The recipient of A Kevichusa Citizenship Award 2022 Neidonuo Angami (2nd from Right), along with Dr Joyce Zinyü Angami and others during the ceremony on December 10. (Morung Photo)
Morung Express News
Chümoukedima | December 10
Neidonuo Angami, a veteran social activist was conferred the prestigious A Kevichusa Citizenship Award (KCA) 2022 today, at a private ceremony held at The White Owl, Chümoukedima. A Padma Shri awardee, Neidonuo is one of the founding members and former president of the Naga Mother’s Association (NMA), the leading voice of Naga women in Nagaland today.
Addressing the families, chief guest for the afternoon, Dr Joyce Zinyü Angami described the veteran rights activist as ‘an ideal citizen with an indomitable spirit.’ She recalled the nineties in Nagaland when drug abuse was at its peak, and Neidonuo took it upon herself to go and find out what she can do on the growing menace and other social evils threatening the society.
Dr Joyce said that the NMA was formed with like-minded women in response to this challenge and subsequently invited the Kripa Foundation in Nagaland to provide professional and technical help to the State. With the HIV being a new disease, Dr Joyce said that there was ‘so much stigma’ associated with it and Neidonuo, in her own capacity had succeeded in breaking the stigma. The NMA went on to start the first HIV Care hospice in 2007. Today, they are living a recovered life and because of her relentless service, she was awarded the prestigious NNagaDAO award in 2019.
Dr Joyce continued to share about unfortunate instances of when unidentified persons were found dead, the NMA under her leadership would pay respect to the deceased person and covered the dead body with a shawl as a form of last respect, as any doting mother would.
“We are proud to say that Neidonuo was one among the 1000 shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize in the year 2000,” she added.
“I thought somebody else would be more befitting when I got the news that I was selected for the award. It is all God’s grace to be recognised again,” Neidonuo said while accepting the award.
She recalled that her association with the Kevichusa family began from the early sixties as a young student. Recollecting her beginnings, she said, “I was a seriously traumatised child.”
Neidonuo, as a child, was displaced from Kohima village and had to live in the jungle for a few months because of the Indo-Naga political conflict. Thereafter, she was brought back to Kohima town; “We started our lives from then on. With so many killings everyday between the Indian army and the Naga army, most days, we used to hide ourselves. There was no normal life in those days,” she said.
She spoke of how her father, a dobashi, whom she had not seen was ‘beheaded’ in the jungle in 1956 when she was just six. Following many attempts in searching, the family brought home her late ‘father’s skull’ after three years. The sight of it as a child had deeply disturbed her. She went on to say that the consequences “were so strong, so serious that I developed anger, shame and all this bitterness for a long time.”
Neidonuo further shared about her schooling and how she became interested in working for women and the society as a whole. In 1972, she started working as a teacher and became active in social work by founding the Nagaland Weavers’ Association. In 1984, Neidonuo along with a few other Naga women, formed the Naga Mothers’ Association to work against the social problems of drug addiction and alcoholism. NMA pioneered peace building initiatives under the slogan “Shed No More Blood,” aimed towards ending factional violence in the Naga society. She played a leadership role in this initiative.
Niedonuo felt that it was important to share how she was brought up as a child. Now at 72, she said that her concern till today is the importance of women’s role in promoting social harmony and peaceful co-existence.
Adding to that, ‘as a traumatised child,’ she emphasised on the need for addressing trauma at homes and in the society. She further put across that showing respect to elders, ‘at all levels, in all communities is everything.’ “We believe that the community is manifested by the presence of elders and honoring them is a privilege.”
“If God be willing, I want to continue,” Niedonuo said while adding that whatever they could do, it was not because of her, but it was all because of team work. “We had the best batch of NMA,” she added.
The Kevichusa Foundation is a charitable foundation of the family of A Kevichusa, MBE. The motto of the Foundation is Veritas et Aequitas (Truth and Justice). The annual KCA was instituted in 2017 by the Kevichusa Foundation to celebrate and promote the ideal of citizenship and includes a medal, certificate and a cash award of Rs 3 lakh.
Conferred annually, the KCA recognises an indigenous individual or group of Nagaland that has consistently championed, demonstrated and embodied the ideal of citizenship and unwaveringly sought the common good of the people of Nagaland or collective sections and constituencies thereof.
