May 25, 2022
By Manickam A., Radio Kotagiri
Cultural Survival, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, is supporting Radio Kotagiri in disseminating important information in local languages. Through this project, the radio team broadcasts perspectives on livelihood issues, crucial healthcare information including COVID-19. Moreover, the project enables the revitalisation of indigenous languages, which are largely oral, meaning that inter-generational knowledge transfer is fast eroding, especially with urban schools lacking efforts on imparting such knowledge.
The main task of this project is to provide radio instruction to young students of class 7 and above, who get majority of their information outside of school via radio. The radio team is training them on recording their own voices, choosing topics, developing scripts, conducting interviews, and editing audio. The team has engaged students from villages like Garikayur, Kilkattabettu, Melkattabettu and Pillur. Students mostly hailed from Irula and Kurumba communities.
Cultural Survival and Radio Kotagiri harbour similar values, given their united aim of integrating education and local language promotion. With this partnership, they hope to positively impact indigenous youth and children in the Nilgiris and encourage them to take active interest in their own cultural heritage. We also hope our programmes create a platform for education that does not alienate Indigenous children.
