February 2006

<<back

print>>

NATIVIDAD MUTUMBAJOY AWARDED THE 2006 INTERNATIONAL LINGUAPAX PRIZE

February 2006 – Natividad Mutumbajoy has been awarded the International Linguapax prize on February 20th by Linguapax Institute. The Institute, a non-governmental organisation with its headquarters in Barcelona, was created in 2001 with the objective of giving continuity to a series of meetings organized by UNESCO from 1987 on. Among other activities, it aims at fostering linguistic rights as individual and collective rights, carrying out research on language policies, assisting the language policy makers of state or regional governments and connecting multilingualism with the culture of peace.

The prize is awarded every year by the Linguapax Institute to linguists, researchers, professors and members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their task in favour of linguistic diversity and multilingual education. Natividad Mutumbajoy is an activist of the Ingano people in Colombia and has worked jointly with the Tanda Chiridu Ingakuna Indigenous Association for the revival of Inga culture through education programmes in Yachaicury school and the setting up of a radio station broadcasting in Inga language.

As usual the identity of the winner has been disclosed on occasion of the International Mother Language Day, which was devoted to the topic of languages and cyberspace. During the same awarding ceremony the Linguapax Institute proposed a roundtable on good practices of language revitalization in different continents and the screening of the film “Voices of the World”.