Introducing Jatta Wöötanö Project's Blog

Rising Voices Grantee Project Update

Imagen usada con autorización del proyecto Jatta Wöötanö.

Image used with Jatta Wöötanö project permision.

As part of the activities being held in the training of Yekuana indigenous youth as ethnocommunicators, the Jatta Wöötanö project has now their own blog, a space that will be used as the voice and the expression of its people.

On their first post, they welcome their readers and share who they are:

En la comunidad indígena de Yekuana de Boca de Ninchire ubicada en la cuenca del río Caura en Venezuela, una nueva generación de jóvenes está descubriendo el potencial de los medios digitales a medida que es más fácil acceder a estas herramientas. Este proyecto hará que los jóvenes de la comunidad creen un equipo de “etnocomunicadores”, término usado para describir a personas que usan la comunicación social y tienen un profundo conocimiento de su cultura con un deseo compartir conocimiento.

Within the Yekuana indigenous community in Boca de Ninchire located in the basin of Caura river in Venezuela, a new generation of youth is discovering the potential of digital media, as it's easier to have access to these tools. The project will enable these young people from the community to create a team of “ethnocommunicators”, a term used to describe people who use social communication and have a thorough knowledge of their culture that wish to share that knowledge.

The blog has been created jointly between the participants of the training workshops and the team responsible of the project with the assistance and support of Rising Voices. With the initiative of the microgrants for the Amazon region, Rising Voices helps spreading citizen media in places where normally there is no access to them.

As for now, the site offers important information about the Yekuana culture and relevant news from the indigenous world in Venezuela, as well as detailed profiles of each of the members of the trainers team. Some links are still in construction and it's expected that during the next months it will be possible to know more in depth about the structure of the pedagogic training in ethnocommunication and the material being produced in video, audio and photography by Yekuana youth.

We can also find a review of the territory and organization of the community:

Es un pueblo de navegantes fluviales que se ha establecido en diferentes margenes de los ríos tributarios del Orinoco. Ocupan actualmente un territorio de cerca de 30.000 km² en los estados Bolívar y Amazonas de Venezuela y el norte de Brasil; principalmente el alto Caura, ríos Erebato y Nichare; el alto Ventuari y ríos Parú y Cuminá.
[…]
La palabra yekuana simboliza el origen común del grupo: sus ancestros de acuerdo a la tradición emergieron del Yekuana Joao, cerro ubicado en las llanuras adyacentes al alto río Cuntinamo.
[…]
Actualmente la heterogeneidad social, política y religiosa ha creado tanto nuevas relaciones entre comunidades como nuevas comunidades. La influencia de religiones, tanto evangélicas como la católica, ha creado divisiones entre los yekuana y ha dado lugar a nuevos valores, perspectivas y formas de vida.

It's a community that is navigated by river a river, established in different margins of two tributary rivers of the Orinoco. It is currently located in a territory of about 30.000 km² in the states of Bolívar and Amazonas in Venezuela and northern Brazil; mostly upper Caura, Erebato and Nichare rivers; the upper Ventuari and the rivers Parú and Cuminá.
[…]
The word yekuana simbolizes the common origin of the group, their ancestors according to tradition emerged from Yekuana Joao, a mountain located on the plains next to upper Cuntinamo river.
[…]
Currently, the social, political and religious heterogeneity have created new relations between communities as new communities. The influence of religions, Evangelic and the Roman Catholic, has created divisions among the Yekuana and has created new values, perspectives, and lifestyles.

Jatta Wöötanö has become a project that has helped make the Yekuana youth more eager to express themselves mainly through digital media, to share their stories and let the non-indigenous world know about the more important realities and events during the very hard times due to the illegal rise of mining on their territories. The project is not only being developed in Boca de Ninchare, the core community, it has also been useful for diverse Yekuana and Sánema indigenous communities from Caura river to strengthen their knowledge in using communication as tool of struggle and expression.

Captura de pantalla del blog.

Screenshot of the blog Jatta Wöötanö.

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