Noé Ismalej (Achi Maya) has worked at his community radio station in San Miguel Chicaj, Baja Verapaz, for ten years. He runs an hour-long weekly program on contemporary issues and current events called "We Chose our Future." The program reviews local and national news and includes interviews and commentary on topics such as violence against women, gender equality, the environment, youth, children, and Indigenous Peoples.
Cultural Survival’s Endangered Languages Program annually collaborates on the local fundraising and advocacy priorities set by our grassroots language program advisors: The Euchee Language Project in Sapulpa, OK; the Northern Arapaho Language Lodges in Arapaho and Ethete, WY; the Sauk Language Department of the Sac and Fox Nation in Stroud, OK; the Wopanaak Language Reclamation Project in Mashpee, MA; and the Alutiiq Museum Language Program in Kodiak, Alaska.
On Saturday October 8, 2011, recently elected congressmen from the LIDER party (one of the leading Guatemalan political parties), visited the training facilities of Cultural Survival partner Mujb `ab` l yol (a federation of 24 community radio stations)
In the next phase of a partnership with Boston organization ArtCorps, the Guatemala Radio program welcomes creative writer and filmmaker Patricia Escalon as our new resident artist.
The Tufts University Art Gallery presents Aboriginal Australian artist Richard Bell: Uz vs. Them, from September 8 to November 20. Tufts University will be the first of four venues to host this mid-?career survey exhibition of works by contemporary Australian Aboriginal artist Richard Bell, the first-?ever U.S. tour of Bell’s work.
On July 5, 2011, the Peruvian Congress officially recognized Indigenous languages by passing Law 29735, the Law for the Use, Preservation, Development, Revitalization, and Use of Indigenous Languages, proposed by Congresswoman Maria Sumire. Part of implementing international and domestic human rights law such as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is respecting, protecting, and fulfilling the individual and collective right to speak one's native language.
Preparations are well underway in Guatemala City to host a conference and day of action on August 8 and 9, marking the International Day for Indigenous Peoples.