MPT9GMPWATPCICWMSILWJ

    Within the hispanosphere & lusosphere of what's currently known as “Latin America” the prioritisation of foreign colonial languages such as, Spanish and Portuguese is a direct consequence of colonialism. According to a 2019 report from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL International), approximately “880 Indigenous languages are spoken across 20 Latin American countries” and for the mass majority of these ethno-linguistic communities, little to no resources pertaining to COVID-19 have been translated to their maternal languages. An accessible solution that was executed within the settler colonial nation of Guatemala was accomplished via la Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG); an Indigenous Maya lead organisation that regulates the use of the 22 nationally recognized Maya languages within the colonial borders of Guatemala. Amidst the pandemic ALMG not only created resources in the 22 Maya languages but additionally extended these translation services to the other 2 nationally recognised spoken Indigenous languages, Garifuna & Xinka. These resources were then not only spread online, where you can still find videos on their YouTube channel (TV Maya Guatemala ALMG), but additionally spread these resources in physicality in the capital, Indigenous pueblos + settlements. While navigating the complex structure that is the healthcare system, it is vital to offer interpretation services in people’s original tongue for ease of navigation and for these patients to have free, prior & informed consent. Additionally we mustn't ignore the inherent power dynamic that these sites (i.e. hospitals, test centres, quarantine sites, etc.) are all on occupied Indigenous land and to not offer these resources in Indigenous languages perpetuates colonialism & forced assimilation in a direct manner. 

While travelling can be a great escape from whatever we may be dealing with at home, we must be conscientious travellers and keep in mind the impact we have & bring as foreigners and guests on someone else’s land. As stated by The San Pedro Sun news source, “according to government figures, the tourism industry is the second largest revenue earner for [Belize]” however, Belize just like many other Caribbean nations will be experiencing a major decline in economic activity due to COVID-19 puncturing travel opportunities and financial investments into the tourism industry. While Belize has decided to close its borders amidst the ongoing pandemic, Dean Barrow, the current prime minister has “announced that the Philip Goldson International Airport (BZE) will be reopened on August 15th, 2020 to allow travel to Belize” (Belize COVID-19 Updates for Travellers). In future months, to recuperate from the loss of revenue due to COVID-19, Belize will be heavily promoting travel tourism in hopes to revamp their economy, bringing in folx from countries with financial & healthcare privileges as “Americans account for Belize’s largest tourism market” (BTB Mid Year Tourism Report). With this influx of tourists that will be travelling to these “vacation getaway hotspot destination” when it is deemed “safe” to travel again, these exact people will be risking exposure to Indigenous pueblos & settlements, namely Maya pueblos & Garinagu settlements that are typically already impoverished and neglected + exploited by settler-colonial governments. This expression of neo-colonial violence has the potentiality to mirror the horrific atrocities of early colonizers’ first contact that decimated Indigenous populations due to foreign diseases they brought with them. While already facing discrimination within the healthcare system, monolingual Maya & Garifuna speakers will have an even harder time navigating these systems to obtain help when it can be prevented via keeping colonial borders closed. Although this life & culture threatening reality is not secular to just the colonial nation of Belize, but every colonial nation occupying Indigenous land. However, it is exacerbated for colonial countries that are deemed “travel destinations”, that obtain a “tourist location destination” and colonial nations that are largely dependent upon the tourism industry. The premature choice of travel & reopening of colonial borders will have detrimental long-lasting effects upon Indigenous sovereignty, cultures, communities & peoples as forms of countless cases of preventable sickness & deaths.

Which brings me to my final point in this essay, the dire necessity for a genuine deeper discussion on the reallocation of resources & funding centring Indigenous voices as we are the original stewards of this land. As colonisation and westward expansion has greatly impacted Indigenous populations, colonial anti-Indigenous governments have continued to not only terrorize our communities, settlements, reserves, aldeas, pueblos & povos but additional our homeland, the Earth herself. The largest, most vital “resource” there is, land. Due to colonialism & capitalism, there is a common thread among Indigenous peoples throughout the entire world. Which is the exilitation or displacement of Indigenous peoples of their homelands in order for colonial governments to move in and steal the wealth of “resources”, whether that be the land herself, water, gemstones//minerals, oil, etc. By denying us access to the land we come from and the part of us we are meant to protect as original stewards of this land, this is further perpetuating genocide in hopes to eradicate us. As stated prior, Indigenous peoples are incredibly underrepresented within colonial governments and even when colonial governments do create change on a governmental level for our communities, these legislative changes are “rather tepid and too generally formulated to be effective” additionally, “they have not yet transformed the conflicting nature of the relationships between Indigenous peoples and other segments of [colonial] societies” (De La Peña 309). This is the exact reason for the crucial need for an honest conversation about Land Back, the restoration process of the land to the original stewards and Indigenous + tribal sovereignty. These discussions need not only be had in relation to autonomous zones or predominantly Indigenous populated areas, but within colossal colonial city-states as well, for example, what’s currently known as “New York City”, Lenapehoking. Indigenous peoples are actively being barred from joining colonial governments, while being under attack from these same colonial structures. 

Some may argue that language accessibility isn’t important, that people should be able to travel whenever + wherever they want, that there is proper Indigenous representation in colonial governments. Yet all these claims are colonial violence, anti-Indigenous racism and quite frankly, blatantly false + uninformed. 

How are we supposed to exist within a colonial structure of oppression set in place to eradicate us? How are we supposed to navigate and turn this structure to work for us when we are actively being excluded? How are we supposed to survive if these structures are destroying our homelands for capitalistic gain + greed? How are we supposed to communicate with a structure that refuses to learn our languages? How are we supposed to survive during this global pandemic that has the potentiality to decemate countless cultures when colonial governments refuse to even acknowledge our existence, pre-existing struggles & struggles due to these violent colonial governments’ existences?