National Indigenous Communication Forum "Towards a Differential Public Communication and Information Policy": The Walking Word

Author: Alfonso Gumucio Dagron, January 06 2013       At the end of November I participated in the National Indigenous Communication Forum "Towards a Differentiated Communication and Information Policy," in Popayán, Colombia. Vicente Otero Chate, the media and Communications coordinator for the Cauca Regional Indigenous Counsel (CRIC) invited me. I have known him for many years and our relationship pertains to the issue of the Communications rights of indigenous peoples. Vicente and I often find ourselves together at International events.

The CRIC's decision to host this National Forum together with the Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (ONIC - Colombian National Indigenous Organisation) and the Asociación de Medios de Comunicación Indígena de Colombia (AMCIC - The Colombian Association of Indigenous Media) was made during the International Year of Indigenous Communication with the purpose of setting the stage for the Second Abya Yala Continental Congress on Indigenous Communication in Oaxaca, Mexico in October 2013. The forum further responded to the mandate of the ONIC's VIII Congress "to consolidate the collective feeling and understanding of communication." There is a wonderful web page and abundant information about the event itself.

Among the CRIC's objectives for the Forum was "reflect on the purpose of indigenous communication, its formats, as well as appropriate means and technologies; think about the role of indigenous communication as a central axel of organizational processes as well as every aspect of community and collective life in territory; become familiar with the successful experiences of public communication and information policy designed by and for indigenous peoples of the Abya Yala continent; share, complement, and consolidate real advances in the building of a differential public communication and information policy and design a road map and identify coordination methodologies and mechanisms to continue this collective and coordinated work from the Colombian indigenous peoples and communities themselves."

It was particularly stimulating to see the nasa, awa, inga, wayuu, uwa, pastos, embera, arhwaco, kokonuko, sikuani, misak, kamkuamo, kamentsa, koya, yanakona, muisca, katio, zenu, bora, pijao, and other Colombian, Bolivian, Peruvian, and Ecuadorian communities come together to speak about indigenous communication rights. Participants represented more than 30 organisations, and included Wilma Aliaga in the Bolivian delegation, from CAIB - Coordinadora Audiovisual Indígena Originaria de Bolivia, (Audiovisual Coordinating Body for Bolivian Original Indigenous Peoples) and Humberto Claros of the Sistema Plurinacional de Comunicación Originaria Indígena (Plurinational Original Indigenous People’s Communication System).

My only role in this incredible event of 729 participants was to moderate the Panel called: "Indigenous Communication as an Alternative in the Face of the Commercialisation of the Word."  Participants included Marta Rivera Olaya of OZIP, Feliciano Valencia from ACIN, Sally Burch of ALAI (Ecuador), Jorge Agurto of SERVINDI (Peru), and Marta Rodríguez, the pioneer of indigenous documentary films from Colombia, with whom I have been friends for over four decades.

Marta revisited the solidarity of new Latin American cinematography in the 1950s with indigenous peoples, and the role of the documentary to reveal their political and social situations at a time when movies were made without resources. There weren't even film schools. Filmmakers of that movement, of which Marta is a pioneer, realized how important historic memory was and they used their films to protect indigenous people during a time when "it was not a crime to kill Indians."

Feliciano Valencia was a brilliant speaker in this panel, a lucid indigenous leader who spoke of the importance of diversity and alliances in the cultural and political processes of building intercultural societies collectively, and from below. He underlined the importance of communication in the dialogues with other cultures in order to open debate, and he bemoaned the fact that communication does not even appear on the agendas of national authorities. He reaffirmed that "communication should be a part of indigenous political platforms."

Two internationals participated in the panel that I moderated. Sally Burch spoke of how technology is being made "sacred" as though it alone were a solution, and she made a proposal about the relational use of ICTs [information and communication technologies] of not following a logic imposed from outside. Jorge Agurto underlined the importance of the civilising contribution made by the first peoples, and the humanising potential that indigenous communication has because it begins first with relationships before moving onto technology. "Communication is a nervous fabric," he said, at the same time as he expressed the need for communication systems and strategies.

A task for forum participants was to design "a strategy to bring indigenous communication processes together, based on the defence of territory, and a road map for sharing, debating and strengthening agreements and conclusions arising from the event and contributing to a continental proposal for a public policy for indigenous peoples." A document was agreed upon at the end of the forum that suggested among other things that "...this Word Minga  (meeting) reaffirms the integral nature of communication for indigenous peoples present in every environment of the territory, and as such, communication is fundamental for our families, our communities, our organisational processes, our resistance, and our life plans. Our natural communication identifies us as collective beings, because we are always exchanging, dialoguing, feeling, thinking, dreaming and expressing ourselves in community. Foundations of this are ethics and spirituality in which content, feelings and values are essential for life and for living together among all beings. For these reasons indigenous people see as fundamental our relationship with the spirits, with water, with fire, with the wind, with plants, with animals, and with all the children of our Mother Earth. When we travel through our ancestral lands, when we listen, when we join in harmony with our spiritual guides, when we walk the talk of people in defence of life and of territory."

The amount and the quality of the indigenous communication and information initiatives in Colombia is impressive; nearly all of them were represented at this forum - information agencies, video groups, and community indigenous radios. Some, like the Tejido de Comunicación (Communication Fabric) have a solid history. All of these organisations speak of communication as a "walking word."

Colombian indigenous people have formed strategic cross-border alliances in order to maintain an intercultural dialogue. At this forum there were delegations from Chile (Mapuexpress), from Peru (ALER and SERVINDI), Canada (Co-op Radio), United States (Prometheus), Mexico (Ardio Jenpoj), Argentina (Kona Productions), Ecuador (Ecuarrunari), among others.

The ALER network and other radio stations and web pages transmitted the forum live. There were new technologies present everywhere among the participants: computers, cellular telephones and tablets, video and photograph cameras, etc. While some women "wove words together" (literally, they spoke and participated in the groups while simultaneously weaving bags), documents, pictures, and videos were transmitted in real time over various mediums.

In this process of building a communication platform, sometimes the language of tradition and culture make the actual pronouncements less strategic and more defensive, with fewer proposals. Sometimes one notes in the discourse a demand for more space, but not an expression of the wealth of contributions made by indigenous peoples and their communication to the culture and construction of nation.

Another prevailing piece of the discourse is an instrumental vision of communication, which arises from confusing information with communication. People speak more of the media and messages (information) and less about the communication process. It is justified to want to strengthen their own media outlets, but it would be just as important to contribute from an indigenous perspective to the concept of "communication territory." In other words, not only attempt to communicate "for" or "about" territory, but actually to conceive of a territory of communication in which culture, ancestral knowledge and the defence of mother nature are linked together.

The right to communication could be part of the platform of demands along with other fundamental rights such as life, identify, territory, or healthcare, transcending the concept of freedom of expression and the right to information without forgetting that communication is participation.
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Words without action are hollow,
Action without words is blind,
Words and action without the spirit of community are death.
Nasa saying

Alfonso Gumucio Dagron
 
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Image credit: Waves of Change website