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February 23: Launching of a campaign for the ancestral cultures and languages of the American continent, Ecuador.
The campaign was launched in Quito by the National Committee of Ecuador, an organization including the Andean Simon Bolivar University, the Ministry of Education, and the Council for the Development of the Nationalities and People of Ecuador.
The organizers’ main objective is to benefit « assessment, approaches and development of the ancestral cultures and languages of the Abya-Yala people ».
Abya-Yala might you ask… It simply refers to the continent we usually call America. Abya-Yala is the name chosen in 1992 by indigenous nations to refer to their own continent, instead of naming it after sailor Amerigo Vespucci. The expression comes from the Kuna language, spoken by the Kuna people of Panama, and means « land in its full maturity ».
Initiators of the awareness campaign consider that the indigenous languages and cultures having developed on the continent since it was populated some 40,000 years ago, have been unfairly depreciated, marginalized, and even destroyed along centuries of colonization. So their aim is to toughen the struggle to restore these people’s historical rights and the legal and political status of their cultures.
Among others, this includes encouraging authorities of different countries across the continent to make these ancestral languages official, reinforce their vitality and have them develop within the various governmental and non-governmental authorities of each of these countries, so as to prevent these languages from reaching extinction.
Recommended action ranges from promoting education in the original language to recovering the original names of places, cities and people, as well as creating material such as dictionaries, grammar and history books, etc.
Please contact Ruth Santillan for more information:
Indigenous People of Latin America Chair Secretary
Nationalities and People of Ecuador database
Email: rsantillan@uasb.edu.ec
Phone: 3228085 ext. 1333