Empowering Indigenous Youth to Promote their Culture

• In Event: Indigenous ways of developing self

Proposal

The Maya have contributed greatly to civilization with extraordinary scientific, cultural, architectural contributions, among others. Today, the Maya people have unique characteristics such as their biodiversity, traditions, and culture. However, like many other rural and indigenous communities, the Maya living in Yucatan face challenges related to migration, discrimination, cultural loss, and other social problems. In particular, the Maya young people are experiencing an increase in the rates of school dropout, unwanted pregnancy, alcoholism, depression, criminal offenses, etc.

The context has impacted the Mayan decisions on the use of local resources (i.e. economic, natural and social) and has contributed to the detriment of the sense of belonging and identity among young people. This has eroded the social fabric and has affected the biodiversity, environment, and culture in the area. Thus, there is a need to strengthen the identity of the Maya youth in order to ensure the continuity of their culture and transfer of knowledge. With this objective, a local NGO developed the Young Cultural Promoters program that uses education as a tool, and art and nature as vehicles for learning, to develop the skills and competencies of indigenous youth in Yucatan. This program seeks to create intergenerational spaces for dialogue, learning, co-creation, and action in which young leaders of the communities can emerge and flourish. The main objective of the YCP program is to develop and support the socioemotional and leadership skills of young people, through pedagogy mediation and other actions that strengthen their sense of belonging and cultural identity, to promote the conservation of their culture and the transformation of their community.

The Young Cultural Promoters program targets 15- to 18-year-olds from indigenous communities in Yucatan, Mexico. For 2 years, participants are exposed to a training path as part of their formal education in the Telebachillerato (upper-secondary TV broadcasted schools). The proposed pedagogical and curricular design was the result of over 5 years of practice, feedback from participants and mediators, as well as from the analysis, conceptualization, and integration of the learnings. To achieve its holistic approach, the program consists of different components: educational (through the dia pedagogical mediation methodology to activate learning spaces), economic (through the activation of sustainable cultural tourism experiences and the development of local projects), and cultural (with the promotion community participatory spaces).

This article presents the short-term results, based on a qualitative research methodology, of the experience working with the indigenous youth in Yucatan. The findings of this study are analyzed at the individual, group and community level to have a more complete picture of their scope and contribution of the program. Among other things, it has been identified that the YCP program has: (1) raised awareness of the importance of generating spaces for dialogue, in order to promote collective work and achieve common objectives; (2) has strengthened links between the young cultural promoter and the inhabitants of the community, fostering personal and collective well-being; (3) has promoted reflection on their cultural identity and their relationship to the bio-cultural heritage of their community; and above all, (4) has strengthened autonomy, leadership, communicative, socioemotional, and cognitive skills of the participants, while having positive externalities in other members of the community.

An important part of this paper is the reflection on the strengths and areas of opportunity for this specific program, as well as the discussion of the learnings that should be considered for the design and implementation of programs targeting indigenous youth in similar contexts.

Authors

• Maria Elena Ortega Hesles, Instituto DIA

• Jean Jack Remond, La Vaca Independiente