THRIVING PEOPLES, THRIVING PLACES:

Poster campaign highlights the contributions of Indigenous women to global biodiversity

by Nia Tero / Amplifier / courtesy of INSP.ngo

all artwork designed by Tracie Ching

breakouts by Suzanne Hanney, from online sources

We are in a critical moment. In the midst of an ongoing global pandemic that is leaving no family untouched, compounded by increasingly extreme weather events linked to climate change, a unique global art project is shining a light on voices essential to the ecological solutions and collective healing we seek: Indigenous women.

"Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places," the second collaboration between Indigenous-focused not-for-profit Nia Tero and design lab Amplifier, will launch on International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Monday, August 9. The global exhibit includes six original portraits commissioned from Washington DC-based artist and illustrator Tracie Ching. The art will be available digitally as well as at public art events in cities such as Seattle (US), Washington DC (US), New York City (US), São Paulo (Brazil), and London (UK). The goal of the project is to at once celebrate Indigenous women as stewards of biodiversity across Earth and to prompt action amongst an engaged global audience.

The nine Indigenous women at the center of this project provide robust examples of real-life action to engage in to strive for the health and future of the planet. They are from communities spanning the globe, from the Philippines and New Zealand, to the Brazilian Amazon to Scandinavia, to the global north, embodying Indigenous experience and carrying generational knowledge and inherited responsibilities that come with that. These celebrated leaders include:

• Sônia Guajajara (Guajajara), an activist in Brazil and leader of Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), which brings together 305 ethnicities around the agenda of Indigenous rights in the region.

• Nara Baré (Baré), a Brazillian activist who was the first woman to assume the general coordination of the largest indigenous organization in the country, the Coalition of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

• Célia Xakriabá (Xakriabá), a Brazilian activist leading a new generation of female Indigenous leaders in the battle against the destruction of Brazil’s forests both in the Amazon and the lesser known Cerrado, a savannah that covers a fifth of the country.

• Vicky Tauli Corpuz (Kankanaey Igorot), an activist who not only helped organize the Igorot student movement in Manila in the 1970s and the Indigenous Peoples’ Movement in the Cordillera, but actively participated in the drafting, negotiations, and adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

• Pania Newton (Ngapuhi, Te Rarawa, Waikato, Ngati Mahuta), a lawyer and Māori land rights activist who organized the group Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) to protest the development of land at Ihumātao in south Auckland.

• Marjorie Kunaq Tahbone (Inupiaq, Kiowa), an environmental activist whose artistic work focuses on revitalizing ancient skills such as hide tanning, making traditional regalia, and tool making.

• Gunn-Britt Retter (Saami), a professor, formerly part of the Artic Council Indigenous People's Secretariat, and current Head of Artic and Environmental Unit for the Saami Council.

• Deb Abrahamson (Spokane Tribe), an environmental activist and water protector who played a large part in the push to clean up the legacy of uranium mining on the Spokane Indian Reservation; Abrahamson died of cancer in January 2020; she attributed her illness to the very radioactive toxins from which she worked to save the world.

• Twa-le Abrahamson-Swan (Spokane Tribe), an environmental activist and executive director, the River Warrior Society, a collective across the Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Kalispel, Nez Perce, and Spokane tribes; Abrahamson-Swan refocused the collective’s energies on providing pandemic and wildfire relief; daughter of Deb Abrahamson.

This art initiative arrives in tandem with several critical global convenings, including: the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Marseille (see page 10), France in September 2021, and the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) (see page 12) in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021 with an eye towards the additional critical climate and biodiversity conversations in 2022 and beyond.

At these global events, many of which were postponed in 2020 due to the pandemic, policy evolves effecting government response to global issues and emergencies. The presence and participation of Indigenous women is vital. As acknowledged by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Despite their enormous assets and contribution to society, Indigenous women still suffer from multiple discrimination, both as women and as Indigenous individuals. They are subjected to extreme poverty, trafficking, illiteracy, lack of access to ancestral lands, non-existent or poor health care and to violence in the private and the public sphere.” As such, Indigenous women’s understanding of intersecting issues - and the urgency and solutions needed to address them - makes their presence and leadership in global policy discussions essential.

The activists, artists, and scholars at the heart of "Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places" exemplify the ideals of guardianship, kinship, reciprocity, and wisdom. Their voices, work, and leadership benefit not only their own peoples and communities, but all of us who share this planet, which is why now, more than ever, we must celebrate them, listen to them, and, most importantly, follow their lead.

To learn more about "Thriving Peoples, Thriving Places," visit: www.niatero.org/storytelling

CONFERENCE OF PARTIES (COP 26)

Each year, the United Nations Framework on Climate Change hosts a summit, the Conference of the Parties (COP).

This year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland could be the most significant since the Paris summit of 2015, “because it is a theatre of ambition where leaders can turn market and moral momentum into defensible near-term policy action,” said John Lang of the nonprofit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU). The ECIU supports informed debate on energy and climate issues in the United Kingdom.

The Paris Agreement at COP21 was the first time every nation pledged to constrain their carbon dioxide emissions to reduce global warming. Since 2015, 197 nations have signed onto the agreement. The United States did so in 2016, withdrew in 2017 under President Trump, and rejoined on the first day of President Joe Biden’s administration.

COP26 is important also because it will be the first summit since last year’s requirement that individual nations agree to more ambitious, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in order to reduce carbon emissions by 2030. Last year was also the deadline for wealthier nations to contribute $100 billion annually to help developing nations reduce carbon emissions. Decarbonization involves reduced use of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum or gas in favor of wind power, solar power and biomass.

Current NDCs have not met the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping global warming under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the ECIU. COP26 negotiations will show which nations are doing their part.

The world needs to do even better. Emissions must be cut in half by 2030 to limit temperature increases to 1.5 degrees. Maintaining only a 1.5-degree increase will:

• prevent the polar ice cap from melting

• reduce pressures on food security

• preserve small island nations from sea-level increases

• reduce extinction rates

• protect coral reefs, and more.

The United States is part of an “Umbrella Group” of wealthier nations. Other participants include an Alliance of Small Island States, 39 nations endangered by sea level increases; Least Developed Countries (LDCs) or 48 of the poorest nations that are already feeling climate change, but that have not caused it; 54 African nations; 22 Arab nations; 53 Rainforest nations in the Americas, Africa and Asia that must balance development with stewardship; the BASICs, or Brazil, South Africa, India and China; and 77 others. Some nations overlap various alliances.

The Glasgow conference must keep its financial pledges to the developing world, says the ECIU, and it must push nations to make longterm strategies to reduce carbon emissions and attain the 1.5-degree goal. COP26 must also focus on priority areas such as nature, zero carbon transport (electric cars) and energy transition.

A successful COP is one that kickstarts decarbonization on a scientific time scale in accord with the Paris Agreement, simultaneously delivering on promises made to the most vulnerable nations. “In Paris, COP21 was a success because the nations with most at stake said it was a success.”

IUCN WORLD CONGRESS

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress brings together the global nature conservation community every four years. This year, the IUCN and the French government have agreed to host the World Congress in Marseille from September 3 to 11; it had been postponed from June 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The IUCN is a global authority on measures needed to safeguard the world; the World Conservation Congress brings together several thousand leaders and decisionmakers from government, civil society, Indigenous peoples, business and academia, with the goal of conserving the environment.

On July 23, for example, the IUCN called for urgent action to address the impact of climate change and poor water quality on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, despite that government’s efforts. Bleaching incidents in 2016, 2017 and 2020, along with poor water, have affected two-thirds of the reef, and its ability to recover.

“We call on all governments to accelerate action on climate change under the Paris Agreement so that unique ecosystems, such as the Great Barrier Reef, can continue to benefit biodiversity and local communities,” said Tim Badman, director of IUCN’s World Heritage Program.

The World Heritage Committee has asked Australia to invite a mission by IUCN and UNESCO’s World Heritage Center to the Great Barrier Reef. The objective will be to ensure that Australia’s revised Reef 2050 Plan delivers on all threats to the Reef, including climate change and water quality.