By CS Staff
Since 2018, Cultural Survival has awarded 186 fellowships supporting 430 Indigenous youth from around the globe. It all started with one Indigenous youth who expressed interest in receiving financial support but had limited access to resources.
The Indigenous Youth Fellowship began under Cultural Survival’s Community Media program, initially supporting community radio for its first three years. It later expanded to include audiovisual and other multimedia platforms, strengthening the work of Indigenous youth communicators. In 2021, the fellowship underwent another important transition, expanding beyond community media to address the broader thematic priorities of Indigenous communities and to extend support to youth in regions including the United States, Africa, and Asia.
Today, the fellowship provides financial support for youth-led projects that benefit Indigenous communities while creating opportunities for young people to develop and strengthen their leadership. Throughout each project, fellows are encouraged to amplify the voices of their communities and bring attention to local issues within broader global conversations.
Coming Together: A Gathering of Indigenous Youth
As part of Cultural Survival’s continued commitment to Indigenous youth leadership, we hosted the first Indigenous Youth Fellowship Gathering. From August 10–13, 2026, participants immersed themselves in the territory of the Kichwa Amazonia people, in the heart of Ecuador’s Napo Province. For four days, youth from across the globe gathered to connect with one another, share their work, learn from the territory, and experience the richness of Amazonian culture.
Youth from around the world came together to weave a collective quilt of rhythmic sounds, pulsing breath, and beating hearts echoing through the rainforest. Through exchange, laughter, reflection, and ceremony, new relationships began to take root. The gift of exchange opened hearts and minds, allowing a fierce love for community, culture, and Mother Earth to blossom. Each day offered a different kind of medicine—something to carry forward as we imagine and build a future rooted in belonging.
Throughout the four-day exchange, activities included a river hike with Napuruna guides along the Canua Yacu River, a traditional Amazonian ceramics workshop led by Napuruna women, and a “Tupanakama,” an evening of Amazonian cultural expression that brought the gathering to a close. Each day, former and current Indigenous Youth Fellows had the opportunity to share their projects with one another, highlighting how their work strengthens Indigenous identity, community well-being, cultural continuity, and territorial stewardship.
On the final day, participants came together to reflect on their experiences, celebrate shared accomplishments, and envision the future. The reflection also became an important space to listen to fellows’ experiences of the program, understand its impact on their personal and community journeys, and imagine new possibilities for support, collaboration, and collective action.
The Power of Exchange
Throughout the gathering, youth exchanged friendship, admiration, love, courage, wisdom, strength, knowledge, hope, inspiration, leadership, gratitude, solidarity, reciprocity, and ancestral knowledge. The exchange was mutual—from one fellow to another and between the fellows and the territory that welcomed them.
Despite the cultural, territorial, and linguistic differences among fellows, a deep sense of solidarity emerged through compassion, curiosity, and mutual care. Perhaps it was the rainforest safeguarding us, the Iyarina Center caring for our needs, or the energetic spirit embodied by the youth themselves. Whatever the source, a reciprocal relationship was present—a feeling that we were not simply gathering in one place but becoming part of something larger than ourselves.
It was a transformative experience that replenished the youth's resilience and strength, reminding them that they are not walking alone as they continue shaping the future.
As Quillay Méndez (Omaguaca) from Argentina reflected:
“We realized that, when working collectively with groups of people, we must always be mindful of the community. We must be aware of what is happening—the community’s concerns and the ecosystem’s changes. We must take these into account. At the outset of every new strategy, we must consider the different forms of leadership. Diversity, in varying degrees, means being active participants in spaces where young people must take the lead. Leadership cannot emerge without collective support from other stakeholders. We learn from what not to do. Awareness means always being alert to what is happening in our surroundings and viewing it as an opportunity rather than a burden. Dream of tomorrow. Connection is vital for maintaining the common thread linking the territory and our ancestral heritage. Embrace what is right beside you. This time, allow yourself to embrace and be embraced.”
Karen Victoria Sac Hernandez (Maya Kaqchikel) from Guatemala shared:
"Because our knowledge does not belong solely to the past. It lives on in our words, in our bodies, in our textiles, in our ceremonies, and in every generation that chooses not to forget. Today, I want to express my deepest gratitude to [the fellows] because every person here brings with them a territory, a history, and a memory. And I want to give special thanks to Cultural Survival, because thanks to their support, our paths were able to cross here today. Thank you for believing in the strength of our Peoples. Thank you for creating spaces for our voices. Thank you for allowing our stories to cross borders so that we can look at one another and understand that we are not alone."
For Free Borsey (Lummi Nation) from the United States, the gathering offered something equally powerful: the reminder that the work of Indigenous leadership, while sometimes lonely, is part of a much larger movement.
“This gathering, being able to share this space with all of the fellows doing incredible work in different parts of the world that they come from, gives me hope and inspires me to continue on the path that I am on. It lets me know the path I have chosen is the right path. It brings a lot of hope to me to be around so many of my peers doing this work around the world, because this path gets lonely. Being around these young people, I have been in such admiration. It has lit a new fire and passion within me that I didn’t know I had.”
Seven Generations Forward
The gathering became a space where new ideas and dreams could emerge, where the past, present, and future met within one ecosystem of kinship. It was a space for fellows to reclaim their territory of wonder, history, resilience, and struggle—to resist, to reconnect, and to remind one another that staying connected is itself an act of strength.
The gathering invited participants to lean into the sacredness of their relationships—with themselves, with one another, with their communities, their territories, and with the generations who came before and those yet to come. It was a reminder that paving the way for thriving Indigenous communities is not an individual journey. It is a collective act of dreaming, remembering, caring, and creating.
The youth left their footprints in the Amazon, but they also carried something home with them: new relationships, renewed courage, shared knowledge, and a deeper sense of responsibility to the communities and territories they represent. They were reminded that wherever they go, they must remain connected—to their bodies, their communities, their cultures, and the relationships that sustain them. Indigenous youth are not simply leaders of tomorrow; they are already leading today. Their ancestral knowledge is not confined to the past but lives on through each generation that chooses to carry it forward.
At Cultural Survival, we are honored to have witnessed and listened to this exchange of experiences among fellows. An investment in Indigenous youth is an investment in community, culture, territory, and collective dreaming. As we continue re-visioning the Indigenous Youth Fellowship to better align with the vital work young people are doing, we will look (as our fellow Free Borsey mentioned) seven generations forward—while carrying seven generations behind us.
From the ground to the sky, from ancestors to descendants, we walk together toward a future where Indigenous communities can thrive. And we will continue walking this path alongside our partners and Indigenous youth around the globe.
All photos by Quillay Méndez.