Stories about Indigenous from February, 2009
Guyana: Mash 2009
Guyana Providence Stadium posts photos from this year's Mashramani celebrations.
Brunei: Fund drive for flood victims
As part of the efforts to collect donations for flood victims, charity drives have been organized in recent weeks in Brunei. The heavy downpour last month caused heavy floods and landslides in the country, affecting homes of more than 200 families, and destroying milllions of dollars in properties and crops.
Fiji: Samoan PM criticisizes Fiji's government
Bloggers in Fiji and around the Pacific are remarking on recent comments by Samoa’s Prime Minister harshly criticizing Fiji’s military government. Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said in an interview that he believes Fiji’s self appointed Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has no intention of relinquishing power. He also called on the people of Fiji to reclaim its government
Peru: Portrayal of Andean Life in Llosa's Movies
The recent film "The Milk of Sorrow" by Peruvian director Claudia Llosa was recently awarded with the Golden Bear at an international film festival in Berlin. Even though the film has yet to open in Peru, debate has started whether or not Llosa's portrayal of Andean life is accurate or in some cases racist towards the indigenous communities that figure prominently in her movies.
Colombia: Drawing Attention to the Cause of Minority Groups
Minorities in Colombia, such as indigenous groups, have not been given much importance and Carlos Correa of Palimpsesto [es] suggests that they follow the example of the Cauca indigenous community which marched to Bogotá drawing attention to their cause and promised solutions.
Worldwide: 2,500 Languages Disappearing
An interactive map of endangered languages, showing 2,500 out of 6,000 tongues at risk, has been released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The international organization asks users to contribute comments to a project that has many bloggers worried about preserving cultures.
Indigenous Activists Seek New .indigi Domain
Marginalized and oppressed for centuries, indigenous peoples – native communities around the world often considered minorities by states – are seeking Internet autonomy. Encouraged by the opportunity to create new generic top level domains (gTLD), some activists want registration of their own Internet domain – [dot] indigi. But will they...
Guadeloupe: Where is it exactly?
French West Indian blogger Fwiyapin questions the way in which traditional French media are dealing with the Guadeloupean crisis – images of Guadeloupe and Madagascar mixed up on ITélé, or Guadeloupe suddenly being located in the Asia-Pacific column, in LeMonde.fr.
Guadeloupe, Corsica: Same situation? Same claims?
Martinican blogde[moi] ponders on the possible extension of the French West Indian conflict to the French island of Corsica, following the analysis of a Corsican blogger.
Fiji: Bloggers react to police commissioner's ‘crusade’
Bloggers in Fiji are commenting on the police commissioner’s recent outburst recorded by television cameras at a meeting with Indo-Fijian officers warning them with termination if they continue to air their complaints directly to the media
Brazil: Blogging from riverside communities in the Amazon
Encouraged by the NGO Saúde e Alegria, youngters from 31 riverside communities in the Amazon are learning the benefits of blogging. Armed with media kits – sound equipment, editorial desks, video equipment and an Internet connection – they have started to show their faces to the world.
Colombia: The Awá Indigenous Community Caught in the Middle
The ongoing conflict deep within the Colombian jungle between the FARC, ELN and the Colombian Armed Forces often finds people caught in the middle. Authorities are investigating the killing of dozens of members of the Awá indigenous community, and are blaming the FARC guerrillas for the crime. Many say that the Awá have been targeted because of the suspicion that they are acting as informants, something which the government denies. Nevertheless, this indigenous group is now being displaced from their land because of the violence.
USA: Native Americans, “Yes we can”
Kept invisible for centuries, Native Americans in the United States are increasingly using blogs and online citizen media to promote and preserve their rights and traditional ways of life. With the election of President Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish (Barack Obama’s adopted Crow Tribe name) indigenous peoples see new reasons to be optimistic.
Guadeloupe, Martinique: Farewell Mr. N'Diaye
Martinican blogger Imaniyé and Guadeloupean B.World Connection both pay homage to Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, who recently passed away. He was the Conservator of Gorée Island and instrumental in making French West Indians go back through the Door of No Return in the late 1990's.
Trinidad & Tobago: Curmudgeonly Carnival
“Carnival is big business. Fetes costing five hundred dollars and up, mas costumes that are equivalent to a house or car payment, is it all worth bankrupting yourself?”: Coffeewallah explains why, national festival or not, she won't be participating in this year's Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
Bahamas: Artistic Tourism
“All studies about the creative industries…and tourist development indicate that a failsure way of driving tourists to a destination is by creating a purpose for them to visit…but a word of caution to those…who think that they can develop such festivals without the participation and buy-in of the cultural community:...
Jamaica: Dancehall Ban
Following the broadcast ban on Rampin Shop and other sexually explicit songs, Raw Politics…Jamaica Style! thinks that dancehall must rehabilitate its public image, while Long Bench believes that while the ban should have been enforced a long time ago, now it's being done “for the wrong reasons, and under the...
Philippines: Baro At Saya
One Sixth Sense posts photos of a doll donning different variations of the baro at saya, the Philippine national dress.
Bolivia: Native Languages in the Public Bureaucracy
Ermapelo of Ciudad de Patas [es] wonders about the push in the new Constitution that seeks that all public employees in the Bolivian government speak at least one native language, and how many of the terms used in bureaucracy do not have equivalents in those languages. In the end, much...
Trinidad & Tobago: Carnival is Woman
Another great podcast from Trinidad's Caribbean Free Radio, where Georgia Popplewell and the 3 Canal crew talk about everything from the role of women in Carnival to the “fine line between self expression and censorship”.
Cuba: “Cachaito” Passes On
Havana Times reports that one of the founding members of the famous Buena Vista Social Club, Cuban bass player Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez, has died at a Havana hospital after complications following surgery.
