Incomindios Lippuner Scholarship 2025: The Winner

We are delighted to announce this year's winner of the Incomindios-Lippuner Scholarship 2025, who will introduce herself in the following lines.

Yadixa Del Valle - a dedicated Guna from Panama

"I am Yadixa Del Valle, a master's student in Sociocultural Anthropology and Linguistics at Western University, Canada. My research focuses on documenting the cacao chant and its use by Guna women to speed up childbirth, an ancestral knowledge of my people. This study will not only record linguistic practices at risk, as it is a language other than Guna but will also strengthen the visibility and participation of women in this knowledge, highlighting the cultural and environmental relationship of the cacao seed in the life of the Guna.

In addition to my academic work, I am the focal point for Indigenous Peoples in Panama for the United Nations Small Grants Program and coordinator of the "Cultural Strengthening" subcomponent in the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama (COONAPIP). My research and extracurricular activities teach me daily the importance of gender equity, documenting traditional ecological knowledge, and promoting the resilience of indigenous peoples in the face of contemporary challenges."

We are excited to see what we can learn from Yadixa this year and are looking forward to working with her.