The Communication Department of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) in partnership with IEB and Internews, held from June 7 to 9, another training of the Wakywai Indigenous Communicators Network. The Workshop had as its theme: "Wakywai: checking information in the community".
The objective is to strengthen the capacities of indigenous communicators to act in a network, in the fight against false information about COVID-19, in the production and access to reliable and quality information on the subject. In addition to contributing to the strengthening of the CIR's Communication Department.
During the virtual meeting, the communicators were able to learn about the project focused on communication, with the Internews team. Discussions on communication and indigenous protagonism, with Mayra Wapichana and Cleiton Jiahui, from Vozes da Mata, were held and critical reading of information and combating disinformation, with Luana Luizy, IEB's communication advisor.
Cleiton Jiahui, communicator for the Association of Jiahui Indigenous Peoples (APIJ), says that it is necessary for indigenous peoples to occupy virtual spaces and increasingly appropriate the tools. "There is a need for every young communicator to always be willing to adapt to new times. We have to adapt to living this new normal. We never imagined, in the indigenous movement, to be fighting through a screen. Screen demarcation, yes," he said.
In addition to the discussions on critical reading of information, a debate table on "Communication and Culture: the importance of traditional medicine" was held, with Márcia Fernandes, where those present shared the importance of making visible the practices, knowledge and traditional indigenous knowledge, which were crucial in this pandemic.
The concept of information ecosystem was also discussed with the communicators, at the table on: "Identifying and Analyzing Rumors", with João de Bastos, data analyst at Internews. The communicators understood that a healthy information ecosystem means the presence of quality, accurate and evidence-based information, information that everyone can access safely.
For the communicator, Ericiene Macuxi, from the Barro community, Surumu region, Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous land, as well as the other trainings, this was also of great importance and many learnings.
"About another training of communicators it is being of great importance and a lot of learning together with the partners internews, IEB and our organization CIR. " Because they have always been strengthening, supporting our Wakywai Network, listening to our stories, bringing new forms of strategy and tools on how to deepen in the area of communication", highlighted the communicator Macuxi.
After receiving clarifications, in the workshop on how to check information and rumors about COVID-19, communicators will from now on fill out an online form on collecting rumors, which consist of unverified information.
With this, it is intended to understand how the environments where information about COVID-19 and pandemic circulate work, in order to strengthen mechanisms for a healthy, evidence-based, quality and accurate information ecosystem.
The training is the result of the project: "Rooted in Trust", supported by Internews and executed by the CIR and the International Institute of Education of Brazil (IEB) and will take place throughout 2022, with other planned activities, such as the production of communication pieces such as newsletters, for example. 15 communicators from the Wapichana, Macuxi, Patamona and Wai-Wai peoples, from the 10 ethnoregions of Roraima, participated.