The Most Courageous Radio in Peru About to Close Due to Lack of Support
[The following is an English translation of an original Spanish post from the Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicación Práctica (CAAAP) in Peru. Lo que sigue es una traducción en inglés de un post originalmente en castellano del Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicación Práctica (CAAAP) en Perú.]
When the Kukama language was on the verge of disappearing, the initiative of one radio turned the unthinkable into reality: the handful of elder men and women who still speak the language ceded their post graciously to a group of young people that turned each word into music.
Radio Ucamara was the means that made that possible. It created a school for the teaching of Kukama and found the singing talent among a group of girls and boys from Nauta, a small city where the radio is based that is located on the shores of the Marañón River, two hours by car from Iquitos, in the Loreto Region.
Until 2013 surely few people outside of Loreto knew that Kukama is the name of a people and its language. It was the music video "Kumbarikira" that gave them a face on the world stage to say that Kukamas still exist, possess an enormous culture, and today, like never before, are confronted with grave threats.
Afterwards, other videos appeared, which, just like Kumbarikira, told of the battle waged by Kukamas to preserve their language, cosmovision, customs, and the vision of their own future. But also to denounce the contamination of the rivers and fauna because of ever harmful petrochemical activities.
In that sense, Radio Ucamara shone this year with its impeccable reporting that revealed the true impact of those activities. Every time a spill occurred, the modest team from the radio mobilized to reach the zone, gathered first-hand information, and gave voice to those truly affected.
Radio Ucamara is the same radio that this year published "Karuara, The People of the River", a book that brings together eleven Kukama myths (in Kukama, Spanish, English, and French), and features illustration made by hundreds of children from this group.
It was made possible thanks to the support of various institutions and features a preface by none other than the internationally renowned Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein.
Radio Ucamara -- with 14 years of experience -- is not only a radio. From its beginnings until the present it has transformed itself into the cradle of important initiatives that expand, fuse, and defend the culture and autonomy of a people fully immersed in their environment.
Have you ever thought that under the river there exist worlds likes ours on Earth? Well, Radio Ucamara, with the support of allied organizations, has undertaken the task of demonstrating that there are such worlds, and that the submerged cities that are found there form part of the spirituality and memory of the Kukamas.
With this in mind they seek that foreign groups and the state itself recognize the importance and value that the river has for this people, and that it is important to protect it from petrochemical activities, or those that will be generated as part of the Amazonian Waterway project, which involves the dredging of the river, that is, brutally scraping the riverbed.
Today, Radio Ucamara, which in recent years has practically lived as if with a knife to its throat alongside financial troubles, is announcing that it will close on January 1.
Because of that, this radio, whose labor can be considered nothing less than courageous, for always paddling upstream, needs everyone's support.
Radio Ucamara, like few outlets, has given an uncountable degree of satisfaction to the inhabitants of Amazonia and to those who, without living there, identify with its happinesses, sadnesses, and struggles. Is it possible to ensure that their labor is not turned off? We think so. Radio Ucamara has done much for life in the jungle and with everyone's support we are sure that it will continue to do so.
When the Kukama language was on the verge of disappearing, the initiative of one radio turned the unthinkable into reality: the handful of elder men and women who still speak the language ceded their post graciously to a group of young people that turned each word into music.
Radio Ucamara was the means that made that possible. It created a school for the teaching of Kukama and found the singing talent among a group of girls and boys from Nauta, a small city where the radio is based that is located on the shores of the Marañón River, two hours by car from Iquitos, in the Loreto Region.
Until 2013 surely few people outside of Loreto knew that Kukama is the name of a people and its language. It was the music video "Kumbarikira" that gave them a face on the world stage to say that Kukamas still exist, possess an enormous culture, and today, like never before, are confronted with grave threats.
Afterwards, other videos appeared, which, just like Kumbarikira, told of the battle waged by Kukamas to preserve their language, cosmovision, customs, and the vision of their own future. But also to denounce the contamination of the rivers and fauna because of ever harmful petrochemical activities.
In that sense, Radio Ucamara shone this year with its impeccable reporting that revealed the true impact of those activities. Every time a spill occurred, the modest team from the radio mobilized to reach the zone, gathered first-hand information, and gave voice to those truly affected.
Radio Ucamara is the same radio that this year published "Karuara, The People of the River", a book that brings together eleven Kukama myths (in Kukama, Spanish, English, and French), and features illustration made by hundreds of children from this group.
It was made possible thanks to the support of various institutions and features a preface by none other than the internationally renowned Canadian journalist and activist Naomi Klein.
Radio Ucamara -- with 14 years of experience -- is not only a radio. From its beginnings until the present it has transformed itself into the cradle of important initiatives that expand, fuse, and defend the culture and autonomy of a people fully immersed in their environment.
Have you ever thought that under the river there exist worlds likes ours on Earth? Well, Radio Ucamara, with the support of allied organizations, has undertaken the task of demonstrating that there are such worlds, and that the submerged cities that are found there form part of the spirituality and memory of the Kukamas.
With this in mind they seek that foreign groups and the state itself recognize the importance and value that the river has for this people, and that it is important to protect it from petrochemical activities, or those that will be generated as part of the Amazonian Waterway project, which involves the dredging of the river, that is, brutally scraping the riverbed.
Today, Radio Ucamara, which in recent years has practically lived as if with a knife to its throat alongside financial troubles, is announcing that it will close on January 1.
Because of that, this radio, whose labor can be considered nothing less than courageous, for always paddling upstream, needs everyone's support.
Radio Ucamara, like few outlets, has given an uncountable degree of satisfaction to the inhabitants of Amazonia and to those who, without living there, identify with its happinesses, sadnesses, and struggles. Is it possible to ensure that their labor is not turned off? We think so. Radio Ucamara has done much for life in the jungle and with everyone's support we are sure that it will continue to do so.
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