Guatemala: Indigenous voices loud and clear

Central America Program Officer Jo Sanson reports on a project which is helping to strengthen indigenous organisations in Guatemala.

Field Officer Virginia Ajxup leads a workshop on indigenous ways of working. Photo: Jo Sanson/OxfamAUS

In 1996 the Government of Guatemala and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (URNG) signed Peace Accords, which aimed to end the armed conflict and also address its initial causes. Among the agreements of the Peace Accords was a formal recognition of the identity and cultures of the indigenous peoples and measures to increase the participation of indigenous men and women in the country’s decision-making processes. Now, six years on, the implementation of the Accords has largely stagnated, with violence and human rights violations on the rise again. This violence has included the intimidation of indigenous leaders and organisations which are attempting to promote economic, political and cultural rights for indigenous peoples.

General elections are due in November, and former dictator Ríos Montt – whose early 1980s regime was responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in the county’s recent history – is running for presidency. He is believed to have a good chance of winning – if this happens, it could well mean an end to the Peace Accords.

Indigenous ways of working

Taking account of the current environment, Oxfam Community Aid Abroad is working to strengthen and support the skills of indigenous leaders and their organisations to participate in Guatemalan society, through the Pop No’j Educational Program for Intercultural Strengthening. Pop No’j means ‘weaving knowledge’ in the Mayan language K’iche’.

Pop No’j derives its direction and priorities from the Mayan organisations that it supports, through a council comprised of members of the indigenous movement. Community input has led to great importance being placed on Mayan Cosmovision (literally, Mayan ‘worldview’, which emphasises the harmonious relationship of all elements of the universe, in which the human being is only one additional element). Pop No’j’s workshops therefore draw on and value indigenous ways of working. Workshops on leadership, for example, have begun by exploring Mayan concepts of the ideal leader, which includes an emphasis on leading by representing rather than controlling.

Program activities emphasise the importance of women’s full participation in society, including taking up leadership roles in indigenous organisations. Mayan women who have attended workshops on gender and Cosmovision claim to feel more empowered to give their opinions in spaces previously reserved for men.

The program is run by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad field officers in Guatemala City, who are all indigenous: Virginia Ajxup Pelicó, Macario Santizo, and Florinda Pérez. As Pop No’j is run directly by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, rather than a local non-government organisation, the program is able to transcend the political and ideological divides that emerged over years of conflict which left indigenous movements and civil society fragmented.

Virginia Ajxup Pelicó says: “The program has been able to bring together leaders and other representatives of indigenous organisations in a neutral space for the discussion of issues such as gender equity, racism, autonomy, local power, and biological and cultural diversity”.

If, as was hoped with the Peace Accords, Guatemala can become a truly multicultural society, there must be more than land reform and a redistribution of power and wealth. Indigenous peoples must be able to express pride in their own cultures and further develop their capacity to have their views included in national policies. Through Pop No’j, more indigenous voices are being heard.

Story by Central America Program Officer Jo Sanson, with contributions from Field Program Officer Virginia Ajxup Pelicó.