As we reported in the last issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly, the Ngöbe people of Panama are facing imminent destruction of their homeland as a result
of a hydroelectric dam. Since then, things in Panama have become significantly
more desperate. AES, the American company that is building the dam, began dynamiting
Isabel Becker’s land after pressuring her to sign it over to them on a
document she couldn’t read.
After four years of lobbying the Mongolian government to recognize the threats
facing the indigenous nomadic Dukha reindeer herders, Cultural Survival’s
Totem Project has achieved a significant victory. Project director Dan Plumley
reports that in November the government established a Program to Improve the
Life Standards of the Reindeer Herding Citizens and Reindeer Farming, a three-year,
$300,000 commitment that will address most of the Dukha’s essential demands
for support and services.
After 12 years of a conservative Australian administration that was markedly
hostile to indigenous rights and its own Aboriginal populations, the new labor
government
of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took a dramatic step by issuing an apology at the
opening session of Parliament on February 13. The apology, issued by Rudd himself,
was, in fact, the opening item of business for Parliament.
The past year has been exceptionally productive for the Guatemala Radio Project,
a partnership between Cultural Survival and 168 indigenous community radio stations
operating throughout Guatemala. The project educates indigenous Maya about their
rights and reinforces local languages, music, and customs, all in their own local
languages.
