In 2023, Cultural Survival acquired lots of of functions from Indigenous youth who have been fascinated about taking part in our Indigenous Youth Fellowship Program. Our Fellowship Program helps younger Indigenous leaders between the ages of 17-28, who’re desirous to find out about expertise, program growth, journalism, neighborhood radio, media, language revitalization, management growth, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights advocacy. Since 2018, we now have awarded 110 fellowships supporting 204 fellows. This 12 months alone, greater than 50 fellowships have been awarded all over the world. A number of of those fellowship tasks that started as an thought are actually being realized beneath youth management and have superior in several methods for the good thing about Indigenous communities. These tasks have responded to various wants corresponding to language revitalization, restoration of ancestral data, drugs, schooling, and elevating consciousness of elevated mining for transition minerals, amongst others.
Right here we highlight just a few tasks by our fellows who’re dedicated to their communities, lands, identities, languages, and cultures.
Martha Natalia Rodriguez (Piapoco) from Venezuela
Martha’s fellowship mission is aimed toward strengthening abilities in crafts with the aim of being an alternate financial means for girls in her neighborhood of San José Galipero. Over the previous few months, she has met with neighborhood members to advertise the initiative and never solely encourage a brand new financial livelihood but additionally enchantment to the safety of conventional data and strategies that her neighborhood homes.
Estefanía Grefa (Kichwa) from Ecuador
Estefanía’s fellowship mission “Reforestation and use of the urungahua palm fruit” within the Kichwa neighborhood of Unión Base seeks to revive an endemic fruit of the realm and promotes its conservation by youth and youngsters of her neighborhood. Estefanía can also be trying to promote the fruit’s cultivation for the good thing about households by promoting the produce. Thus far, she has organized 4 studying days for the residents of her city.
Julieth Arias (Guna) from Panama
Julieth is main the SABGUED mission, which implies “conservation” in Guna and has met with leaders of the area who concentrate on conventional drugs to request their assist within the administration of this mission. She is at the moment engaged on organizing workshops on conventional drugs and producing audiovisual supplies that promote ancestral data in her neighborhood. Moreover, Julieth hopes to take part in and promote her mission at native cultural festivals and maintain an artwork exhibition that showcases her Guna tradition.
Florentina Sri Dewi Wulan (Dayak Simpakng) from Indonesia
Dewi is implementing a fellowship mission on the revitalization of the Dayak Simpakng language by documentation of information in written kind. By writing, they search to safeguard oral tales which have been handed down for generations by Elders. On this means, they’ll be capable of convey the language to extra individuals inside and out of doors their neighborhood. As well as, Dewi has been documenting data and strategies for the administration of bamboo within the manufacturing of crafts and different gadgets.
