Cultural Survival Q
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Concrete Identities
Indigenous Peoples Shaping the Future
Vol. 38, Issue 3 • September 2014 US $4.99/CAN $6.99
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s ep t e mber 2 01 4 V olum e 38 , Issue 3 Board of Directors President & board Chair
Sarah Fuller
Vice Chairman
Duane Champagne (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa)
Treasurer
Nicole Friederichs Clerk
Lesley Kabotie (Crow) Evelyn Arce (Chibcha) Alison Bernstein Laura Graham Steve Heim Edward John (Tl’azt’en) Pia Maybury-Lewis Stephen Marks P. Ranganath Nayak Stella Tamang (Tamang) Che Philip Wilson (Nga-ti Rangi) FOUNDERS David & Pia Maybury-Lewis Cultural Survival Headquarters 2067 Massachusetts Ave. Cambridge, MA 02140 t 617.441.5400 f 617.441.5417 www.cs.org Boulder Office 2769 Iris Ave., Suite 101 Boulder, CO 80304 Guatemala Office Calle Candelaria #5ª, Antigua, Guatemala Cultural Survival Quarterly
Copy Editor: Jenn Goodman Designer: NonprofitDesign.com Contributing Arts Editor: Phoebe Farris Managing Editor: Agnes Portalewska Copyright 2014 by Cultural Survival, Inc. Cultural Survival Quarterly (ISSN 0740-3291) is published quarterly by Cultural Survival, Inc. at PO Box 381569, Cambridge, MA 02238. Periodical postage paid at Boston, MA 02205 and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Cultural Survival, PO Box 381569, Cambridge, MA 02238. Printed on recycled paper in the U.S.A. Please note that the views in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Cultural Survival.
Concrete Indians, Rosary Spence, Toronto, Ontario, March 2010. Photo by Nadya Kwandibens, Red Works Photography (see page 4).
F e at u r e s
14 Lift the Sails—From Tahiti to Samoa: –ku –le‘a’s World Wide Voyage Ho
Kaimana Barcarse (CS STAFF) The second installment in a series documenting –ku–le‘a around the world. the historic voyage of Ho
16 Bringing A Xavante Healer’s Dream to Life
Laura R. Graham Xavante activist Hiparidi Top’tiro advocates for the protection of the Brazilian savannah from agribusiness at the Chico Vive Conference.
18 This Is Our Home: Human Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts Anonymous The government of Bangladesh refuses to acknowledge the country's Indigenous population.
20 The UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples
Cultural Survival recognizes that Indigenous Peoples have long been exploited by photographers and publications. This publication does not pay photographers for images and makes no money from publishing them. We also make a tremendous effort to identify every Indigenous individual in the images that appear here. From time to time, however, such identification is not possible. We apologize to the subjects of those photos and to any reader offended by the omission.
On the cover Concrete Indians, Tee Lyn Copenace, Toronto, Ontario by Nadya Kwandibens (Ojibwe/Anishinaabe), Red Works Photography.
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1 Executive Director’s Message 2 In the News 4 Indigenous Arts No Stoic Indians: Nadya Kwandibens 6 Women the World Must Hear Joan Carling and Rosalina Tuyuc 8 Rights in Action What Is Important: Indigenous Youth Speak 10 Board Spotlight Stephen Marks
Kenneth Deer The UN conference is really a High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly. No one should be fooled by the title.
12 Climate Change Oceania’s Indigenous Peoples Rising
22 Shaping Policy for the Seventh Generation
26 Our Supporters
Writers’ Guidelines
View writers’ guidelines at our website (www.cs.org) or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Cultural Survival, Writer’s Guidelines, PO Box 381569, Cambridge, MA 02238.
D e pa r t m e n t s
Joshua Cooper A report from the seventh session of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
24 The Moment Has Come for Us to Save Our Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Languages
Ishmael Hope After three decades, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian language and culture activists at the Sealaska Heritage Institute continue to inspire and motivate learners.
27 Bazaar Artist Bomdonn Ngodup 28 Take Action Take Action with the Guaraní of Argentina in demanding Harvard University be a responsible investor.
Ex ecut iv e Di rector’ S messa ge
Our Indigenous Identities Shaping the Future
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n my travels, I am always reminded of the presence of Indigenous Peoples; I know when I am on Indigenous land. I feel and honor the presence of ancestors and pay respect to them along with those I am visiting. Sometimes I can gaze upon sacred landscapes and homelands and understand; other times I gaze upon steel and concrete skyscrapers or other places where Indigenous People live and I feel more conflicted. I reflect on the many ways my own identify as a Native woman is shaped and how often our Indigenous identity is challenged as we live in integrated ways, and in some cases in complete dispossession of our lands and human rights. In this issue of the CSQ, Ojibwe/Anishinaabe photographer Nadya Kwandibens discusses her artistry and the role of her photography to deconstruct the frozen images of the stoic Indian, Indians in the museums, movies, and history books that hold Indigenous identity to a past mythology. Her photo essays brilliantly portray a vibrant collective identity of Indigenous people living and interacting in contemporary settings. Importantly, her work also reflects an Indigenous resilience and strength that is inclusive of broadened and renegotiated space and identity. Kwandibens’ work portrays resistance and continuity. This article sets the stage for many of the discussions that follow, speaking to the work being done to address the rights of Indigenous Peoples in spaces ranging from the local community level to international forums, and from our sacred waters. The leadership of two Indigenous women is recognized: Joan Carling and Rosalina Tuyuc tirelessly and courageously advocate for the protection of women and their rights in the
face of insurmountable violence. Representing Indigenous women from their own regions, they also represent Indigenous women around the world whose ability to nurture families, communities, and mother earth as carriers of traditional knowledge is seriously threatened by loss of land, climate change, and displacement. As Tuyuc says, “Women connect, we connect very much with the air, with the earth, with the moon, and with the stars: this is to say we are not alone. We keep working and we also keep transcending borders to assert our rights.” The Pacific Islander people continue traditional voyaging to connect, exchange news and information, and discuss critical issues facing their communities with others. The Climate Challenger Voyage, coordinated by the Titan tribe of Papua New Guinea, connects cultures and communities around the issue of climate change by drawing on traditional knowledge and practices. Ho–ku–le‘a’s World Wide Voyage reconnects familial ties of the Pacific and draws on traditional knowledge and practice while using technology for communication and documentation. Both voyages rely on sacred waterways as spaces for solutions, connections, and continuity. Each article in the Quarterly reminds us of the diverse spaces Indigenous Peoples occupy to live and/or work in their contemporary lives. What is clear and important is that a collective Indigenous identity is asserting a presence in spaces both familiar and new.
Suzanne Benally, Executive Director (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa)
Donors like you make our work around the world possible. Thanks so much for being part of Cultural Survival. Staff Suzanne Benally (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa), Executive Director Mark Camp, Deputy Executive Director Kaimana Barcarse (Native Hawaiian), FPIC Radio Series Producer Jessie Cherofsky, Program Associate, Free, Prior and Informed Consent Initiative Danielle DeLuca, Program Manager, Global Response Program and Free, Prior and Informed Consent Initiative David Michael Favreau, Bazaar Program Manager Sofia Flynn, Accounting & Office Manager Maria del Rosario “Rosy” Sul González (Kaqchikel), Free, Prior and Informed Consent Initiative Radio Producer Jamie Malcolm-Brown, Communications & Information Technology Manager Cesar Gomez Moscut (Pocomam), Content Production & Training Coordinator, Community Radio Program Agnes Portalewska, Communications Manager Angelica Rao, Executive Coordinator Ingrid Sub Cuc (Kaqchikel/Q’eqchi), Program Assistant Alberto “Tino” Recinos (Mam), Citizen Participation Coordinator, Community Radio Program Miranda Vitello, Development Associate Ancelmo Xunic (Kaqchikel), Community Radio Program Manager
INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERS Bianca Annoscia, Bridget Boyle, Don Butler, Kendall Crawford, Leda Kennedy, Sophia Mitrokostas, Emily Moline, Katharine Norris, Rebecca Quick, Nina Roth, Karen Sargent, Cecilia Tripoli, Kristen Williams, Jenna Winton.
There are so many ways to
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Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 1
i n t he new s El Salvador Amends Constitution to Recognize Indigenous Peoples June 2014
El Salvador’s newest constitutional amendment, Article 63, requires the State to maintain and develop the ethnic and cultural identities, cosmovision, values, and spirituality of thousands of El Salvadoran Indigenous Peoples. The amendment protects their political and economic rights and self-determination, including protection of communal land, which is crucial to the health and stability of the Indigenous communities. The ratification marks a reversal of the historical suppression of Indigenous identities and cultures in El Salvador.
Hla’alua and Kanakanavu Officially Recognized as Taiwan’s 15th, 16th Aboriginal Tribes June 2014
The Executive Yuan Council in Taipei has approved the recognition of the Hla’alua and Kanakanavu tribes after years of struggle. The two tribes were previously grouped into the larger Tsou tribe, native to southern and central Taiwan, although each group has their own languages, social organization, religion, and customs. Several other Indigenous tribes continue to seek recognition from the central government in Taiwan.
Brazil Court Revokes License for Canadian Gold Mine in Amazon June 2014
A federal court has revoked the environmental license for a large gold mine planned by the Belo Sun Mining Corporation on the Xingu River in the Amazon after ruling that it failed to assess the impact of the mine on local Indigenous communities. The Volta Grande open-pit project would be Brazil’s largest gold mine and have a negative and irreversible impact on the Paquiçamba, Arara da Volta Grande, and Ituna/Itatá Indigenous communities along the Xingu River.
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The officially recognized 2013 Indigenous population of Taiwan numbers 534,561, or 2.28 percent of the total population. Sixteen Indigenous Peoples are officially recognized. There are at least seven Ping Pu (“plains or lowland”) Indigenous Peoples who are still denied official recognition. Photo by Mark Cherrington.
Supreme Court of Canada Expands Land Title Rights in Unanimous Ruling
NFL’s Washington Redskins Trademark Canceled
June 2014
The US Patent and Trademark Office has canceled the trademark registration for the NFL’s Washington Redskins after concluding that the team’s name and logo are disparaging to Native Americans. Amanda Blackhorse (Navajo) and four other Native Americans served as key petitioners. While the action does not force the team to change its name, it will be more difficult for the team to guard against third party usage of its name and logo, potentially resulting in millions of dollars of lost revenue.
Canada’s Supreme Court has determined that Native Canadians (First Nations) retain ownership of their ancestral lands unless they have signed them away in government treaties.The court officially defined Aboriginal title as “control of ancestral lands and the right to use them for modern economic purposes, without destroying these lands for future generations,” and for the first time recognized Aboriginal title on a vast swath of the British Columbia interior.
Cherokee Citizen Keith Harper Named US Representative to UN Human Rights Council June 2014
The US Senate confirmed attorney Keith Harper (Cherokee) as the US Representative to the UN Human Rights Council by a 52 to 42 vote on June 3. Harper becomes the first member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe to serve at the US Ambassador level.
June 2014
Guatemalan Court Rules in Favor of Indigenous People Over Goldcorp Mining July 2014
A Guatemalan court ruled in favor of the Indigenous people of the municipality of Sipacapa over transnational mining in the area. The court ruled that the Guatemalan government must respect the right to information and consultation with the local population in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and ILO 169 before granting any kind of mining permits; therefore, Goldcorp’s mining permit, ”Los Chocoyos,” is illegal and should be withdrawn.
Global Response
Campaign Updates Kenya: Demand the World Bank Compensate the Maasai Maasai Representative Advocates at UN Forum Cultural Survival sponsored Ben Ole Koissaba of Narasha, Kenya, a PhD student at Clemson University, to attend the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May. Koissaba met with half a dozen UN bodies to inform them about evictions in his community, many of which occur with tacit financial or logistical support of groups like the World Bank and UNDP. Reporting back to his community, Koissaba received this response from Shaa, a Maasai elder: “We thank God that you have continued to be our voice. You have done what many of us that are here and suffering could not do. By telling our story, we are sure that now they will be able to make decisions that will not hurt us or take away our land without compensation.”
Guatemala: We Are All Barillas—Stop a Dam on Our Sacred River! Maya Delegates Travel to Spain to Expose Human Rights Abuses Traditional Maya leaders traveled to Spain in July to raise awareness about the human rights abuses experienced by their people and to expose how Spanish companies such as Hydro Santa Cruz, a hydroelectric company operating in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala, are violating their rights. The leaders met with international officials and were interviewed on public radio. Alfredo Baltazar, Q’anjobal leader and
Cultural Survival's Global Response program launches international advocacy campaigns with Indigenous communities whose right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent is being violated by agribusiness and extractive industries.
delegate of the plurinational government, said of the violations, “Peaceful resistance and community consultations have not been taken into account by the government of Guatemala. The government uses these statements to target us and criminalize our protests, repeatedly violating our rights.” Belize: Our Life, Our Lands— Respect Maya Land Rights Maya People Take Back Their Land Over 100 Maya people from Southern Belize gathered peacefully at the entrance to US Capital Energy’s A1 drill site in Sarstoon-Temash National Park in May to gain access to their tradi- tional communal lands that have been expropriated by the Texas oil company. In 2004 Belize granted US Capital Energy an exploration permit within the park. The site overlaps communally owned lands that have been traditionally farmed and occupied by the Maya people for generations, but now the Maya are being denied access to these lands. The government failed to earn the community’s Free, Prior and Informed Consent before issuing permits for oil exploration, and it recently negated the expiration of the permit. June 26 marked the one year anniversary of the decisive judgment of the Belize Court of Appeal upholding Maya customary land rights. To celebrate, Maya from 39 villages in southern Belize met at Indian Creek village, Toledo in a “Gathering of the Children of the Earth” to demonstrate their continued unity and solidarity. Leaders released a newly designed Consultation Framework, which establishes how state and non-state entities should engage the Maya on issues affecting them, including the use and enjoyment of their properties and resources.
Canada: Save Teztan Biny (Fish Lake)—Again! Historic Win for Aboriginal Title in Canada’s Supreme Court In a unanimous vote on June 26, Canada’s Supreme Court granted Aboriginal title to the Tsilhqot’in Nation of British Columbia for 1,700 square kilometers (approximately 650 square miles) of land. The ruling clarified the meaning of holding Aboriginal title, which guarantees the holder the right to “use the land, enjoy it, profit from it, and benefit from it.” It also requires that any economic development on land where title is established must have the consent of the First Nation. The decision will affect land and resource development throughout the province, especially for the Northern Gateway pipeline. However, the justices cautioned that the title isn’t absolute: if a First Nation withholds consent, a public project may be approved if development is justified “in the public interest.” In that case, the project can proceed but the province must compensate the First Nation.
Take action at www.cs.org/ take-action. Read more news at www.cs.org/news. Cultural Cultural Survival Survival Quarterly Quarterly
September September 2014 2013 •• 33
i ndi geno u s a r t s
No Stoic Indians
Looking Through the Lens at a Today’s Indigenous World
Red Works Outtakes, Helen Haig-Brown, Vancouver, BC, May 2013
Idle No More, Ottawa, Ontario, December 2012
Sophia Mitrokostas
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een through the lens of Nadya Kwandibens, being Indigenous in a modern world is a beautiful balance. As a Toronto-based professional photographer and Ojibwe/Anishinaabe of the Northwest Angle #37 First Nation in Ontario, Canada, Kwandibens has spent years capturing the spirit of today’s Indigenous Peoples in a manner that highlights the unique way Native identity intersects with contemporary life. A specialist in natural light portraiture, Kwandibens enrolled in film production studies in college but ultimately chose to pursue a degree in English literature. “I wanted to continue my education in a different area of study in university. It wasn’t until I moved to Arizona five years later that I began to take that passion for photography seriously,” she said in a 2013 interview with No More Potlucks, a bilingual journal of politics, art, and culture based in Canada. Kwandibens has not shied away from lending her talents to worthy causes. Her work was featured in the Canadian Broadcast Company’s “8th Fire” documentary series and she has been an artist-in-residence for the Native American Indigenous Cinema & Arts online exhibition. In addition to working with countless arts and advocacy groups such as the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and the Association for Native Development in the Performing Arts, Kwandibens tours the country each year booking private photoshoots for individuals and leading youth photography workshops. When asked what advice she would give to a new photographer starting out, Kwandibens believes the best practice is to just “get out there and shoot.” This spirit of active engagement and self-direction is a common thread throughout her
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work. In 2008, she founded her own touring photography company, Red Works Photography, and immediately began the process of creating her photo series, “Concrete Indians.” This stunning spread of powerful images is an exploration of Native identity as it functions in a modern urban environment. Kwandibens sees this work as a step towards claiming Indigenous identity with pride, explaining that “the series is about decolonization, being aware of it, and strengthening collective cultural identity.” In a 2011 interview with global Indigenous music platform Revolutions Per Minute, she traces the title of her series to a term the older generation from her community uses as a nickname for youth living and working in the city. The portraits comprising “Concrete Indians” feature Native individuals in a mixture of traditional clothing and modern urban fashion. Set against the stark angles and blunt lines of a modern highrise landscape, Nadya’s subjects stand in brilliant juxtaposition to the chaotic tumult of the city. They appear captured in moments of stillness, self-awareness, and strength. In some photos the viewer catches only glimpses of beading and feathers, while in others the subject stands proudly in full regalia, outshining the suits and sweatshirts surrounding on all sides. Kwandibens’ images pull Indigenous identity out of the reservation and illuminate the way real people balance heritage with the realities of the here and now. In a recent interview with Canadian Geographic, Kwandibens insisted that she wants her photography to be a more accurate contemporary portrayal of Indigenous Peoples, explaining that she sees the series as addressing “what it means to be Indigenous and living in an urban centre…how living in an urban centre affects your cultural identity as a Native person.”
All photos by Nadya Kwandibens, Red Works Photography
Top left: Arik Pipestem, Toronto, Ontario, September 2012. Top right: Brooke Pinkham and son, Seattle, WA, August 2013. Bottom left: Red Works Outtakes, Mandy Nahanee and Angela Sterritt, Vancouver, BC, September 2010. Bottom right: Buddy Cardinal and son, Vancouver, BC, May 2013.
“Concrete Indians” certainly succeeds in this respect, as Kwandibens’ photographs feel like an unveiling of Native presence, an assertion that Indigenous peoples do not exist exclusively in the pages of textbooks or dusty scenes out of American Western films, but are the people sitting next to you on the subway and working with you in the office. “For far too long society has viewed [Indigenous people] as living in the past—for example, in tepees on vast untouched prairies and riding on horseback—or as seen in the media, news of Indians protesting,” she says. “Concrete Indians” exposes these antiquated notions about the place of the Indigenous by weaving Native stories and identities into the fabric of contemporary urban life. Beginning in 2012, Indigenous Peoples across Canada united under the banner of the Idle No More movement to protest legislative abuses of treaty rights by the Canadian government. Native individuals took to the streets, forming flash mobs that performed round dances in shopping malls and blocking railway lines between Toronto and Montreal. Kwandibens photographed these gatherings and rallies, capturing the ardent resolve of the protesters in stirring images ablaze with color and emotion. In her remarks to No More Potlucks, she supported the idea that Indigenous philosophies and knowledge can and should inform dialogue on contemporary issues: “It’s a question of identity and pushing collective identity to the forefront,” she said. In her vision statement for Red Works photography, Kwandibens reflects that “Indigenous people are often portrayed in history books as Nations once great; in museums as Nations
frozen stoic; in the media as Nations forever troubled. These images can be despairing. However, my goal seeks to steer the positive course. If our history is a shadow, let this moment serve as light. We are musicians, lawyers, doctors, mothers, and sons. We are activists, scholars, dreamers, fathers and daughters. Let us claim ourselves now and see that we are and will always be great, thriving, balanced civilizations capable of carrying ourselves into that bright new day.” This vision is apparent in Kwandibens’ evocative art, in the way in which her subjects seem to bustle with the vitality and warmth of a community looking toward the future while keeping a finger on the heartbeat of the past. The Red Works Photography site features images from Kwandibens’ “Red Works Outtakes” series as well as numerous shots from concerts and events. Smiles seem to be a constant in her work. As she explained to Canadian Geographic, “There are no stoic Indians on my website.” For every solemn portrait and leveled gaze, there is a mother laughing with her child or friends with arms entwined. Perhaps this is what makes Kwandibens’ photography so powerful; her portraits capture all the facets and faces of today’s Native people, preserving the struggle as well as the joy. —Nadya Kwandibens currently resides in British Columbia. To contact the Red Works booking department, call (204) 782-3266 or visit www.redworks.ca/email. Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 5
women th e wo r ld m u st hear
2014 FIMI Leadership Award recipients Joan Carling (Kankanaey) and Rosalina Tuyuc (Kaqchikel).
Courage, Creativity, and Vision
Co-recipients of the 2014 FIMI Leadership Award Cecilia Tripoli
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n May 2014, the Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indígenas (International Indigenous Women’s Forum) awarded its annual Leadership Award to two extraordinary and committed Indigenous women: Joan Carling, a Kankanaey activist from the Philippines, and Rosalina Tuyuc, a Kaqchikel leader from Guatemala, received the honor due to their creativity in addressing social issues with exceptional leadership and courage. By defending Indigenous women’s rights, these women make significant impacts on community, national, and international levels. According to the Forum’s program coordinator, Mariana Lopez, the award celebrates Indigenous women “who have implemented creative ways to address pressing social issues, demonstrating courage, creativity, and vision.” Carling hails from the Cordillera region of the Philippines. She has over 20 years of experience working on Indigenous issues including human rights, sustainable development, environment, and climate change, as well as on the application of Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Her work with International Financial Institutions, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, REDD+ related mechanisms, UN agencies, and mechanisms relating to human rights and sustainable development in advancing the issues and concerns of Indig6 • www. cs. org
enous Peoples in Asia has led her to be elected twice as the Secretary General of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, where she has represented 47 member organizations in 14 countries. Appointed by the UN Economic and Social Council as an Indigenous expert member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues for 2014-16, Carling is an exemplary model of an Indigenous activist who has dedicated her life to the causes of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world. On receiving the Leadership Award, Carling said “it came as actually a big surprise. I did not expect this award, but I am very much humbled.” Carling works with Indigenous women in Asia and cooperates with FIMI on the participation of Indigenous women at the global level. While her work includes all Indigenous Peoples, she coordinates a program specifically for women with a policy of gender equality encouraging their participation to ensure that their concerns and rights are acknowledged. Such programs give Indigenous women the platform to embrace their needs and to fight for equality and justice. Indigenous women are a vulnerable portion of an already vulnerable group. In addition to human trafficking and numerous human rights abuses, women must also deal with forced relocation from their lands. According to Carling, “because of the violation of our land rights, land grabbing is taking over . . . not only causing displacements, but also weakening All images by danielle deluca
the traditional knowledge of women and the contribution to resource management. We know that it’s women actually [working in] sustainable resource management, and they have the knowledge how to use resources in a sustainable way. We’re going to lose that if they’re going to lose their lands.” The majority of the world’s Indigenous Peoples currently reside in Asia, and many are invisible in the eyes of the government, so Indigenous Peoples are increasingly asserting and defending their rights underground. Carling advises keeping an eye on the Philippines and Asia as a whole, since, as she explains, “the economic growth center of the world at this stage is Asia. There are a lot of infrastructure projects and a lot of foreign investments without any information or consultation with Indigenous peoples. That’s the kind of attitude that is prevailing, so we need to change that. We need to let people know that we exist and we want to manage and control the reLeft: Rosalina Tuyuc accepting the FIMI award. Right: Executive Director of Chirapaq and FIMI sources in our territories. We want to be Board Member Tarcila Rivera Zea (Quechua). able to practice our cultures, we want our young people to stay in our territories so that they will learn how to manage their resources for the fureason to cover the streets . . . [that] there is no longer a need ture generations. It’s time to really develop, train, and then let to bring people to justice.” Recently in Guatemala, many pubthe young people take more challenges. The youth are our lic sector workers denied the genocide of Guatemala’s past. hope, and so we need to ensure that they are there with us But Tuyuc affirms that “we have our own truth. The crimes of together and side by side.” genocide must not be accepted, tolerated; must not be hidden. Co-recipient of the award, Rosalina Tuyuc was born in When there are committed people and due process, we see San Juan Comalapa, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. She is a an opportunity for the justice system.” nurse by profession, as well as a mother of five and grand In addition to the Leadership Award, Tuyuc has received mother of four, and one of the founders of the Coordinadora various other awards including the Niwano Peace Prize. Nacional de Viudas de Guatemala (National Coordination of Throughout her life, she has trained generations of IndigeWidows of Guatemala). From 1988 to 2010 she served as gennous youth. She is an exemplary teacher and spiritual guide. eral coordinator, helping to guide the organization’s transition Committed to finding the good in people, Tuyuc recognizes to a leading Guatemalan human rights organization. Her key the power of alliances. In her vision of Guatemala’s future, role in Guatemala’s peace processes led her to serve as president “there is still a long journey where racism and inequality and rapporteur of the Commission on Victims of Violence affect us profoundly, along with the lack of participation and from 1989–1992. From 1993–1995, she was a member of the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples. Unfortunately the laws are International Committee Pro-Decade for Indigenous Peoples not at the service of all and instead are at the service of a few, of the World, and in 2001, she co-founded the Asociación but little by little we have made change.” Her message to the Política de Mujeres Maya (Political Association of Mayan women of Guatemala, and for the world’s people struggling Women). In 2004, as a member of the National Commission for recognition and for rights that have been neglected for on Peace Accords, she was appointed president of the National hundreds of years is as follows: Reparations Commission. Tuyuc has also held several public “I encourage them to keep staying unified and continue offices, including congresswoman and judge, and was a board striving to demand justice, to defend their rights both as member in the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala. individuals and as a collective unit. I also tell them that today Tuyuc expressed profound gratitude for the support is when the women should continue rising up so that our of grassroots organizations as she recalled her fights against rights are never violated. Women should keep being a mosaic racism, discrimination, and all forms of oppression that of a force of knowledge that unites us with so much cosmic women have suffered. She recognizes the force of individuals energy. Women connect, we connect very much with the air, and groups as deciding voices in the fight against injustice, with the earth, with the moon, and with the stars: this is to oppression, and discrimination. On the current state of intersay that we are not alone. We keep working and we also national conventions on Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, keep transcending borders to assert our rights.” and environmental matters, she says “the only thing missing is goodwill on the part of the governments, on the public sector workers . . . so that we no longer have reason to protest, Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 7
r i ght s i n a ct io n
What Is Important Indigenous Youth Speak
Wakinyan and Thorne LaPointe. Photo by Tiana LaPointe.
At this year’s UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Cultural Survival radio producers interviewed dozens of delegates about the issues pertaining to their communities and their work. The following are excerpts from three interviews with youth delegates.
Thorne and Wakinyan LaPointe
Thorne (23) and Wakinyan LaPointe (24), Lakota brothers of Rosebud, South Dakota, are American Indian Movement (AIM) West delegates whose community development efforts aid youth “to further their goals in their communities and reflect their values as Native Peoples” by reconnecting them with the land. In their words, the brothers want to “develop and integrate relevant cultural aspects as well as build political, economic, and social bodies that will provide the influence and political power that Indigenous youth need.” Thorne explained: “We want to remind young people that Indigenous People are strength-based. We show them the strengths that our people have had since time immemorial on these lands. We seek for our youth a transformative experience, the experience that our ancestors had before us...Too often our youth are too focused on the deficits that they say we have. They say that we’re the poorest of the poor; that’s all that our youth grow up and see. They internalize it. We want to teach them to grow our nations in a sustainable way.” Wakinyan added, “One of our education programs with Indigenous youth in the Minnesota area is a long-term project called Mde Maka Ska; to the Dakota that translates to ‘White Earth Lake.’ It’s part of a body of water that they hold sacred. 8 • www. cs. org
What we aim to do is simply help reconnect youth with the importance, the sacredness, of water and also the land. Often in the urban areas that these Dakota children live in, there’s a diminishment of that relationship to the land. So enhancing their experiences with the water through canoeing, through visiting with their elders near the water, or interacting with other Native youth from different tribes on land and sharing stories—learning and re-learning to visit again is the most sustainable way that we see in strengthening the values of the Dakota people.” When youth go into nature with the LaPointe brothers, Wakinyan said, “they learn that the sort of values they picked up in an urban, artificial environment are not sustainable. They’re forced to re-evaluate what they do and who they are in relation to the natural world; what kind of choices they want to make that are sustainable to them and their families. They derive that sense of future from the interactions and relationships they’ve built with the land and its life forms.” The brothers impart their traditional values, language, and stories as a way of strengthening the impact of this education. “We’ve found what really sticks with them is their language,” Wakinyan said. “When we take them out into a natural setting and use even just one word, you tell a story to that word, reconnecting youth with their origin. Their stories provide them with experiences to give a basis for their values as Indigenous people. We see the international human rights framework as a base to help support that continued learning for Native youth.” Thorne added, “Engaging them in the natural world and showing them how to fight politically, legally for their rights as well, that’s a very powerful thing.”
Alexey Akzhigitov
Alexey Akzhigitov of the Russian Federation represented the Republic of Karelia. A member of the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, his role is to maintain Indigenous youth voices. He also serves on the advisory body of the UN Human Rights Council and is leading studies on access to justice for the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples, with a special focus on youth with disabilities and Indigenous women. Akzhigitov recently attended the World Conference on Youth and was impressed by the attendance: 1,500 participants representing every country in the world, including the UN President of the General Assembly; Special Envoy on Youth of the Secretary General; and the President of Sri Lanka. The main topic of the conference was the post-2015 development agenda; in Akzhigitov’s words, “how youth, including Indigenous youth, can contribute to the preparation of sustainable development goals. I hope that Indigenous voices will be heard through this very important document.” Akzhigitov stressed the importance of language for youth development; he and his colleagues recently submitted a study
on language and culture for the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples. “For me, it’s a very important study,” he said. “Language and culture are very important for mentality, for self-identification as Indigenous persons. In my movement of Indigenous Peoples, we come to build language preservation and language development and we, as Indigenous communities, need support from the UN. In my republic, we have so few families in which parents transfer our Native language to children, from generation to generation. We have so few youth who can speak our language.” Akzhigitov said he has faced backlash for his efforts to incorporate Native language into school curriculums. “If we teach Native language to children, the government is concerned that these children cannot go to school and learn effectively because we have no education in Native language. They can learn Russian everywhere. But they should get also Native language, because this is very important for the development of a child. It’s good for their brain. In language exists a code for culture, for mentality.”
Blaney proposes an Indigenous Children’s Fund specifically to address culture and language: “because when a language dies, the sense of community and belonging, especially in a youth perspective, dies along with it;” health: “because all Indigenous children are most likely to die under the age of five than live to be an adult in all regions of the world;” education: “in 2009, over 60 percent of Indigenous youth had not completed high school in Canada;” environment, poverty, and well-being: “isolated Indigenous Inuit youth communities alone commit the highest rates of suicide in the world;” and sport: “[this is] a fundamental human right integral to maintaining healthy human relationships [and] a way to help disputes between states.” The children’s fund incorporates “all essential elements of a youth’s medicine wheel of healthy living: spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical activities.” As Blaney explained, “Our elders are dying before they can effectively pass down the culture. [And so] we recommend the creation and establishment of the Native Children’s Survival Indigenous Children’s Fund, which includes an elders, youth, and children advisory board to exchange wisdom, tradition, and opportunity between the generations. Indigenous Peoples are in a constant hidden war with governments, and children fall victim to such hidden wars.” Blaney hopes to fill a void where existing programs have failed, as she said, “to recognize the essential importance of re-establishing culture in the lives of Indigenous children so we may become successful.”
Ta’Kaiya Blaney addresses members of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May 2014. Photo by Danielle DeLuca.
Ta’Kaiya Blaney
Ta’Kaiya Blaney (13) of the Sliammon Nation, British Columbia, traveled to the Permanent Forum with her own funds to advocate for Indigenous youth rights. There, she shared her aspiration to establish an Indigenous Children’s Fund in collaboration with the Permanent Forum. Blaney’s passionate speech highlighted the challenges faced by Indigenous youth today: “Children under 18 account for 61 percent of the Indigenous population, the true majority and foundation of Indigenous societies. For centuries, our nations have sustained the familiar cycles of poverty and cultural extinguishment, as well as inadequate healthcare and education, infant mortality, drug abuse, language loss, distance from self-sustaining traditional practices, and suicide. Due to the continuation of historic exclusion, attacks on our cultures, and discrimination, Indigenous youth are subjected to colonization and the devastating after-effects of residential and boarding schools. Indigenous youth are a product of our communities, and so these negative factors become parts of our identity and discriminate against our human rights.”
Above, left to right: Cultural Survival radio producers Theresa Halsey (Hunkpapa Lakota), Rosy González (Kaqchikel), and Cesar Gomez (Pocomam) on a break at the 2014 Permanent Forum. Right: Cultural Survival released its second disc of Indigenous rights radio programs contain- ing over 50 PSAs and short programs in May.
To read more about Ta’Kaiya Blaney’s activism, visit: goo.gl/KRLnDg. To listen to the full radio interviews and hear programming on Indigenous rights, visit: consent.cs.org.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 9
boar d s p o t lig h t
A Model for Sustainability—Thinking In Terms of Thousands of Years
Stephen Marks
Cecilia Tripoli Our series spotlighting the work of our Board members continues with Stephen P. Marks, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. Marks is the director of the Program on Human Rights in Development at Harvard University, and is affiliated with the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, Rights; the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, among others. He spent 12 years in the service of the United Nations working for UNESCO in Paris and in peacekeeping operations in Cambodia and the Western Sahara. Marks holds degrees from Stanford University and the Universities of Paris, Strasbourg, Besançon, Nice, and the University of Damascus. Marks has also taught at Columbia University, Princeton University, Cardozo School of Law, Rutgers University School of Law, Phnom Penh University School of Law, City University of Hong Kong School of Law, University of Hong Kong Law School, and the New School for Social Research.
“Indigenous Peoples think in terms of thousands of years rather than budgetary or election cycles. And even the most progressive environmentalists have something to learn from this way of thinking; the concept of sustainability is cosmologically more profound among Indigenous Peoples [because of] their understanding of the place of human beings in the biosphere and in the cosmos.”
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ndigenous rights have long been a priority of Stephen Marks’ international work for the United Nations and his academic research, which focuses on the interface of public health and human rights and draws on the fields of international law, politics, organizations, and economics to address a range of international issues such as sustainable development, human rights, and peace and conflict. Even with his pedigree, Marks says his membership on the Board of Cultural Survival has provided him with “an exceptional opportunity to try to learn from Indigenous Peoples and apply that knowledge as an Indigenous rights advocate.” Marks is currently co-writing an article on access to healthcare and medicine for Indigenous Peoples. The study, to be published in January, attempts to underscore the value of traditional knowledge and medicine as a positive contribution to Indigenous Peoples’ health that needs protection. According to Marks, the root of the problem is that Indigenous Peoples are denied adequate healthcare and have a higher burden of disease than other populations and that Indigenous medicine is devalued by the Western world. He cautions that “unless this situation changes, Indigenous people will continue to suffer from the higher levels of morbidity and mortality across the world.” Deprivation of the human rights of Indigenous Peoples undeniably affects their access to public health and medicines. Indigenous Peoples are often prevented from practicing traditional medicine, and their traditional knowledge is exploited for profit through bio-piracy. “There are various ways in which traditional medicine is not adequately part of the access to health of Indigenous Peoples,” Marks explains. “They lack access to even Western medicine in very basic ways, and it is not just a service-delivery problem: it’s a deeper cultural problem. When Indigenous Peoples are confined to reservations or similar settings, the health system available to them often contributes to psychological alienation from Indigenous ways and leads to substance abuse, criminality, domestic violence, low educational achievement, and other social ills. All these complex issues contribute to the large Indigenous health gap and high burden of disease, which are exacerbated by poorly organized and culturally inappropriate healthcare.” Sustainable human development is central to Marks’ work, and has evolved to take greater account of climate change. Prospects for shifting to All photos courtesy of Stephen Marks
renewable energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels have led to new strategic approaches to making development sustainable so that current and future generations can benefit from adaptation and mitigation. According to Marks, “One of the most fundamental insights that has come from knowledge of Indigenous cultures is the awareness of the essential responsibility of all human beings for the planet and for future generations. Indigenous Peoples think in terms of thousands of years rather than budgetary or election cycles. And even the most progressive environmentalists have something to learn from this way of thinking; the concept of sustainability is cosmologically more profound among Indigenous Peoples [because of] their understanding of the place of human beings in the biosphere and in the cosmos. One of the reasons that I believe Cultural Survival and other organizations supporting Indigenous Peoples are so important is that they give voice to those who are existentially aware of the threats to the very survival of our planet. The non-Indigenous world is not likely to live under the conditions of tribal communities, but reducing our carbon footprint is vital for the survival of the planet and our species. Indigenous people are way ahead in understanding this imperative.” In terms of human rights, Marks says that Indigenous Peoples are often victims of violations of their right to development as set out in the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development, and their rights to their lands, territories, and resources, as set out in the 2007 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; he says that the right to development “has been a misunderstood and politically distorted concept. It calls for greater justice in the areas of aid, trade, intellectual property rights, international investments, and other domains where there are structural disadvantages affecting poorer countries that prevent them from breaking the cycle of poverty. Globally speaking, the international economic order is skewed in ways that benefit economically powerful countries. Within countries, the system is skewed in ways that create disadvantages for Indigenous people, thus making them doubly disadvantaged by the functioning of the global economy.” Marks is currently on a yearlong sabbatical in India where he is pursuing his research at the Jindal Global University. He believes there is much to learn from India and similarly devel-
oping countries about maintaining traditional cultural rights during rapid development. He notes the complex issues facing the Indian government, for whom India’s more than 400 ethnic groups, including some 84 million Adivasis, are called “Scheduled Tribes” rather than Indigenous Peoples, and recognizes that India’s approach to the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights must be understood in a post-colonial political framework: “The concept of Indigenous Peoples as understood in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is not usually applied to these ‘scheduled tribes,’ although India did vote in favor of the Declaration. In spite of some welcome legislation covering protection of land rights and promotion of employment of tribal peoples, however, persistent reports point to inadequate implementation and a variety of forms of repression and exclusion.” Clearly, he says, “much remains to be done to protect and empower the Indigenous Peoples of India.” Marks seeks to incorporate the Indigenous struggle into the broader human rights framework. “For Indigenous Peoples, their human potential is constrained by the very fact of their attempting to survive under the context of a dominant population, even a dominant population that is well-intentioned. We need to find creative ways to allow the full flourishing of Indigenous Peoples, which is the ultimate objective of all human rights struggles.” Since joining Cultural Survival’s Board, Marks has increasingly felt that supporting action by Indigenous Peoples to protect their rights is imperative; he hopes to enhance the awareness and impact of the struggle for these rights through advocacy by taking an active role on the Board. Due to his vast research in the field of human rights, he says “the place where my background allows me to be helpful relates to the functioning of the international system, and we’ve been doing that recently with the Universal Periodic Review. I think that, for my own role, we can work to expand the ways in which Cultural Survival and other Indigenous organizations can have an impact on the functioning of the international system. But Cultural Survival does much more than advocate for action by the international system; it works in numerous other ways, such as radio programs and the publication of the Quarterly. I’m hoping to become more active in these other areas as well.”
Stephen Marks with the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay (in red), and his students on Human Rights Day at UN Headquarters, New York, December 2010.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 11
c l i mat e ch a n g e
Oceania’s Indigenous Peoples Rising Joshua Cooper
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s the climate change crisis continues to crash on the shores of the atoll nations, every day Pacific Islanders are challenged to exercise their rights of self-determination. While the lack of defined determinism by developed states could doom the small island developing states to disappear, Indigenous communities, their countries, and global civil society continue to create innovative initiatives illustrating Indigenous island traditional knowledge. They are answering the
Climate Challenger sailing test run. Photo by Seiorse Carthy, courtesy of climatechallengervoyage.net.
Jo-Jikum, a youth environmentalist group, cleans up beaches in the Marshall Islands. Photo courtesy of YokweOnline.
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moral call to action by sharing these sustainable models with one another. The communities of Oceania face severe, imminent consequences connected with climate change. Because of rising sea levels, low-lying atoll areas are already being flooded and coastal shores eroded, along with salt water intrusion. The results are violations of the residents’ fundamental human rights to water, food, housing, and health. Yet there are many more consequences impacting the cultures and livelihoods of Pacific Islanders. Beyond the sea water seeping into the soil, there is also acidification of the ocean, which is leading to coral bleaching. The death of the coral equates to the loss of an important natural barrier to king tides and rising sea levels, as well as loss of a food source. Shell fish cannot survive and fish no longer inhabit the dying reefs. Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific aren’t waiting to be saved, however. Instead, they are showing significant strength in sharing knowledge and strategic initiatives of the islands. Kiribati is an example of education, empowerment, and engagement at all levels of society. At the community level, the Otin Taai Declaration of 2004 outlines basic economic, social, and cultural rights. Beyond mere words, the work is impressive with over 37,000 mangroves planted under the Kiribati Environment and Conservation Division Kiribati Adaptation Program Phase II. What is vital is the planting with youth groups and school students to start and manage the mangroves. Helene Jacot Des Combes of the University of the South Pacific’s Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development explains the importance of the project: “To replant native plants contributes to the renewal of the ecosystem. When planting is successful it has impacts both on the protection of the coast and also for food security by providing more fish and crabs for the community.” The world is aware of the actions taken in Kiribati due to President Anote Tong’s leadership in international negotiations such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Tong argues and advocates from a human rights perspective, demanding dignity and equality for the citizens of Kiribati. He also coordinated a visit of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to his country. Beyond bearing witness as the first Secretary-General ever to step foot in Kiribati, Ki-moon literally stood in solidarity with the youth, planting his feet in the sinking sands of Stewart Causeway while planting mangroves to protect the beachfront area from rising sea levels. Another climate change adaptation action combines education and cultural exchange to combat the climate crisis. The Climate Challenger Voyage was launched with 10 crew in one canoe for a voyage of 4,000 kilometers, with the purpose of connecting 25 Pacific communities to share climate change adaptation practices. Manuai Matawai, initiator of the Climate Challenger Voyage, summarizes his vision: “Five years ago I dreamt of building an ocean voyaging canoe to sail the Pacific and unite with other Pacific Island communities on what we can do about climate change.”
The Titan tribe of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, coordinated the traditional voyage to connect culture, conservation, and climate change adaptation in the Pacific. On its initial voyage, it visited various communities to share educational material about climate change and to serve the community with an exchange of initiatives by fellow Pacific Islanders to realize their human rights. The Climate Challenger Voyage shared innovative initiatives that are already proven in the neighbor nations. The different models of locally managed marine areas continue to increase and prove successful; there is seaweed farming to assist with reefs, along with mangrove planting and the addition of crabs to increase life along the mangroves and provide food. With the community, the crew actually built a 7-meter long dry stone wall on Buala for coastal protection—leaving behind not just a living model, but training material and the traditional knowledge for construction. While the Climate Challenger Voyage is important in the Pacific region, another traditional voyaging community is aiming to teach about climate change on a worldwide voyage from 2014–2017. The Polynesian Voyaging Society will sail the entirely traditional Ho–ku–le’a and solar powered escort safety canoe, Hikianalia, around the globe visiting groups with a message of sustainability and peace. As Jenna Ishii, an education specialist, said, “We know there are a lot of issues we are facing. But as a people we can find solutions.” The World Wide Voyage will teach a curriculum of climate change during its travels and share examples of adaptation accumulated while sailing. There will also be Google hangout group that will connect directly from canoe to classroom and communities around the world. These climate change adaptation practices provide a prolonged and principled pursuit of sustainable development and saving our planet. A voice from the Pacific represents the ripple that must crash on the conscience of citizens of the world. The poem “Tell Them,” by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, makes sure that the existence of Indigenous Peoples is never forgotten, and indeed remains at the forefront of policymakers’ minds. Climate Challenger canoe builder and captain Manuai Matawai of Pere village. Photo by Poyep Matawai, courtesy of climatechallengervoyage.net.
…tell them about the water how we have seen it rising flooding across our cemeteries gushing over our sea walls and crashing against our homes tell them what it’s like to see the entire ocean level with the land but most importantly tell them we don’t want to leave we’ve never wanted to leave and that we are nothing without our islands. Beyond writing poems to share with humanity’s soul, JetnilKijiner was also pivotal in the creation of Jo-Jikum, an environmentalist group empowering youth to maintain positive changes for people and land in the Marshall Islands. “I want the world to know of our resilience and our strength—that we are in no way going to just give up, pack up, and leave our islands. Our culture is rooted in our land, and our land is our life,” she says. Climate change is an insidious form of colonialism denying the fundamental freedoms of Indigenous Peoples. It is no longer an ominous threat of the future but a dawning, deadly reality. Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific are responding to this new reality with fortitude for the continued existence of the rich cultures of Oceania. Their resistance is rooted in human rights advocacy and is resulting in a renewed sense of self and commitment to sustainable development not only to save one’s homeland, but all of humanity. Their actions and adaptations are the difference between life and death. —Joshua Cooper is a professor at the University of Hawai’i, West Oahu, Kapolei, HI and the director of the Hawai’i Institute for Human Rights. Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 13
Lift the Sails
Kaina Holomalia embraces master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld (with lei) as the Worldwide Voyage begins.
–le‘a’s World Wide Voyage From Tahiti to Samoa: Ho–ku
Kaimana Barcarse (CS STAFF) This article is the second installment in a series documenting the historic undertaking of the voyage of Hōkūle‘a around the world over the next three years.
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uch preparation is needed for each leg of the world wide voyage, especially during this first year that is focused on reconnecting the familial ties of the Pacific families. Since these are the first legs of this voyage, there is much to prepare and much to test. So far, it is going very well. And for the times that there are bumps in the road, they are looked at as opportunities to learn and improve. As one of the most famous sayings on the deck of the canoe goes, “the only thing guaranteed is change!” I am humbled to be a crew member on this leg of the voyage. As we prepare for the leg from Tahiti to Samoa, the first crew is on the canoes and has sailed from Hawai‘i to Tahiti. They arrived in record time, the fastest ever for Hōkūle‘a, and the second fastest of a Polynesian voyaging canoe, in just 15 days! Also, something that has never before been done was accomplished on this voyage: live video chats between crew members and classrooms from Hawai‘i and Tahiti, using Google and the newest technologies. Preparing for a voyage is just as important as the voyaging itself. You need to prepare your body for the rigors of the voyage by constantly swimming, running, and exercising. Another important area to prepare is your family: they need to be able to bear your responsibilities while you are gone without your absence creating a great burden. If the voyager is constantly worrying about his or her family, he cannot concentrate on that which is the most important at the moment, which is safely sailing the canoe to its next destination. Another area to prepare is your career or your schooling. As crew members of this voyage are unpaid volunteers, they 14 • www. cs. org
need to make sure their finances are in order and that they have adequate leave from work or school so that they can be away for up to two months at a time. In order to prepare the voyagers that are living on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, the families of the Waimea community got together and hosted a send off in order to share their spiritual blessings and their love for all of the voyagers embarking on this journey. This is important because for every voyager that steps forth on the canoe brings with him his family, his ancestors, and his community to voyage with him in spirit. There was much prayer, song, and chanting in this celebration. The voyagers shared their voices, sharing in the voyage that is close at hand. It is a Hawaiian cultural practice to document special occasions and auspicious events through song and chant, and an impromptu chant was composed and shared with the audience. We share the chant with you below: ‘O Tautira ka ‘āina aloha, ka ‘āina ‘ohana, ka ‘ohana hānai wa‘a, ka ‘ohana pili holo kai ē Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a, i nālani ho‘olua, i ke komohana, pae i Mo‘orea Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i noio ho‘olua a pae i Huahine ‘āina o nā kupu‘eu ‘imi kū‘oko‘a Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i ‘āina kona a pae i Taputapuātea i Ra‘iātea ka piko o ka honua Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i nāleo ho‘olua a pae i Taha‘a Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i ka ‘āina, i ka noio ho‘olua a pae i Borabora I Borabora ke kilo kai, ‘imi i ke ala pono Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i ke komohana, i lā ho‘olua a pae i Maupiti ‘O Maupiti ka mole o ka honua – All photos courtesy of ‘O iwi TV
–ku – le‘a The sails are set, the voyage is underway. Ho departs Honolulu, Hawai’i on May 17, 2014 surrounded by outrigger paddling canoes.
Ua pau ‘o Polapola i ke kipa ‘ia Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a Puka i ka moana uli i noio kona a pae i Avatiu ka ‘āina o nā kuki ka ‘āina Lalokona ē Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a pi‘i i ka ‘ākau a pae i ‘Aitutaki Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i nālani ho‘olua a pae i Suarrrow, pae i Pukapuka Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a ‘imi i nā kona, ‘o Lā, ‘o Manu a pae i Manu‘a ‘O Manu‘a ‘āina ali‘i, ‘āina Kāmoa Kau ka pe‘a, holo ka wa‘a i ke komohana nō a pae i Pagopago Ua pae, ua kō! Tautira the land of love, the land of our family, the family that adopted the canoe, the family of the voyagers Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of nālani ho‘olua, then komohana, and arrive in Mo‘orea Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of noio ho‘olua and land in Huahine the land of the independence warriors Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of ’āina kona and land in Taputapuātea, in Ra‘iātea the center of the earth Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of nāleo ho‘olua a pae i Taha’a Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of ‘āina and noio ho‘olua and arrive in Borabora Borabora where we observe the seas looking for a window, a path Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of komohana, of lā ho‘oluaa and land in Maupiti Maupiti, the root, the origin of the earth All of French Polynesia has been visited Head to the deep ocean Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of noio kona and land in Avatiu, the land of Rarotonga Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of ‘ākau and land in ‘Aitutaki Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of nālani ho‘olua and land in Suarrow and Pukapuka Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of the kona’s to lā and manu, and land in Manu’a Manu’a the land of the chiefs, the land of Samoa Lift the sails, and the canoe ventures forth to the direction of komohana, and arrive in Pagopago We have landed, we have arrived In order to have this article ready for the September print issue of the CSQ, I am writing this in the town of Hāna on Maui the morning of the wedding of one of our voyagers, and the morning before flying to Tahiti to start our leg of the voyage. As you read this, our crew should have returned to Hawai‘i and turned the canoes over to the capable hands of the next crew for the next leg. Lift the sails, and the canoe shall go forth! To follow us on this world wide voyage, go to www.hokulea.com.
No task is too big when done together by all. While at sea, crew members rely on –ku – le‘a’s sails. one another to change Ho
Cross the ocean as a bird. Navigator Ka‘iulani Murphy, right, and apprentice navigator Haunani Kane look beyond the horizon to pull land out of the sea.
To read this article in Hawaiian, visit goo.gl/yzre7e. No ka hahai ‘ana i ke–ia holo ‘ ana a puni ka honua, e kele ka iole i.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 15
Left: Hiparidi Top’tiro (Xavante) and Joan Hendriks (Ngugi) at the Chico Vive conference. Photo by Marcia Machado. Middle: Top’tiro presents on the destruction of the Brazilian savannah by soy agribusiness. Photo by Andrew Miller/Amazon Watch. Right: With filmmakers at the Chico Vive Film Festival: (L-R) Laura R. Graham, Top’tiro, Mark Kitchell, Hendriks, and Marcia Machado. Photos courtesy of Biorn Maybury-Lewis, Cambridge Institute for Brazilian Studies.
Bringing a Xavante Healer’s Dream to Life Laura R. Graham
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nspired by a healer’s dream and prescient vision that destruction of the Brazilian cerrado (savannah) is endangering the red pi’ã, the bird that warns Xavante of impending danger, leader and activist Hiparidi Top’tiro sprang into action. In 2006 he founded the Mobilization of Indigenous Peoples of the Cerrado, a coalition of diverse peoples that pressures the government to implement environmental protections for the cerrado equivalent to those in place for Amazonia. In April, Top’tiro traveled to the United States to participate in the Chico Vive Conference at American University in Washington, D.C., an event co-sponsored by Cultural Survival. The conference name commemorates Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper assassinated in 1988 for his defense of the Amazon rainforest. Spearheaded by Linda Rabben, a faculty fellow at American University School of International Service, Chico Vive brought together Indigenous and traditional leaders from Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas with environmental activists, academics, students, and NGO representatives to discuss the development and challenges of global grassroots environmental activism in the 25 years since Mendes was killed. Top’tiro and other Indigenous leaders shared their experiences in grassroots environmental movements, and perhaps most importantly learned first-hand about the experiences of other Indigenous leaders and activists from other parts of the world. In a session titled “Self-determination and conservation challenges for grassroots movements,” Top’tiro spoke about the challenges the Xavante face as Indigenous inhabitants of the central Brazilian cerrado. He described his efforts to unite Indigenous and other traditional inhabitants to press the government to pass legislation, promote policies, and devote resources to protect this unique biome. The cerrado, an extremely rich and diverse area, is home to Xavante and numerous other Indigenous groups, the source of many Amazonian rivers, and the epicenter of Brazil’s booming soy agroindustry. Xavante and other cerrado peoples now suffer the consequences
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of largely unregulated, multinational agribusiness and destruction of their land for export-destined soy cultivation. Environmental legislation and policy concerning the cerrado is inadequate, with significantly fewer protections than Amazonia, an ecosystem that relies on the health of the cerrado. Top’tiro explained that since contact less than 60 years ago, the Brazilian state has consistently implemented policies that negatively affect the Xavante; current President Dilma Rouseff ’s administration continues to undermine Indigenous rights guaranteed by the 1988 Constitution. Legislators are now considering a constitutional amendment that would move decisions about the demarcation of Indigenous lands from the nonpartisan National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) to the legislative branch where they would be subject to political pressures. Such a change would have devastating results
Hiparidi Top’Tiro with Amazonian ecologist Philip Fearnside and anthropologist Laura R. Graham experimenting with Android software technology designed to assist Indigenous Peoples with environmental monitoring. Photo by Andrew Miller/Amazon Watch.
for the nation’s Indigenous peoples, many of whom have unresolved land claims. Although Top’tiro says he “was just a boy at the time of Chico Mendes and didn’t know much about his work,” as he learned more, he said that Mendes’ efforts to unite disparate peoples served as an inspiration: protecting the cerrado implies protecting the life force and spiritual resources essential to the future and cultural continuity of Xavante and other Indigenous Peoples. “Things that protect us, like my ear ornaments, names, our dreamed music—all this comes from the cerrado. We need the cerrado because it is the source of our life force and spirituality. We need it to continue our dreaming,” he said. On the final day of the conference, Top’tiro participated in a workshop and the film festival where he introduced “Owners of the Water: Conflict and collaboration over rivers,” a film from 2009 that features some of his activism. Top’tiro emphasized that the trip up the Rio das Mortes and visits to other Indigenous communities that are documented in the film were essential to the development of his vision to create a coalition of cerrado peoples and the founding of the coalition. In the “New Technologies” workshop, Top’tiro had the opportunity to experiment with wireless phone technologies that several Amazonian Indigenous groups are using to document environmental destruction in their territories such as illegal timber extraction and mining. Top’tiro began to imagine ways that these technologies might be helpful to a Xavante ethno-mapping project and documentation of illegal activities in their reserves. He was also inspired by a Sierra Club presentation on activist uses of social media, and began to envision ways that new devices could help bring attention to Xavante actions, amplify their demands, and serve as a means to demand government accountability. After attending these events Top’tiro reflected, “It is now very clear to me that the situation of Indigenous Peoples across the globe is the same. We all face the same processes of colonization, evangelization, contact with non-Indigenous peoples, [colonizing] education, relationships between Indigenous peoples and the state, and multinational corporations. Everywhere it is the same. We are the most exploited of the exploited. This is something that I really understood: there is no difference. We just speak different languages and live in different countries. But the pressure from the state and from multinational corporations is everywhere the same. Hearing my relatives tell their stories caused an understanding to deepen inside me. This was a tremendous learning experience, one that was very important for me.” Top’tiro’s trip to the United States also provided a unique opportunity to become familiar with various US-based Indigenous and environmental groups and networks and to learn about the culture of support in this country. After three days at the conference in Washington, Top’tiro spent a week in San Francisco meeting with representatives of numerous nonprofit organizations, ecclesiastical groups, and government agencies, including the US Department of State. On behalf of the Xavante Warã Association, an organization Top’tiro founded in 1996, Top’tiro presented a proposal that is the current focus of his attention and object of his fundraising efforts. The Marãnabödödi (Forest Pathways) project proposes a system of corridors to link disparate Xavante terri-
tories along tributaries of the Rio das Mortes. These pathways would allow Xavante to hunt, collect resources, and travel without fear of reprisal on lands that were formerly theirs but are now owned by private landholders. The areas in question primarily consist of protected zones; Top’tiro and other Xavante hope to enter into friendly agreements with farmers to establish these easements. Although they are on good terms with some farmers, relations with others are extremely tense. Because my anthropological research documenting Top’tiro’s work over the last 15 years has familiarized me with this initiative, he asked me to join him in presenting the Marãnabödödi project. I translated, filled in gaps, and provided explanations as necessary. We developed a Powerpoint that Top’tiro presented several times, including at one well attended event co-sponsored by Cultural Survival, Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and the Small Planet Fund/Institute. We are grateful to Leila Salazar, program director at Amazon Watch, for setting up this event. Top’tiro is grateful to Cultural Survival for its help connecting him with other organizations and noninterference in the ownership of his project. He said that in contrast to previous NGO-sponsored trips, where he sensed he had been enlisted to support another organization’s agenda, on this trip he felt like a free agent. As he prepared for his voyage home to Brazil, Top’tiro said, “When I return, I am going to recount every detail of this trip. I am going to tell the young men who work with me in the Xavante Warã Association...I will tell them about our relatives’ presentations and about the activists who support us. We can’t just say no one helps us. This isn’t the way it is. There are [non-Indigenous] people who are dedicated to our cause. I noticed this and it touched me deeply.” —Laura Graham is a Cultural Survival board member and a professor of anthropology at the University of Iowa. She wishes to thank Linda Rabben for reading and commenting on a draft of this article.
To learn more about the dream and hear Hiparidi Top’tiro sing the dreamsong, see goo.gl/sTWTjK.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 17
This Is Our Home
Human Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
There are approximately 3 million Indigenous people in Bangladesh belonging to at least 54 different ethnic groups, comprising 2 percent of the general population.
O
Anonymous n August 7, 2014, the government of Bangladesh issued a decree to all officials and journalists to stop using the term Adivasi, or “Indigenous.” In response to this latest attack on the rights of Bangladesh’s Indigenous Peoples, Sultana Kamal, co-chairperson of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, said, “We despise it. We reject it, and for that if we have to face any penalty, we are ready to accept. Stopping eviction of Indigenous people and their human rights protection is the role of the state.” Forbidding the use of the word, and hence the recognition the existence of Adivasis, is the latest assault on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh. Indigenous communities have been under attack in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) for as long as I can remember. When I was a boy, my family and other members of my community were exiled to India as refugees after Bengali soldiers burned my village to the ground. CHT, a mountainous region of over 5,000 square miles, lies in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh bordering the Indian states of Tripura and Mizoram to the north, and Myanmar to the east. Thirteen 18 • www. cs. org
diverse Indigenous groups, collectively known as Jumma or Pahari, call this place home. The Indigenous people of CHT differ markedly from the Bengali majority of the country with respect to ethnicity, religion, language, land cultivation methods, culture, and customs. The region’s picturesque hills and tranquil lakes belie an existence for Indigenous people that for the past 40 years has been anything but peaceful. Massive and systematic human rights violations against the Jumma people have been committed by Bangladeshi security forces and armed mobs of settlers. The Jumma have been murdered, crippled, raped, tortured, imprisoned, and deprived of their homes and means of livelihood. Their tribal villages were brutally attacked, places of worship burnt down, and homes set on fire. Since 1976, the Bangladesh military and the armed mobs have committed at least 13 massacres in the CHT. These massacres were covertly and systematically executed by the Bangladesh military, often in collaboration with armed Bengali citizens, to wipe out the Indigenous people from their homeland and to make room for over half a million Bengali Muslim settlers. As a result of these atrocities, tens of thousands of Indigenous people have fled to India. International organizations including the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, the European Commission, the United States Congress, and Amnesty International, among others, have strongly condemned these atrocities in several reports. Ever since Bangladesh gained independence in 1971, the government has failed to recognize the human rights of Indigenous people or their rights to ancestral lands. Jana Samhati Samiti, a Jumma political party with a military wing, was formed in response to the consistent attacks on their communities. In 1997 an agreement known as the CHT Accord is
According to the Hill Women’s Federation there were 167 supposed to have ended the decades-long fierce armed conreported cases of rape between January 2011 and June 2012, flict between the Jumma and the government. The Accord and many more between 2012 and 2014. The organization was hailed and welcomed not only by the Jumma and demomaintains that there have been many others, but due to social cratic and progressive political parties of Bangladesh, but taboos and fear of reprisals, the victims or their families do also by the United Nations, European Union, and many not come forward to report these crimes. Jumma women are other democratic governments of the world. The peace accord guaranteed the rights of Indigenous Peoples to their ancestral lands in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Yet today, 17 years later, Adivasis continue to be forcibly evicted from the region. According to the 1997 peace accord, the Bangladesh government would withdraw all military camps and security forces, except for the police and border security, from the region. But as of 2014, the CHT and the tribal people within it are still under full military occupation; a mere 29 of about 500 military camps in the CHT have reportedly been withdrawn. One-third of the entire Bangladesh army is deployed in the area, which accounts for just one-tenth of the total territory of the country and where Indigenous people account for less than one percent of the entire population. Military and paramilitary forces have an allencompassing presence in the CHT, as army garrisons, numerous base camps, and checkpoints are visible everywhere. Military camps are on almost every hilltop along the main roads. Over the last In the CHT, Indigenous Peoples are two decades these security forces have deliberately commonly known as Jummas for massacred innocent Indigenous Jumma people, yet their practice of swidden cultivation the military remains the pervasive authority in the (crop rotation agriculture), locally entire region. More critically, the Bangladesh govknown as jum. ernment has granted blanket impunity to the military for such flagrant human rights abuses. This not bound by the same cultural and religious restrictions impunity has been the single most important factor encourthat impose on the freedom of movement of Muslim women. aging human rights abuses in the region, which are com- These cultural differences, combined with the pervasive milimitted in the name of security and stability. tary presence and increasingly dominant Muslim culture in In the 1980s and ‘90s, over 500,000 Bengali Muslims the CHT, have made Jumma women more exposed to sexual were settled in the CHT after the Jumma had fled to India attacks and harassment. and other parts of the country in fear for their lives. Since The CHT Accord has failed to safeguard the survival of the signing of the 1997 peace treaty, around 43,000 Jumma the Jumma people. Not only has the Bangladesh government refugees have returned from India. But more than 50 percent failed to demonstrate a sincere desire to solve the ethnic conof those who returned did not get back their lands and homeflict, it has arguably worsened problem. The treaty does not steads, and a large majority of refugees continue to live in address the fundamental problems of the Bangladeshi settlers the makeshift camps or in the houses of relatives. In addition, and the militarization of the CHT; it rather legalizes them. about 65,000 Jumma have been internally displaced, forcibly Violence in the CHT has not gained the international resettled by the army into strategic hamlets after their villages attention it deserves. Everyday our girls are raped, our men were burned. They cannot get back to their lands, which are killed, our homes burned down by mobs of settlers, and occupied by imported settlers and security forces. The Banour land stolen as we become homeless. These governmentgladesh government, in gross violation of the peace treaty, sanctioned acts are ignored by international agencies and has refused to return lands to the Jumma refugees and funders who turn a blind eye. Travel in the region is extremeinternally displaced people of the CHT. ly restricted, making it difficult, if not impossible, for journal Jumma women have become the greatest casualty in the ists to cover the ongoing abuses. Doctors are reportedly presethnic conflict in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi security personnel sured not to report evidence of rape. The strategies of stalling have been systematically raping them since the conflict started and providing misinformation in order to protect members in the mid-1970s as a deliberate tactic to destroy or damage of the military accused of these crimes is all too commonly— the Jumma nation. Women are targeted for two objectives: as and effectively—deployed. For human rights atrocities commembers of the “enemy” and as females. By raping a woman, mitted against the Adivasis of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the oppressor does not just aim to hurt her personally, he also no one is brought to justice. What is left but for Indigenous tramples and humiliates the identity of the Jumma people people to flee across the border to Tripura, India? as a whole. Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 19
Mattias Åhrén reading the Arctic Region Saoudata Aboubacrine reading the Africa Region Statement during the June 3 consultation on the Statement during the June 17 Interactive Hearing Outcome Document for the World Conference for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Alyssa Macy. on Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Alyssa Macy.
Otilia Inés Lux de Cotí reading the Global Indigenous Women’s Caucus Statement at the June 17 Interactive Hearing for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Shane Brown.
The UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples A high-level meeting with a low level outcome? Kenneth Deer
T
he so-called UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be held this year on September 22–23, is really a High Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly. No one should be fooled by the title. It will have color and pageantry supplied by the Indigenous Peoples who attend, and the General Assembly hall and rooms will be filled with Indigenous representatives dressed in their traditional regalia. But this was not the original intent. In 2010, the government of Bolivia floated a resolution calling for a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Not all states were enthusiastic about the idea, so a compromise was reached: the High Level Plenary Meeting was renamed the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. High level plenary meetings are very different from world conferences. World conferences are much larger, with preparatory meetings held in the five UN regions of the world the year before. They are held in large venues to allow for many participants, side events, and a trade show. A high level plenary meeting is just that: an opening plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly, some roundtable discussions, and a closing ceremony. Unfortunately, not all Indigenous participants will be able to fit in the General Assembly room for this session; only about 350 will be allowed in. The remaining delegates will have to sit in a large overflow room somewhere else in the building. The opening ceremonies should last all morning, and in the afternoon there will be two roundtables held in two large, separate rooms at the same time. The first will be about “United Nations system action to implement the rights of Indigenous Peoples.” The other will cover “Implementation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples at the national and local level.” A third roundtable on Tuesday afternoon will discuss the theme of “Indigenous Peoples’ lands, territories, and resources.” 20 • ww w. cs. org
Concurrently, there will be an interactive panel discussion on “Indigenous priorities for the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.” In a first for the UN, each of the roundtables and the panel discussions will have one state and one Indigenous co-chair. There is no session scheduled for Tuesday morning due to the regular High Level meeting taking place in the General Assembly room on climate change.
The Outcome Document
The most important part of any UN world conference or high level plenary meeting is the Outcome Document. More important than all the speeches and ceremonies, the Outcome Document is the political declaration that will be agreed to by states during the conference. It has the weight of a UN General Assembly Resolution. Negotiated between states and Indigenous representatives, the Outcome Document will be the deciding factor on whether this High Level Plenary Meeting called the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples is deemed a success. However, the document itself will be decided before the conference even opens, on September 15 at the latest, when the final draft is released in the version to be voted on during the meeting. The Outcome Document should be a statement by the UN uplifting the rights of Indigenous Peoples and promoting action to implement those rights. The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is the standard set by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007, and it should be a simple matter to reiterate those rights and put them into action. If only it were so. The biggest concern of Indigenous Peoples is that governments will attempt to limit or redefine their rights. So, when the first drafts of the outcome documents appeared, Indigenous Peoples looked for paragraphs that would try to reduce those rights. A number of Indigenous representatives wanted a paragraph stating “we reaffirm that nothing in this outcome
All photos courtesy of Global Coordinating Group Media Team
Rodion Sulyandziga speaking on behalf of the Russia region at the June 17 Interactive Hearing for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Shane Brown.
Jose Francisco Cali Tzay, president of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and Les Malezer and Myrna Cunningham, advisors to the president of the General Assembly in organizing the High Level Plenary Meeting.
Catherine Murupaenga-Iken reading the Pacific Region Statement at the June 17 Interactive Hearing for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Shane Brown.
Photo by Shane Brown.
document may be construed as diminishing or extinguishing the rights [of] Indigenous Peoples.” However, states did not want negative text in the document, so it was not included. Instead, a delegation of North American representatives proposed language to confirm the states’ “solemn commitment to uphold and in no way diminish the rights of Indigenous Peoples as contained in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” The issue of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is another right states have difficulty with. It was mentioned a few times in the zero draft but ultimately reduced to one paragraph. The drafters made a strategic attempt to put the term of Free, Prior and Informed Consent into a “chapeau” at the beginning of the document to imply that this right applies throughout the document. Here is the proposed text: “In adopting this outcome document, we commit to consult and cooperate in good faith with Indigenous Peoples through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their Free, Prior and Informed Consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.” Also of concern is the qualifying term, “where appropriate.” A number of paragraphs contain this phrase, and it puts states in a strong position to decide what is appropriate and what is not. There is no mechanism for Indigenous Peoples to have input on what is appropriate. Likewise for the provision of “adequate resources;” again, it gives all the power to states to decide what is adequate. There is no provision for Indigenous Peoples to have a voice in deciding what is adequate or appropriate. In Paragraph 14 of the first draft, on the issue of Indigenous Peoples’ justice institutions, states commit to coordinate and dialogue “where those exist.” This is limiting, because who decides if they exist? There are many Indigenous justice systems that are not documented or recorded. That does not mean they do not exist. Indigenous representatives were united on several important paragraphs, such as the elimination of violence against Indigenous women and girls, the establishment of an oversight body on the implementation of the Declaration, the establishment of a higher status of Indigenous representatives in the UN system, the appointment of a “High Official” in the office of the Secretary General to promote the rights of Indigenous Peoples in the UN system, and the protection of sacred sites, sacred objects, and repatriation of remains. All photos by Danielle DeLuca
States were generally very positive on the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls and had many suggested word changes. However, they did focus on the individual rights of women and not the collective rights on Indigenous Peoples. In regard to a “High Official,” states were more concerned about the financial impact of such a position in the UN system. Since the UN does not want to expand its budget, the issue of an oversight body had to be within current budget allocations. So Indigenous Peoples proposed that the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples be expanded to achieve this goal.
The final drafting and the bottom line
The most dangerous part of the negotiations is the final drafting, in what is called the intergovernmental process. Indigenous Peoples were fully engaged in the consultations held through August 19, but after that date, the negotiations will be only among states; Indigenous representatives will not be in the room. Beginning September 3, states will meet to go over the text, paragraph by paragraph. Meanwhile, Indigenous Peoples must rely on “friendly” states to hold back any attempts at weakening the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Two Indigenous advisors will be in the room; however, their role is to facilitate the discussions, not necessarily to advocate for Indigenous Peoples. If the Outcome Document is perceived to undermine the rights of Indigenous Peoples in any way, the result will be disastrous for Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations. If Indigenous Peoples cannot get justice in the UN, where else can they turn? What value is the UN to them? This so-called conference is a golden opportunity for the UN to be more than just the sum of its parts, a chance to be more than a private club of nation-states. It can seize the opportunity to include Indigenous Peoples and make itself more representative of humankind. —Kenneth Deer (Mohawk) is a journalist who has been advocating for Indigenous rights at the UN in New York and Geneva. Read the draft Outcome Document here: www.wcip2014.org.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 21
Panel discussions are a vibrant part of the annual EMRIP sessions.
Shaping Policy for the Seventh Generation Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Joshua Cooper
D
uring the First UN Decade to Combat Racial Discrimination (1973–1982), Indigenous Peoples were invited to share their stories of self-determination. They would walk in the footsteps of Chief Deskaheh, a Haudenosaunee statesman who, in 1923, traveled to Geneva to speak to the League of Nations in defense of the right of his people to live under their own laws, on their own land, and under their own faith. In 1981 Indigenous Peoples were asked to offer insight on land rights as UN human rights experts prepared the Martinez Cobo Study, a document outlining the obstacles to realizing Indigenous rights. The following year, in 1982, the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations brought affected peoples together to take individual and collective action, to share their common challenges and create standards for defending Indigenous rights. This Working Group would set the stage for redefining Indigenous participation at the UN level, providing a space for formal engagement between experts and Indigenous Peoples. The Human Rights Council, the UN’s main human rights body, was established in 2006, allowing for the direct reporting of human rights violations. The next year the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) was established as a subsidiary body of the Council. It consists of a panel of five experts, all of whom are Indigenous.
The Expert Mechanism provides the Council with thematic advice in the form of studies and research on the rights of Indigenous peoples as directed by the Council. EMRIP meets annually in Geneva each July for a 5-day session. These annual sessions have fostered a culture of creative collaboration with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples can register at every session to meet with the rapporteur and report human rights violations in person through special procedures, and the Special Rapporteur shares updates of thematic reports and speaks as a panelist in the interactive dialogues. The chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is usually also present. Seventh Session
The recently concluded 7th session of EMRIP, held July 7–11, 2014, made evident how Indigenous Peoples’ engagement can impact seven generations in shaping policy and law related to Indigenous rights. One agenda item of note was the zero draft of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples outcome document; at least 90 minutes were dedicated to discussing the Working Group that created the outcome document. The Indigenous advisor and assistant to the president of the General Assembly were on hand to hear feedback on the draft and share next steps toward the upcoming World Conference in September. The session was both the first and only space for Indigenous Peoples to discuss the zero draft and strategize for the second round of negotiations.
Left: Indigenous Peoples of Colombia offer a prayer to the four directions at the opening of the session. Right: The Youth Caucus meets to prepare for the 7th session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 22 • ww w. cs. org
All photos by Joshua Cooper.
Among the most important aspects in the zero draft was an amendment of EMRIP’s current mandate to serve as a review body for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Interactive Dialogue
Panel discussions are a unique feature of EMRIP resulting in interactive dialogue among presenters, states, and Indigenous observers. The nature of the panels is to ensure active listening and focused questions on themes that can lead to policy proposals for issues facing Indigenous Peoples, as well as potential studies addressing areas of concern related to implementation of the Declaration. This year’s session featured two panels: one on the Post2015 Development Agenda, where panelists shared the latest details of the Open Working Group debates and negotiations on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The panelists demanded the specific inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and called for the inclusion of culture alongside environmental, economic, and social pillars. As Special Rapporteur Vicki Tauli Corpuz said, “The model we want to see in the 21st century is diversity in economy with culture defining our future.” The second panel focused on the role of parliamentarians in the implementation of the Declaration and featured elected Indigenous officials discussing their efforts to bring the rights enshrined in the Declaration into reality. Meaningful Participation
The opening session is an important part of EMRIP, as representatives from the Office of the High Commissioner and the president or vice president(s) of the Human Rights Council discuss information relevant to Indigenous Peoples. Publications are shared, along with various developments in international human rights law and the announcement of upcoming opportunities for engagement. The annual agenda offers opportunities to follow up on every study ever drafted in order to provide current best practices for problems facing Indigenous Peoples and to allow for submission of specific proposals to the Human Rights Council. This agenda item ensures that the studies do not collect dust, but contribute to the respect for Indigenous rights. Indigenous Peoples can share best practices and success stories to inspire others and demand accountability for the implementation of prior recommendations. Also on the agenda is the “continuation of a study,” as requested by the Human Rights Council during its session from the previous September. Indigenous Peoples have the opportunity to read a study’s latest draft and contribute specific language. This item again features sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and current challenges to realizing the rights featured in the study. The cycle of a study begins with an annual agenda item where Indigenous Peoples can cite the importance of an issue. If the issue gains popular support, it will be recommended by either Guatemala or Mexico, the two states supporting Indigenous Rights at the Human Right Council, for study at the upcoming September session. Then, EMRIP members will select the study author who will work with the secretariat of the Office of the High Commissioner. The author will consult Indigenous Peoples, states, and other actors via an online questionnaire. The results will be collated and summarized
The Expert Mechanism Studies: 2009 Indigenous Peoples’ right to education 2011 Indigenous Peoples and the right to participate in decision making 2012 Role of languages and culture in the promotion and protection of the rights and identity of Indigenous Peoples 2012 Report on Indigenous Peoples and the right to participate in decision making with a focus on extractive industries 2012 Report on questionnaire for states on best practices regarding possible appropriate measures and implementation strategies in order to attain the goals of the Declaration 2013 Access to justice in the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples 2014 Study on the promotion and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in disaster risk reduction, prevention, and preparedness initiatives. To learn more about the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, visit: goo.gl/fp2iBL.
during an expert seminar with EMRIP members, NGOs, academics, Indigenous Peoples, and the Special Rapporteur. It is vital for participants to read the study before the next year’s EMRIP session, as this is a time to give feedback to the authors; amendments based on this feedback will be made prior to adoption by the Human Rights Council. Once adopted, the study will become an annual agenda item available for comment based on Indigenous Peoples’ experience in its implementation. Each July, it can be raised under the agenda item, “Followup to Thematic Studies and Advice.” On the last morning of the session there is a closed meeting for Indigenous Peoples to learn how to access other areas of the UN for advocacy. In the afternoon prior to departure, participants receive a draft of the final report. Many Indigenous people return home to share the draft report, and their experience at the Geneva meeting, with their communities. Implementing the Declaration
Implementation of the Declaration is a permanent agenda item for sharing challenges and best practices regarding the realization of Indigenous rights enshrined in the document. Every year Indigenous Peoples can coordinate in their respective homelands on how successfully—or not—the Declaration is being implemented. This reporting process can be enhanced through the adoption of the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples Outcome Document proposals, for which, for the first seven years, Indigenous Peoples provide the majority of the interventions. It is important to monitor the upcoming September session of the General Assembly for important new additions to the annual agenda. View the 17 Sustainable Development Goals at: goo.gl/sJXwu6.
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 23
The Moment Has Come for Us to Save Our
Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Languages
Photo by Bill Hess
I
Ishmael Hope
Charlie Joseph, Khaal.átk’. Photo from the Dauenhauer Photo Collection
“Át khuwaháa haa yoo xh’atángi wutusaneixhí. The moment has come for us to save our language.” – Joe Hotch, Gooxh Daakashú
All photos courtesy of Sealaska Heritage Institute
24 • ww w. cs. org
n 1980, the Sealaska Corporation brought together Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Elders in Sitka, Alaska for a gathering of discourse, stories, and traditional songs and dances in the first Sealaska Elders Conference. During one evening, Charlie Joseph, Khaal.átk’, elder of the Kaagwaantaan clan, led traditional performances of Tlingit songs and dances—many of which, he told his peers, had not been seen or heard in many years. He asked his elder peers to have patience and forbearance for the young dancers as they were learning and could make mistakes. The elders ended up overwhelmingly embracing Joseph’s leadership. In thanking Joseph, William Johnson, Keewaaxh.awtseixh Ghuwakaan, said, “I ítnáxh ghunéi kghwa.áat. People will begin to follow your example.” The people really did follow the example set by those elders at the Shee Atika Hotel in 1980, as the conference led to the creation of the Sealaska Heritage Foundation, later to be renamed the Sealaska Heritage Institute, with a mission to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. In 1982, following the example led by Joseph and other elders who were instructors in schools across southeast Alaska, the Institute created the biennial Celebration, a large gathering of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian traditional singers and dancers. It has grown to host over 2,000 traditional dancers and as many as 4,000 visitors who take in all the festivities and rich culture. However, as George Davis, Kichnáalxh, noted at the original conference, “Ch’a yéi gugénk’ áwé a kaaxh shukaylis’úxh haa tlagu khwáanx’i aadéi s khunoogu yé. We have uncovered only a tiny portion of the way our ancient people used to do things,” and “Tsu héidei shugaxhtootáan yá yaakhoosgé daakeit haa jeex’ a nakh has kawdik’éet’. We will again open this container of wisdom that has been left in our care.” Indeed, so much more of this “container of wisdom” was to be shared. The Institute’s Council of Traditional Scholars and Board of Trustees recognized that much of that deep knowledge of Tlingit culture and worldviews was embedded in the Tlingit language, and in 1997 they adopted language restoration as the Institute’s foremost priority. Revered Tlingit elder Walter Soboleff, for whom the Institute’s new cultural center is named, told his elder peers, “Yak’éi áyá has du ée tududasheeyí wáa sá khóo at dultóow yá yoo xh’atánk yoo xh’atángi has du éexh yáa uháan Lingít xh’éináxh yoo xh’atula.átgi. It would
be good if we help whoever is teaching the Tlingit language, those of us who speak Tlingit.” These and many other words of the elders deeply inform the Institute’s work and continue to inspire and motivate learners today. It was as if they planted little seeds, embedded pockets of knowledge and meaning in our hearts and minds, which would only deepen within us as we matured and were in need of the wisdom that was left in our Left: Apprentices Joshua James and Ishmael Hope with mentor Paul Marks are part of Sealaska Heritage care. Guided and encouraged Institute Mentor-Apprentice Program. Photo by Brian Wallace. Right: Apprentices Hans Chester and Jessica by the elders over many years of Chester working with mentor Selina Everson. Photo by Brian Wallace. advocacy and development, the passionate testifiers and lobbyists who hosted a sit-in at the Institute joined with many organizations including southeast Capitol building lasting from midday to 3:30 a.m. on April 21, Alaska school districts and the University of Alaska Southeast when the bill finally passed to a great cheer from the packed in developing a comprehensive, region-wide network of Tlingalleys. With the signing of the bill into law by Governor Sean git language programs, learners, and teachers. There are now Parnell, Alaska, will join Hawai’i to become the two states that over 500 students of the Tlingit language in the Juneau School recognize Native languages as “official languages of the state.” District, for example, and many teachers who dedicate their This is one of the great civil rights struggles of our times. Our lives to learning and passing on their knowledge of the lanworld is in our language, our breath of life. We are truly equal guage. Many of these teachers received scholarships from the when our particular, unique container of wisdom—haa yoo Sealaska Corporation, attended language immersion camps, xh’atángi, our language, haa khusteeyí, our way of life—is and have been continually supported as their efforts bolstered acknowledged, honored, and respected. the Institute’s mission and goals. It is truly a community effort. The elders always gave us this strength. Sometimes we Additionally, the Tlingit Language Master Apprentice Program, didn’t even fully comprehend what we were told until it came currently in its first year, supports Tlingit language immersion back to us like a vision of strength and forbearance that for six master-apprentice teams in three Tlingit communities. helped us to continue on. Elder Nora Dauenhauer tells Tlingit The teams will speak at least 260 hours of Tlingit together students that the elders told all kinds of stories to people of all over the course of three years. As Sealaska Heritage Institute ages. No one told children’s stories; everyone heard the comPresident Rosita Worl said during the launching of the program, plex, deeply layered, sophisticated, beautiful stories. Speaking “All languages reflect worldview. And there is a lot of knowlof the complexity, Nora and her scholar husband, Richard, edge and experience embedded in that language. For our often mention that people “grow into it.” human society that’s been around for thousands and thou In one of the most popular stories of Yéil, “Raven,” the Raven sands of years, we want to be able to capture that knowledge.” is said by some to have stolen the sun, moon, stars, and day The Institute is also documenting hundreds of hours of light from his grandfather, Naas Shagee Yéil. The way that Tlingit language audio recordings and texts from its extensive Austin Hammond, Daanawáakh, told it, however, was that archival collections. Most recently we completed a National “Haa dachxhánx’i yán áyá tusixhán. We love our grandchildren.” Science Foundation project that produced transcriptions and In his telling, the Raven’s grandfather gave him the things he translations of 31 Tlingit language texts. Tlingit linguist James most treasured, even at the risk of losing it. The Raven opened Crippen estimates that less than one percent of the total availthose boxes and let free much of the universe, the material able Tlingit recordings are transcribed and translated, so this of life. And so it’s nothing less than the universe that we’re project adds significantly to the body of work for study. The opening when we open the container of wisdom, given to greatest stories, along with everyday conversations, were docus from the love of our grandfathers and grandmothers. umented. Students of the language can now mine the texts for stories of the Migration and Great Flood, for Xh’a Eetí Shuwee “Tsu khushtuyáxh daa sá yaa tushigéiyi át Kháa, Slop Bucket Man, for funny conversations among eldu jeedéi yatxh ghatooteeyín derly Tlingit women, or passionate advocacy for subsistence haa dachxhánxh siteeyi kháa. of the Tlingit language. The tiny portion of Tlingit knowledge that we have uncovered is slowly beginning to unwrap for Even those things we treasure us, available for the eager and dedicated learner. we used to offer up to them, The Sealaska Heritage Institute also stood with Tlingit to those who are our grandchildren.” Elders, students, and faculty of the University of Alaska — Charlie Joseph, Khaal.átk’ Southeast, and many others both Native and non-Native, in advocating for the passage of the historic state House Bill —Ishmael Hope, born in Sitka, Alaska, and living in Juneau, 216 that officially recognizes 20 Alaska Native languages as is a storyteller who shares stories from his Iñupiaq and Tlingit equal in standing with English. Advocates for the bill were heritages. He is on staff at the Sealaska Heritage Institute. Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 25
our s upp o r t e r s
Our summer 2014 interns helped all of our programs run smoothly and were so much fun to have in the office! L-R: Rebecca Quick, Don Butler, Leda Kennedy, Sophia Mitrokostas, Nina Roth, Bianca Annoscia, Katharine Norris, Cecilia Tripoli, Bridget Boyle, and Kristen Williams. Not pictured: Kendall Crawford, Emily Moline, Karen Sargent, and Jenna Winton.
Why I Support Cultural Survival “As a cultural anthropologist of Latin America, I very much appreciate Cultural Survival for both its activism and keeping me up to date on Indigenous issues. I regularly assign Cultural Survival articles in my college teaching on Indigenous development and politics.” — Brent E. Metz, Department of Anthropology University of Kansas
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B azaa r ven d or : Celebrating Indigenous Tibetan and Himalayan Arts and Cultures
Bomdonn Ngodup Karen Sargent
T
ucked away in the heart of Porter Square in Cambridge, MA, the Tibet Arts Gallery provides a calming and spiritual presence for all who visit. Run by entrepreneur and Cultural Survival Bazaar vendor Bomdonn Ngodup, Tibet Arts Gallery buys directly from Indigenous Tibetan and Himalayan artisans in order to maintain and celebrate their Indigenous culture and heritage. Ngodup has a long interest in working with Tibetan refugees, as she and her family were once refugees themselves, but she says that the seed for the Tibet Arts Gallery was planted long before that time in India. “My parents, with whom my siblings and I had escaped from Tibet, eventually settled in as street vendors as their main occupation in India. They ran a small scale operation buying arts and crafts from newly arrived Tibetan refugee artisans and selling them on the streets of Kangra, a small town in the rural part of North India.” As a young adult Ngodup says she felt deeply responsible for her family and became heavily involved in the running of her parents’ business. It was there that she “met lots of interesting people and found a deep appreciation for the arts and crafts of my Tibetan heritage.”
Working with Tibetan and Himalayan refugees has always been the backbone of Ngodup’s work, and even before opening Tibet Arts Gallery she had extensive contacts and experience with artisans in the Indigenous communities in Tibet, Nepal, and India. She buys directly from the artisans and lets them set their own price, and with that she decides how much stock she can carry in her store. “I have always believed in being a fair and conscientious entrepreneur. So you will see that reflected in the affordable prices I charge my patrons,” she says. “My goal in starting Tibet Arts Gallery has always been to help Tibetan and Himalayan artisans maintain their way of life. I feel fortunate that I have been able to live my dream.” Tibet Arts Gallery has been doing business in Porter Square for almost 20 years, and Ngodup has been a Cultural Survival Bazaar vendor for nearly as many years. Her first Bazaar was in 1996, and she says it was there that she “met and befriended people from all around the world and gained a tremendous appreciation for rich diversity of other cultures and nations,” and fell in love with the “vibrant ambiance that typically surrounds Cultural Survival fairs.” When asked why she thinks it is important to maintain Himalayan arts and culture, Ngodup’s answer is simple and profound: “Preserving arts and culture is important. It serves as a reminder of the diversity of our civilization, our world heritage. A lot of nuanced details and customs can be seen in the arts and crafts. If culture is the final dish, then arts and crafts would sort of be the main ingredient. In that respect, Himalayan arts and culture is important to support and maintain. The Himalayan region has a rich history and beautiful culture. So I think it’s important for people to appreciate and support that.” Tibet Arts Gallery is located at 1925 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA, tibetartsgallery.com. The 2014 CS Bazaar series raised over $238,000 for Indigenous artisans and their communities. Find a Bazaar near you! Visit: bazaar.culturalsurvival.org
Adrián Obregón, Guaraní leader and activist, stands in front of a Eucalyptus plantation near his home. Photo courtesy of Campaña Salvemos al Iberá.
Tak eA cti on No w
September 2014
Global Response
CampaignArgentina Alert
Argentina
Urge Harvard to Be a Responsible Investor
T
he Iberá wetlands system, one of the world’s largest freshwater bodies, lies in the province of Corrientes in Northern Argentina. The wetlands harbor 30 percent of the country’s biodiversity and are home to several endangered species, including the marsh deer, neo-tropical river otter, maned wolf, caimans, and pampas deer. However, vast monocrop pine and eucalyptus plantations have virtually eliminated biodiversity in more than half of the wetlands, devastating freshwater levels and dramatically affecting the livelihoods of the Guaraní Indigenous people who have lived in relationship with the lands for generations and depend on these ecosystems. The owner of these invasive plantations is none other than the world-renowned, progressive institution of Harvard University. Harvard invests large sums of its $32.7 billion endowment in natural resources in the developing world. This includes Empresas Verdes Argentinas Sociedad Anonima and Las Misiones S.A., two timber companies jointly worth $55.2 million that control approximately 350 square miles of the Iberá wetlands system. While Harvard invests millions of dollars in these plantations, the bordering towns of San Miguel, Concepción, and San Roque have the highest rates of poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment in the province. Villagers who are employed on the plantations report that they work and live in unsafe conditions. The Guaraní people are deeply distraught by the plantations, which have destroyed ancestral lands that held great spiritual, mythological, and subsistence value to their
Add 28 • ww w. cs. org
communities. The monoculture plantations also devastate the surrounding environment, reducing the availability of water for farming, worsening summer droughts, and creating water shortages in local communities. Last April, Adrián Obregón, a Guaraní farmer and community leader, met with the Harvard Management Company, which manages Harvard University’s endowment and related financial assets. Obregón is from the village of Montaña, a rural area that borders on a Harvard-owned plantation. “Many of the residents of Montaña have the plantations right on top of them. Around the Ipacarapá Lagoon, which forms part of our ancestral territory—my grandfather’s house was on the edge of it—the whole area is planted with pine trees now, right up to the water. There is only a small area of native forest left and we can’t access it without ‘intruding’ on private property,” he says. The inhabitants around Iberá depend on natural resources native to the area. Traditionally their subsistence livelihoods were based on hunting wild animals. They also fished, maintained family vegetable gardens, and gathered edible and medicinal plants from every part of the wetland ecosystem. Today, approximately two-thirds of the wetlands are privately owned. Residents, many of whom live within a few miles of the plantations, are asking Harvard to lead the way in responsible and sustainable land management. Asks Emilio Spataro of the Corrientes-based Campaign to Save Iberá: “If Harvard doesn’t listen, who will?”
your voice: Tell Harvard it’s time to address the problem and seek solutions.
Take Action Write to Harvard University President Drew Faust, urging the University to recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to demonstrate responsible and sustainable investment globally.
Protest in the capital of Corrientes, December 2013. The sign by the Guardians of Iberá reads,”In Corrientes, Harvard = Looting.” Photo courtesy of Campaña Salvemos al Iberá.
Ask Harvard to initiate a system of dialogue with the Guaraní in Iberá respecting their rights as Indigenous Peoples.
H
The demands to Harvard agreed upon by Guaraní communities, small-scale farmers, workers, and environmentalists in the region are simple and clear: • Permit and guarantee the workers’ freedom to organize and to establish a transparent and honest mechanism to present their demands to the companies for better working conditions. • Halt the expansion of universityowned plantations until a genuine, public, participatory, and accumulative environmental impact assessment has been conducted for all holdings.
arvard University spokesman Kevin Galvin has defended the University’s plantation holdings by pointing to their Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) • Establish a buffer zone between certification, an internationally recognized program that seeks to ensure university-owned plantations and small farmers and other local that certified timber companies are “environmentally appropriate, socially beneproducers. ficial and economically viable.” For many years, however, a variety of environmental organizations have criticized the Council for certifying inherently unsustainable plantations that harm the environment and hurt local communities. In the case of Iberá, the Council has certified irresponsible companies that continue to consolidate a massive amount of land and pay poverty wages to people for unsafe jobs. FSC certification ignores the presence of Indigenous Peoples in the region and their right to be consulted. In the certification reports for Empresas and Las Misiones, the Council simply Aerial photo of Harvard’s placed an ‘X,’ meaning “does not apply,” for Indigenous Peoples. plantations in Corrientes. But many communities surrounding the plantations identify as Photo courtesy of Campaña Indigenous and are native Guaraní speakers; the name Iberá Salvemos al Iberá. derives from the Guaraní language, ý berá, meaning “bright water.” The provincial constitution of Corrientes also recognizes the existence of original peoples in Article 66: “We declare the Iberá ecosystem, including its wetlands, biodiversity, [and] freshwater reserves, to be of strategic, natural, and cultural patrimony of the province of Corrientes, with the goal of preservation, conservation, and defense….The right of original peoples should be preserved, Send your letters to: respecting their forms of community organization and cultural identity.” Article Office of the President 26 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples declares that the Harvard University Guaraní, as Indigenous Peoples, have the right to maintain and strengthen their Massachusetts Hall distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise Cambridge, MA 02138 USA occupied and used lands, territories, and waters. Tel: (617) 495-1502 Fax: (617) 495-8550 Harvard is in violation of the Guaraní’s traditional rights to their lands and president@harvard.edu waters. The institution has not achieved the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Guaraní, which is the right to self-determine development activities on their Cc: Jameela Pedicini lands and territories. Mechanisms for dialogue are meant to form part of the FSC Vice President of Sustainable Investment certification system, but local groups report they are entirely absent in Corrientes. Harvard Management Company 600 Atlantic Avenue Las Misiones S.A. recently obtained certification of its plantations, but there have Boston, MA 02210 USA been no meetings with communities and no evidence of a real process to achieve (617) 523-4400 their Free, Prior and Informed Consent. donor_relations@hmc.harvard.edu The Responsible Investment at Harvard Coalition recently visited the Iberá @JameelaPedicini wetlands to investigate the university-owned companies and released a report Forest Stewardship Council US (FSC-US) with the Oakland Institute, which has led to protests in front of Harvard University 212 Third Avenue North, Suite 445 President Drew Faust’s office. Students are outraged over these unethical investments Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA and are urging Faust to address the concerns of the most affected communities. (612) 353-4511 policy.standards@fsc.org.
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For more information, visit: www.cs.org/argentina
Cultural Survival Quarterly
September 2014 • 29
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