Terraba.org showcases the history, culture, land rights struggle of Costa Rica’s Térraba indigenous community.
Students in Elon University’s Interactive Media Program today announced the Jan. 24 launch of http://Terraba.org, a website devoted to sharing the story of Costa Rica’s Térraba indigenous group. For a preview, watch a video at http://bit.ly/WYDHFN.
Terraba.org will showcase the long history and rich culture of the Térraba, whose traditions have survived the Spanish Conquest and are now endangered by a hydroelectric project that would permanently flood 10 percent of their land. The small Térraba community in the Puntarenas region in Costa Rica is a matriarchal society that believes in autonomy and sustains itself off the land they have occupied for more than 500 years.
The Costa Rican government approved the Diquís dam, or Diquis Hydroelectric Project, without consulting the indigenous community, according to the members of the Asociación Cultural Indígena Teribe (Indigenous Teribe Cultural Association). The dam would flood important Térraba spiritual sites and damage the ecosystem. The government also plans to relocate the Térraba, who depend on their fertile land for self-sufficient agriculture.
Seven iMedia students researched, designed and built the site in less than a month. The website features photo slideshows, video interviews and interactive stories about the Térraba. The team includes Ashley Deese, Ruth Eckles, Alex Register, Kelsey Sullivan, Rachell Carroll, Marshall Beringer and Dioni L. Wise. Amanda Sturgill, associate professor of communications, and Bryan Baker, School of Communications staff member, advised the team.
The iMedia students will present the website at 10 a.m. Jan. 24 in Studio B of McEwen Communications Building to share their final winter fly-in projects. Each January, iMedia students spend the month working on a team project for the public good, which includes an international trip to collect audio and video content.
About the Interactive Media Program
Elon’s iMedia graduate program is a 10-month, full-time program that will prepare graduates to think strategically across media platforms. Students plan and create interactive media content consisting of text, images, sounds, video and graphics; and manage information for interactive news, entertainment and persuasive communications. Students learn from award-winning professors and build their own interactive media projects in state-of-the-art facilities. Find more information at www.elon.edu/imedia.
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Contact Dioni L. Wise or Kelsey Sullivan at terrabacr@gmail.com for more information about http://Terraba.org.