Current Activities

Cultural Festivals:

Cultural festivals entail a host of social events including annual traditional celebration of selected IPs, exhibitions for IPs artifacts, fashion shows featuring IPs regalia, IP and traditional dance competitions. The quasi-formal cultural festivals include gallery artwork presentations featuring work by IP artists depicting their culture; Gala Night Dinner events (incorporating IP traditional cuisine and dress code); Drama, Book and Film Festivals on IPs; and media documentaries and feature stories promoting IP culture. Cultural festivals invite the general populace to celebrate and appreciate culture together with IPs.

Documentation of Indigenous Peoples Languages and Cultural Practices:

There are more than 30 indigenous groups in Kenya and about 400 million indigenous people worldwide with distinct beliefs, languages, indigenous knowledge and livelihoods - most of whom are endangered and barely recognized by the state or other communities leading to their marginalization and discrimination on the basis of culture. The Indigenous Peoples Foundation is currently working on the documentation of IPs languages and cultural practices for study, preservation and revitalization purposes. The activity aims at bringing to the fore of society’s focus the existence, the value and richness of the cultures of these “unidentified” communities and the need therefore to promote their cultural rights.

Blogging/Community Mobilization:

This activity encourages community members to start their own or join existing blog and internet discussion forums on our website geared towards promotion of cultural expression and appreciation of diversity to exchange ideas on how to promote a culture of peaceful co-existence. Participants are also encouraged to develop skills necessary for promotion of critical and analytical thinking, social interactions, good governance and increased awareness of both self and others. We also support the formation of community based groups, school and campus clubs as a way of enabling local citizens find room and companionship to celebrate and promote thier culture through solidarity. These cultural groups are part oif our small ciommunity nertwork. 

Street Theatre Project:

This project uses culture to challenge minority/indigenous peoples rights violations and the commonly held negative ethnic attitudes  and negative stereotypes. We use street theatre to engage ordinary members of majority communities in debates about diversity, difference, equality and justice. The main target of this project are adults who have discriminatory attitudes but who can be pursuaded to change once they are aware of the negative effects on others.

The project complements many programs within schools which are promoting social cohesion, benefits of diverity and intercultural dialogue. Thge project also raises awareness of the role of the role of culture in minority/indigenous peoples rights protection through media, film, and advocacy work.