall. Visitors can look at the
photographs and possibly chat with and take a photograph of the chief. Thereafter, they
can walk through the forest to see the place where dances are performed and then
return to the cultural centre, where they can buy ornaments, honey and herbal medi-
cines from Vedda vendors. Hence, when visitors wander around the village, they are not
able to observe everyday life because the villagers’ private life is properly protected. The
chief claimed that he feels like a ‘monkey in a cage’ when visitors looked at him; for this
reason he intended to prevent his people from feeling the same way. Visitors may
encounter young boys who offer to sing or dance for money, but according to our
informants young Wanniyelatto are advised not to bother visitors by asking for money.
The chief said:

Young boys see the opportunity to earn money by singing traditional songs and dancing for
visitors. This has both positive and negative effects. Young men are eager to learn traditional
songs and dances. Thus, culture is protected through performing it, which is a positive impact.
Unfortunately, when young men have access to money it leads to self-destruction by becoming
addicted to alcohol and smoking. Therefore, tourists should not give money to young people
(pers. comm., Vedda chief, Dambane, 21 February 2011).

Even though Vedda children go to school, dropping out is common, particularly

among boys who engage in tourism. They said, ‘We dropped out of school in order to
protect our culture: to learn traditional dance and songs and being a part of dancing
group.’ According to them, formal education is not part of their culture and does not
help them in sustaining their culture. Thus, it may be argued that the chief of Dambane
effectively controls his people, yet he is constantly balancing the consideration for own
culture with ‘selling out’ to the wider world (tourists and authorities):

[P]eople have accused Veddas for changing their culture; Veddas sell the indigenous traditions
and heritage’. They don’t talk about why we have to sell our traditions and who were behind
the destruction of our culture . . . . . . . . Even though most of the [local] tourists come just
to see us and enjoy, when we show our culture to them, they learn something about us and
they realize that we still exist. In that way we manage to protect our identity (pers. comm.,
Vedda chief, Dambane, 21 February 2011).

This quotation highlights an emerging paradox that people have to live with: people
can earn a living from tourism, and hence ‘sell’ their identity, but in doing so the
significance of their traditional culture is changing.
182 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

Identity in a flux – Henanigala South

Resettlement from traditional home lands to Henanigala South in the Mahaweli region
has significant impacts on identities of this Vedda community. First, the Veddas could
not throw away their hunting tools and master the new tools and technologies required
to become successful paddy farmers as the government and they themselves expected
(Stegeborn, 1993; Lund, 2003), as they did not have the knowledge to engage in
agricultural activities like the majority population. Gradually, due to misfortune, bribes
and bailouts, they lost their land to the majority population who were experienced
farmers. Second, Henanigala South Veddas do not have access to the forest as they were
promised by the authorities upon resettlement. Instead, the government established the
Maduru Oya National Park on the Veddas’ traditional land and prohibited people from
entering the area to hunt and collect honey, yams, medicinal plants and other forest
items. Their traditional livelihoods became stunted. One man said:

When we enter into the jungle for pick a bee hive, dig yams, pick fruits or to fish, the Wild Life
officers arrest us. The fine is between LKR 24 000–40 000 (pers. comm., 58-year-old man,
casual labourer, Henanigala South, 25 February 2011).

Under this new geopolitical structure, the Veddas’ traditional livelihood activities
were regarded as criminal, making the Veddas feel out of place. Describing their eco-
nomic situation, another man said:

Almost all the families in this village lost their land; they had to sell land due to illness in the
family or inability to carry out the paddy farming. Land became gradually owned by the rich
Sinhalese farmers or leased to them to bail out arrested family members (pers. comm.,
64-year-old man, casual labourer, Henanigala South, 25 February 2011).

Consequently, at present, most Veddas work as seasonal workers in paddy farms

which they owned previously. The situation of the second and the third generation of
Henanigala South Veddas is additionally worsened by the fact that they are not entitled
to any land to build a house or to cultivate paddy. Due to large family sizes, not every
child inherits a piece of land from their parents. Thus married couples build their huts
on vacant land on the hill behind the village, where there are no roads, electricity or
water available. People experience that politicians who are supposed to assist them in
gaining land entitlements and improving conditions of the village do not care about
these issues in between elections.
Under these circumstances the landless, poor and uneducated new generation of
Henanigala South Veddas have to diversify their livelihood activities to survive. Today,
in addition to working as seasonal workers in nearby paddy fields, most of the young
men migrate to other parts of the country to work as manual labourers on road and
building construction sites. Young women find work in factories while some have
migrated to the Middle East to find employment as domestic workers. However, not all
women have such opportunities. One woman said:

For women who are illiterate it is impossible to get a job in a garment factory or work in the
Middle East. Both my sisters have studied up to ninth grade. So they could go abroad. I have
never been to a school because we [the elderly children] had to stay at home to look after
younger siblings while our parents were working. Thus now, I do not have the chance to earn a
better income (pers. comm., 26-year-old woman, casual labourer, Henanigala South, 26
February 2011).
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 183

Hard manual seasonal work in paddy fields and a nearby coconut estate are the
income generating sources for these women. Migration is not an easy choice either as
Veddas have had to change their identity by changing their clothing and hair styles
according to the popular culture, speaking Sinhalese and gradually forgetting their
language. Some have even changed their clan name in order to avoid discrimination
based on derogatory perceptions of their ethnic identity. However, the older generation
still wishes to maintain the identity of Wanniyelatto. An old Vedda said:

It is difficult to maintain our traditional practices in Henanigala South. Because of restrictions

we cannot practise hunter-gathering. But we try to maintain our language, traditional dances
and songs (pers. comm., 78-year-old man, casual labourer, Henanigala South, 25 February
2011).

Some men have attempted to form a traditional dance group, hoping to gain income
through performing upon invitation by outside people. However, they found it difficult
to practise this as a livelihood since they do not have the necessary facilities. One young
man said:

I assume that the outside villagers do not know that adivasi people exist in this village. Our
culture is not visual enough. In Dambane they have the jungle, museum, dancing etc. They can
show the culture, thus culture maintains. (pers. comm., 27-year-old man, casual labourer,
Henanigala South, 25 February 2011).

People in Henanigala South identify one activity, however, which is common to all
members of Vedda community; every year they go to Dambane to participate in the
traditional ritual Kiri koraha dance. Apart from that, their daily lives are organized as any
other poor rural village. For example, there is a village welfare organization, samithi,
which is led by the Henanigala South chief. They consult the Dambane chief when they
need to convince authorities regarding issues such as getting land entitlements and
bailing out arrested Veddas, since he can influence the authorities. However in general,
Henanigala South Veddas believe what one man said:

He [Dambane chief] is primarily busy with improving his village. If he wanted he could inform
about our situation even to the president. We cannot do that. But he does not. He sees
Dambane and Henanigala South as two separate villages (pers. comm., 64-year-old man,
seasonal paddy farmer and casual labourer, Henanigala South, 25 February 2011).

We observed that most of the second generation in Henanigala South speaks Sin-
halese more fluently than their own language. The third generation is unfamiliar with
the Vedda language. When we interviewed elderly people, small children looked at their
grandparents mockingly. During one interview the children laughed when the grand-
father started to sing a Vedda song. The youngest generation in Henanigala South
ignores their cultural identity because they do not have an opportunity to learn it, since
at schools they learn only Sinhalese culture. Thus they know only to appreciate the
majority culture, according to the grandfather. It seems that the choice for these villagers
is to assimilate into the culture of the majority society.

Negotiating ethnic identity

At the start of this article we raised the question of the Veddas’ ability to (re)define their
cultural identity as part of a survival strategy. Negotiating their identity is not new to the
Veddas. Throughout history they have claimed identity as Wanniyelatto, and this
identity as ‘the people of the forest’ has long been contested. They have been identified
184 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

as a ‘primitive’, ‘extinct’ and ‘marginalized’ ethnic group. Today, they are unable to
maintain a meaningful relationship with the forest like their ancestors had. As a
result, they feel placeless, are alienated from their environment, and experience fear,
disgust or sadness (Relph, 1976; Creswell, 2004).The stories of two Vedda communities,
Dambane and Henanigala South, demonstrate that development has changed the iden-
tities of these people. Even though some Veddas tend to romanticize their past, they
accept change as inevitable and strategize for the future within their present capabilities.
Due to their different locations, the two villages are faced with different opportunities
and constraints.
In the present case of Dambane, where people choose to stay in the village even
though their land and forest resources have been taken away from them, tourism has
become a major livelihood. Today, they use their identity as a way to bargain for
livelihood improvement. This illustrates the mentioned paradoxes of commodification of
their culture: not only is identity fluid and in constant change, but used effectively it has
become a means of survival. For the Dambane Veddas, a decent living means continuing
to live in harmony with the forest, as their ancestors had. However, they accept the fact
that they cannot live exactly as their forefathers did, and instead have chosen to maintain
their traditions and customs by showing them to tourists. While engaging in indigenous
tourism is professional primitivism, they simultaneously proudly claim that they are
contributing to the maintenance of their identity as Wanniyelatto – people of the forest
– because they choose to speak their language, know the traditional dance, songs and
rituals, and are familiar with the forest where their ancestors lived. Hence, they are able
to visualize their existence and identity to the outside world while they make a living out
of it. The professional primitivism of the Dambane Veddas appears similar to that of
indigenous people in other places of the world. Research on Taiwan (Hunter, 2011),
China (Yang, 2011) and Nepal (Guneratne, 2001) has shown that even though the aim
of indigenous tourism is to represent authentic culture, in practice it happens at the
expense of local identity and autonomy of the people.
This strategy is very different from the means of livelihoods pursued in Henanigala
South, where the transition from traditional hunter-gathering into a fully-fledged
market economy and paddy cultivation have led people to co-opting the culture of the
Sinhalese majority in trying to be integrated into mainstream society. However, this has
been difficult due to lack of knowledge and resources, lack of acceptance by the majority
group, and also lack of political priority. Hence, the identity of Henanigala South Veddas
has become blurred – a mix of traditional and modern, Vedda and Sinhalese, and in
constant change.
Representations of indigenous people tend to exaggerate certain elements of ordi-
nary life while understating others (Hunter, 2011). In Sri Lanka, commodification of
indigenousness is not a new phenomenon. Seligmann and Seligmann (1911) have
described encounters between white colonialists and wild indigenous people, mediated
by local businessmen and/or elites. In Dambane, engaging in professional primitivism is
identified as a voluntary act. The chief plays a significant role in it since professional
primitivism is practised under his close supervision and guidance. The chief defines the
rules on how to conduct professional primitivism, who engage in it as well as the
elements of the Vedda culture; for example, making ornaments and weaving cloths are
not traditional elements. In Henanigala South, people have attempted tourism related
activities, but a lack of resources including a leader who could negotiate powerfully in
this regard, has prevented them from promoting tourism as a livelihood in this village.
This difference shows that location in each place is unique and represents different
Contested identities and professional primitivism of Veddas 185

opportunities and constraints. However, we are doubtful about how professional

primitivism functions as a sustainable survival strategy. When the Dambane chief’s
strong leadership is not there to protect his indigenous people from tourists and outside
businessmen through his rules and political connections, will the Veddas become merely
the employees of businessmen who manage ecotourist activities? New hybrid realities
will emerge and even lead to new forms of domination by others.
The experiences of Veddas in both Henanigala South and Dambane demonstrate that
they cannot earn a decent living outside their villages due to their marginalized position
in the society. Most Vedda people lack formal education or other skills such as agricul-
ture or vocational training which can be exchanged in the labour market. Instead, they
chose to sell what they have to offer: their culture. In that sense, professional primitiv-
ism is a necessity rather than a choice to survive within the market oriented system, and
similarly, integration into the major society is yet another inevitable situation.

Concluding remarks
The story of Veddas in Sri Lanka demonstrates how identities of indigenous people
change, as they cope with changing meanings of place and access to resources due to
government interventions in the form of resettlement and environmental conservation
projects. As their traditional identity is contested and changing, the Vedda people see the
need for ‘protecting the traditional cultural identity’ while trying to adapt to the new
market economy of the country. Here, two distinct types of identity formations are
identified, which depend on leadership and resources and how they are situated in time
and space. In Dambane, people re-indigenize their identity to achieve a decent liveli-
hood, to protect the culture and to gain a new image as a group with a rich cultural
identity. Thus, when the opportunity to protect the Vedda identity is available through
engaging in tourism, Vedda people maneuver their identity as a means of livelihoods
and survival. When such opportunity is not available, like in Henanigala South, people
have to conform to the mainstream society and their identity becomes blurred. This
happens when their ethnic identity is not respected or recognized by state administra-
tions and politicians, who try to play down ethnic differences in order to integrate them
into mainstream society. Hence, they remain the backward and marginalized others.

Acknowledgements

Our great appreciation goes to the paramount Vedda Chief and people in Dambane and chiefs and
people in Henanigala South, for welcoming us to their communities and letting us conduct the
research. We thank Catriona Turner for copy editing our manuscript.

Endnotes

1 Names of places and individuals are not anonymized in this article. Informed consent is given.
2 In general, the name Vedda has negative connotations and the term evokes images of wild
primitive hunters who are dirty and eat meat. Within the Sinhalese-Buddhist community value
system, killing animals is regarded as a sin. Thus, the popular image of Veddas is a derogatory
one (Brow, 1990; Bastin, 2003). In academic literature, there are other views about Veddas:
Veddas have been a part of the nation since the sixteenth century (Obeyesekere, 2002); it is a
statistically extinct ethnic group (Deraniyagala, 1963; Dharmadasa, 1974; Dharmadasa &
Samarasinghe, 1990; Chandrasena, 1993); Veddas are marginalized victims of development
(Lund 2000; 2003) and Sinhala and Tamil nationalism (Brow, 1990; Thangarajah, 1995).
186 Chamila T. Attanapola and Ragnhild Lund

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