Our current projects are in Bhutan, Mexico, Mongolia , the Marquesas , Canada and Peru . We are also developing projects with indigenous communities in Ecuador, Papua New Guinea, Costa Rica, Chile and Kenya. Each of our projects is unique as the requirements of each community are different. Summaries of our current projects are below and our project reports explain more about our approach, objectives and impact.
1. Bhutan – The Olep community of Rukha
Bhutan’s government and royal family are visionary in taking a long-term, holistic view on all decision making relating to its people and land. By way of just one example, 70% of the country is required by law to remain under forest cover. But Bhutan’s culture is under threat. We work, alongside our project partners at The Tarayana Foundation, with the Olep people, Bhutan’s oldest indigenous community., in the stunning Rukha valley. When we first visited, the Olep told us that they were fearful of the local youth moving away and of their culture fading. Only three people could still fluently speak the Ole language. It has been an honour to work with the community and now to call them our friends. With them, we have created the first dictionary of Ole, which is now being taught to all the local children, and we have built a community centre that doubles as a homestay to welcome visitors. The Bhutanese government now wants to replicate our Rukha project in 21 other areas.
2. Mexico – The Mazahua of Michoacan
In the state of Michoacan, we are working with the Mazahua community in the town of Crescencio Morales to protect and promote the Mazahua culture and language. Living in the buffer zone around the famous Monarch Butterfly Reserve, the Mazahua are proud and strong but their culture is under great threat. Many Mazahua leave to find work in cities and abroad and the forces of commerce, modernity and deforestation are having a profound effect on the connection of the community to their roots. The culture is stretched and loses relevance and the Mazahua language is increasingly not known by the young. We are creating a Casa de Cultura in Crescencio Morales as a gathering place for the community and a focus for workshops, crafts, textiles, music, dance and Mazahua language lessons and a vibrant destination for locals and tourists to learn about Mazahua culture, traditions and crafts and local conservation. It will open this Spring.
3. Mongolia – The eagle hunters of the West
In the West of Mongolia, we are working with the Kazakh eagle hunters. The community is made up of kind, hardy and family-focused people and to witness the extraordinary relationship between the falconers, their huge golden eagles and their horses is to see something as astonishing and mesmerising as it is unique. But the local grasslands (which are essentially akin to 'upside-down rainforests') are desertifying, the winters are shortening, water is becoming more scarce and animal behaviours are changing. The way of life of the eagle hunters is increasingly under pressure. Working with the community and our project partners, the Kazakh Falconry Association, the Wildlife Science and Conservation Centre of Mongolia and Nomadic Expeditions, we have created the first ever Eagle Hunter Cultural Centre to support the falconer community, their traditions and culture. The Centre's official opening was celebrated in October 2024.
4. The Marquesas – At the Heart of the Pacific Ocean
The Marquesan islands in French Polynesia are some of the most remote and beautiful in the world. The culture and language of the six inhabited Marquesan islands of Nuku Hiva, Tahuata, Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Ua Pao and Ua Huka were almost crushed by decades of colonisation and the church but their revitalisation, started in the 1970s by a handful of passionate and determined islanders, can now stand - strong and full of joy - as a role model for the world. We are working with the Marquesan community to create a community cultural centre on the island of Nuku HIva to represent the culture and language of all six of the islands, each with its unique artwork, dance, song, drumming, cuisine and traditional tattooing. The centre will also promote and celebrate the biodiversity and conservation of the islands' majestic forests and surrounding ocean. Phase 1 of this project was completed in December 2023. Phase 2 awaits completion of an archeological survey.
5. Canada – the Kwakwaka’wakw community in Alert Bay
The Kwakwaka’wakw community and the team at the U’Mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay have done a remarkable job over recent years in successfully repatriating most of the potlatch masks and other regalia stolen from the community a hundred years ago. They have worked tirelessly, determined to protect their culture and identity against extraordinary odds pitted against them through the centuries. We have known the U’Mista team for many years. When we met with them in the Spring of 2024, they said that their most urgent need was to protect their traditional language of Kwakwala. We have therefore partnered with them and the Ni’noxsola council of remaining Kwakwala speakers to create a recording studio pod, complete with all the technology that the language team need to complete a Kwakwala dictionary and to record and teach the language. The studio opened this Spring.
6. Peru – the Quechuan weaving community in the Andes
This project will support the artisanship of ten Quechuan communities living in the Peruvian Andes and, in particular, the 500 traditional weavers and their families whose livelihoods depend on these endangered skills. Partnering with the The Center of Traditional Textiles in Cusco co-founded in 1996 and run by Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, we are documenting the endangered pre-Columbian weaving techniques - from their start (the collection of plants from the Andean jungle) to the natural dye processes used and the design, making and completion of the textiles by the weavers; creating a permanent archive of photos, videos and other recordings of the local traditional Quechuan weaving and weavers; and creating a series of photographic portraits of the Quechuan weavers working with CTTC who hold and practice these endangered skills and the younger generations that they are passing them on to.
“Indigenous people’s rights need to be protected in the best way possible,…They are the most effective stewards of these key areas.” Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples