Cultural Survival expresses its solidarity with the Maya Peoples, the Maya Leaders Alliance, and the Toledo Alcaldes Association, in southern Belize in demanding that the State of Belize comply with the 2015 Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling and respect Indigenous rights to land and Free, Prior and Informed Consent in every matter that affects Maya Peoples.
By Edson Krenak (Krenak, CS Staff)
Content Note: The following includes disturbing information on violence against Indigenous Peoples
By Tokunbo Dada (Yoruba)
In Nigeria, many farmers didn't trust vaccines for COVID-19, making it hard to fight the virus. With financial support from Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Media Fund, Paramount 94.5 FM Abeokuta in Nigeria, undertook Project New Hope, which used radio broadcasts to teach about vaccines in a way that was culturally relevant in the Yoruba language. The station built a bridge between doctors and farmers, showing them how vaccines could save lives.
In October 2023, Cultural Survival and Qhana Pukara Kurmi, an association of Indigenous communities of the department of Oruro, Bolivia, submitted an alternative report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The report spotlights the rights violations suffered by the Quechua communities of the Ayllu Acre Antequera for the Committee’s consideration during its 111th session, which took place from November 20 to December 8, 2023.
By Kajkoj Máximo Ba Tiul (Maya Poqomchí')
Guatemala: Years of Contempt and Abandonment
Guatemala has a population of close to 18 million inhabitants, mostly Indigenous, although the last census reported the population at 40 percent. The Indigenous population is made up of four Nations known as the Maya, Xinka, Garifuna, and Ladino Peoples. The Maya Nation is the largest, with 23 distinct Peoples. This composition of its inhabitants makes Guatemala a plurinational country.
Chile is the only country in South America that does not recognize Indigenous Peoples in its constitution, so it should not be a surprise that it has failed to adequately align its national legislation with international standards for the protection of their rights. One of its most evident failures has been the absence of respect for the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples living in lithium mining and exploration areas.
By Jonathan González Quiel
Before narrating the latest events on the anti-mining struggle, it is relevant to clarify that we are not a mining country, despite the fact that during the time of the colony and the Spanish subjugation, some gold mines were established with the same logic of extractivist dispossession of a foreign power.
On December 13, 2023, Sarah Hanson (Biigtigong Nishnaabeg) from Indigenous Climate Action read the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC)'s closing statement at COP28.
Boozhoo Aaniin, Hello. My name is Sarah Hanson, an Anishinaabeg youth from Biigtigong Nishnaabeg on the north shore of Gichi Gami of Turtle Island, in what is colonially known as Canada.
By Danny Beaton (Turtle Clan Mohawk)
In Memory of Alicja Rozanska
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.