- Indigenous communicators strengthened the Itinerant School of Indigenous and Intercultural Communication project.

Servindi, 22 August 2014.- The Second Communication and Democracy Conference took place in the University Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (UARM) from August 14 to 16, where  more than fifty indigenous communicators gathered from different regions of Peru as well as guests speakers from Bolivia and Colombia.

The Conference helped strengthen Peru's Indigenous Communicators Network (REDCIP) - a national coalition which seeks to make the indigenous peoples communication rights a reality.

A ceremonial opening and gratitude to Mother Earth was made by Rosa Palomino, of the Aymara people, and Julian Qqeso Condori, of the Quechua people.

Instrumental to Indigenous Communicators

Presentations by Martin Vidal from the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), Colombia, and Franklin Gutierrez from the Filmmaking Training Centre (CEFREC) of Bolivia, were invaluable to strengthen the work of the indigenous communicators who attended the conference.

Martin Vidal highlighted the existence of dozens of indigenous radio stations in Colombia and noticed how the experience of CRIC´s Communication Program can be useful to draft an Itinerant School of Indigenous and Intercultural Communication.

Meanwhile, Franklin Gutierrez emphasized the strategic value of indigenous communication and referred to the obstacles faced by journalists who do not have university education though who are working to overcome them by building knowledge through practice and experience.

Jorge Agurto, Director of Servindi, recalled that one of the main resolutions of the Continental Summit of Indigenous Communication carried out ??in Colombia (2010) and Mexico (2013) was to promote itinerant communication schools nationwide across Latin America.

Iitinerant School Project

During the afternoon of Thursday, August 16, the draft project of the Itinerant School of Indigenous and Intercultural Communication (EICII) was discussed. The project was formulated based on the contributions collected from discussions during four decentralized workshops that took place from March to June 2014.

As Agurto explained, the itinerant school project has four basic areas of communication: To Be, Do, Know and Manage. It also aims to build an identity from indigenous principles and values.

The education project is possible thanks to a team of promoters as the REDCIP, Servindi, the Organization of Indigenous Women ONAMIAP, School of Journalism of the UARM, the National Radio Coordinator (CNR for its Spanish acronym) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

In the evening, IWGIA´s Indigenous World 2014 yearbook was presented with a large audience that filled the Santuc Vicente auditorium of the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University.

The Challenge of Communicating Climate Change

Nelly Luna, BBC correspondent, Rodolfo Aquino, executive director of the National Radio Coordinator, and Cesar Aguilar of the Association for the Conservation of the Amazon Basin (ACCA) in Cusco, substantiated the need for the communities to generate their own information on climate change coming from local sources.

Representatives of UNCA, ONAMIAP, CCP and CNA -members of the Unity Pact of Indigenous Organizations of Peru- reported about the position and strategy of indigenous peoples on climate change, which goes beyond the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 20, to be held in Lima by the end of this year (see Unity Pact proposals on climate change here).

A Draft Guide to Communicate Climate Change

On Friday, a collective effort was made to contribute to the project of an intercultural guide on how to communicate climate change issues, which is being developed under the supervision of an editorial committee.

The aim is to have a practical guide that provides assistance to journalists to generate information about how people perceive climate change in rural and indigenous communities.

Experiences of Indigenous Communication

On Friday afternoon, experiences of indigenous communication was shared in plenary, with the outstanding participation of Hugo Blanco Galdos, director and founder of the Lucha Indígena newspaper, and César Estrada Chuquilín, communicator from the Cajamarca region and a beneficiary of an injunction dictated by the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) which ordered the Peruvian State to protect the life and integrity of a number of people threatened by their opposition to the Conga mining megaproject.

Blanco gave great tips for communicating climate change, not as a new and unusual phenomenon but from the living memory of those who suffered its ravages in the past.

Meanwhile, Chuquilín described the assaults, threats and violations of his liberties by the police for working as a journalist with the Defenders of Water and the Environment and against the Newmont Mining and Buenaventura joint venture, Minera Yanacocha and the Conga project.

Articulation for the Right to Communication

On Saturday morning, José Arevalo and Raquel Palomino from PUCP University, promoters of the Forum for the Right to Communication, lead a workshop that sought to collect the views and demands of indigenous communicators on this essential subject.

The Second Conference on Communication and Democracy ended with closing words by the representatives of the Unity Pact of Indigenous Organizations of Peru.