On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, we are excited to announce Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Journalism Fellowship, supported by the Indigenous Community Media Fund. The Fellowship aims to support Indigenous journalists, communicators, and broadcasters to investigate and report on pressing environmental and social issues impacting their respective Indigenous communities. This initiative focuses on environmental justice, climate change, and the impacts of transition mineral mining.
On April 21-May 2, 2025, the 24th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) took place.
Par Véronique Wanyema Saleh, coordinatrice de Femmes Pymees
Dans la période du 15 Septembre 2023 au 15 Juillet 2024, l’organisation FEPA a exécuté un projet dénommé « Projet d’accompagnement des peuples pygmées de la province du Sud Kivu sur le plaidoyer non violent de leurs droits violés à travers l’exploitation minière dans leurs villages respectifs » en faveur des peuples autochtones pygmées vivant dans la province du Sud Kivu en République démocratique du Congo avec l’appuis financier de Cultural Survival.
By Mariana Campos Rivera (CS intern)
“Blessed is the water
that makes the flowers of this threatened land grow
because in the face of death it grants beauty.”
-Fredy Chicangana (Quechua), Poet
Since 2010, 11 Inga and Kamëntsá communities in the Sibundoy Valley and Mocoa, Colombia, have denounced the presence of mining megaprojects in their ancestral territory. In 2014, a mining megaproject was stopped through multiple actions, including communication. With support from the Keepers of the Earth Fund in 2024, Tabanok Audiovisual School received a grant to carry out a training in audiovisual tools and to produce a short documentary film on the Amazonian Andean Foothills, where an open-pit mining megaproject is being developed.
By Karma Rinji Sherpa, Station Manager, Radio Kairan 96.4 FM, Ramechhap, Nepal
Radio Kairan, a beacon of community radio in a remote village of Ramechhap district, Nepal, has successfully addressed a major challenge: updating outdated equipment that was hindering quality broadcasting. With support from the Cultural Survival Indigenous Community Media Fund, the station has been revitalized, allowing it to effectively serve listeners in their mother tongues of Sunuwar, Tamang, Sherpa, as well as Nepali.
By Feza Christine, reporter at UPADE Radio Communautaire d'Itombwe (RCI)
In the mining regions of South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, the allure of easy money has created a breeding ground for sexual exploitation, especially targeting young Indigenous girls. The influx of cash from mining activities has led to a surge in predatory behavior, with miners and mining company employees using their newfound wealth to lure vulnerable girls into exploitative relationships.
By Pardo Mwetaminwa, UPADE Coordinator
A surge in foreign mining operations in the Fizi territory of the Democratic Republic of Congo is causing growing hardship for local communities, particularly the Indigenous Batwa People. Traditionally reliant on farming, the Batwa are being displaced from their lands without adequate compensation or consultation.
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.
