Post #15: Indigenous rights

The first web resource I looked at was the website for The Akha Heritage Foundation. It is a rather small private organization, that is basically run by single Akha-American family (so indigenous people are very much involved with the foundation). The central mission of this foundation is to raise international (but mostly in the United States) awareness about the plight of the Akha people in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China and Vietnam (link). The main causes that the foundation involves itself in are the protection of Akha language and culture, stopping abuse by local security forces as well as preventing Akha children from being taken from their traditional villages by Christian missionaries (link). The foundation very much tries to present the "authentic", traditional image of Akha culture to the American public by doing a cross-country bus/horse ride tour with stops in select American cities and towns to speak with politicians and reporters. On these road-stops the Akha family is frequently "shown off" wearing traditional Akha forms of dress.



In contrast the other website that I examined was the site of Bruno Manser Fonds, which is NGO (non-governmental organization) whose stated mission is the protection of the rights of the Penan people who live in rain forest on the island of Borneo (link). Unlike the Akha Heritage Foundation, this organization seems to have a much more formal structure as it has a board of chairmen/chairwomen as well as half a dozen employed office workers. This organization is taking a more ecological/environmental perspective in dealing with the social and economic problems faced by indigenous Penan. The organization recognizes that Penan have a strong spiritual connection with their ancestral forest and that recent unregulated logging in the area has a highly detrimental effect on the continued cultural survival of these people (link). Through projects like mapping the Serawak forest and land-right litigation, the Bruno Manser Fonds is attempting to halt this potential ethnocide on Borneo . Also the indigenous peoples themselves are closely involved with the on-the-ground work of the organization, such as in the case of performing "community mapping" projects with the resulting maps acting as evidence against illegal logging. The Penan are also setting up health care centers with Bruno Manser Fond's sponsorship.

Image: Penan people