We Are Hadzabe Storytellers
Our people have carried knowledge of the land across countless generations. Today, we are using film, photography and sound to tell our own stories and decide how the world sees us.
Who We Are
We are the Hadzabe. Our home is among the acacia woodlands and rocky hills surrounding Lake Eyasi and the Yaeda Valley in northern Tanzania.
Our knowledge of animals, plants, water and the changing seasons has been passed from elders to young people through experience and through our language, Hadzane.
Loss of land, environmental change and outside pressure now threaten that continuity. The Hadzabe Media Center is our response: a place where we can document our lives through our own eyes and protect what matters to us.
For years, others came with cameras and left with our stories. We had little say in how we were shown, and almost nothing returned.
For years, others came with cameras and left with our stories. We had little say in how we were shown, and almost nothing returned.
Our Journey
2022 - Where it began
Our journey began in Yaeda Valley with our first storytelling and filmmaking workshop. We were asked which stories mattered to us and what we wanted people to understand about our lives. Together with African filmmakers, we shared our ideas and created two films.
When the films were shown in our communities, we asked for more. We wanted longer films that included our music, dance and everyday lives. We also wanted to learn photography and filmmaking ourselves, to be behind the camera and tell our own stories.
2023 - An idea takes shape
Our requests became the beginning of the Media Center. We imagined a place where our photographs, films, sounds, culture, language and knowledge could be created, kept and shared by us, for us and for future generations.
We began developing the skills to make this possible through photography and storytelling mentorships, learning how to document our own lives and the things that matter to our community.
2024 - Building skills and a home for our stories
We took part in an eight-day photography training in Domanga, learning camera handling, composition, exposure, angles and visual storytelling. We created photo stories about traditional crafts, food gathering, hunting, bow and arrow making, traditional knowledge and everyday life, with three women also taking part in the training.
That same year, construction of the Hadzabe Media Center began. Shaped around our vision, the space was designed with a studio where we could create and an archive where we could preserve the stories we make.
2025 - We began making our own films
In 2025, we stepped further behind the camera. We learned from experienced mentors how to find and develop stories, film them, and bring them to life through our own perspective.
Why It Matters
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Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)
Thanks to the our understanding of the natural world, our sophisticated Indigenous knowledge system could benefit the world by offering solutions to climate crisis.
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Endangered Language
Hadzane, is among the most endangered languages in the world. As language isolate, it possesses vocabulary about natural processes which have no equivalent in other languages.
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Collective Cultural Heritage
We have a rich tradition of song, mythology and storytelling which has survived thousands of generations currently risks becoming lost forever.
A future where our Hadzabe culture, language, and Indigenous knowledge are preserved, lived, and passed on through stories we create and own.
Our Vision
To document, protect, and share our cultural and ecological knowledge through Hadzabe community-led media, and to counteract online misrepresentation of our people and traditions.
Our Mission
Our Partners
Stand With Us
Your support puts creative tools and professional training directly into the hands of Hadzabe storytellers. Together, we can ensure our stories are told by us.