Cultural Survival

Cultural Survival

Founded	1972
Type	Non-governmental organization
Focus	Indigenous rights
Location	Cambridge, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Revenue	US$ 1,249,153 (2009)
Website	culturalsurvival.org

Cultural Survival (founded 1972) is a nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA which is dedicated to defending the human rights of indigenous peoples. Their stated mandate is to promote the rights, voices and visions, of indigenous people. Cultural Survival aims to be a comprehensive source of information on indigenous peoples, including the magazine, the Cultural Survival Quarterly, which has been published for more than 30 years.

History

Cultural Survival was founded by anthropologist David Maybury-Lewis and his wife, Pia, in response to the opening up of the Amazonian and South American hinterlands during the 1960s, and the drastic effects this had on Indigenous inhabitants. It has since worked with Indigenous communities in Asia, Africa, South America, North America, and Australia, becoming the leading US-based organization defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples around the world. Their efforts are guided by a board of directors that includes some of the world’s preeminent indigenous leaders, as well as anthropologists, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs, and their executive director is a renowned human rights lawyer. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cultural Survival also has a satellite office for the Guatemala Radio Project in Guatemala. Cultural Survival has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator for outstanding fiscal responsibility.

Goals

1. To increase global understanding of indigenous peoples’ rights, cultures, and concerns;

2. To empower indigenous peoples to be better self-advocates, and to partner with them to advocate for their human rights.

Governance

Cultural Survival is governed by a Board of Directors and is indigenous led. The Board of Directors serves as Cultural Survival’s legal accountability mechanism and bears the responsibilities of boards of directors in the United States and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Program Council helps to identify and shape Cultural Survival’s programs, and provides oversight to ensure that those programs maximally serve the needs of indigenous peoples.

Publications

• Cultural Survival Quarterly magazine has covered indigenous rights issues for nearly 30 years. Each issue includes feature articles focused on themes of concern to indigenous peoples, as well as news pieces, interviews, and book reviews. All of the authors are indigenous or are professionals who work closely with indigenous peoples.

Programs

The organization works to empower indigenous peoples by:

• Disseminating information about the solutions indigenous groups have adopted to address the problems they face, as well as the lessons learned from research and case evaluations.

• Facilitating capacity-building on topics such as organizational management, media relations, fund raising, land demarcation, negotiation techniques, and political participation rights.

• Providing the professional expertise needed to protect their rights and long-term development goals.

• Assisting them to understand the motivations of governments, inter-governmental organizations, and financial and corporate interests.

• Facilitating mutual-understanding and problem-solving dialogues among indigenous groups and non-indigenous interests.

• Securing development assistance to support advocacy activities.

• Cultural Survival, in partnership with indigenous peoples, advocates for their human rights before inter-governmental institutions, governments, courts, financial institutions, and corporations.

Native Language Revitalization Campaign

Cultural Survival points to governmental policies that existed through the 1950s as being the source that led to the destruction of Native American languages. The practice of removing Native children from their communities and placing them in remote boarding schools was intended to break the transmission of language from one generation to the next, and it was successful. They feel it is important to repair the damage to Native American languages while it is possible.

There are techniques which have shown to work quickly in transmitting language from elders to young people. The experience of Indigenous Peoples in Hawaii and New Zealand shows that immersion schools, language nests (a fluent speaker working with a group of learners), and master-apprentice programs (pairing an elder speaker with one learner) are very successful.

Cultural Survival has called attention for the Native American communities as being in need of funding, political support, and training to make these programs work.

Cultural Survival Bazaar

The Cultural Survival Bazaars are a series of cultural festivals that give Indigenous artists, their representatives, other non-profits, and fair trade companies from around the world the chance to sell their work directly to the American public. They also expose over 35,000 Americans each year to Indigenous art, music, and culture, while giving visitors a chance to talk with Indigenous artists directly.

Every year, hundreds of artists and their representatives sell traditional crafts, artwork, clothing, jewelry, carpets, and accessories. The bazaars also offer a wide assortment of performances, presentation, and craft-making demonstrations providing the public with an entertaining experience while educating the public about Indigenous rights and cultures.

The bazaars also serve as a fundraiser for Cultural Survival's international non-profit work in partnership with Indigenous Communities. In the past seven years alone the bazaars have generated over $3 million for indigenous artisans, fair trade businesses, indigenous communities’ programs, and Cultural Survival’s work on behalf of Indigenous Peoples. More information about the program/events: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/bazaar/cultural-survival-bazaar [1]

Universal Periodic Review

The new United Nations Human Rights Council is evaluating the human rights performance of every country in the world every four years. Cultural Survival wants to be sure that indigenous rights are included in those evaluations, so, with the assistance of the Harvard College Student Advocates for Human Rights, they are providing country reports to the Human Rights Council. These reports detail how a given country is (or is not) respecting the rights of its indigenous populations in relation to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and they offer recommendations for improvements. Each report is submitted to the Human Rights Council as part of its Universal Periodic Review process. Read the reports: http://www.culturalsurvival.org/our-programs/upr [2]

See also

• Friends of Peoples Close to Nature
• Survival International

External links

• Official website