By Erika Mayer
On May 26, 2015, the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Tribal delegates—Matthew Dana II and Wayne Mitchell, respectively—withdrew from the Maine legislature. Their reasons for doing so were a long list of grievances against the state of Maine involving fishing rights and, by extension, rights to Tribal sovereignty. These violations of Penobscot and Passamaquoddy rights undermined what should have been an equal, not subordinate, relationship with the state.
On June 11 and 12, 2015, Asociacion Waqib’ Kej hosted the Third Annual Indigenous Youth Gathering in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. These events target Indigenous youth to discuss the current political situation of Guatemala and the role Indigenous youth have and will continue to play. A fourth gathering is scheduled to be held in the western region of the country next month.
On April 25th, 2015, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. It caused a death toll of over 10,000 people, injured over 30,000 people, and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings. Three weeks later, a 7.3-magnitude earthquake killed at least sixty-five people in Nepal and seventeen people in India, injured thousands, and brought down buildings that were weakened by the first quake. The United Nations estimates that the earthquakes have affected approximately eight million people.
On Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Cultural Survival delivered a radio console and microphone to Radio Snuq Jolom Konob in Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, Guatemala. A generous grant from the Swift Foundation allowed Cultural Survival to donate this equipment to the station. Radio Snuq Jolom Konob was shut down on January 19, 2015, by the mayor of Santa Eulalia and his supporters for publicizing protests against hydroelectric companies operating in the region.
Since a report was released on April 16, 2015 by the International Center Against Impunity in Guatemala revealing a disturbing political scandal involving high ranking political figures, Guatemala has been politically unstable. From the resignation of the vice president to the continued protests demanding the resignation of President Otto Perez Molina, Guatemala approaches one of its hardest election years. Not since the 1950’s have the various ethnic and social populations of Guatemala united for a common cause. Preliminary elections are set to be held on September 6, 2015.
The past few weeks have been extremely important for the political future of Guatemala. On April 16, 2015, the Guatemalan Public Ministry, with the help of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, unraveled one of the most shocking political scandals in the history of the country. The scandal is a multimillion-dollar scheme in which various individuals paid bribes to avoid customs duties on imports.
On Tuesday April 21, 2015in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), Cultural Survival began regional visits to various Indigenous community radios in Guatemala. As part of ICFJ’s Regional Initiative for Investigative Journalism in the Americas, this second phase has selected 20 Indigenous journalism projects focused on improving community radio programming to receive funding. An ICFJ trainer has been serving as a mentor and guide to the community journalists as they produce investigative radio stories.
Proud to Be Indigenous Week starts Monday, April 20. Are you part of it yet?!
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.
