Two Indigenous youths from Indonesia delve into a mysterious legend and learn important lessons about nature, culture, and spirit. WORDS AND VIDEO Abraham Parera and Fauz Ma . In the village of Dobo, close to Maumere in Flores Island, Indonesia, there is a mysterious artifact that was given the name Jong Dobo. The legend about

Every being on Earth has both inherent rights and the responsibility to participate in the web of life. WORDS Mashudu Takalani and Gertrude Pswarayi-Jabson | IMAGES Tim Hawkins The Gaia Foundation is an international organization with nearly forty years of experience accompanying allies to revive biocultural diversity. Having graduated from Gaia’s three-year, UN-recognized “Trainings for

In the Colombian Amazon, musicians listen to the forest and create music that resonates with it. WORDS, IMAGES, AND VIDEO    Diego Samper     Calanoa is a place of encounters. Encounters with the other and with the Wild. It is a laboratory of applied creativity, a lab of alternative educational processes, a lab where art is understood as

WORDS AND IMAGES Thor Morales At the onset of this decade, members of three ethnic groups gathered in the state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico. Seri (Comcaac), Rarámuri, and Yaqui participants went to the Yaqui village of Vicam to get their first exposure to participatory video (PV), with training provided by the U.K.-based organization InsightShare. Three

A film by Steve Bartz . To the Roots: A Maya Reunion. Video: Steve Bartz, 1998. Watch film credits. We present this film by the late filmmaker Steve Bartz as a complement to Jim Nation’s story. Shot in 1998, the film chronicles a historic encounter between the Lacandón Maya and a group of Itza Maya

Text by Maéva Gauthier Video by Jasmine Gruben, Brian Kikoak, Carmen Kuptana, Nathan Kuptana, Eriel Lugt, Gabrielle Nogasak, Darryl Tedjuk Nathan Kuptana, nineteen, pauses on the stage in front of hundreds of people, as he feels his ancestors and all the changes they have seen course through his veins. He has been given the stage

Thor Morales In Mexico, biocultural diversity is perpetuated and nurtured mainly by women. Indigenous women take care of the culture and the land: they teach the mother tongues; cook traditional foods; cure with local herbs and ancestral knowledge; retain the traditional attire; and more strictly follow the usos y costumbres (customs and habits), the traditional

Video and text by Laissa Malih (Kenyan Laikipian Maasai), age 25 The Ewaso Ng’iro Camel Caravan is a five-day annual journey for climate change adaptation and peaceful co-existence along the Ewaso Ng’iro River in Kenya. The purpose is to promote shared understanding of threats facing the river, along with the cooperation needed to lessen them. Camels are used

Story by Kewekhrozo (Peter) Thopi, age 30, Chakhesang Naga (India); and Tshenyilou (Lele) Chirhah, age 26, Chakhesang Naga (India) Nagaland is a small mountain state in the North East Region (NER) of India. NER is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, and the diverse ethnic communities of the region have significantly contributed to sustaining this

Story by Eusebia (Chevy) Flores, age 36, Yaqui (Mexico)   I am a founding member of the Indigenous Yaqui and Comcaac film collective, La Marabunta Filmadora, practicing participatory video (PV) across Mexico and beyond. Since learning PV from InsightShare in 2010, we have been using it to preserve our culture and territories. Our name, translated