International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: Virtual Commemoration by United Nations (DESA), 9 August 2023

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: Virtual Commemoration by United Nations (DESA), 9 August 2023

(Kakali Das, Assistant Editor, Mahabahu, attended the virtual commemoration on 9 August, 2023 at 6.30 p.m. IST)

KAKALI DAS

On the occasion of The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA, an unit of the United Nations) has organised a virtual commemoration of the International Day on Wednesday. 9 August 2023, with the theme – Indigenous Youth as Agents of Change for Self-determination.

The Indigenous Peoples, Member States, UN entities, civil society and the public were all invited to the meet.

The virtual event was inaugurated by the Lenape (Delaware) cultural leader, activist and artist, Joe Baker.

Aminatu Gambo, who is a human rights advocate from the Mbororo Pastoralist Indigenous community in Cameroon, was the host for the event.

Rosemary Lane, the Acting Chief, Indigenous Peoples and Development, United Nations graced the meet with her inaugural speech, where she spoke about how intergenerational dialogue should allow the Indigenous Youth to be meaningfully contributing to all discussions on climate change, peace and security, human rights and sustainable development goals.

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It is our collective responsibility to respond to their needs and ensure the meaningful participation of the indigenous youth if we want to achieve the sustainable development goals.

She emphasized how the United Nations own system-wide Youth Strategy 2030, provides a complementary framework for meaningfully engaging with young people in all their diversity.

“They are indigenous children and they know the jungle well. They know what to eat and what not to eat. They survived because of this and their spiritual force” – Luis Acosta.

“Yet despite some important progress on these fronts, the work remains far from being done when it comes to supporting the participation and self-determination of indigenous youth. Walking the talk entails reviewing our own practises to ensure every young person has equal opportunities to participate in the roundtable discussions” – Rosemary Lane said.

Also, according to the Acting Chief, Intersectionality is a transformative tool that should guide the multilateral system and member states. It helps them to understand not only the compounded barriers but also young people’s potential in diverse fields. By recognising that the struggles of youth Indigenous peoples, women and persons with disabilities are not isolated, she said that they can better work to support different constituencies to come together on common issues.

“Lastly, it is key to provide targeted and flexible support to youths’ initiatives to ensure that young indigenous people have the capacity and resources to engage in decision-making process” she further stated.

THE SPEAKERS

Josefa Tauli

Josefa Tauli is an Ibaloi-kankanaey Igorot indigenous youth activist from Cordillera, Philippines, and serving as a policy co-coordinator of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), Southeast Asia since 2018. She has been actively advocating for indigenous peoples’ issues and youth participation within GYBN.

On the topic, “Climate Actions and the Green Transition”, the youth activist discussed the challenges she has been personally witnessing as an Indigenous youth:

1. Threat to the safety of environmental defenders: Ms Tauli shared her experience when the critical voice of her father, along with three activists were attempted to be silenced, by the State’s false and baseless accusations on them. She emphasised how it was an incredibly disturbing situation for their families who were still coping with the impacts of similar attempts of criminalisation and threat, of silencing the indigenous environmental defenders in many places across the world. They were criminalised and murdered for their work to defend their lands. The Philippines has been consistently among the deadliest countries for environment and land defenders. They are labelled as terrorists – hence criminalised and murdered. This is explicit in many policy instruments, including the recently adopted Global Diversity Framework, and protecting environmental defenders is a key element in addressing biodiversity loss and climate change.

• Erosion of Indigenous knowledge and wisdom: The young activist further voiced that the knowledge of the Indigenous People’s is at risk of being lost because of many factors – like the lack of access to culture rooted education and also discrimination and marginalization of indigenous knowledge and world views, and the displacement from their ancestral lands.

• Many knowledge barriers in decision-making process: According to Ms Tauli, it becomes incredibly challenging to fully and effectively participate in decision-making process– many of these spaces are not inclusive, or they are tokenized and not really listened to. In order to make decisions more effective and equitable, she believes that the youth have a lot to contribute in terms of crafting decisions that are really transformative, that addresses the root causes of the issues that the indigenous youth are facing.

• Continue to bear the impact of developmental aggression: “We must not ignore the impacts of inequity and colonialism, we need to make decisions keeping in mind the next 7 generations”, the youth activist said. This developmental aggression violates their right to land, life and self-determination. In the Philippines, Indigenous Youth are leading their assistance and continuing to contribute to the movements for their rights and environment.

Autumn Adams

Autumn Adams is an Advocate, Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). While discussing on the topic “Mobilising for justice”, she shared how at age nine, a tragedy struck Autumn Adam’s life when her father passed away and her mother was unfit to take care of her – it left Adams with an uncertain future. Adams is a member of the Yakama Nation, a federally recognised Native tribe.

She was terrified to be ripped from her mother’s arms and extended family and culture. Adams was eventually placed with a family in a multigenerational home that included her maternal aunt and grandmother. The legislation that helped Adams’ family together is the Indian Child Welfare (ICWA), which was established over 40 years ago, and gives the Native American and tribal members’ preference when it comes to adopting or foster native children in America. 

“Lamenting on the condition of the Indigenous youth today, Luis Acosta in his speech yesterday told that majority of the indigenous youth are losing their connection with mother nature in the jungle, and emphasized how those children easily survived for 40 days because they are linked to their ancestors, nature, they dive in the deep waters, walk barefoot on the ground, eat food from the trees.”

Adams in her speech mentioned that the US Supreme Court has recently upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which provide protection for Indigenous children from the tribes in India. She shared that her mobilization for the Indian Child Welfare Act started shortly after she gained custody of her brother and sister, and ICWA has given her the tools that she needed to navigate the Western world. Adams has been involved with the media campaign since 2019.

She emphasized on the urgency of the Indigenous Youth to have the right to decide of their identity or where they’re located to be raised within their communities and their culture. She urged the indigenous youth to stand up for the most vulnerable ones on the Indigenous communities, the children, especially those who don’t have voice, who aren’t allowed to participate at the table, and their rights must be protected.

Adams stated that she wanted to fight for ICWA because it allowed her to remain in a close proximity within her community, her ancestors, and her family. It gave her the building blocks to grow into the independent woman that she is today, and to break generational barriers for not only her siblings but to offer protection to her nieces and nephews on occasion.

She concluded her speech with the final statement that it is her goal now to continue to work further in preserving the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

Luis Acosta

Luis Acosta is a national coordinator of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), a non-governmental, non-violent organization with the aim to protect indigenous peoples’ lands from illegal mining.

In June 2023, a news story surfaced, about 4 children who remarkably survived the Colombian Amazon Rainforest for 40 days. The Indigenous volunteers were instrumental in the search for the children. It was the Indigenous upbringing of those children which helped the four kids survive the Amazon plane crash alone for more than a month, eating Cassava flour, seeds, roots, plants and fruits.

“They are indigenous children and they know the jungle well. They know what to eat and what not to eat. They survived because of this and their spiritual force” – Luis Acosta.

“Ms Tauli shared her experience when the critical voice of her father, along with three activists were attempted to be silenced, by the State’s false and baseless accusations on them. She emphasised how it was an incredibly disturbing situation for their families who were still coping with the impacts of similar attempts of criminalisation and threat, of silencing the indigenous environmental defenders in many places across the world. They were criminalised and murdered for their work to defend their lands. The Philippines has been consistently among the deadliest countries for environment and land defenders. They are labelled as terrorists – hence criminalised and murdered. This is explicit in many policy instruments, including the recently adopted Global Diversity Framework, and protecting environmental defenders is a key element in addressing biodiversity loss and climate change.”

Lamenting on the condition of the Indigenous youth today, Luis Acosta in his speech yesterday told that majority of the indigenous youth are losing their connection with mother nature in the jungle, and emphasized how those children easily survived for 40 days because they are linked to their ancestors, nature, they dive in the deep waters, walk barefoot on the ground, eat food from the trees.

He thanked the indigenous wisdom, traditional knowledge which saved the lives of those children.

“That’s why I would invite you to embrace Mother Nature so that the Indigenous Peoples can be rooted” – Luis Acosta

He further shared about the atrocities the Indigenous youths face – in Colombia, a young youth was murdered for protecting mother nature.

“Let’s protect our ancestry, our seeds. Let’s go back to our origins, roots. Let’s learn how to heal wounds from the medicines given to us by our mother nature. Let’s unite as the fish unites in the pond” – Luis Acosta.

The national coordinator concluded his speech with the call for the necessity of collective power in the West – how working together is crucial in building a relation with nature, which is the need of the hour now. 

Rosa Maren

Rosa Maren, 18 years old from Finland, is an expert member of Youth Council of Finland. The Youth Council was started by the summit parliament in Finland in 2011, and the main task of it is to promote the linguistic and cultural rights of the indigenous youth. She talked about the climate change in Finland – where a lot of young range herders are facing big baboons with their reindeer hunting.

“As an indigenous young woman, I would like to urge every young person to start engaging, participating and speaking on the indigenous community, their struggles and requirements” – Rosa Maren

Leonor Zalabata

H.E. Indigenous Ambassador Leonor Zalabata, the permanent representative of Colombia to the United Nations, concluded the event with her statement that the sun is our father, earth is our mother – we must reflect that no matter how diverse we are, we are equal – we must preserve and protect the Indigenous community and the origins of it.

A Collective Message At The End

The speakers collectively urged the Indigenous youth to not be ashamed to be an indigenous, to return to the roots. The Youths should have connection with their ancestors – must go back to the womb.

Some of the key tools for Indigenous Youth to promote Intergenerational connections:

• Commemoration of cultural diversity
• Intergenerational dialogue
• Communication
• Funding
• Cultural education
• Access to participation
• Indigenous languages education
• Passing traditional knowledge
• Audio-visual storytelling
• Recognition and acknowledgement
• Environmental education
• Social-media platforms/networking capacity

Youths must realise their self-determination as they have a lot to fight with and upheld the Indigenous Peoples.

(Kakali Das, Assistant Editor, Mahabahu, attended the virtual commemoration on 9 August, 2023 at 6.30 p.m. IST)

10-08-2023

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