A new dictionary, The Languages and Culture of the Yanomami People, compiled by ethno‑linguistic anthropologist Marie Claude Mattei‑Muller, who has studied indigenous languages in Venezuela for 30 years, and Jacinto Serowe, the founder of the Intercultural Bilingual School in Platanal, Alto Orinoco, has been published. About 15,000 Yanomami people live in Venezuela.
Presenting the dictionary to the United Nations Education and Science Organization, Venezuela's Minister of People's Power and Advanced Education, Luis Acuna Cedeno, explained that the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela offers this to the peoples of the world, through UNESCO, as a demonstration of their "national concern to safeguard the identity of our aboriginal culture often quartered by the dominant culture."
Acuna pointed out that the dictionary is an "ongoing collaborative effort between two people with different cultures [which] brought this to realization," demonstrating the Bolivarian Government's application of the Universal Declaration of Cultural Diversity, UNESCO 2001. Great care was taken to respect the Yanomami's "privacy and their subtleties, so often constrained by the dominant culture," explained Acuna at the presentation. "This dictionary is recognized as an important contribution to the revitalization and preservation of the Yanomami language thereby enhancing the transmission of traditional values to the present and future generations."
As part of its efforts to resolve "the immense debt owed to the indigenous peoples of the world," Venezuela has adopted a law for the protection of indigenous languages, created a Ministry of People's Power for Indigenous Peoples, and backs the proposal to develop an international instrument for the protection of indigenous and endangered languages.