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Dear friend,

For over 150 years, there were no fluent speakers of the Wampanoag language. But now it’s being spoken as a first language again.

Today is the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples and 2019 is the International Year of Indigenous Languages. We're celebrating the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project ([link removed]) : It’s bringing the Wampanoag language back to life and recovering culture and knowledge stolen over generations.

This project shows what’s possible when indigenous education is in indigenous hands. For the first time in generations, children are growing up able to speak their own language.

On Indigenous Peoples Day, we're asking you to pledge your support for our campaign for indigenous education to be under indigenous control. Please sign your name today.

Pledge your support now! ([link removed])

Wampanoag teacher and child

Hundreds of indigenous languages are currently “critically endangered” in the U.S. alone. Decades of anti-indigenous policies and laws pushed languages like Wampanoag to the brink of being lost forever. Residential and Boarding Schools carry much of the blame.

Generations of children who attended such schools were banned from speaking their own languages, taught to be ashamed of their cultures and subjected to horrendous physical and sexual abuse.
This system of schooling has been recognized in Canada as genocidal, and in both Canada and the U.S., these schools have now all been closed. However, the legacy of trauma and suffering lives on in many communities.

But Residential Schools are STILL one of the biggest threats to tribal languages and communities today – that’s right – they still exist.

Across Africa, Asia and South America, up to 2 million tribal and indigenous children are enrolled in "Factory Schools. ([link removed]) ” These schools aim to indoctrinate children into "mainstream" society.

We can’t let the colonial horrors of the past repeat themselves. Children are suffering and they are being stripped of their peoples' unique cultural and environmental knowledge.

An alternative is possible – an education that works for children and their communities, and that respects their language and culture. That is what we at Survival are fighting for.

Please pledge your support today.

Thank you,
Alice Raymond
Survival International
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P.S. We reject government funding and shady corporate money so our integrity is never compromised. We rely entirely on your donations to keep fighting for tribal peoples worldwide. Please donate today ([link removed]) . Without you, there can be no Survival.

P.P.S. We call them #FactorySchools ([link removed]) because they aim to "reprogram" tribal and indigenous children to fit the dominant society. They are part of a deliberate, far-reaching policy by governments to erase indigenous identity and steal tribal lands. This systematic cultural erasure masquerading as education damages millions of children, their families and communities around the world.

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Survival International, 6 Charterhouse Buildings, London EC1M 7ET, UK | Charity no. 267444

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