“Now we are in the peace process in Colombia, and women’s voices are very important for this.”

The Reframed Stories Project asks people to respond to dominant themes and issues that appear in news coverage about their communities. These stories are reflections by people who are frequently represented by others in the media. Word clouds are created using the Media Cloud platform, a data analysis tool which examines a collection of media outlets over a specific period of time, allowing participants to analyze and discuss the preliminary insights into how they might be represented in the media. The project refrains from making conclusive pronouncements about the data, and instead is a starting point that creates space for discussion about how they can help shape their own media representation through digital media.

Gunawin Oscar Chaparro is a member of the Arhuaco People, where he serves as secretary in Nabusimake, the capital of the Arhuaco community. He also is a graduate student at the Universidad del Rosario and youth leader on public policy issues. The following is a transcript of the video above about Gunawin Oscar's analysis of the word cloud for the term “Arhuaco“.

Dominant words from 116 articles published between January 2017 and April 2018 found mentioning “Arhuaco” (indigenous community of Colombia) within five Media Cloud collections of Colombian’s Spanish-language media outlets. (view larger image)

En relación a esta nube de palabras, quiero decir que la información que recogen los distintos medios sobre distintos pueblos indígenas es muy superficial.

Para hacer una investigación de los indígenas, hay que hacerlo no solo desde el punto visual o lo físico, sino ir más a fondo de qué representa cada uno de sus elementos, qué función cumple y qué significado tiene.

In relation to this word cloud, I would like to say that the information that different media collects about the different indigenous communities tends to be too shallow.

An investigation about indigenous people requires to go beyond the visual and physical aspects, and reach a more in-depth level of representation that tackles each of the functions and meanings of each element.

Una cosa que yo quisiera se resaltara es sobre la participación política, son temas que han sido bastante luchados porque aún no ha sido posible ganarlos, pero ahí estamos todavía.

(Otro tema que me gustaría que se resaltara) es la participación de mujeres indígenas. Ahorita que en Colombia estamos en proceso de paz, las voces de las mujeres en ese espacio es muy importante.

An aspect that I would like to see highlighted is political participation. We have fought for tvi qu ehis topic a lot because we haven’t been able to achieve it yet, but we keep going.

Another topic (that I would like to see highlighted) is the participation of indigenous women. Now we are in the peace process in Colombia, and women’s voices are very important for this.

También quiero decir que para el caso mío, las mujeres representan el apoyo moral para realizar nuestras actividades, y así mismo muchos temas que me gustaría que se resaltaran en esta nube.

Los temas a resaltar son: derecho al territorio, derecho a la realización de trabajos espirituales, reconocimiento a la autonomía, justicia propia, que ha sido un tema duro que aún está en proceso de que sea reconocido por el estado, porque los indígenas sí hacen su justicia propia.

También me gustaría que los indígenas fueran reconocidos como autoridad ambiental, (y que se reconozca su) derecho a la ampliación del resguardo.

Otro tema que es bastante importante es el territorio y los proyectos extractivistas. En este momento los pueblos arhuacos estamos en ese proceso y creo que así están todos los demás pueblos.

Also, in my case, women represent the emotional support for our activities, and I would like to see these and other topics highlighted in these word clouds.

Some of the other topics that I would highlight are: right to land, right to spiritual work, self-determination, indigenous justice, which is a topic that the State hasn’t recognized yet.

I would also like that indigenous peoples would be recognized as environmental authorities, and that their right to the expansion of the territories where the indigenous reservations are located would be recognized.

Another topic that is very important is the territory and the extraction projects that the arhuacos peoples and other communities are facing.

What terms should appear in a word cloud for the Arhuaco People?

  • Participación política
  • Participación de mujeres indígenas
  • Derecho al territorio
  • Derecho a la realización de trabajos espirituales
  • Reconocimiento a la autonomía
  • Justicia propia
  • Autoridad ambiental
  • Derecho a la ampliación del resguardo
  • Declaración al territorio libre de proyectos extractivistas
  • Political Participation
  • Participation of indigenous women
  • Right to territory
  • Right to do spiritual work
  • Recognition to autonomy
  • Self-righteousness
  • Environmental Authority
  • Right to land extension
  • Declaration to the territory free of extractive projects

This is part of a Rising Frames series developed with Mónica Bonilla, who organized and facilitated a workshop held on May 18, 2018 at the Center of Internet and Society at Del Rosario University -ISUR- in Bogotá, Colombia that brought together representatives from the Arhuaco and Wayuu indigenous communities to take part in this digital storytelling activity.

Mónica Bonilla and Belén Febres-Cordero assisted with the transcription and translation, which was edited for clarity and length.

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