Venezuela Participates in NY Indigenous Film Fest

David Hernández-Palmar, a young Venezuelan man from the Wayuu Indigenous community, will be in New York City this Saturday to help present a documentary at the 30th Annual Native American Film and Video Festival.

“Owners of the Water: Conflict and Collaboration over Rivers” was created by Hernández-Palmar together with Caimi Waiassé (a Brazilian Xavante man) and U.S. Anthropologist Laura R. Graham. It chronicles an international campaign to protect Rio das Mortes River Basin in Brazil, a vital resource for the Xavante community that was threatened by soya production and related deforestation. The Xavante blocked a national highway to demand the protection of the basin.

To help tell the story of the Xavante’s struggle, Venezuela’s David Hernández-Palmar lent his talents as an up-and-coming documentarian. For more information about this and other films at the Native American Film and Video Festival, click here.

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Venezuelan Woman Promotes Intercultural Education

Intercultural education will soon become a reality in Venezuela, if Professor Angela Diaz has anything to do with it.

She spoke at at a public event today in Washington sponsored by TransAfrica Forum. Diaz has been making her way around the U.S. capital,  speaking at Howard University and meeting Members of Congress to discuss the Afro-Venezuelan experience.

Diaz is a member of the Network of Afro-Venezuelan Organizations (La Red de Organizaciones Afrovenezolanas), has worked tirelessly over the past decade to help create a more inclusive education system. Like the U.S., Afro-descendants and Indigenous peoples in Venezuela have been too often distorted or omitted from public school curricula. Due to the work of people like Diaz, Venezuelan students will learn about all the ethnic groups that built the South American continent.

The new inclusive curriculum has been implemented in 17 states so far. Part of the process involves inviting community elders into the schools to teach.  In one school, grandparents taught students how to make a fish recipe, which is stuffed in a plantain leaf. Fish is a vital resource for residents along the Caribbean coast, many of whom identify as Afro-Venezuelan. Along with the recipe, the children learned about history, culture, art, and the environment. Sharing ancestral knowledge is the key to transmitting what has been left out of the history books.

Diaz emphasized that students are inspired when they can see themselves and their communities represented in their lessons. See more of Professor Diaz’s work with Fundación Curduvare.

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Wake Up, World! WSF Participants are Coming Home

The World Social Forum (WSF) concluded yesterday in Belém, Brazil. Over 130,000 grassroots activists and members of civil society groups from all over the globe gather each year to present alternatives to the concurrent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The WSF, which is based in a concept of social justice, hosted discussions on topics ranging from the global economic crisis to environmental preservation to Indigenous issues and even vegetarianism. Socially conscious people met to “coordinate strategies and build partnerships,” share in cultural events, and make their voices heard by the many leaders in attendance.

One participant said:

We’re pointing out things that the developed nations don’t want to see. This is a scream of hope from the bottom, to say that we’re here and we want to change things.

-Luiz Miguel Fernandez Vega, 28, León, Mexico

Several resolutions were adopted  to remedy current crises and advance the cause of social justice. These include:

- Nationalization of banks
- No reduction of salaries at enterprises hit by the economic crisis
- Energy and food sovereignty for the poor
- Withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq and Afghanistan
- Sovereignty and autonomy for Indigenous peoples
- The right to land, decent work, education, and health for all
- Democratization of media and knowledge

The ambitious aims of the WSF seem to be coming into sharper focus as the world changes and old political and economic paradigms are shifting. Many participants came away from the Forum with a renewed sense of hope that “another world is possible,” and that they can help make it happen.

To read more, check out these articles from AFP, IPS, and the Washington Post

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Latin Leaders Propose Alternatives at Social Forum

The World Social Forum began yesterday in Belém, Brazil, a city located at the edge of the Amazon Rainforest. The Presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Paraguay (pictured above from left to right) are attending this massive ninth annual event, which brings leaders and citizens together under the slogan “Another World is Possible.”

The summit coincides with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. With economies across the globe in crisis, the alternative view provided by the Social Forum is particularly important this year. Here is what people are saying about the forum:

We are raising our voices as a wake-up call to the world, especially the rich countries that are hastening its destruction… [for] we are the ones who were born and raised in the middle of the forest, and who lead a lifestyle that contrasts with the ambition of capitalism, which does not bring benefits to all.

– Edmundo Omoré of Brazil’s Xavante Indigenous community

We are launching an SOS to the world. The planet is in danger and is heading for destruction. That’s why we’re here asking for solidarity. …The big multinationals are going into our territories, sometimes with the help of paramilitaries, sometimes with the assent of the government, pushing out our own communities. And those who resist are persecuted.

– Miguel Palacin, Andean Coordination of Indigenous Organizations

Indigenous and environmental issues top the agenda this year. See coverage from the BBC, AFP, and IPS. A good video can be found at Euronews.

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More Than a Pancake: Venezuelan Cachapas

Thanks to the Miami Herald today, we have a lesson in how to make the Venezuelan dish called the cachapa. This is a savory pancake made of corn that is eaten with mild white cheese and makes a tasty snack. The recipe that appears in the Herald is from the book The South American Table.

In Venezuela, the best cachapas are usually grilled to a golden brown on a large, flat budare like the one pictured here.

The cachapa is said to come from Venezuela’s indigenous heritage, particularly in the interior of the country. Corn was an important staple food for many Native American communities.

It is also the main ingredient in another Venezuelan snack that remains popular today; the singular arepa.

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Venezuela Hosts Anti-Imperialist Indigenous Conference

Last week, Venezuela hosted the first Congress of Indian and Anti-Imperialist Warriors of the Americas (Congreso Indoamerica Joven de Guerreros Contra la Miseria y el Imperialismo).

Sure, the title is a mouthful, but the focus of the congress was clear: to bring together Indigenous leaders throughout the region who are committed to equality and justice.

18 different Indigenous delegations from the Americas were present in Venezuela. Three of those hailed from the United States. Present to represent their people were Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty of the Cheyenne River Sioux, Carl Wassilie of the Alaska Intertribal Council, and Heather Thompson of the National Congress of American Indian. Venezuela alone was represented by 1,500 delegates from diverse native groups.

The events coincided with World Indigenous Peoples Day. President Chavez spoke at the closing ceremony of the Congress last Monday at the Municipal Theater in Caracas. He announced: “A peaceful revolution is developing in South America; a peaceful, moral, and indigenous revolution.”

President Chavez even suggested that South America should change its name to Indian America! Thoughts? Comments are open.

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Indigenous Community Radio Gets a Boost

Venezuela’s new Minister of Telecommunications, Socorro Hernández, pledged to support the expansion of an innovative project that is putting Indigenous-produced content onto public radio in Venezuela. The Bolivarian News Agency (ABN) reports today that Hernández responded to a request for assistance from The Ministry of Indigenous Affairs, which is headed by Nicia Maldonado. The program in question is a co-project with Venezuelan National Radio (RNV).

Indigenous groups in six towns across the country have already begun to participate by creating and producing content that is broadcast locally in their native tongues. Infrastructure from the Telecommunications Ministry will help grant three more communities access to the airwaves.

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