Two Win Journalism Award for Work on Underreported Communities

Two freelance journalists have been awarded the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for their work reporting on underrepresented or misrepresented groups in the United States, it was announced Wednesday.

Julian Brave NoiseCat and Ryan Christopher Jones were each awarded $100,000 by the Heising-Simons Foundation based in Los Altos, California.

NoiseCat is a member of the Canada-based Canim Lake Band of First Nations people, and practices journalism in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the foundation said.

His articles and podcasts have covered issues such as fatherhood from the perspective of Indigenous men and a movement by homeless Black mothers to reclaim a vacant house they were evicted from in West Oakland, California, the foundation said.

His work has appeared in major publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Yorker and National Geographic.

“Indigenous communities have a perspective and an experience that matters to a broader audience,” NoiseCat said in a foundation news release.

“My work is inspired by a belief that indigenous peoples’ experience and wisdom can contribute to understanding and addressing the world’s most pressing challenges — from the climate crisis to anxieties around imperialism and race.”

Jones is a Mexican American photojournalist and anthropologist. His work has examined the lives of immigrants in California, New York and elsewhere, farmworker communities in central California and issues such as the drug overdose crisis and Mexican American economic mobility, the foundation said.

His work has appeared in outlets including the New York Times, the Atlantic, ProPublica and the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom.

“In the news, photographic depictions of vulnerable communities have often resorted to dangerous tropes and stereotypes,” Jones said in the foundation release. “As a photojournalist it has been my goal to visually document the complex stories of these underrepresented communities with the care and nuance they deserve.”

The prize was awarded for long-form, narrative or deep reporting by a panel of 10 judges that included journalists from major news outlets.

Award of a scholarship to an Arhuaca indigenous person at the University of Magdalena - Other Cities - Colombia

The rector of the Universidad del Magdalena, Pablo Vera, awarded the Sierra Nevada scholarship to the graduate of the Economics Program, Sonia Ati Gúndiwa Villafaña Mejía, a member of the Arhuaca indigenous community, to pursue a Master’s Degree in Sustainable Territorial Development.

(Also read: They denounce that a fraud in the elections is being hatched in Magdalena)

The Sierra Nevada Scholarship for Master’s and Doctorate studies was regulated through Academic Agreement No. 24 of 2021, in order to contribute to strengthening interculturality and recognition of the nation’s ethnic and cultural community.

Ati is a person who has been characterized in his time at the University for his commitment and dedication

For the first time, this certification is conferred on a native peoples woman of the Colombian Caribbean.

“Ati is a person who has been characterized in his time at the University by his commitment and dedication, not only with his professional training, but also with trying to lead the University, expand it and turn it towards the Sierra Nevada, in particular towards his community” Vera pointed out.

The rector noted that perhaps the delivery of the Sierra Nevada scholarship will become the first stone of that space and center of training, construction and interculturality of the encounter between two worlds.

With this initiative, learning will be allowed to indigenous peoples and the transfer of academic knowledge learned to ethnic groups by a member of the same community, according to the manager.

(You may be interested in: Governor of Magdalena denies support for candidates for the House and Senate)

This was the reaction of the beneficiary

I have a huge responsibility on behalf of the University and I as a voice carrier of the territory

The alma mater awarded Sonia Ati Gúndiwa Villafaña Mejía the Sierra Nevada scholarship, as an opportunity, since it contributes to the study, preservation and dissemination of the knowledge of the ethnic groups and cultures that contribute to the Colombian Nation, in particular of the Caribbean region, precisely to attend the Master in Development Sustainable Territory.

“I have a huge responsibility on the part of the University and I as a voice carrier of the territory. We are not starting from scratch, but with an already advanced process and, as a merit of that process, this master’s degree is coming to another level”, said Sonia Ati Gúndiwa.

Likewise, Gúndiwa Villafaña indicated that they are many young people of the indigenous communities that want and aspire to enter a house of studies like this institution.

“It is not only to do an undergraduate, but this allows us to dream of a postgraduate degree, in this case a master’s degree and later I will surely continue on my path of what I have proposed with respect to research,” he pointed out.

The Sierra Nevada Scholarship is aimed at members of the native peoples of the Colombian Caribbean, such as: the Kogui, Arhuacos, Wiwa, Wayú, Kankuamos, Chimilas, Zenú, Yukpas, among other indigenous Caribbean ethnic groups recognized by the Ministry of the Interior.

Roger Urieles
For THE WEATHER Santa Marta
@rogeruv

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