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CS50: Revitalizing & Supporting Endangered Languages & Cultures in the 1990s

 

1990s: Revitalizing
Then & Now: Supporting Endangered Languages & Cultures

 

CS50: Celebrating 5 Decades of Indigenous Rights and Resilience


Cultural Survival is approaching our 50th anniversary in 2022! We have launched a new annual Giving Day, culminating on June 1, our founding date. We are celebrating five decades of work supporting Indigenous Peoples’ rights and resilience and want to personally thank our donors who have made this work possible.
 

Your gift to Cultural Survival on June 1 will help us continue advocating for the rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world. We wouldn’t be here without you!
 
Image from The Garifuna Journey.

1990s: “Revitalizing” THEN

1990s: The Garifuna Journey: A Collaborative Archive and Documentary Video Project
The Garifuna in Belize initiated a cultural revitalization movement because younger Garifuna were moving away from their traditions. In 1994, filmmaker Andrea Leland and photographer Bob Richards proposed to collaborate with the National Garifuna Council of Belize in documenting aspects of the Garifuna culture and collecting oral histories through audio, video, and still photography as directed by council members. The documentary, completed in February 1998, premiered at the Field Museum in Chicago as part of the African Heritage Festival. The Garifuna Journey project was highlighted and used as a model to demonstrate the collaborative efforts between outsiders and insiders in documenting a culture. Cultural Survival raised funds to distribute the documentary film, print the study guide, continue the documentation, and develop the Garifuna archive and resource center in Belize.
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"What sets the Garifuna Journey apart is that the approach is a truly collaborative one in which a partnership based on mutual respect and understanding was established between the filmmakers, Andrea Leland and Kathy Berger, and ourselves in the Garifuna community. Realizing that our true story needs to be told from our perspective and to our people, as well as to others, we came to perceive the collaboration as an opportunity to capitalize on the advantages that our planners from the outside have to offer. These include access to the necessary technology, experience in collecting the necessary material, access to the relevant institutions and agencies, as well as the ability to secure the required financial resources. We, on the other hand, felt a sense of ownership and were able to facilitate access to our people, institutions, and rituals and provide the necessary guidance and feedback at critical stages in the project.”   -Roy Cayetano, President, National Garifuna Council
 

“Revitalizing” NOW



Indigenous Rights Radio Program
Our Indigenous Rights Radio Program uses the power of community radio to inform Indigenous communities of their rights. We envision a world in which Indigenous communities, equipped with knowledge of their rights, are empowered to protect their lands, languages, and cultures.

Cultural Survival’s Indigenous radio producers gather stories from Indigenous Peoples around the world. In English, Spanish, and a growing array of Indigenous languages, we bring the voices of the native peoples of Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas into dynamic dialogue about the meaning of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, their common struggles, and their evolving and innovative solutions to the problems they face today. We have produced radio programs in 35 languages.

Listen to a Kaqchikel program

 
 
Bia’ni Madsa’ Juárez López (Mixe/Zapotec), Program Associate, Community Media Program and Indigenous Rights Radio.
 
 

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