Language and Culture

Ezekiel Tye Freeman is the executive director of Green-PRO, which helps Liberian communities develop sustainable livelihoods for self-reliance. Beekeeping training programs, for example, offer a lucrative and environmentally friendly economic alternative to mining or slash-and-burn farming for individuals. Freeman points to high levels of unemployment among Liberia's Indigenous population as a major problem that his organization wants to attempt to alleviate.

George ‘Bic’ Manahira describes how his community established the
world's first community-run octopus, sea grass, and mangrove reserve in partnership with Blue Ventures, a UK-based NGO, in order to strengthen the traditional sea-resource-based livelihood of the coastal Indigenous communities in Madagascar. They hope to expand and improve on the model in collaboration with other Indigenous groups and leaders in the coming years.

Indigenous Rights Radio Producer Avexnim Cojtí Ren investigates the movement to repatriate sacred objects, remains, and cultural patrimony taken without consent from Indigenous Peoples by governments, collectors, and individuals. Concepts of ownership, histories of oppression, methods of legal recourse, and recent examples of repatriation attempts all play an important role in the prospects for the return of heritage items to Indigenous Peoples.

In many Indigenous communities, dual justice systems operate in tandem: the European system, a colonial imposition characterized by hierarchical, punitive, written codicies, and the Indigenous system, which is often based in tradition and holistic in nature.

Human Rights Lawyer Michelle Cook (Dine') elaborates on the interactions between these two systems, and explains how communities can use the language of human rights to challenge the colonial legal system imposition in order to gain a seat at the table as independent nations with internationally recognized justice systems.

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is commemorated annually on 9 August. Ten years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Nepal-based Indigenous Rights Radio Producer Dev Kumar Sunuwar reflects with prominent Nepali Indigenous leaders on the country's progress in the implementation of international standards for Indigenous Rights.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, says she has found an inadequate process of consultation with Indigenous communities on the part of the national government during her visit to Honduras, where she was recently invited for a working visit to comment on a draft of a law regulating Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Indigenous Hondurans do not feel that they were adequately consulted on the content of the law. Further, the law does not meet widely accepted international standards of F.P.I.C.

Indigenous Rights Radio producer Shaldon Ferris (KhoiSan) investigates the impacts of fishing regulations on Indigenous groups who have fished as a part of their livelihoods for centuries. The Convention on Biological Diversity, an international agreement which has inspired the implementation of many current fishing regulations, specifically discusses the importance of collaborating with Indigenous communities in order to preserve cultural knowledge in the pursuit of ecological preservation.

Avexnim Cojti (Maya K'iche') highlights the difference between consent and consultation with the help of Joan Carling, longtime advocate for Indigenous rights and former expert member to the UNPFII, in the context of decisions made by Indigenous communities regarding resource and land management. Joan explains that consent (or refusal of consent) is given at the conclusion of a process of consultation. Consultation, defined as an open, collective deliberation, is a crucial precursor to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent.

MUSIC
"Yawkuchallay," by Luis Cisneros

Radio continues to be a crucial tool for strengthening communities worldwide. Celebrate this uniquely powerful and uniting form of communication on World Radio Day, February 13th.

According to the UNDRIP, Indigenous People have the right to establish their own media in their own languages, and to have access to to all forms of non-indigenous media without discrimination (Article 16). Radio plays an especially crucial role in Indigenous communication, due to its potential to cross borders and terrain, as well as economic and social barriers.

Voices of Maize, by CS Radio Producer Shaldon Ferris. The importance of maize in South African culture is impossible to overstate. Listen to Shaldon Ferris describe some of the uses of this staple in his culture, and the variety cultures found throughout South Africa.