On March 8, 2012 several hundred Indigenous people began a two week march across Ecuador to call attention to their protest of a large-scale open-pit copper mine. Ecuacorriente, a Chinese company, has been authorized by the Correa government to develop a mine near El Pangui, Zamora-Chinchipe Province, in the southern part of the country.
Kablaj Qawuq
Venimos desde muy temprano, recorriendo nuestras montañas y valles. Acompañado del sonido del agua, que es la sangre que recorre todas las venas de nuestra “sagrada tierra”.
Mientras caminos, escuchamos el canto de los pájaros y de otros animales, que son nuestros hermanos pequeños.
“The exercise of self-determination is a necessary task prior to the consultation because we have seen that many consultation exercises begin as a reaction to someone who wants to set up a project or a mine. Part of the community becomes active, but since the community is not consulted as a People, internal conflicts begin there.
For 51 years, Cultural Survival has partnered with Indigenous communities to advance Indigenous Peoples' rights and cultures worldwide. We envision a future that respects and honors Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression and rooted in self-determination and self-governance.
In 2022, The Zienzele Foundation identified the need for a communal space in the Chiware region of Zimbabwe for Shona women’s cooperatives to host their organizational meetings, health clinics, and marketing of traditional handicraft work. In collaboration with Cultural Survival’s Keepers of the Earth Fund, they have since built a community center complex near the village of Mupagamuri to serve the five surrounding villages.
February 11 marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day to celebrate the contributions that Indigenous women and girls make to the fields of science and technology. It is also a movement that aims to promote the full and equal participation of women and girls in the scientific community. Integral to this movement are Indigenous women who are the holders of generations of Traditional Knowledge and the best stewards of biodiversity.
Swapping seeds is essential to protecting biodiversity. January 28 is National Seed Swap Day and an occasion to share the incredible work of Las Delicias Botanical Garden in Misak territory, San Fernando, Silvia municipality, Colombia. Their work centers around the protection of native seeds through their circulation among families, the orchard, and the seed bank.
YIMOM is a network of Maya Tsotsil healer women who live in the community of Nuevo Corral Chꞌen el Ángel, Chiapas, Mexico, and work towards ensuring food security and food sovereignty for their communities by taking care of their soil.
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.
