Audiovisual education for indigenous students

With the support of the Colombian Ministry of Culture

Corporación Horizontes Colombianos -CHC- has won the competition of the “2011 Program of National Cultural Harmonization” of the Colombian Ministry of Culture with a project that seeks to deepen the capacity of audiovisual production of the Tikuna tribe, which CHC helped to establish the television channel “IBURI - Our View”. Education takes place by means of workshops.

The IBURI channel has been operated since 2008 and is programmed with local productions staged in the Amazon environment. It covers different genres of television: News bulletins, talk shows, children’s programming and competitions. The channel also combines the Spanish language with the Tikuna language of the indigenous population of the region.

Due to the dedication of the 13 indigenous men and women running the channel, IBURI has had a significant impact on not only the region of Nazareth, where the initiative was launched, but on the whole Amazon trapezium. It has helped to dignify the situation of our indigenous populations, strengthened their culture and helped them to recover or conserve important  ancestral language and practices.

Following the 2011 competition, several television programs were made with the specific aim of promoting the recovery of the identity of the indigenous population: The story of an abduction in the Amazon, a children's program, a contest and a news program. The programs are a recognition of the indigenous tribes and their work, and show the confidence and expertise with which they manage their affairs. At the same time the programs are aligned with the objectives of CHC, which wants to promote the image of a country that is truly diverse, multicultural and build on strong ancestral foundations.

The children's program reinforces ancestral culture by documenting the traditional games of the native children that often contain elements of the natural environment: stones, leaves, sticks, seeds etc. The program is unscripted, the dialogues develop without any preparation and show that the children learn to love and understand the surrounding nature with a great sense of freedom and happiness. It helps them to develop self-respect, and shows there is dignity in being indigenous, while it also fosters the sense of pride associated with their language and cultural experiences. The program that features a contest between groups of adolescents is based on the reality of the indigenous communities and centers around their knowledge of the rainforest, its medicinal plants, its animals etc.

These productions can be acquired through the Corporación Horizontes Colombianos for the academic and cultural interests of persons, entities and communication channels.

Adriana Tobón B.