Our Team is Growing!

We are thrilled to announce our team at Cultural Survival is expanding! Our staff and Board are majority Indigenous and come from the various communities and regions we serve. Our growing team has a diverse set of expertise, skills, cultural knowledge, identities, and experiences and through their leadership, we continue to decolonize, Indigenize, and deepen our work. As an Indigenous-led NGO and U.S. registered non-profit, we advocate for Indigenous Peoples' rights and support Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures, and political resilience since 1972. For almost 50 years, Cultural Survival has partnered with Indigenous communities to advance Indigenous Peoples' rights and cultures worldwide.
 

Meet Edson Krenak Naknanuk (Krenak)! Edson, Cultural Survival’s Lead on Brazil, is an Indigenous activist, writer, and doctoral student at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he develops studies in legal anthropology. He holds a degree in linguistics and literary theory from the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil. He works as a speaker and trainer at the Uka Institute in Brazil. As a writer, he won the 10th National Tamoios Award for Indigenous Writers in Brazil with the book O Sonho de Borum, and his short story "Kren and Pockrane, Why there is no Twing among the Krenak People" is part of the 2018 book indicated by UNICEF, Nos, Anthology of Indigenous Tales.

One of his passions is teaching and education. Edson has been teaching languages, literature, and decolonized history in middle school and high school in Brazil and Austria. For ten years he worked in Brazil with the Indigenous rights movement promoting Indigenous cultures and Indigenous literature in schools, universities, and cultural institutes. He strives to internationalize the Indigenous rights movement in Brazil, to make international connections to overcome language barriers, and to defend Mother Earth.

Edson came to Cultural Survival to support various layers of our work including advocacy, capacity building, and to support the Keepers of the Earth Fund. He says, “I am excited about this job because Cultural Survival has a long history in Brazil and my main objective is to contribute to making this story full of milestones and significant achievements for Indigenous Peoples of Cerrado, Caatinga, Amazonia and Mata Atlantica, the main biomes protected by Indigenous Peoples in the country.” Edson's ancestors are known as Botocudos. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, English, and German. Contact Edson at [email protected] and @edsonkrenak on Twitter and Instagram.

Adriana Hernández (Maya K’iche’) is stepping into a new role as Strategic Partnerships Coordinator. Over the past two years, Adriana supported the Executive leadership and the Board of Directors at Cultural Survival in her capacity as the Executive Assistant. Additionally, she along with another Cultural Survival staff member, are implementing a training program for Indigenous women to defend their human rights in Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. In her new role, Adriana will support the organization to plan and execute our upcoming event titled “Restoring and Protecting Our Native Languages and Landscapes” in September 2021. Along with the Executive team and Program Directors, she will also serve as a key staff person and liaison to move the organization to our renewed vision as a result of our strategic planning process.

Adriana is an Indigenous woman and was born and raised in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala. She participated in the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program and continued her studies in Political Science at Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA. While working as a faculty assistant at Rafael Landívar University, she volunteered in an educational program for vulnerable children, and seniors at Instituto Guatemalteco de Educación Radiofónica. Adriana is interested in multicultural environments, human rights, and empowering Indigenous women. She is fluent in English and Spanish. Contact Adriana at [email protected]. 

En español.

We are hiring an Executive Assistant. Cultural Survival seeks a full-time Executive Assistant to provide critical administrative and operational support to the Executive team. The Executive Assistant supports the Executive team  with minute taking; translation; document drafting, review, and editing; travel planning and logistics, etc., as needed, in support of Cultural Survival’s mission and vision. The Executive Assistant is responsible for helping the Executive staff perform their jobs in an efficient and effective manner. The Executive Assistant must maintain strict confidentiality in the handling of documents and information that are meant only for executive staff and the board of directors. Learn more. En español.
 

Cultural Survival advocates for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supports Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience since 1972. We envision a future that respects and honors Indigenous Peoples' inherent rights and dynamic cultures, deeply and richly interwoven in lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression, rooted in self-determination and self-governance.