Shillong, June 25: From the dambongg of the Garo Hills to the prized Tit Tung of the Khasi Hills, mushrooms in Meghalaya are not just foraged – they are fermented, shared in ritual feasts, and woven into spiritual practices that reflect a worldview of ecological kinship.
In India, fungi remain largely invisible in biodiversity policy and public discourse.
Now, for the first time, a documentary places fungi—and the communities who revere them—at the center. The Mushroom Keepers, India’s first ethnomycology documentary, is now streaming worldwide on YouTube. Shot for the first time in Meghalaya, it uplifts the ancestral mycological knowledge of the Khasi and Garo peoples, whose deep relationships with fungi challenge colonial erasure and environmental neglect. Directed by Naveed Mulki and executive produced by Fungi Foundation, the film marks a historic moment—not only for fungal conservation, but for India’s cultural and ecological consciousness.
Meghalaya was chosen as the site of this landmark film for its rich biodiversity and the enduring traditions of its Indigenous communities. For generations, Khasi and Garo elders have passed down fungal knowledge orally.
The Mushroom Keepers makes it clear that Indigenous communities have long understood fungi as food, medicine, soil stewards, and spiritual allies. Their importance is not new. What is new is a platform that listens to and centers the voices of those who have safeguarded this knowledge for centuries.
The documentary short is part of the Fungi Foundation’s Elders Program, led in India- by Malavika Bhatia and Prithvi Kini. Rooted in respect and reciprocity, the program prioritizes community leadership over extraction or distant archiving. The elders featured in the film did not merely participate—they led it.
Filmed in May 2024, the project followed the Fungi Foundation’s Ethical Guidelines on data sovereignty and collective authorship. Every story and scene was shaped through consent, conversation, and care. Rejecting conventional documentary norms, The Mushroom Keepers centers indigenous knowledge as vital, living, and crucial to imagining just ecological futures.
Community response has been powerful. Before its wider release, the Foundation returned to Meghalaya for the film’s first screenings. In November 2024, premieres in Shillong, Tura, and Sadolpara brought elders, families, and partners together. These events honored knowledge often marginalized by formal science, offering a moment of visibility and pride. Many community members expressed deep gratitude at seeing their stories on screen—finally, on their own terms.
“Fungi play a crucial role in our ecosystems, in our forests, and in our cultural practices—like bitchi, where yeast is used in traditional fermentation,” says Kimberly D’Brass Momin, an educator at Sherwood School in the Garo Hills. “But from a conservation perspective, fungi are still largely overlooked. This documentary feels like an important step toward bringing attention to their significance and the need to protect them.”
The Mushroom Keepers opens space for critical conversations on biocultural diversity, Indigenous stewardship, and anticolonial ecological futures. As climate change reshapes forest ecosystems, the film calls for the urgent inclusion of fungi—and the knowledge-holders who protect them—in conservation and policy frameworks.
The Fungi Foundation is the world’s first NGO dedicated exclusively to fungi. Through research, education, and conservation, the Foundation works globally to protect fungi, their habitats, and the communities that depend on them.
The Mushroom Keepers is now freely available to the public at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R438s4wVLH8
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