“I am not going to compromise my indigeneity!" Santa Khurei radically questions issues of self-determination, discrimination and neglect of and within the queer indigenous communities of northeast India and urges the academia and the public to undertake multi-faceted queer ethnographic work in the region in the absence of prejudice. She urges for documentation of stories of queer group identities that are central to their cultures and histories and contiguous with legacies traversing regions and nations. An understanding of the rich queer cultures and traditions is most urgent, as a source of strength and resilience, as the present trends pose a challenge to the very people who contribute to it. In this interview Santa Khurai speaks about preserving the fabric of Northeast queer traditional cultures as the ‘roots’ of societal nourishment and empathy, about her YouTube documentary on the ‘god from underneath the water- the ‘Nupa-Amaibi’ and about being a Northeastern queer person, sharing her knowledge of the ancient indigenous queer traditions and identities that are under constant threat of extinction.