Pass it on! Supporting Indigenous Peoples' Economic, Ecological and Cultural Resilience for Future Generations
Global Network on Indigenous-Led Education (ILED)
About the initiative: background and aims
FPP is one of the co-founders and co-convenors of a Network on Indigenous-Led Education that was created in 2020. This is a growing, but loose and informal, network of northern-based and southern-based NGOs, networks and grassroots organisations working in environment, development and human rights sectors, and grant-making and donor organizations, who all wish to make indigenous communities, especially indigenous youth, more resilient for the future.
Members of the network share the feeling that in our diverse strategies to address the many problems, risks and threats around human rights abuses, discrimination and marginalization, dispossession, loss and destruction of indigenous lands and territories, and eroding cultural diversity and vitality, it is important to also have a specific focus on the role of education – and how education can either undermine or empower resilience.
The network aspires to create more traction and support for grassroots initiatives and programs that uphold, innovate, and pass on knowledge, language, customary practices, and connection to land and territory to new generations.
Indigenous-led education (ILED) initiatives and programs, based on communities’ own priorities, ways of learning and empowering youth, are shown to be the most effective way to boost indigenous resilience and self-determination. Women especially play a crucial role as knowledge holders and teachers.
Examples of initiatives include:
- Entire community-run schools and curricula development
- Informal schooling initiatives like culinary festivals
- Environmental conservation and restoration projects
- Maintenance of sacred sites
- Excursions involving several generations
- Practical courses and activities involving language or traditional skills
- Food production
- Health projects.
Such programmes remain largely invisible, are considered too small, or generally not prioritized by donors, governments and others, and lack sustained funding and other support. Funding and support is sometimes also inaccessible to small grassroot groups due to complex procedural requirements. Moreover, ILED examples and initiatives are often unknown to other indigenous communities, while it is so important to be able to share cultural-ecological education practices and approaches, and to motivate, inspire and support each other.
Read more in this fact sheet, and in this article on the why Indigenous-led education is vital for climate action.
Publications
ILED Annual Report 2022-2023
The annual report offers information on the activities and achievements of the network and its members over the past year, including the various grassroots education initiatives supported by the ILED small grant mechanism; the exchange visits between women’s groups of the network, the publications and participation in various events, and much more!
Pass it on! Stories of Indigenous-led Education from the Grassroots
Special edition: Celebrating Indigenous Languages during the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022–2032
At the heart of this first ILED publication are grassroots stories of Indigenous-led education from Thailand, Suriname, India, Kenya, Uganda and Costa Rica. The stories offer insights into the importance of Indigenous languages for Indigenous cultures, and reveal the challenges communities face—especially in relation to education—and the solutions they are working on to promote, preserve and pass on their languages.
Current activities and roles of the network
The network does the following things:
- Administering an accessible, low-bureaucratic, small grants fund (which contains some seed funding through our own organisations) for inspiring I-LED initiatives, which we are seeking to grow by engaging new donors and supporters
Working with nominators from the network, these grants go directly to grassroots groups where they have a big impact and potential for scaling up and replication.
- Organising and facilitating knowledge sharing, mutual support and inspiration of network partners
For instance local, regional and international cross-visits and exchanges on selected topics (online and offline); peer-to-peer learning and review of each others’ initiatives and practices, sharing general news, opportunities, and contacts.
- Raising understanding and visibility of I-LED programmes
Producing publications, multi-media, organising webinars/dialogues with stakeholders, providing inputs to relevant consultations or processes (such as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages - IDIL - 2022-2032).
As a network, we are looking for complementarity, not duplication or competition, with other existing initiatives and networks.
While we seek to encourage exchange and learning between organisations and experts from all regions, we prioritize funding and support to Indigenous-Led Education initiatives in tropical forest regions because of the importance of tropical forests and because initiatives there are most underfunded and under-exposed.
Network members:
- Allianza Ceibo, Ecuador
- Alí Garcia Segura (Bribri), Costa Rica
- Both ENDS, the Netherlands
- Federación de Comunidades Nativas de Ucayali y Afluentes – FECONAU, Peru
- Federation of Negrito Tribes - SPNKK, the Philippines
- Friends with Environment in Development - FED, Uganda
- Fundación para la Promoción del Conocimiento Indígena - FPCI, Panama
- Forest Peoples Programme, United Kingdom
- IMPECT Association, Thailand
- Keystone Foundation, India
- Non-Timber Forest Products- Exchange Programme - NTFP-EP, Asia
- Rutu Foundation, the Netherlands
- Sengwer of Embobut CBO, Kenya
Contact information
Caroline de Jong, lead of Cultural-Ecological Resilience team at FPP: caroline@forestpeoples.org
Overview
- Resource Type:
- News
- Publication date:
- 14 October 2021
- Programmes:
- Culture and Knowledge