By Rosy Gonzáles (Maya Kaqchikel, CS Workers) and Guadalupe Pastrana (Nahua, CS Workers)
Indigenous Girls in Radio 2023, a three-day occasion organized by Cultural Survival for girls from Indigenous neighborhood radio stations across the nation, happened July 28-30 in Maní, Yucatán, Mexico. Twenty-eight Indigenous ladies between the ages of 18-59 participated in workshops on radio manufacturing and sound atmosphere. The occasion additionally featured a chat on neighborhood feminism, and served as a possibility for the ladies to share their experiences with each other in regard to the function of girls in Indigenous neighborhood radio and their struggle for his or her rights.
Cultural Survival hosts these kind of conferences as areas to contribute to strengthening the data, abilities, and talents of Indigenous ladies radio broadcasters with the goal of enriching their work of their respective radio stations and organizations and creating alternatives for girls to take part extra actively within the Indigenous neighborhood media. A particular emphasis was positioned as regards to radio manufacturing, since ladies’s participation is commonly restricted to cleansing the sales space or broadcasting in narrowly outlined parameters, with out being allowed to place their abilities into observe.
The assembly centered on three main subjects: ladies’s rights; protection of territory; and revitalization of Indigenous languages. These three subjects guided the workshops and the next reflections and have been additionally current within the radio productions that the individuals developed on account of the coaching.
The individuals recognized the revitalization of Indigenous languages as one of the crucial vital points since ladies and communicators have been essential in creating language revitalization efforts. One participant commented that at her station, which is usually run by ladies, they’ve taken on the duty of documenting their mom tongues with the grandmothers of their neighborhood, with the primary goal of defending this data and making radio packages to breed on their station to contribute to the preservation of their language.
Cultural Survival workers from our Neighborhood Media, Indigenous Rights Radio, and Capability Constructing packages have been the workshop presenters, together with two exterior workshop leaders: Griselda Sánchez (Ñuu Savi), a sound artist, journalist, and unbiased radio producer, and Eloísa Díez, screenwriter, documentalist and sound creator with greater than 30 years of expertise within the area of sound.
Members of the Natural Motion of Neighborhood Feminism of Abya Yala-Tejido, Guerrero, México have been additionally current and gave a chat on neighborhood feminism and the way it has contributed to strengthening the wrestle of Indigenous ladies locally of Ayutla de los Libres. The ladies additionally shared some academic supplies in order that individuals might proceed exploring and studying about neighborhood feminism, and generate concepts and reflections to be developed via future radio productions. Amongst these texts was “Our physique is our first territory,” which accommodates the passage: “Among the many ladies and our communities of Abya Yala, the concept that the physique is the primary territory, essentially the most fast, and the one which belongs to us, is shared. In line with this idea, the physique, just like the earth, is cultivated, cherished, loved, and defended.”
The assembly was held on the U Yits Ka’an College of Ecological Agriculture, a big out of doors house coordinated by Maya households whose predominant areas of labor are agroecology, breeding, and care of the Melipona (a kind of stingless bee), the restoration of conventional drugs, and the revitalization of the Mayan language and script. On this house, the workshop individuals have been capable of take part in actions reminiscent of meditations, lively listening classes, and recording of environmental sounds—an space by which the individuals confirmed nice curiosity and, above all, creativity. Incorporating ambient sounds into their productions was a novel and thrilling thought for a lot of.
All through the occasion, the individuals have been motivated and enthusiastic to be taught new recording methods and new prospects for creating radio productions. There was additionally curiosity in making a community of the Indigenous radio stations that participated on this assembly to arrange as a unified entrance to struggle for his or her rights as neighborhood communicators.
The sound atmosphere and soundscape workshops generated a number of reflections from the individuals. They mentioned easy methods to incorporate the sounds of their communities into their productions, and likewise mirrored on sound as an identification. One participant commented, “my neighborhood doesn’t sound the identical as different communities.” One other mentioned that she had been “in lots of locations the place identification is clothes and language,” however that she had not thought of sound, and now sees that “it is rather crucial to incorporate.”
There have been additionally concepts for content material about sound as reminiscence and the significance of creating high quality recordings of soundscapes and environmental sounds in order that they turn into a part of the reminiscence of the next generations. The format of radio manufacturing based mostly on soundscapes is a technique of “telling a narrative via sounds,” mentioned Díez, one of many workshop leaders.
One other theme that was current all through the assembly and regularly taken up by the individuals was neighborhood feminism. A number of expressed that “it is very important construct and contribute from our actuality as Indigenous ladies,” and to not rely solely on Western concepts. They added that “it’s essential to converse with them [as equals] acknowledging our contributions and data.”
On this house for dialogue, it was attainable to mirror on the significance of caring for and defending the territory-body, which is in comparison with caring for Mom Earth, since each love and supply what is important to subsist with effectively being and, above all, freedom. As quoted from “Our physique is our first territory,” “We all know that no territory will ever be free whereas a sister is oppressed inside it.”
On the fruits of three days of workshops and coaching, the individuals labored in groups to make radio productions by which they experimented with sound results and environmental sound. The target was to create brief, artistic productions incorporating components of the radio language that they already knew and used whereas including newly acquired abilities.
Two of the themes within the items they produced have been “feeling supported amongst ladies” and “recipes to construct fellowship in riot.” The groups recorded the actual sounds of birds, wind, hearth, and water, amongst different components. On the shut of the workshop, every of the ladies who attended was given a certificates of participation. A number of of the individuals expressed their want to take part in future workshops that contribute to their skilled growth as Indigenous ladies radio broadcasters.
