Indigenous Women Succeed in Shedding Light on their Situation Through the Use of New Technologies

This article explores some opportunities and challenges for indigenous women in Latin America to use information and communication technology (ICTs) for self-empowerment. The article reports on discussions during an online forum held in January 2006 in which sixty participants from different indigenous Latin American groups and organisations discussed indigenous women and ICTs.

Moderator Nidia Bustillos recounted that the women participants expressed that they use ICTs to reinforce their existing work, though they do not always have the opportunity to be connected every day and in the majority of cases, the use of the internet is limited to email, rather than browsing the web. "The conviction exists that ICTs can be used as strategic tools to strengthen the work in indigenous communities, and particularly women, to denounce violations, to speak of the specific vision that exists on issues such as sexual and reproductive health, human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, etc," she said. According to the article, the participants noted that the application of ICTs must be be developed specifically with indigenous women's needs in mind.

The participants mentioned that indigenous women face a number of challenges to using ICTs. There is limited access, particularly due to costs and lack of training opportunities, as well as sometimes language and literacy barriers. Women also rarely have time to explore the possibilities of ICTs, as they are overloaded with family and professional responsibilities. They also mentioned that there is a need to think creatively to explore how to provide indigenous women with the opportunity to use ICTs for practical purposes. One of participants expresses, wjhile I still have faith that technology will become available and at an inexpensive price too, what I feel is a lacking is creativity so that ICTs offer practical or interesting spaces for the rural indigenous woman," she further stated, "The challenges are many – illiteracy is something that we can overcome with multimedia - but the barrier between cultures is tremendous. The first problem is the machismo of technological culture..."

After meeting, discussing, identifying common challenges and sharing successful experiences, priorities for the future were defined. First, "an information process and follow-up that facilitates virtual contact is needed". Future courses "should reflect the common interests in issues of the people involved as much as possible." The participants also stated that materials should be adapted to the literacy level and reading and writing ability of the rural communities by prioritising oral communication. For example, the use of videoconferencing can be very positive in the context of the existing oral tradition. Another suggestion aimed at the creation of a list of indigenous women-related issues on the net: "something minimal that is useful to people and women interested in educating themselves about their reality and their issues."