After nearly nine years in preventive detention, on September 28, 2023, Herminio Monfil (Mazatec) and Jaime Betanzos (Mazatec), political prisoners from Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón, were released from prison. In 2014, 40 people from the municipality were criminalized and some of them imprisoned accused of the murder of Manuel Zepeda Lagunas.
Cultural Survival expresses our profound grief for the thousands of Palestinians and Israelis killed in recent weeks after Hamas’ horrific October 7 attack and taking hostage of innocent Israeli civilians and the ongoing bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military. We repudiate the current and decades-long genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. We add our voices to those of millions of people around the world demanding a safe corridor for humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
By Polina Shulbaeva (Selkup), Bryan Bixcul (Maya Tz'utujil), Edson Krenak (Krenak), CS Staff
On Sunday night, October 22, 2023, Arnaldo Benítez Vargas, one of the spiritual leaders (tekoaruvicha) of Yvy Pyte, suffered an attack by people linked to the conflict of invasion of their ancestral territories and the advance of systematic genocide against the Paĩ Tavyterã Peoples in Paraguay.
The leaders of Yvy Pyte have been denouncing a series of violent acts and abuses in their territories before the corresponding judicial and governmental bodies, seeking a definitive solution to the conflict, since the lives of the members of the community are at risk.
Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Media Fund provides funding opportunities, accompaniment, and training to Indigenous community media platforms to carry out their crucial informational, documentary, and cultural work within and outside their communities. Since 2017, the Indigenous Community Media Fund has awarded 298 grants, supporting community media projects in 29 countries across 3 continents, totaling $1,772,361.
Les Malezer (Gubbi Gubbi and Butchulla) is a retired chairperson of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action (FAIRA) and a longtime advocate for the promotion of human rights of Indigenous Peoples. Malezer worked with the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus to advance the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples through the final stages to the UN General Assembly in 2007.
To the Esteemed Members of the Comissão do Conselho Nacional de Educação Escolar Indígena (CNEEI) and other MEC Commissions,
We express our support for the full participation of Universidade Pluriétnica Indígena Aldeia Maracanã and its scholars in the deliberations and discussions with the MEC Commission concerning the establishment of an Indigenous university in Brazil.
México: A tres años de su detención arbitraria, exigimos la libertad de Kenia Hernández
Ginebra-París-México, 20 de octubre de 2023
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, José Francisco Calí Tzay (Maya Kaqchikel), conducted a week-long visit to Nepal on September 10–17, 2023, to meet and learn more about Nepal’s Indigenous Peoples and the status of their human rights. Calí Tzay was invited to Nepal for academic purposes by the Central Department of Anthropology of Tribhuvan University, the oldest and biggest university in the country.
By Chenae Bullock (Shinnecock)
Indigenous Peoples hold tenure to over 25 percent of the world's land surface, which is home to about 80 percent of the remaining global biodiversity, all while making up just a bit over 6 percent of the human population. Investing in Indigenous communities can promote cultural continuity, economic empowerment, environmental protection, and social justice, leading to a more sustainable and equitable world for all.
Indigenous community media is essential for Indigenous Peoples’ reclamation and resistance movements worldwide. They contribute to securing respect for individual and collective rights, ensuring access to relevant, contextualized information and content in Indigenous languages, created and transmitted according to the interests, needs, and worldviews of the Indigenous communities they represent.
By Diana Pastor (Maya K'iche', CS Staff)
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
