Amplifying Indigenous Voices: Investing in Strategic Communications in the Amazon

This year, Nia Tero kicked off a webinar series to bring donors and Indigenous allies together around a clear imperative: communications is not ancillary to advocacy. It is the front line.

When Indigenous Peoples fight for land, culture, and sovereignty, Indigenous-led strategic storytelling shapes public opinion, counters disinformation, influences policy, and builds the systems required to secure rights. Our webinars spotlight practical ways to strengthen that capacity by funding long-term communications teams, training and tools, and networks that elevate local voices. This allows messages to travel farther, faster, and result in greater impact.

These virtual spaces have given our Indigenous allies and supporters – many of whom will soon head to Brazil for the UN climate conference, COP30 – an opportunity to hear from Indigenous communicators about ways to enhance their strategic communications efforts and representation in mainstream media, cultural institutions and other spaces of influence.

Globally, less than one percent of climate funding currently reaches Indigenous Peoples. Funders interested in supporting a narrative change are key to helping shift public perception and driving change to support Indigenous Peoples’ rights.

“By resourcing communications as a core pillar of the Indigenous movement strategy, we can make support more targeted and impactful, accelerate policy change, and better defend Indigenous rights in the face of mounting pressures. It is also critical to inform broader society, which is generally disconnected from the Indigenous world in support of Indigenous Peoples’ guardianship efforts. We ultimately want everyone to see Indigenous peoples as part of the solution to our planetary challenges,” said Daniela Lerda, Nia Tero’s Amazonia Sr. Director.

Although there are hundreds of distinct Indigenous Peoples across the Amazon, there is one shared commonality: the threats to their territories, cultures and lifeways stemming from a history of colonization. That is why strategic, long-term support for effectively communicating these struggles holds such power and promise.

“We know how to communicate within our territory what is happening,” said Nixon Andy (A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe), a communications professional and member of the Ceibo Alliance in Ecuador. “But people on the outside, colonizers or those who live in the United States or Europe, they don’t know what is happening to us: about the mining companies that want to seize our lands, the oil companies that want to enter our territories.”

He added, “It is important to get a strategy to elevate our voices to be heard all around the world.”

The webinar series convenes funders supporting Indigenous Peoples’, as well as those who fund communications, storytelling and other strategic campaign efforts. Indigenous speakers and allies and communications professionals also attended.

Session One: Leveraging Indigenous Communications to Tackle Global Crises

The inaugural webinar focused on the role of Indigenous organizations’ and movements’ leaders in promoting strategic communications and narrative change. It featured the following speakers:

• Edinho Macuxi (Macuxi Peoples), Leadership of the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), Brazil. Follow CIR.
• Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá Peoples), Brazilian congresswoman. Follow her here.
• Nico Kingman, Amazon Frontlines based in Ecuador. Follow here.

“We've been using communications for our fight. It’s also an important tool to defend and protect our rights and our territories,” Macuxi said during the webinar. “It's important for us to join forces to raise awareness in the global population, to reflect that every time we destroy something in nature, it's a piece of each one of your lives.”

Session Two: Leveraging Indigenous Communications to Tackle Global Crises

In August, Nia Tero held a second discussion about how Indigenous networks of communicators can maximize impact to generate change. It featured the following presenters:

• Alana Manchineri (Manchineri Peoples), Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB). Follow Coiab.
• Luciene Huni Kuin (Huni Kui Peoples) – Articulation of Brazilian Indigenous Journalists (Abrinjor). Follow Abrinjor.
• Samay Lima & Pedro Bermeo – Organizers from the Yasunidos campaign in Ecuador. Follow Yasunidos.

"We are Indigenous journalists, and not journalists who are Indigenous, because we prioritize our ethnic identity; first we are Huni Kuin, Manchineri, Wapichana, etc., our Indigenous identity comes before our professional identity as journalists,” Huni Kuin said. “What is needed is to continue strengthening Indigenous narratives, Indigenous voices, and Indigenous identities in all communication spaces."

Manchineri echoed these sentiments adding, “Our partners and donors need to understand that our agenda is broad, that the Amazon is vast, and to join forces with us on the various fronts of this battle.”

Our next session will center Indigenous narratives delving into their power to shape public support, open policy doors, and strengthen movements. We’ll explore intersectional identities and social justice; reflect on teachings from Indigenous lifeways; spotlight youth-driven innovation; and celebrate arts and culture as engines of truth-telling and community power. To ensure broad participation, real-time interpretation will be available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.