Occupy new spaces and learn new ways to communicate and stay informed in the midst of the health crisis caused by Covid-19. This is the objective of the Wakywai Network Communicator Training Workshop, which is promoted by the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB), Internews and the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), and which has the participation of Nature and Culture International (NCI), Mídia Índia and Coletivo 105.
Completely virtual, the workshop is aimed at 30 young indigenous communicators from the Macuxi, Wapichana, Taurepang and Sará peoples. They are already working in the CIR's Wakywai network, which means "our news" or "our history", in the language of the Wapichana people. The objective is to strengthen the fight against Covid-19, through training, the exchange of experiences with other indigenous communicators, debates on strategies to combat disinformation and the production of posters, podcasts and videos about the pandemic.
For three weeks, between July and August, indigenous communicators will participate in online meetings on the FORMAR Platform – a virtual teaching and learning environment for IEB courses and training programs. In these meetings, participants will interact directly with expert facilitators, in real time, via the internet, and will use tutorial tools in the production of videos, posters and podcasts.
For the young people who participated in the workshop, phones and chips were made available to enter the virtual environment of the course and to handle the editing applications; in addition, support was provided for the students to travel to the internet access points.
The importance of this Workshop is highlighted by Márcia Fernandes, from the Wapichana people, a journalist who coordinates the Communication Department of the CIR: "Having continuous training is essential for strengthening the network, since most communicators already have basic training on the subject, but they can learn more to assist in handling cell phones with applications and cameras and also for the production of materials with information in the fight against COVID-19, in the context we are experiencing. This new stage of training will only strengthen us".
Visual identity
A very common way of telling stories is through fables, in which the main characters are animals that talk, that do "people's things".
Who hasn't heard a story of wolves, owls, and turtles competing against rabbits in a race? It was with this idea in mind that the identity of the Wakywai Communication Workshop emerged.
It is the animals present in the Savannah of Roraima that invite us to these workshops. The jaguar, a robust and intelligent animal, invites us to the opening of the event, with its strong roar. For the poster workshops, the one who invites us is the giant anteater, a beautiful and eye-catching animal, as a poster should be.
For the video workshops, the one who invites us is the carcará, who observes everything from above, who "films the scenes" before taking any action. For the podcast workshops, it is the savannah fox known as the wild dog, which howls loudly to "talk" to others of its species, even if they are far away. The teutéu, a common bird in this biome, is also present in the images for podcast platforms; it is the winged announcer, the one who commands the radio frequencies of our workshop.