What Changes When We Tell Our Own Stories
A fast changing world
We have always been storytellers. For thousands of years, we passed down our knowledge through songs, dances, and fireside stories. But the world around us is changing fast. Our land and even our language face pressures that threaten our way of life.
Through the Hadzabe Media Center every time we pick up a camera, record a song, or film the stories of our elders we use them to protect what has always been ours.
Our Impact
We are the first generation of Hadzabe audiovisual storytellers, documenting our community through our own eyes and sharing our stories with the world on our own terms.
26
Audio & Visual Storytellers Trained
15
Traditional Songs recorded
10
Photo Stories Created
09
Short Films Produced
01
Feature Documentary in Production
Updated September 2026
How we do it
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We Decide Our Stories
The Hadzabe Media Center is community-owned. We decide which stories to preserve, which to share, and in which medium. Our elders across Yaeda Valley and Lake Eyasi have shared their hopes for future generations and their ideas for preserving traditional knowledge through digital storytelling.
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We Learn Through Workshops
With our partners, we run hands-on workshops that document and safeguard Hadzabe culture through digital storytelling. These workshops have mentored the first-ever Hadzabe photographers and filmmakers. Their images and films were celebrated by the community and printed as artefacts.
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We Tell Our Stories
Digital storytelling has become a powerful way for our youth and elders to preserve and tell our stories. Many community members have reached out for more workshops and mentorship. Our first photographers in Domanaga village continue to practice with the donated cameras.
Our Intended Impact
With AFRISOS, we will continue mentoring our photographers to become filmmakers and audio storytellers, while also training other community members who feel called to this path.
Our goal is to grow the Media Center into a living hub for our culture—a place where young people can learn, practice, and strengthen our Indigenous knowledge.
The Media Center will also become a home for repatriated research, films, and recordings created about us. Our community will finally benefit from this work and use it to pass ancestral knowledge to future generations.
From Film to Lasting Impact
The Hadzabe Media Center was initiated and funded by the Children of Honey Impact Campaign and its as a community-owned hub for protecting our culture, land and right to represent ourselves
Children of Honey is a participatory feature documentary. It is co-directed by Hadza filmmaker Emanuel Musa-Marco and Tanzanian filmmaker Jigar Ganatra, with Impact Producer Simona Nickmanova leading its long-term impact strategy.
The construction of Hadzabe Media Center has been supported by our Impact Campaign partners Storyboard Collective, Documentary Africa, David Grober Foundation, and Gadgetronix Tanzania.
The film has received awards and support from The Whickers, Ford Foundation, IDA, Screen Scotland, Hot Docs and Sørfond, with international broadcast support from BBC Storyville, ARTE and ZDF.
It will premiere first with Hadza audiences in 2027, followed by festivals and international broadcasts through 2028.
