By Alyansa Tigil Mina
In October 2024, 20 Indigenous youth from mining-affected communities across the Philippines gathered in Quezon City for a life-changing experience: the Empowering Indigenous Voices: ATM Youth Network Journalism Camp. This event was made possible through the generous support of Cultural Survival, whose funding enabled Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) to strengthen Indigenous youth leadership in environmental journalism, advocacy, and digital storytelling.
For many participants, it was their first time traveling outside their province, meeting youth from other Indigenous groups, and receiving formal training in media and advocacy. The impact was immediate and powerful. “As a young woman from the Subanen tribe, I was rarely heard—but now, I have learned to write, tell stories, and speak for our ancestral land. The support from Cultural Survival is not just funding—it is the opening of our voices as youth,” said Baby Mae Tomogsok, a participant from a mining-threatened barangay in Midsalip, Zamboanga del Sur.
Through the camp, participants engaged in hands-on workshops on newswriting, social media campaigning, and advocacy planning. They visited communities impacted by environmental destruction and produced their own journalistic content to share their stories and campaigns. By the end of the camp, a collective Facebook page had emerged—an unexpected outcome that continues to serve as a platform for Indigenous youth voices from different tribes.
“Funding support from Cultural Survival allowed us to not only train young leaders, but to nurture solidarity across cultures. It allowed us to offer a safe, creative, and empowering space for these youth to transform struggles into truth-telling and silence into action,” said Christian Jake Tabara, ATM Youth Campaigns Officer.
The support covered transportation, food, accommodations, learning materials, and honoraria for speakers, removing logistical and financial barriers that often exclude Indigenous youth from participating in such opportunities. It also enabled the creation of follow-up plans, including zine publication and community-based media workshops led by the participants themselves. “After the camp, I organized a storytelling circle in my barangay,” said Francis Labuayan, a young leader from Sultan Kudarat.
By investing in the voices of Indigenous youth, Cultural Survival has amplified not just stories, but movements. The journalism camp built confidence, created alliances, and expanded the capacity of youth to shape the narrative about their lands, rights, and future. “This was not just a camp,” Tabara adds. “It was a seed. And with the help of Cultural Survival, it’s now growing into a forest of Indigenous resistance and storytelling.”
In 2024, Alyansa Tigil Mina(ATM) received a grant from Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Fund, which provides opportunities for journalism, broadcasting, audio editing, technical skills, and more for community media from Indigenous communities around the world. In 2024, the Fund provided $480,000 in grants to 57 Indigenous communication projects, benefiting Indigenous communities in 25 countries across the Americas, Africa, and Asia, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, the United States, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.
