Indigenous Community Media Fund

The Indigenous Community Media Fund provides opportunities for international Indigenous community radio stations and media platforms to strengthen their broadcast infrastructure and systems while providing training opportunities to their community journalists through a participatory and dynamic grants program. The initiative enhances community efforts to establish and ensure sustainability of Indigenous community-controlled media.

“Indigenous Peoples’ right to freedom of expression and information is the overarching goal of this initiative. The program’s intent is to ensure target Indigenous communities have a viable and community controlled medium for dissemination of local and world news, information, community events, politics, and education. Community Radio provides access to information in extremely rural areas and for these communities serves as a tool for local organizing, cultural and language revitalization, educational opportunities, information on lands and natural resources issues, women’s rights, and Indigenous rights,” said Aimee Roberson, Executive Director of Cultural Survival.

Cultural Survival has been working with the Indigenous radio movement since 2005. Today, Indigenous-controlled media is needed more than ever, especially when mainstream media often overlooks and marginalizes Indigenous languages and issues. Daily, Indigenous radio journalists risk their lives to communicate essential information about human rights to their communities to defend their ways of life, lands, and resources. As an advocacy organization for Indigenous rights, it is our duty to support these efforts in claiming freedom of expression and access to information. It is our hope that over the coming years, many communities will benefit from this initiative,” said Mark Camp, Cultural Survival Deputy Executive Director.