GIVING THE PAST A
FUTURE
The United Nations proclaimed the decade 1995 to 2004 as the
International Decade of the World s Indigenous Peoples.
One of the objectives of this decade was to find solutions to the
problems faced by indigenous peoples in areas such as human rights, the
environment, development, health, culture and education.
While the recognition of these rights and problems is a major advance
for indigenous peoples, this recognition needs to be accompanied by
action, on the ground, towards realizing those rights by providing
opportunities for sustainable growth and development.
This Trust was established to take positive action to halt the slide of
the most ancient of these cultures to extinction.
This precious heritage is the San community of Southern Africa
sometimes known as Bushmen . These people of the Later Stone Age, whose
genetic origins can be traced back to the beginnings of modern humanity,
still survive in small pockets in the region.
The cultural clock is ticking for the San and time is running out as
the old people pass on.
The Endangered Peoples Trust has initiated a project which will ensure
the survival of the culture and traditions of these forgotten people,
these hunter gatherers with an ancient past but almost no recorded
history save for the paintings and engravings found on the walls of caves
and rock shelters.
In the real world, the success of this project will depend on the
support of the people of this world. It will depend on funding, it will
depend on the academics of anthropology and conservation and it will
depend on the adherence to the principles on which this Trust is
founded.
Browse this website for more detail and you might find the opportunity
to have some input into this project which, in turn, could influence
solutions to other Endangered People.
Priner
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