After almost a decade of resistance, a cautious victory has been declared for a Maya community in Guatemala in their fight against a Spanish hydroelectric company attempting to install a dam on their sacred river.

 

At the end of 2016, a small Indigenous political party, Yatama (Yapta Tasbi Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka/Sons of Mother Earth), achieved a victory in the Nicaraguan general elections and effectively confronted the dictatorial Sandinista state.

Cultural Survival condemns the action of of the Ecuadorian government in the raiding of the Indigenous Shuar federation FICSH and the arbitrary detention of its president Agustin Wachapa.  

In October, I visited the the Q’eqchi’ community of Nimlajacoc to support them in their application for funds from Cultural Survival’s Community Media Grants Project, what I found was an organized community who are a model of Indigenous resilience. 

On Thursday, December 15th Bangladeshi protesters from the Phulbari region were joined by climate activists in London outside of the annual general shareholders meeting of Global Coal Management (GCM) Resources Plc, a British mining company who wants to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, Bangladesh.

Cultural Survival is pleased to announce the launch of our Strengthening Indigenous Women’s Leadership in Community Radio Initiative. The initiative will support a cohort of Indigenous women in Central America through a series of training and network-building workshops enabling participants to gain leadership and practical skills in investigative journalism, community radio production, and technical equipment operation.

Daniel Ortega will continue in his third consecutive term as President of Nicaragua after being reelected on November 6, 2016, this time accompanied by his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his Vice-President.

Cultural Survival and Toronto based WACC are pleased to announce the first grantee of our Indigenous Community Radio Grants Project partnership. A new radio start up, Radio Xyaab’ Tzuul Taq’a (“Voice of the Mountains” in Q’eqchi) of the Maya Q’eqchi community in El Estor, Guatemala was chosen because of the immediate need to strengthen broadcast infrastructure and systems,  and the start up’s promise for continued success.

On December 10-11, and on December 16-18, a local Cambridge-based nonprofit will host two craft festivals highlighting Indigenous art from around the world. Among them, artists from various regions of Peru will participate. Their art will showcase the rich diversity of Peruvian Indigenous cultures, with crafts ranging from hand-carved wooden scenes called retablos, to silver jewelry inspired by pre-Columbian textiles, to music featuring Andean winds and strings.