Nomad

Kutch’s population of breeding flamingos embody the unpredictable monsoonal, tidal and cyclonic fluctuations of their breeding grounds. Their patterns of movement are nomadic rather than migratory, contrary to common assumption. They inhabit a threshold of wetness, moving to find ideal watery conditions, rather than cyclically to fixed geographies and times. They stay in Kutch as long as the wetlands are still inundated with water and food is plentiful, as the Rann dries out, they make their journey south, following the balance of sweet-saline water that creates their environment.

Rabari (One of Kutch’s Pastoralist tribes) cosmology views the desert as a transformative wetness, a fecundity that births and supports nomadic creatures binding them in journey and fluid transformation. In Rabari cosmology, the alchemy of the Rann, transforms the fleeing Rabari Princess Nira into a flamingo, saving her from an undesirable marriage, and her people from persecution.

As the flamingo lands it skims the surface of the water, using the resistance of water and wind to skid to a stop. It’s legs in the wetness that nourishes it - this is the point at which species transform into each other and the common language is born.