Community communication is a powerful tool to amplify the struggles of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the Amazon. Being developed within and by the members of the communities, it is an approach to the realities that afflict them, which is told from their voices and their experiences.
For this reason, within the framework of the Linking and Learning component of the All Eyes on the Amazon program, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and Hivos are committed to community communication, promoting a training process for Amazonian communicators that allows the virtual and collaborative production of a documentary podcast series on the challenges faced and the climate solutions proposed by the Amazonian Indigenous peoples.
This series is presented as an effective mechanism for the dissemination and exchange of experiences, lessons learned and innovative initiatives led by Indigenous and traditional peoples and organizations of the Amazon Basin in response to the problems and pressures they face.
Thus, COICA, in coordination with Hivos, selected 25 indigenous representatives from the following countries of the Amazon Basin: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, mostly belonging to member organizations of COICA, to participate in this training process and being the authors of this documentary podcast series.
Capacity building in Production of Documentary Podcast
Under the technical expertise of Sacha Manchi, school of community communication, a 100% virtual and culturally adapted course of five modules was designed, in which the participants will learn the tools and steps for the production of a documentary podcast, good practices for recording and postproduction (considering the technical and connectivity conditions in the Amazon) and strategies for the dissemination of the documentary podcast series.
The course is hosted on the Academy of the AEA Learning Platform, where participants progress through the modules and their units. At the Academy, participants count with the support of complementary materials and practical exercises that offer the necessary tools to produce the series of podcasts from their action environments.
Participants began the course on February 22, in a training process that is strengthened by synchronous tutoring, as well as personalized follow-up to support their progress in the course and the production of their podcast.
Once the training process for Indigenous communicators is concluded, the Documentary Podcast Production Course will be available for all audiences through the AEA Academy by July 2022, with its adaptations into Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
“Community communication is very important for the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon because it is part of our nature. We are born as storytellers, we love to share our stories and sing our songs and share ancestral knowledge to empower other Indigenous communities. In the last three generations, we have lost this oral knowledge of Indigenous storytelling due to the Western educational system, which does not provide enough room to share this knowledge.
With this podcast process, it is like we are bringing back our ancestral knowledge and giving it new life again. That is why it is very important to capacitate our communities with these skills and use Western tools to share our stories and first-hand knowledge of Indigenous people with the world.”
Irvin Ristie (Lokono Indigenous people of Suriname), Coordinator of Health and Communications of COICA
A podcast series on the struggle of Indigenous peoples against climate change
At the end of the course, it is expected to have an 8-episode podcast documentary series whose subjects will be based on the diverse realities of the Amazonian Indigenous peoples of the 7 countries that participate in this initiative, in addition to an episode with a regional perspective produced by the COICA.
The series will be available on the AEA Learning Platform, on the social networks of Hivos, COICA, and the participating organizations, in addition to streaming channels, with the ultimate goal of giving maximum visibility to the Indigenous struggles of the Amazon and supporting replicability and scalability of successful initiatives to defend the Amazon rainforest and its population.
In addition, considering that the participants of the initiative have the role of communicators in their respective grassroots organizations, it is expected that based on the knowledge acquired in this training process, they will be able to replicate the learning with their own communities and organizations, so that more people enroll at the course available on the AEA Academy, and empower themselves through community communication.
“This collaborative effort promoted by Hivos, COICA, and its national organizations, seeks to strengthen the knowledge and skills of indigenous communicators in the Amazon basin in the use of innovative resources such as the podcast so that these skills allow them to continue positioning the voice of their peoples at local, national and international levels. It is key to continue highlighting the leading role of Indigenous peoples in the defense of the Amazon, and the value of their knowledge and solutions for managing this climate crisis on a global scale.”
Eliana Rojas Torres, Lining and Learning Coordinator, All Eyes on the Amazon
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The AEA Academy is a virtual space where 100% free, virtual, and culturally adapted certified courses are available to expand the knowledge and skills on technology, journalism, communication, rights, health, and more of Indigenous peoples, local communities of the Amazon and Amazonian organizations in general.
Browse the courses available at the AEA Academy at: app.toamazonia.org