What Makes Culture: Theater- La FOMMA

La FOMMA [Fortaleza de la Mujer Maya or Strength of the Mayan Woman] is a Mayan women's playwright cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, formed in 1994. The grassroots organization performs plays dealing with women's rights, domestic and cultural issues, and reproductive health. Proceeds support La FOMMA’s bilingual literacy, women’s rights, and professional development activities.

Review: Oil on Ice

Oil on Ice2004, 58 minutesCo-produced and directed by Dale Djerassi and Bo BoudartDistributor: Bullfrog Films PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547

Review: Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege

Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege 2005, 56 minsDirectors: Puhipau, Joan Lander Producer: Na Maka o Ka 'AinaDistributor: Na Maka o Ka 'Aina,P.O. Box 29 Na'alehu, Hawaii 96772-0029 Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege portrays the ongoing tensions between the Western scientific community's notion of progress and indigenous cultures' concept of the sacred.

Review: Like a Loaded Weapon: The Rehnquist Court, Indian Rights, and the History of Racism in America

In his new book, Like a Loaded Weapon, University of Arizona law professor Robert A. Williams, Jr. calls for a revolution. Not a violent revolution, nor even one that involves taking to the streets, but an immediate and transformative political event nonetheless. As it did in Brown vs.

Native Americans Fight to Save Sacred Site

The San Francisco Peaks are revered as a sacred site in Arizona, integral to the cultural and spiritual identity of at least 13 tribes in the Four Corners area. They are at the center of a current legal battle that could determine the future of Native American religious freedom.

Guatemala Radio Project

Guatemala community radio stations prove essential to relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Stan   The importance of community radio stations throughout Guatemala became especially apparent in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Stan.

Water Law and Indigenous Rights in the Andes

In Andean countries, widespread protests over violations of traditional rights have resulted in creative reform proposals to secure indigenous water rights and water system management.  

Tribal Women's Struggle for Water In India

Aided by the NGO Lokadrushti, indigenous women in Western Orissa, India, have mobilized effectively to gain greater access to water to improve livelihoods in their drought-prone villages.

Traditional Water Management Practices of the Kankanaey

  Traditional religious beliefs and customary laws have enabled the Kankanaey of Besao in northern Philippines to sustain their land's natural resources despite current challenges.  

The Black Mesa Controversy

 

Teaching of the Rain God

A Maasai Legend One day, many years ago, the elephant said to the Rain God: You should be very satisfied, for you managed to cover all earth in green; but what will happen if I tear off all the grass, all the trees and the bushes? No green will be left! Then what? The Rain God answered him:

Indigenous Peoples and Water Rights

Till taught by pain,Men really know not what good water's worth;If you had been in Turkey or in Spain,Or with a famish'd boat's-crew had your berth,Or in the desert heard the camel's bell,You'd wish yourself where Truth is—in a well. Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)Don Juan (canto II, st. 84)

Genographic Project Discussion at Cultural Survival

In October 2005, Cultural Survival's Program Council met to discuss the issues presented by the recently initiated Genographic Project sponsored by National Geographic and private financial backers.

Genetic Research: How Much We Have to Learn

To study humankind's 60,000-year migratory journey around the world and explore our interconnectedness as a species, National Geographic, in partnership with IBM and with funding from the Waitt Family Foundation, launched the five-year Genographic Project in April 2005.

Genetic Research: Collecting Blood to Preserve Culture?

The National Geographic Society is going from collecting images and stories to the more invasive practice of collecting blood from indigenous peoples around the world.

Genetic Research on Human Migration

National Geographic’s Genographic Project Advances Science but Poses Risks for Indigenous Peoples

Contamination of American Rivers Triggers International Complaint

  International Indian Treaty Council Files Human Rights Complaint for Indigenous Peoples in US to UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food