Glimpses into Nagaland’s rich art of woodworking

Kanili Kiho
Dimapur | November 14

Kevibo-o Natso runs The Good Tree Carpentry— a woodworking studio and furniture school based in Signal Angami Village, Dimapur. He spends his day finessing traditional crafts, skilfully blending them with modern design techniques and a touch of advanced technology. 

Established in 2016, the studio offers training in three categories: Fresher’s course for one month, Intermediate for three months, and Professional course for six months. This carpentry school is among a select number of institutions in Northeast India providing specialised training in the art of woodworking and fine craftsmanship.

Most students who join the programme are school or college dropouts. The school also provides internships to students or any groups who are interested to learn, recently being Unity College students from Dimapur.

There is no age, or gender-bar to the training provided in the furniture school. The seven-member team of instructors including Natso have years of experience and skills, with a passion for sharing their knowledge. They include four Nagas, a Manipuri and two Bengalis.

Natso has been running the studio unofficially for the past two to three years before 2016. He takes custom orders— from live edge tables, dressers, chairs, doors with classic Naga traditional motifs, and stools to name a few. 

The studio also specialises in designing modular kitchens, which are in demand today. 

Natso believes that he inherited his grandfather’s passion for woodworking. “My grandfather was a skilled carpenter in his heyday,” he shared in an interview with The Morung Express.

According to him, although the  past ten years has been a progressive decade for the state’s construction industry, yet it was ‘still mediocre,’ technology wise. While carpentry has been an integral part of the Naga heritage, a rich art that has been passed down from generations, he said that economy is a major challenge impacting the growth of this sector. “We are still not equipped with the basic requirements such as electricity, road and water,” he stated.

Sharing his experience on seeking genuine funds that are available for local start-ups, Natso said he has not been able to avail one, to this day. “I have done a lot of running around to banks, seeking for valid schemes. The banks say they have a lot of defaulters,” he said.

He expressed concern on the banks’ reluctance to give out loans to genuine small businesses. “The problem isthey generalise the entire group of people who come seeking loans explaining that there are many defaulters, while regrettably the defaulters are the ones not genuine. We remain helpless in such a situation,” Natso stated.

For sorting out carpentry related issues and rates and regulations, they have a Whatsapp group called ‘Naga Woodworkers Forum’ with members from across Nagaland. In this way, the craftsmen and artisans from different districts connect virtually and support one another.

Natso gets the materials locally wherever possible, while for high quality wood boards like HDHMR (High-Density High Moisture Resistance), he sources it from outside the state such as Assam, Manipur etc.

The state is still in an intermediate stage when it comes to technology, Natso saidwhile adding that they were all using average-level machinery. While the advanced tools are quite expensive, there are limited to no experts who are fully trained in using it as well, he noted.

Observing positive youth engagement in learning carpentry, Natso however, said there are specific factors impacting the 50 percent of young people to progress— laziness, demanding high rate of daily wages, not approachable, and impaired interpersonal skills. Generally, the local workers are creative, talented and learn easily. They are strong and efficient in their work, he added.

“What they need is proper guidance and motivation. This is where the government can step in by initiating more seminars and workshops on vocational as well as communication skills.”

In this way, the state can build a strong talent pipeline for the growing sector, with the skilled youths filling key roles in the industry creating more jobs and building the economy of the state.“It is going to take a very big turn in the next five years and we Nagas should make the most of it. Wood resources are our main advantage which may get depleted in the next 20-25 years, if not addressed,” noted Natso.

For those wanting to start their own woodworking business, he mentionedthere are adequate funding and support for new local businesses from the government, and called for efficient streamlining of such funds through transparency.

Meanwhile, T Chubayanger, CEO of the Nagaland Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board (NBOCWWB) addressed the prevailing wage regulations in the construction sector. He said the state government has fixed the lower wage to ‘floor-level minimum wage,’ meaning it cannot go below this rate.  

While for the upper wage, he maintained that it depends on the market, where the wage can be determined by the prevailing situation and costs of the particular town or city.

“We have no jurisdiction over the higher wage,” he said, while regretting that Nagaland’s minimum wage is the lowest in India.
On the specialised training programmes, the government outsource competent institutions, which provide online trainings in Nagamese to the construction workers on a specified timeline.

This is the final report of the four-part series highlighting the experiences and challenges faced by the construction industry in Nagaland as part of the KPC-NBOCWWB Media Fellowship 2024.