Within the everyday workspaces of Assam’s tea plantations, Adivasi tea tribes engage in listening, sounding, and music. At times, these sounds and music flow into Adivasi living areas known as “lines.” Upatyaka explores the dynamic relationship between the sounds of the workplace and the sociocultural life woven through tea plantation labor. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted across Assam’s tea estates and her experiences as a singer from the region, she listens to the voices of Adivasi women pluckers—their songs, conversations, and laughter; Adivasi and non-Adivasi interactions; and the broader soundscape in which they work.

Upatyaka Dutta is a doctoral candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto and a 2024 recipient of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 21st-Century Fellowship. Her broader research interests include sounds studies and community and collaborative archival practices.

Presented by the Center for South Asian Studies and co-sponsored by the UC Santa Cruz Music Department, The Kamil and Talat Hasan Endowed Chair for Classical Indian Music, and the Ali Akbar Khan Endowment for Classical Indian Music