Rising Voices note: Our monthly newsletter provides a summary of our recent blog posts about all aspects of digital inclusion including access and adoption of digital tools, as well as different ways and opportunities for communities to fully participate online. Read here [1] for previous editions of this newsletter.
Hello readers, welcome to 2021!
In this first issue of the new year, we’d like to highlight a podcast called O Foundation Conversations [2], produced and hosted by Subhashish Panigrahi from the O Foundation and Rising Voices contributor. During the first few episodes, Subhashish has spoken with guests from various parts of the world on their work around preservation and documentation of indigenous and endangered languages, as well as language revitalization through content creation and sharing via digital means.
Recent episodes have featured language activists working with the Santali and Sundanese languages, as well as the most recent episode exploring “lesser-known” languages of North Pakistan.
We’ve enjoyed these episodes and believe that you will, too. If you are into conversations on cultural diversity and how geopolitical conflicts, marginalization, exclusion, as well as how the concept of openness (eg, open culture, open knowledge, open access and open source) plays a role in this matter, give it a listen!
MORE FROM THE RISING VOICES BLOG
Speaking of language revitalization by way of digital means, we want to share with you a story about Gitxsan Got Talent [3]. This social media contest helped the Gitxsan First Nations community find creative ways to encourage keeping their language and community vibrant online during this current pandemic.
Meanwhile, let’s take a moment together to reflect on this: What do you imagine our “new normal” to be post-COVID? In this post [4], Erick Huerta, coordinator with the REDES A.C organization focusing on community networks, shared his vision for a future where life takes precedence; where education looks different and more inclusive; and where we have a better relationship with our environment.
FUNDING
At the turn of the year, we’d like to remind you that: The Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists [5] is now accepting applications on a rolling basis. Both reporting projects and professional development opportunities may be considered. Please see here [6] and here [7] for eligibility requirements as well as application details.
For those who tell social justice stories through films and other new media: JustFilms by the Ford Foundation also accepts inquiry for grants year-round. If you are in need of grant support for some projects at hand, consider checking it out in more detail here [8].
RESEARCH
Mitigating the gender gap in access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) has been set as a central goal among the UN’s global development agenda. Are you curious as to what it looks like in Guatemala right now? Read this UNESCO report card [9] and find out.
ADDITIONAL READINGS, LISTENINGS, and VIEWINGS
- The Feed in Zimbabwe: Changing lives in two-minute-long documentaries [10] via jamlab (the Journalism and Media Lab)
- How a media club in a former Ugandan war zone is nurturing journalists in rural areas [11] via jamlab (the Journalism and Media Lab)
- COVID-19 Success Stories: Carla Voyageur’s FirstVoices Project [12] via First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC)
- Interview with Tim Brookes, founder of Endangered Alphabets [13] via Words for Granted
- New project using virtual reality to revitalize Nisga’a language [14] via Prince George Citizen
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