BUNONG
Has many subgroups: Bunong-Nong, Bunong-Biăt, Bunong-Preh, Bunong-Lach, Bunong-Chil (Kaho), Bunong-Stiêng, Bunong-Maa, Bunong-krôl, Bunong-Bahnar,and etc. For the Bunong, the different of regions and territories causes our dialects to be different from one another, but the majority of us still understand each other.
Welcome to the Bunong Indigenous Community!! Our community is based in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. We are the Bunong Indigenous refugees that flee out of Vietnam and resettled in the United States. Therefore, learning a new language, cultures, and American ways of life was very hard for us as refugees that live in a foreign land.
Today, many of us are still facing with many problems throughout our daily lives. In addition, we don’t have or know anybody that could help assist us in our needs. Therefore, many of our elders are income less because they are too old to work and they can’t speak English nor read or write. Though they have food stamp and Medicaid but they are limited, so paying bills is a disaster for them.
Our American born Bunong’s are forgetting the Mother-tongue, traditions, and way of life slowly. Many Bunong adults are still having problem with speaking English. Therefore, we join hand in hand to support one another through difficult times in the U.S and to help our brothers and sisters overseas that are facing difficulties like religious persecution, human rights violation, land issues and ect..
Our community was form through families and friends to:
- Look after one another and to help each other to survive in this world
- Reunite the Bunong.
- Maintaining our tradition cultures.
- Maintaining our traditional music and dances.
- Help raise awareness for our families and friends back home.
- Preserver the Bunong Language from vanishing.
- Teach our history to the new generation.
- Spreading the awareness of the Bunong locally, nationally, and internationally
The existence of our organization is to promote unity and develop the culture, history, language, livelihoods, human rights and well-being of Indigenous Bunong peoples and communities living in the United States, Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries. Furthermore, we created this organization to overcome the shadow others that we've been living under for many centuries.
Now it’s time to raise our voice and stand up for ourselves. This organization was founded on September 7, 2013 by a small group of Bunong families and friends, with the help of Dr. Neal.
"Save The Bunong People"
Help save the vanishing community that is being Oppressed and Denied of Human Rights. Help restore the Voice of the Bunong Indigenous People. Everyday our people live in fear of speaking against the local government. Fear that their fa milies will suffer the consequences if they say or do anything that the local police may think to be rebellious. Fear of being too knowledgeable about what is right and wrong. Fear of communicating with us in the USA. They fear all of this but yet they still report to us when trouble strikes. They are courageous and let us not let that go to waste.
You can help by sending letters and speaking to your government. You can donate money to help the Bunong Indigenous youth go to school, provide food for families, provide clothing for families, provide good health for families. Your help can give the Bunong people a voice and a chance to equally live as any other human race. We are disappearing and have been dormant for the last few centuries. We are now finally rising up to the world know that we legitimately do exist! We want the same HUMAN RIGHTS as any other human! WE WANT FREEDOM OF RELIGION, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, PEACE! Mainly we want to be EQUAL to you!
The Bunong Indigenous People around the World
Logo:
Long House: Represent one of the original/traditional Bunong houses. These houses were built upon stilts to avoid dangerous animals. One single longhouse was made to house up to five or more large families.
Elephant: Represent power, strength, freedom, peace, and unity. The elephant has always been centered in the Bunongs’ everyday life. Elephants were involved in the Bunongs’ sports, everyday work, and transportation.
Texture: Represent the Bunong traditional way of weaving clothes, blankets, purses, and etc.
Star: Represent peace,freedom, and nature. Star are are the light for the I ndigenous people Communities/territories at night.
Location:
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.
Support us
You can donate now by clicking on the link above. The link leads you to the address to which you can send donations. We will accept any donations at any amount via checks, money orders, cash or through online donations.