Preserving Cultures is a web site devoted to conserving indigenous culture. It is a collaborate place to showcase, promote, and preserve our living cultures and stave off cultural extinction. We hope to help endangered cultures protect their unique cultural identity by increasing economic opportunity and igniting a generation of youth as the next generation of stewards.
We work with organizations who protect cultural diversity through helping communities recognize and capture the value their cultural assets such as historically significant artisan and food products and unique heritage skills. This is accomplished by working with groups like the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA), which promotes culturally authentic tourism and Fair Trade organizations that help local producers connect directly to markets.
We are always looking for contributors as well as unique story ideas.
Upcoming posts will feature the following regions:
- Ireland’s West coast
- Mexico’s Baja ranchero culture
- Namibia’s Mafwe tribe
- Namibia’s San Bushmen tribe
- Bulgaria’s Kukeri (Mummery) festivals
Our Story:
The idea of forming Preserving Cultures was born while I was on assignment in Namibia with members of the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA), where I was to document the Mafwe and San Bushmen of the Zambezi region in October 2013. All members of our team were delegates of the World Indigenous Tourism Forum, which was held in Windhoek, Namibia. Attended by local and international leaders, we discussed how to help indigenous communities via authentic tourism methods. As a writer and photojournalist, I thought of the idea of having a central place to present different cultures as well as a place where collaboration between marginalized cultures could happen. I believe that understanding other cultures is the key to preserving it. It is with much love and hope that I started this site, and it will continue in this vein.
Preserving Cultures 