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A Historic Win for Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Community Media and Freedom of Expression


On December 17, 2021, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights announced its decision in the case Indigenous Maya Kaqchikel Peoples of Sumpango vs. Guatemala, declaring the Republic of Guatemala “internationally responsible for the violation of the rights to freedom of expression, equality before the law and participation in cultural life” of Indigenous Peoples. 

Joy Harjo is a Muskogee Creek poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, the first Native American to hold that honor. Phoebe Mills Farris, Ph.D. (Powhatan-Pamunkey), a Purdue University Professor Emerita, photographer, freelance art critic, and Cultural Survival Quarterly contributing Arts Editor, spoke with Harjo at First Peoples Fund’s We The Peoples Before event on June 30-July 2, 2022, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 

 

Walter Richard "Rick" West Jr. (Cheyenne and Arapaho) is currently President Emeritus of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. He was the founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, retiring from the position in 2007. He is also a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. Phoebe Mills Farris, Ph.D.

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