On September 2nd the people of Sololá rose to their feet to protect what is considered by many to be the heart and body of the Mayan civilization, corn. Thousands of people, young and old, peacefully marched and shut down the main intersections on the inter-american highway that connects the western part of Guatemala to the capital. Their demand? Keep Monsanto out of Guatemala.
The World Conference on Indigneous Peoples is taking place September 22-23 at the UN in New York. Here is a list of the events happening around the conference.
19th September:
11:00 am - 4:00 pm:
Indigenous Peoples’ Solidarity and Engagement with the UN WCIP
On Sunday, September 28, 2014 Cultural Survival staff member and founder of community radio Ixchel Stereo, Anselmo Xunic, presented as a panelist in the weekend-long “Third National Meeting of Journalists” in Guatemala City. Over the course of the weekend there were approximately 100 participants representing local, national, commercial, and independent media organizations, such as the Center for Informative Reports on Guatemala, 21st Century, Vea Canal, Rajo Punto, and United Radio Stations, among many others.
By Madeline McGill
Many Indigenous languages, once prominently spoken across North America, have been threatened as their speakers continue to age and new generations are born into an English-dominant society. For numerous Tribal Nations, the number of native speakers has fallen dangerously low, often into the single digits.
It has been through the efforts of elders, educators, and interested youth that Nations have started to see a movement to re-vitalize endangered languages.
By Alex Glomset
Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous rights have always been a contentious issue in many parts of Latin and South America including Venezuela, and though progress has made on several fronts, there are still concerns that equal rights are not being given to these groups. In the September 2014 review of Venezuela by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, several of these issues surrounding Indigenous and Afro-Indigenous children’s rights were addressed.
Cultural Survival Quarterly contributing arts editor Phoebe Farris recently spoke with Tony Castanha, author of The Myth of Indigenous Caribbean Extinction: Continuity And Reclamation in Boriken (Puerto Rico) [Palgrave Macmillian, a division of St.Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 2011] about his recent work.
Reconocimiento de tierra
Reconocemos que nuestra sede está en la tierra de Massachusetts, en Cambridge, MA, y agradecemos a los administradores Indígenas pasados, actuales y futuros de este territorio.
