Gabie in the Fields of Khonoma

Asino Mhiesisieno Meyase and Ütsono Meru have been friends since childhood. This film documents a day in their life in Khonoma, Nagaland as they walk to their jhum fields together, foraging for seasonal wild greens to cook their lunch with. “We cook our lunch in the fields. We bring rice and some condiments from home. The rest depends on what we find,” they say. They collect gatha (fish mint), gagei (Himalayan knotweed), khamhü (wild perilla), and gakra (java water dropwort) to prepare gabie—a porridge made from foraged greens, fermented soybean, and cooked rice, seasoned with salt, Raja Mircha (King chilli), pork lard, and salt. They also prepare a chutney of fish mint and Raja Mircha to go along with it. It’s their favourite lunch to have in the field, they note. Sometimes they bring dal and sweet potato as accompaniments. In an archive populated mostly by reports and analyses of the structural issues plaguing women farmers, this short film creates an account of the joy of fellowship in the form of a hearty lunch between two friends, while also painting  an intimate picture of the foraging and cooking practices of Angami women farmers.