On April 27, 2017, Cultural Survival's Suzanne Benally, Avexnim Cojti, Dev Kumar Sunuwar, and Shaldon Ferris participated in DPI/ NGO Briefing, “Indigenous Voices, Indigenous Rights: The Role of Community Media.”
Watch the panel here.
On April 13-15, 2017, Rising Voices 5 brought together Indigenous and western sciences in addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation. Over 140 participants from around the globe convened for dialogue and strategies for action.
Indigenous Community Radio and Grantmaking in Nepal
Cultural Survival and Toronto-based WACC are pleased to announce the first round of grantees of our Community Media Grants Project partnership, an initiative strengthening international Indigenous community radio stations' broadcast infrastructure and systems. Ensuring that Indigenous communities have a viable and critical medium for dissemination of news, information, community events, historical documentation, education and entertainment, the project aims to enhance community efforts to establish and ensure sustainability of Indigenous community-controlled media.
"It will go down in history, all the men and women who promoted radio, the radio will be used to defend our rights and defend our language, as Q'eqchi' people," said teacher Guadalupe Quinich, during Radio Xyaab 'Tzuultaq'a’s inauguration on March 5, 2017, in El Estor, Guatemala. The inauguration coincided with the beginning of the Mayan New Year, Joob Tz'ikin.
Community radio has been a vital presence in Indigenous communities in Guatemala since the 1960s. Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala rely on community radio to keep their cultures, languages, and traditions alive as well as to inform their communities about issues and events relevant to their lives. Community radio also serves the vital function of distributing content to listeners in their own language, reaching even the poorest areas where radio may be the only affordable form of communication.