For the purpose of assisting young Indigenous leaders between the ages of 17 and 28 in producing and sharing knowledge via artistic mediums and critical thought, the Cultural Survival is accepting applications for the Indigenous Youth Fellowship Project.
Develop your skills in Indigenous languages, customs, and traditional knowledge as well as your rights as an Indigenous person. Through their suggested projects, fellows improve their cultural identities and leadership while working to promote their communities’ views and raise local issues’ visibility in international discourse.
Area of focus:
Currently, the world is immersed in the challenges of mitigating the impacts of natural resource exploitation and its effects on the well-being of the planet. The demand for transition minerals (nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper), related to the production of electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels has skyrocketed due to the demand for renewable energy for a green, low-carbon economy. The field of green economy envisions this as a solution to address climate change issues, arguing that these energy generation technologies have low carbon emissions.
However, these minerals are mostly found on or near Indigenous territories, and their extraction is often linked to the violation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Furthermore, local biomes and environments have been severely affected by these extractive industries, degrading ecosystems and exacerbating natural disasters caused by climate change, with the deforestation, erosion, and contamination of water and soil due to the infiltration of toxic chemicals into the ground.
These factors, the extraction of transition minerals and natural disasters caused by climate change, directly affect Indigenous communities worldwide. This call aims to encourage response projects from Indigenous youth and promote actions that counteract or mitigate these situations.
Funding Details
Range of fellowship: $2,500–$6,000
Type of Project:
Creative and innovative projects that are community-based and involve actions pertaining to transition minerals (nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper) or climate change-related disaster prevention and response, climate change solutions, and a land and livelihoods approach.*
- Advocacy: campaigns, lobbying, and proactive strategies.
- Writing: journalism, storytelling, investigative reporting, community research, articles.
- Capacity Building: training and workshops, meetings and exchanges.
- Arts and Multimedia: audiovisuals, photography, cinema, documentaries, radio, podcasts, graphic illustrations, murals and paintings.
- Technological Innovation: development of alternative technologies that do not harm the environment or protect the environment and strengthen communities without altering Indigenous traditions.
*The health of Indigenous lands, including the forests and rivers, is also integral to Indigenous livelihoods. The ability of Indigenous Peoples to maintain their traditional livelihoods and economies, harvest foods, fish, hunt, keep bees, herd animals, and gather materials for housing, crafts, clothing, and ceremony are all dependent on uninterrupted access to their land; hence, we include livelihoods in our land approach.
Eligibility
- Indigenous youth between 17 and 28 years old: The application can be individual or collective.
- Residents of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Panama, South America, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, DRC, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, and Norway.
- Those with access to the internet can collaborate creatively with other fellows, the Cultural Survival team, and can participate in video conferences.
- We highly value the participation and inclusion of women and underrepresented genders (cis women, trans women, trans men, Two-Spirits, non-binary people, and other marginalized genders).
- Individuals previously receiving a Cultural Survival grant will not be prioritized.
Application deadline.
30th November 2023
Click here to apply.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0WRSs87nwW2-eYBtZiv4PeA1nHJoVzDO2C0WELdxDuch91A/viewform
