The Centre for Environmental Justice is an institution dedicated to protecting the indigenous peoples’ rights and the indigenous people’s environmental rights. When the importance of preserving one’s tribal identity and culture in the face of heterogeneous social influences and obstacles arising as a by-product of development has become a challenge, CEJ has developed a pictorial dictionary mainly for the use of indigenous children. This is the beginning of giving their language space, recognition, and identity among other ethnic groups. Through this pictorial dictionary, we hope to preserve our own language, which is unique to the indigenous community and to make it available to all communities interested in further studying the Vadda language and distributing it among school student communities.
We are also grateful to the Paul K. Feyerabend Foundation Pro Natura / Friends of the Earth Switzerland and Diakonia Sri Lanka for their financial support to the Center for Environmental Justice in making this initiative a reality. Furthermore, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the indigenous leader, Wanaspathi Vishwakeerthi Uruwarige Vanniyalaththo who gave us full approval and proper guidance in compiling this pictorial dictionary, his translator, S.M. Wimalaratne for checking the accuracy of the compiled dictionary in this regard.