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Survival International

Survival International is the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights. Survival is the only organization that champions tribal peoples around the world and helps them defend their lives, protect their lands and determine their own futures. Tribal peoples have developed ways of life that are largely self-sufficient and extraordinarily diverse. Even so, tribal peoples are portrayed as backward and primitive simply because their communal ways are different. Industrialized societies subject them to genocidal violence, slavery and racism so they can steal their lands, resources and labor in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’. Survival International works in partnership with tribal peoples and give them a platform to speak to the world. Survival educates, researches, campaigns, lobbies and protests, and it won’t give up until we all have a world where tribal peoples are respected as contemporary societies and their human rights protected.

A 2019 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported Survival International’s “Guardians of the Amazon” program. The Guardians are members of the Guajajara tribe in Brazil who do vital work protecting their rainforest home from illegal loggers and ranchers, as well as defending their uncontacted neighbors, the Awá. In August 2018, one of the Guajajara’s leaders was killed, likely by a powerful logging mafia that has repeatedly targeted the tribe.

A 2018 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported Survival International’s programs in Brazil and India. In Brazil, the grant supported the Yanomami indigenous tribe and Survival’s new virtual office, which aimed to increase the organization’s presence and grow its supporter base within Brazil. The country is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else in the world and targeting Survival’s message to a Brazilian audience is one of the best ways to improve the group’s capacity for campaigning in Brazil. In India, the grant supported a radio project called “Know your rights, defend your rights!” India’s Adivasis indigenous peoples have the right, under national law, to live in and from their forests. However, many communities are unaware of that right. As a result, they are woefully underprepared to defend themselves when faced with forced eviction from their ancestral lands. This project aimed to disseminate information in the form of short broadcasts to Adivasis communities in an effort to carry a message of hope: know your rights, defend your rights, and thereby protect your people and your forest.

A 2016 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported the investigation and research needed for Survival International’s “Last of the Kawahiva” campaign and contributed to the creation of press releases, galleries, and films.

A 2014 grant from the Cultures of Resistance Network supported Survival International’s Guarani campaign to increase media outreach, advocacy efforts, and to fund field work in the region to end the human rights’ abuses and protect the Guarani’s land.

Grants from the Cultures of Resistance Network in 2012 and 2013 went to support Survival International’s campaign for the Awá tribe of Brazil.

In addition to support from the Cultures of Resistance Network, director iara lee arranged a grant from a partner organization in 2022 which went towards the group’s Stop Brazil’s Genocide campaign. The Stop Brazil’s Genocide campaign works to raise awareness and organize against policies under President Bolsonaro that pose an existential threat to Indigenous groups.

Website: www.survivalinternational.org

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