The project's aim is to make traditional knowledge, values, and Wayuu cultural identity available and widespread, to strengthen unity and social capital in the Guajira communities of northern Colombia. It will do so through workshops and training that will grant the Wayuu community the tools to prepare, produce and broadcast (podcast) a series of traditional folk tales in their own language to be part of their local community radio programming.
Topical focus:
Country:
What locality or neighborhood will your project focus on?
Nazareth (Hamlet) 8 hours drive away from Riohacha, Guajira (regional capital)
Describe the specific community with whom you will be working.
The Wayuu community of northern Colombia and Venezuela comprises about 350000 people who consider themselves indigenous Wayuu, with about half of them monolinguals in their own language (Wayuunaiki) and more than 100000 bilinguals (with Spanish). As most indigenous groups, the Wayuu are under conditions of poverty, marginalized, and they live in a barren wasteland with low access to communication technology, and very little online presence.
What kinds of news, stories and other content will be created?
There will be two types of workshops: one ained at children and teenagers; and another aimed at adults and the elderly. Children and teenagers will create stories, in their language, about the protection of their very scarce water resources, the importance of their language, and their rights. The elderly, as their repository of traditional knowledge, will produce storytelling of folk wisdom (in danger of disappearing), and the meaning of dreams.
What technologies and digital tools do you plan to use in the trainings?
Other tools
Digital audio recorders
Describe the connections that you or your organization have already established that will contribute to the success of the project.
We are a group of University lecturers who have worked together with one wayuu grassroots organization called “Wayuu Araurayuu” in various research projects and training workshops since 2008. Together, we have developed radio training workshops in the past, and we have a continuous relationship interested in the protection and dissemination of the Wayuu language and worldview via radio broadcasts and recorded traditional storytelling.
How many participants do you think will be involved in your project?
Based on our experience from previous workshops, we expect to train 20 people, trying to have an even distribution of children, teenagers, adults and elders, as well as a a even representation of women and men.
Besides the microgrant funding, what other resources and support are you seeking for your project to ensure its success?
The Universities where the lecturers work have always provided some support, mainly in kind (recording equipment, stationery, workshop materials, and licensed software), for the previous workshops. We have kept contact and close relationships with the Wayuu Araurayuu association and we have worked alongside them in various projects for over 5 years.
Contact name
María Fernanda Peña-Sarmiento
Organization
Universidad Minuto de Dios; Universidad de La Sabana; Wayuu Araurayuu (Grassroots organization
1 comment