About the Scholarship
The Incomindios UN Youth Scholarship aims to support young Indigenous activists and advocates, who are also scholars, in their pursuit of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, by fully funding their travel and accommodation to the annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in New York since 2019.
Alumni
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2019)
Andre Bear (Plains Cree, Little Pine Reservation)
Andre Bear is the CEO of Indigenous Nation Rebuilding, a consulting firm that aims to reinvigorate the Indigenous legal order, as part of a longer goal to establish Indigenous sovereignty. He has long been active in Indigenous causes, including being a special advisor to the Canadian government, a political advisor to the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and a policy analyst for the Yorkton Tribal Council. He is currently studying a LLM in Indigenous Law at the University of Saskatchewan.
Darian Lonechild (Cree and Saulteaux member of the White Bear First Nation)
Photo: Casey Shaw
Darian Lonechild has long participated in Indigenous causes, being elected Youth Representative for the Federation of Sovereign and Indigenous Nations, advocating for youth priorities on behalf of the 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan. She also served as Co-Chair of the Assembly of First Nation’s National Youth Council from 2018-2019, after having been active within the body for several years. More recently, she has been a part of the Indigenous Women’s Advisory Circle for the Chief of Police in Saskatoon, and participated in the CLASSIC Intensive Program in the Fall of 2022 to provide legal services to those in poverty and who suffer from injustice. She graduated with a Juris Doctor in law from University of Saskatchewan.
Cassandra Spade (Mishkeegogamang First Nation)
Cassandra Spade is a grassroots human rights activist, who champions Indigenous language revitalisation. To this end, she founded Gaa-Minwaajindizowaaj (GAAM), a youth organisation that seek to create Anishinaabe language resources, build Indigenous youth networks and develop their leadership skills, to facilitate immersive Anishinaabe languages classes, and develop a comprehensive curriculum. She herself has become a teacher after learning the language in full through interactions with her aunt and esteemed community elders. She is currently pursuing a law degree at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law.
James Walkingstick (Cherokee Nation)
James Walkingstick currently works as a policy intern at the Miami Waterkeepers, who advocate for clean water, ecosystem protection, and sea level rise resiliency in Florida. He is also an executive board member of the L.E.A.D Agency, with his focus being on the health risks of lead and zinc in the environment in regard to Indigenous families, as part of the effort for toxic metal remediation in rural communities of northeast Oklahoma. He is a member of the North American Delegation of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus, advocating for human rights and environmental protection directly on the United Nations floor, in collaboration with non-governmental agencies. He graduated from Harvard with a BA in Social Anthropology.
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2020-2022, Online Presentations)
Rosa Marina Flores Cruz (Afro-Zapoteca, Juchitán, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico)
Photo: Shirley Kimmayong
Rosa Marina Flores Cruz is a member of the Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory and the Indigenous Futures Network. Her work has focused on issues of climate crisis and environmental education, community resistance, green capitalism, indigenous and community feminism, agrarian rights, and land rights. She holds a Master's degree in Rural Development from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Sciences from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia campus, and is currently pursuing a course in Communication Sciences.
She has authored and co-authored several articles, which can be found here and here, and also given an interview that can be found here.
Aldemar Bolaños Caldon (Kokonuko, Columbia)
Aldemar Bolaños Caldon is an independent lawyer and legal advisor, who formerly worked at the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) (‘Consejo Regional Indigena del Causa’), a group consisting of indigenous authorities in the Cauca region, who played a key role in the negotiations of the Peace agreement in Columbia. CRIC also defend indigenous lands and rights, and when working with them, Caldon represented the Nasa indigenous community, ensuring the Peace agreement is fulfilled in accordance with the Nasa indigenous cosmovision. He studied to be a specialist in Human Rights Law at the Escuela Superior de Administración Pública, after studying law at the Universidad del Cauca.
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2023)
Flavio Augusto Ayuso López (Mayan people, Muna, Yucatán)
Flavio Ayuso López is a law graduate and works with a variety of organizations and groups regarding the defence of territory and natural resources. Notably, he works with communities of Yucatán, on legal processes within a participatory and strategic litigation scheme, as a form of defence against the imposition of new megaprojects, and is also a part of the Yansa Foundation that calls for a fair energy transition in the Yucatán area. He is currently studying Sociology at the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Maria Tzuc Dzib (Mayan, Tizimín community, Yucatán peninsula)
María Tzuc Dzib is an audiovisual documentary filmmaker who worked as a sound designer and editor on the documentary series, "Maaya Ko'olelo'ob-Strength and Wisdom", that presents the lives of three Mayan women from Yucatán who fight for Indigenous rights through art, linguistics and their work in the milpa, an ancient, sustainable farming system used by Mayans since yesteryear. Dzib strongly believes that audiovisual media is essential to ensure and preserve Indigenous culture, history and tradition. She has a Master’s in Anthropological Sciences from the University of Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Iztapalapa.
Jermani Ojeda Ludena (Quechua community of Puca Puca, Curahuasi district, Apurímac region, Peru)
Jermani Ojeda Ludena is currently working on a PhD in Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. His research explores the Indigenous media experience in South America, and he also researches and promotes the use of Indigenous languages such as Quechua and Aymara. He is also an active and prominent member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) community and from 2022-2023, was the co-chair of the Native American and Indigenous Peoples Association (NAIPA), a NAIS-sponsored graduate student organisation.
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