What Am I Doing in Belize?

I am an intern with the Maya Area Cultural Heritage Initiative (MACHI). The goal of MACHI is to work with indigenous Maya groups in Yucatan, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize to promote heritage awareness and archaeological conservation. Programs have already been successful in the other countries, but the Belize part of the project had a slow start. I’ll be living in Punta Gorda (PG), a town in southern Belize, until Christmas, in order to kickstart a program among the 30-40 Mopan and Q’eqchi’ Maya villages there. That’s the project in a nutshell. How I’m going to accomplish this remains to be seen! I’ll be working with the Julian Cho Society, a local PG NGO that works primarily with Maya land rights in southern Belize. They recently sued the Belizean government for granting foreign corporations logging and oil drilling rights on what is supposed to be their reservation lands. With the help of the University of Arizona indigenous rights lawyers, they were successful. So the Toledo District is going to be an interesting place to explore these next few months. I’m not sure yet what the legal ramifications of the lawsuit are, or if they’ve been put into place. Regardless, there seems to be a distinct importance placed on political activism and organization among the Maya villages, which is exciting.

I think that archaeology can and should play a role in the political and social lives of these people. Currently there is very little acknowledgement of an ancestral Maya past, thanks to generations of colonialism. Archaeology is currently a major draw for tourism in Belize, on which the economy relies heavily. While the Toledo District has historically been difficult to access, there has been increased interest in ecotourism and home stays with Maya families in Toledo. Currently, there are plans in the works to connect the Toledo District to a pan-mesoamerican (not the right term, but I can’t remember what it’s called!) highway connecting Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and probably El Salvador and Panama. All of this is to say that Toledo is ripe for development, and there seems to be a unique opportunity to engage a politically motivated indigenous group with their past before the government gains more control over reconsolidated archaeological sites, most likely disregarding local concerns. Having control of the past is a powerful tool, and MACHI is trying to foster that awareness for local Maya.

A couple examples of how the organization has succeeded elsewhere: In Mexico they have filmed puppet shows (a popular form of entertainment in the villages) about Maya archaeology and conservation to be distributed throughout Yucatan. In the Peten of Guatemala they’ve started radionovelas about archaeology that have been very well-received. These are in the process of being translated into Belizean Maya dialects and will hopefully be broadcasted in Toledo in the fall. I’ll get to meet the people who put this together (from a foundation called ProPeten) in a couple weeks when they visit Belize. In Honduras a foundation called ArteAccion has trained two young Maya guys to visit Chorti villages teaching and leading students in art projects. They had a cultural heritage festival in December about Maya prehistory complete with puppets and stilt walkers! I think we’re visiting them in July, which I’m really looking forward to. These are the kinds of things that I’m going to try to come up with – creative, entertaining ways to get people educated about archaeology and conservation.