Stories of Indigenous-led education

Client

Global Network on Indigenous-Led Education / Rutu Foundation

The Global Network on Indigenous-led Education (the ILED Network) was created in 2020 to centre Indigenous grassroots initiatives that uphold, preserve and pass on these communities’ ways of life, knowledge and language to Indigenous youth.

The ILED Network’s inaugural publication, entitled Pass it on: Stories of Indigenous-led education [PDF], launched in September 2022, celebrates Indigenous languages during the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022–2032.

Written for Indigenous Peoples and communities, ILED Network members and their networks, duty-bearers and other supporters/allies of Indigenous issues, its purpose is to introduce the ILED Network and its goals for this International Decade.

At the heart of this publication are grassroots stories of Indigenous-led education from Thailand, Suriname, India, Kenya, Uganda and Costa Rica. The stories reveal the issues and challenges commonly faced by Indigenous Peoples and celebrate some of the ways they are surmounting the hurdles.

“How much we lose when our elders die? It is so much. It is like having our libraries on fire and the fire is spreading so fast.”

— Milka Chepkorir, a young Sengwer leader, Sengwer community of the Cherang’any Hills, Kenya

What I did

I first appraised the draft text supplied by the client and applied and/or suggested substantive/structural changes.

Once the substantive edit was complete (2 rounds), I copyedited the revised draft, taking care to bring correctness, consistency and clarity without dulling the voices of the grassroot story contributors, whose first language is not English.

Pass it on: Stories of Indigenous-led education was launched in September 2022.