Mayan Languages Digital Activism Summit 2024
The Mayan Languages Digital Activism Summit is an event created with the purpose of facilitating spaces for learning and exchange between digital activists and their communities working to promote, preserve and revitalize Mayan languages in Mexico and beyond. By bringing together these innovative individuals, the gatherings will help digital activists from across the region create peer-to-peer learning networks of solidarity and support, shape, share strategies and tactics, and highlight a community of practice driven by local initiatives, resources and priorities.
The second edition of this Summit will be held in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico on January 17-20, 2024 and will be organized by Rising Voices with the support of its lead sponsor, the Kellogg Foundation.
The first edition of the Summit was held in the city of Merida, Yucatan with the support of El Gran Museo del Mundo Maya, SEDECULTURA, the Canadian Embassy in Mexico, the Cultural Center of Spain in Mexico and INALI.
Objectives
To highlight the community projects in Mesoamerica that are helping to preserve, promote and revitalize Mayan languages in digital spaces.
To share best practices and lessons learned during a decade of Mayan language digital activism.
Strengthen the links between different generations of online activists, in the hope that synergies will emerge that will foster collaboration and mutual support.
To generate a space for dialogue in which the needs of Mayan communities can be heard and documented, in order to generate, in this way, strategies that allow them to exercise their linguistic and cultural rights.
Activities
The event will be divided into five main activities:
1) Meeting of 2023 Fellows and 2022 Fellow alumni: January 17 & 18, 2024.
These networks of Fellows, who have been working together to launch digital activism projects in their communities, will gather for two days to share experiences and get to know each other. The previous group of fellows will also meet again after a year to share their recent experiences and also to work on collaborative activities.
2) Workshop on the creation of digital children’s books in Mayan languages: January 17 & 18, 2024
This activity will bring together speakers of Mayan languages who will collectively translate children’s books to create new digital books using the Storyweaver digital platform. Through virtual and face-to-face workshops, selected Mayan language speakers from Chiapas will have the opportunity to create open educational resources for children and youth in the region.
3) Community visit and exchange: January 17, 2023
The two groups of fellows will share their experiences of Mayan language digital activism with an artistic community in the town of Chamula.
4) Public Conference: January 19, 2024
This one-day conference will be open to the general public and will feature presentations, panel discussions and workshops focused on digital activism for Mayan languages throughout the region. It will be held at the Daniel Zebadúa Theater with the support of the San Cristobal Municipal government.
5) Mayan languages digital activism Fair: January 20, 2024
This one-day fair will be open to the general public and will feature hands-on demonstrations for using digital tools to promote Mayan languages, short interactive presentations and booths where digital activists can showcase their projects, but most importantly interact directly with the general public. This fair will be held in collaboration with La Enseñanza – Casa de la Ciudad.
The Summit is part of the Mayan Languages Digital Activism (ADLM) project, launched in 2021, which consists of a training program and a scholarship program in which 10 emerging digital activists from Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula (states of Yucatan and Quintana Roo), join a peer learning community to implement a digital activism project based on needs and priorities of their local community.
