On January 30, 2014, two days after President Obama’s State of the Union address, policy makers, elected officials, tribal leaders, and the press convened in a Washington DC studio for the annual State of Indian Nations address. Because stories from Indian country seldom reach national media, the address is a chance for Native leaders to articulate their vision and concerns for their land and people on a national platform.

Eight Indigenous communities in northern Huehuetenango have joined together to defend their traditional territories against transnational projects.

Juan de Leon Tuyuc Velasquez (Kaqchikel Maya), a former guerrilla commander during Guatemala’s 1960-1996 civil war, was killed on January 15, 2014 in Solola by unknown gunmen. Velasquez is the brother of Rosalinda Tuyuc, founder of National Association of Guatemalan Widows (CONAVIGUA), a leading human rights organization representing Indigenous women whose husbands died in the civil war.

On January 11-12, 2014, over 20 women and men from the municipality of Huitan, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala took part in a second radio exchange with Radio Acodim Nampix of Ixtahuacán, Huehuetenango. The main goal of the exchange was to guide and motivate the committed community members of Huitan on how to get their radio project up and moving.

Ryann Dear is the newest volunteer on our Community Radio Project team in Guatemala. She is a recent graduate from Boston University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology and Archaeology. She worked as an intern for the community radio project with the Cultural Survival team in Cambridge for five months this past spring. She was a great fit with Cultural Survival from the beginning, and is now getting the opportunity to see another side of our organization, working alongside Indigenous Community Radio activists and volunteers in Guatemala.

By Chelsey McKnight and Tiffany Poole

Indigenous peoples in Guatemala rely on community radio to keep their culture, language, and traditions alive as well as to inform their communities about issues and events relevant to their lives. Because of its relatively low cost, community radio is an accessible tool. In some of the most remote areas of the country, many communities do not have access to electricity, but many have small battery-powered radios making it important means of communications within indigenous communities and among them.

The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage research project (IPinCH) at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada has received an additional $50,000 in funding for the first Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Award. A previous $2.5 million grant provided the initial funding for the project, which began in 2008. The project explores the rights, values and responsibilities connected to cultural objects and cultural knowledge, as well as the ethics of heritage research.

By Brian McDermott

By Dr. S. Neyooxet Greymorning