Excerpt from A Poem for Mother

Palem Apokpi, mother who gave birth to me,
to be a man how I hated leaving home
ten years ago. Now these hills
have grown on me.
But I’m still your painfully shy son
with a ravenous appetite,
the boy who lost many teeth after
emptying your larder. And
I am also your dreamy-eyed lad
who gave you difficult times
during his schooldays, romancing
every girl he wanted, even
when he still wore half-pants.

You told your children that
money and time do not grow on trees, and
I could never learn to keep up with them.
It isn’t that I’ve forgotten
what you’ve come to mean to me
though I abandoned much and left
so little of myself for others
to remember me.

I know how you work your fingers to the bone
as all mothers do, for unmarried sons,
ageing husband and liberated daughters-in-law.
Worried about us, for a long time
your lips couldn’t burgeon in a smile,
lines have furrowed your face and
first signs of snow are on your hair.

By Robin S. Ngangom (Manipuri)

Robin S Ngangom (b.1959) a bilingual poet and translator who writes in English and Manipuri, was born in Imphal (the “forgotten theatre” of World War II), Manipur. He studied literature in Shillong’s St.Edmund’s College and the North-Eastern Hill University, where he currently teaches.

The Kuku Yalanji People of Daintree Rainforest, Northeastern Australia

The Kuku Yalanji people of Northeastern Australia are the ancestral stewards of the Daintree Rainforest, where they have developed intricate relationships with the rainforest ecosystem for over 55,000 years. The Daintree Rainforest is a World Heritage Site, spanning over 120,000 hectares, and with as many as 30,000 species in just one hectare of rainforest. The Kuku Yalanji people have intimate knowledge of the rainforest cycles, which has been passed down generation to generation. Between 2007 and 2013, native title rights for over 70,000 hectares of the Daintree Rainforest, now known as the Indigenous Protected Area, were returned to subgroups of the Kuku Yalanji peoples, including the Yalanji-Warra, Jalunji-Warra, and the Kuku-Nyungkal.

With native title rights restored, Kuku Yalanji associations have established their own divisions of land protectors and stewards, while also sharing their forest management knowledge with park rangers managing forest occupied by the Australian government. Indigenous land protectors and stewards retain cultural practices and knowledge, native conservation strategies, tourism management, and community education. The Kuku Yalanji peoples have also been protectors of endangered species threatened by rapid human development and deforestation. Some of these species under Kuku Yalanji protection include Beach Stone Curlews and the Kurranji (Cassowary).

Fellowships

FSC Indigenous Fellowship Program
“The FSC-IF invites applications from Indigenous Peoples to enable them to strengthen their skills, knowledge, capacities, and networks through fellowship opportunities with the aim to facilitate the implementation of a project at the sub-national, national, regional, or global level and to share their experience and learning process with their Indigenous peers.”

Indigenous Leaders Conservation Fellowship
“Through this fellowship, we are creating opportunities for Indigenous leaders to explore solutions to the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss using the traditional knowledge of men and women.”

NAIS Fellowship
“The NAIS Fellowship seeks to support emerging scholars — such as graduate students, early career faculty, and community-based scholars — working within or across the international, interdisciplinary arenas of Indigenous Studies.”

Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship
“The Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellowship promotes intellectual leadership in Native American communities by supporting outstanding Native Americans who hail from a wide variety of fields and who utilize different modes of expression in communicating their knowledge and work.”

Scholarships (refugees and scholars from conflict zones)

HEC Paris – Imagine Fellows
“The HEC Foundation and HEC Paris, driven by the conviction that higher education has a key role to play in making the world a more peaceful place, have created “HEC Imagine Fellows”, a unique scholarship program intended for students from war-torn countries.”

Scholarship for Displaced Students – Columbia University
“The Scholarship supports displaced students from anywhere in the world who are unable to complete their higher education. These students will receive up to full tuition, housing, and living assistance while pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees…”

Humanitarian Scholarship – University of Manchester
“The University of Manchester has created fully-funded scholarships for 20 students who are fleeing war and persecution, with people now able to apply to start studying in September.”

Sanctuary Scholarships – University of Edinburgh
“The scheme aims to provides further academic training for doctoral students whose research studies have been affected by conflict.”

DAFI Scholarship – UNHCR (Myanmar not included)
“The DAFI (Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative) scholarship programme offers qualified refugee and returnee students the possibility to earn an undergraduate degree in their country of asylum or home country.”

Sanctuary Scholarships – University of Bradford
“The University of Bradford provides these scholarships to enable new students seeking asylum, or those already granted refugee status who cannot access student finance, to participate in higher education.”

Additional Resources

inHERE Project – Higher Education in Europe

Explore UN’s Higher Education Scholarship Opportunity Board

Times Higher Education – University Scholarships for Refugee Students