By Chad Valdez (Diné)

On International Mother Language Day 2024, we invite you to learn about the work of three Cultural Survival partners who received a grant from the KOEF (Keepers of the Earth Fund) in 2023 for projects that strengthen indigenous languages from their own culture and with diverse strategies.

Yankuik Kuikamatilistli Cultural Centre (Nahuatl language, in Mexico)

By Celia Flor Díaz Pérez (Maya Tsotsil)

The theme of lands and livelihoods brought us together as Keepers of the Earth Fund grant partners from January 15 to 17, 2024, in Siguatepeque, Honduras, thanks to the invitation of Cultural Survival. The Red Comal Network was our warm host who welcomed us with the representations of Indigenous, Maya Q´echi´, Maya Tsotsil, and Lenca organizations from Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico.

February 21 is International Mother Language Day. It was first proclaimed in 1952 as "Language Movement Day" by Dhaka University students in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) who protested the suppression of their Bengali language. Police and military forces opened fire, killing many young people in attendance. 

By Dr. Doreen E. Martinez (Mescalero Apache)

I think back to when I was young, and I am trying to recall the time I learned what respect meant, what respect looked like, how I could offer it. I am pulled back to a sense of presence, a way of being that my parents offered, that I saw or felt my siblings doing, or how it resided in our house and the way my parents welcomed all other kids in our neighborhood into our home. Our home being the ‘poorest,’ however, our home was the place where everyone was fed.
 

The story of the Maskoke Peoples is, as that of all Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island, a story of dispossession, cultural assimilation, and treaty violations. Forced out of their homelands by government-imposed removal policies, Maskoke People were displaced from their territories in 1836. Only in 2018, did a small community of Maskoke People finally rematriate some of these ancestral lands and return to live once again in what is today called Alabama.

By Shaldon Ferris (CS Staff, Khoisan)

By Chad Valdez (Diné/Navajo)

By Phoebe Farris (Powhatan-Pamunkey)

The Pocahontas Reframed Film Festival held its annual celebration of Indigenous film in Richmond, Virginia, from November 17-19, 2023, amplifying the contributions of Native Americans, First Nations, and Indigenous Peoples around the globe in local, independent, nonprofit, and commercial film. Its films, panel discussions, and Q&As showcased stories and stimulated deep conversations that are at once relevant to specific Indigenous lives and all of humanity.

By Nina Sangma (Garo)