German-US-American Youth Exchanges – USA-Special 2022
Youth work and human rights projects in the Pine Ridge Reservation
Michael Koch
Lasting, multiannual partnerships, particularly with a partner as special as the Pine Ridge Reservation in the US, do not come about by chance. Formerly a youth worker with the Offenbach Youth Culture Office , Michael Koch explains how important it is to have a personal relationship with the partner organization, to understand its history, and to really get to know and engage with each other.
How it all began The youth projects between Offenbach and reservations in South Dakota, which are described below, initially sound like the result of a series of coincidences. When the two Offenbach youth workers Michael Koch and Clau - dia Weigmann-Koch spent a summer with the Dene First Nation People in the northern part of the Canadian prov- ince of Saskatchewan, just before they flew home their attention was caught by a leaflet calling for the exonera - tion of American Indian Movement activist Leonard Pel- tier, who had been imprisoned in the US for 24 years. That same night, they decided to set up the organiza- tion Tokata-LPSG RheinMain e. V . to support this prisoner and other Indigenous youth, cultural, and human rights projects. While working on their project, the two youth workers met Peltier’s cousin, himself a youth worker on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. They soon came up with the idea of collecting musical instruments and equipment for the young people on the reservation and donating them so they could set up a rock band and Hip-Hop production set. On a visit to the reserva- tion in 2002, the head of the local youth center suggest- ed handing over the donation together with a group of youngsters from Germany. Back in Offenbach, the idea proved popular in music and human rights circles as well
as with the city of Offenbach’s youth services commit - tee. Another important cooperation partner was found in the form of the organization Arbeit und Leben Hessen . World-famous rock and blues musicians 1 in the US and
England found out about the project and decided to support the fundrais- ing and youth exchange campaign, which took place for the first time in 2004, by holding charity concerts. This marked the start of an international youth work project that continued until 2017 and regularly brought together young Indigenous peoples of America and Germans. Altogether 110 young
This marked the start of an internation al youth work project that continued until 2017 and regularly brought together young Indige- nous peoples of America and Germans.
people from the Rhine-Main region and over 200 young Indigenous peoples of America took part in seven trips to the US and three projects in Offenbach. Instruments and other music equipment worth over $ 50,000 were donated as part of the exchange activities, enabling local kids to make rock and rap music whenever they want.
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