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.

The department of the Army will not approve an easement that will allow the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe. The following statement was released by Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II.

Over 400 civil society organisations from more than 50 countries today issued a joint open letter to the seventeen banks providing a US$2.5 billion project loan to Dakota Access LLC. The letter, endorsed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, demands that the banks involved immediately halt all further disbursements of the loan and require the project sponsor to stop construction work until all outstanding issues are resolved to the full satisfaction of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The letter and the full list of signatories can be found below.

In October 2016, The Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) published a report documenting incidents of violence associated with Canadian mining companies in Latin America. This study is the first of its kind, compiling information over a span of 15 years from 14 countries in South and Central America about violence associated with Canadian mining companies.

On September 15th, 2016, the International Criminal Court broadened its process for selecting and prioritising cases to include land grabbing and environmental destruction. The decision presents an opportunity to curb the deforestation and rights abuses driven by illegally-issued agricultural concessions in Cambodia, likely to be the court’s first credible case. It also has important implications for other countries suffering from the worst excesses of illegal deforestation. Neil Loughlin and Tom Johnson report.

On Wednesday, October 26, 2016, another human rights defender was arrested in Guatemala. Domingo Francisco Cristobal was captured on his way home from a peaceful demonstration in the city of Huehuetenango by members of the Special Investigative Crime Division of the Guatemalan police. Traditional Indigenous community leaders, as part of the Plurinational Ancestral Government of the Akateko, Chuj, Popti’ and Q’anjobal Maya Nations, denounced the arrest in a press release.

On December 10-11, and on December 16-18, Indigenous artists and musicians from across the globe will come together in Boston and Cambridge for Cultural Survival’s free admission Native arts and cultures Bazaars.

The International Indigenous Peoples` Forum on Climate Change Condemns the Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This report was submitted by Roberto Borrero representing the International Indian Treaty Council, non-Governmental Organization in General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, traveling as a Human Rights Observer and in support of Grand Chief Edward John, UN Expert Member, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, about their mission to Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and the Oceti Sakowin (“Seven Council Fires”) Camp on October 29 – 31, 2016.