Written by Maria Teresa Aveggio, World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) Programme Manager  

It shows how Indigenous and Amazonian people in Peru use radio and new information and communication technologies (ITCs) to influence their representation in the media, preserve their culture and identities, and defend and exercise their rights. The video was produced by Chirapaq, the Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú, a WACC project partner in 2012.

Indigenous peoples in Peru experience marginalisation and discrimination that prevent their social inclusion and participation as citizens. They feel that their rights and identity are not adequately represented in the Peruvian mass media. The Chirapaq Centre for Indigenous Cultures in Ayacucho has partnered with WACC to train 50 Indigenous communicators, both women and men, in radio production skills.

Using an approach grounded in communication rights as well as Indigenous rights, Chirapaq expects the communicators to be better able to make use of the potential of local radio stations to increase awareness and knowledge of Indigenous peoples’ rights both among the general public and the Indigenous people themselves.

Supported under WACC’s Communication Rights programme, the project aims at increased representation of the voices of marginalised Indigenous women and men. The project includes the provision of technical radio skills for the beneficiaries.

Originally created in 1986 to promote the right to food of children victims of violence in the region of Ayacucho, Chirapaq is now an Indigenous civil association which works to build a more pluralistic and equitable society, where the social, cultural, political and economic rights of Indigenous and Amazonian people are widely recognised. Their work covers five regions in Peru: Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cusco, Puno and Junín.

In 2009 Chirapaq promoted the development of participatory radio productions in its areas of work, which led to the strengthening of the Network of Quechua Indigenous Communicators of Ayacucho. Later it organised the National Workshop of Indigenous Communications and information and communication technologies (ICTs).

After this successful experience Chirapaq collaborated with the First Permanent Forum of Andean Indigenous and Amazonian Women of Peru to form the Network of Indigenous Communicators of Peru.

Chirapaq’s work on gender equity has been recognised both nationally and internationally and its Director, Tarcila Rivera, has recently been appointed to the Global Civil Society Advisory Group of UN Women. In July 2011 Ms Rivera was honoured with a Visionaries Award by the Ford Foundation for her work on “lifting up the voices of Indigenous peoples”.

For further information contact: Lic Tarcila Rivera Zea ayllu@chirapq.org.pe

Photo: Voices through Time, Chirapaq, Peru (WACC)

Source: World Association for Christian Communication, WACC: http://waccglobal.org/component/content/article/3099:access-to-communication-empowers-local-communities-in-peru.html