Cultural Survival is an Indigenous-led advocacy organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights, self-determination, and cultural vitality worldwide. For more than five decades, the organization has worked in deep partnership with Indigenous communities to protect lands, languages, spiritual traditions, and artistic expression—understanding culture not as static heritage, but as a living, evolving force rooted in sovereignty and self-governance. Its work centers Indigenous leadership and knowledge systems as essential to justice, resilience, and planetary well-being.
Grounded in the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Survival supports global efforts to assert political autonomy, defend ecosystems, and sustain cultural continuity across generations. With partnerships spanning dozens of countries and active engagement in international policy spaces, the organization helps amplify Indigenous voices within global movements for human rights, environmental protection, and climate justice. Across local and international contexts, Cultural Survival affirms that cultural survival and political self-determination are inseparable.
Why It Matters: Cultural Survival challenges systems that marginalize Indigenous Peoples by placing self-determination at the center of cultural, political, and environmental work. By supporting Indigenous-led advocacy and honoring culture as a source of governance, resilience, and relational responsibility to land, the organization advances a vision of justice that benefits not only Indigenous communities but the health of the planet as a whole. Its work reminds us that protecting cultural rights is essential to sustaining life, memory, and future possibility.
