By Carlos Madrigal (Mazahua/Jñatjo, CS Workers)
Indigenous girls have managed to interrupt many boundaries and entry areas traditionally reserved for white males. They’ve positioned themselves as brokers of change, incorporating ancestral data from their communities. From medication, artwork, gastronomy, music, to linguistics, these younger girls are main movementns of resistance and transformation. Their affect on shifting present paradigms needs to be uplifted each time. Their actions for environmental stewardship, defending their territories, and strengthening and revitalizing their cultures are essential amid the crises we at the moment face.
We’re proud to introduce you to a few proficient younger girls who’re Cultural Survival Indigenous Youth Fellows. Our Indigenous Youth Fellowship Program helps younger Indigenous leaders between the ages of 17-28, who’re desirous to find out about know-how, program growth, journalism, group radio, media, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights advocacy. Since 2018, we now have awarded 110 fellowships supporting 204 fellows. Fellowships have allowed youth to construct capacities in Indigenous rights, Indigenous languages, cultures, and Conventional Data. It is a chance to help fellows to signify the voices of their communities and convey consciousness of native points to international conversations by means of their proposed tasks whereas strengthening their cultural identities and management.
Adriana Vanessa Tisoy Tandoy (Inga)
Adriana Vanessa Tisoy Tandoy was born in Santiago Putumayo, Colombia. Her mother and father guided her on the trail of respect and look after Mom Earth (Alpa Mama). She obtained a level in Spanish Language and Literature, and later specialised in complete youngster and adolescent growth. She at the moment represents the collective of younger individuals known as Kusikui, serves as a mediator for the Taita Gabriel Tisoy Mansajoy Itinerant Library (BRI), and works as a analysis coordinator within the Inga language on the radio program “Inga rimai.”
Inga is an endangered language as kids and youth are step by step utilizing their native language much less and fewer. Adriana’s fellowship undertaking “Uchulla parlu uchullakunamanda/Cuentos cortos en Inga para niñas y niños” was carried out from July 1, 2022, to Might 22, 2023. The undertaking was geared toward youth to find out about Inga language, worldview, and Conventional data. One of many important instruments used was intergenerational dialogue, by means of which the data of Elders was transmitted to the youthful generations.
To display the success of the undertaking, Adriana produced an illustrated book, organized workshops, and created a podcast. The radio program “Inga rimai”, the place Vanessa Tisoy at the moment works, performed a central position in executing her fellowship plan.
Virginia Maribel Sam Chub (Maya Q’echi’)
Virginia hails from the village of Tipulcan, San Pedro Carcha, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. She has been concerned in actions associated to land protection since 2020. Virginia additionally works as a authorized counselor within the struggle for ladies’s rights. At present, she is a group journalist who makes use of theater, images, and audiovisual media to deal with matters corresponding to territorial safety, migration, girls’s rights, and youngster labor.
Her fellowship undertaking “EL AWAS” (Ancestral Data and Apply about Human, Animal, and Agricultural Life, also referred to as “The Hidden” or “The Secret”) was carried out from August 15, 2022, to January 30, 2023. On this undertaking, Virginia researched the ancestral data of Q’eqchi’ Elders, which needed to be hidden and practiced in secret as a result of concern of persecution by Spanish invaders who thought-about their practices to be satanic.
The target of Virginia’s undertaking is to disseminate this information by means of recorded interviews with EL AWAS practitioners at local people radio stations. She additionally created a book for children on the identical subject to encourage younger youth to query info coming from the mainstream training system, church, and media and return to Conventional Data and educating.
Nataly Domicó Murillo (Embera)
Nataly belongs to the Embera Eyabida Peoples in Urabá Antioqueño, northwestern Colombia. She is an educator and researcher with political and group expertise and at the moment serves as an advisor to the Indigenous Mayor’s Council of Chigorodó (Antioquia). She can be the Nationwide Coordinator for the Territories of Life-Colombia Community (TICCA) and a instructor on the Mom Earth Pedagogy program on the College of Antioquia.
In her fellowship undertaking “Comunicar para defender los ecosistemas y la biculturalidad de los sitios sagrados del pueblo Embera Eyabida de Chigorodó (Antioquia-Colombia),” Nataly performed a four-day workshop, together with workshop facilitators Nicolás Gutiérrez and Julián García. Within the workshop, she taught a gaggle of younger individuals from completely different Embera communities rules of animation, sound exploration, images, and lighting, with the aim of making animation that narrates the origin tales of the sacred websites of the Embera Eyabida Peoples in Chigorodó. The principle goal of the undertaking was to showcase and lift consciousness in regards to the ecological and biodiverse richness of their territory and the problems that threaten their group.
Embera Peoples face a number of threats, corresponding to mining and vitality exploitation and armed teams which have invaded their lands to recruit members from the native communities. Nataly’s undertaking goals to empower youth and Embera communities with data and instruments that allow them to create their very own messages and reflections. Moreover, it seeks to strengthen their sense of belonging and safety of their territory.