On June 17, 2012, around 200 indigenous peoples from all around the world met at the Museu do Republica in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, in order to discuss their own visions, concerns and expectations for Rio+20 and sustainable development in general in their Indigenous Peoples International Conference on Sustainable Development and Self-Determination.
On June 15, in Brazil, Indigenous people from all over the world started convening for a parallel gathering to the official United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, known as “Rio+20.” Gathering in Kari-Oca, an Indigenous village set up in the Rio de Janiero suburb of Jacarepagua, Indigenous delegates plan to assure that any strategies drafted by the UN contain an Indigenous perspective and respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights.
In December, Brazil’s Indian Agency (Fundação Nacional do Índio) approved delimitation of the 146,000 hectare Wedezé Indigenous Reserve in the state of Mato Grosso. Occupied by the Xavante people since the mid-1800s, the area was illegally sold to private interests in the 1950s and to accommodate its new owners the Indigenous residents were resettled elsewhere in the 1970s. The reserve includes the site of the historical village São Domingos, where Cultural Survival’s founder David Maybury-Lewis did ethnographic research in the 1950s.
In December, Brazil’s Indian Agency (Fundação Nacional do Índio) approved delimitation of the 146,000 hectare Wedezé Indigenous Reserve in the state of Mato Grosso. Occupied by the Xavante people since the mid-1800s, the area was illegally sold to private interests in the 1950s and to accommodate its new owners the Indigenous residents were resettled elsewhere in the 1970s. The reserve includes the site of the historical village São Domingos, where Cultural Survival’s founder David Maybury-Lewis did ethnographic research in the 1950s.
In another turn in the ongoing law suit over construction of the Belo Monte dam in Brazil, a district federal court ruled on November 9th that Indigenous Peoples who oppose construction of the dam on the Xingu river do not have the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent on the project because it is not located on their traditional territory. This decision contradicts the Brazilian Constitution as well as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, both of which Brazil has endorsed.
On October 17, 2011, a Brazilian federal judge ruled that the controversial Belo Monte Dam licenses are illegal and should be revoked since the Brazilian government did not hold proper consultations with Indigenous communities that would be affected by the project.
A Brazilian judge brought construction of the Belo Monte Dam project to a halt last week as he ruled in favor of environmental activists to protect fish species and the Indigenous people who depend on them for food and livelihoods.
In April of 2001, Global Response launched a campaign to stop the construction of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in Brazil. Now, ten years later, after major international protest, the dam has received it's final approval and will soon begin construction.
The on-again-off-again Belo Monte dam has been halted once again by a judge in Brazil after being the go-ahead by Brazil's president last year. The gigantic dam would flood some 190 square miles of rainforest and displace multiple Indigenous communities, who have been protesting the dam for years. The judge's ruling cited environmental concerns rather than the human rights issues, but if the ruling holds (previous injunctions have been overturned), it will still benefit the Indigenous Peoples of the area.
We, indigenous peoples Juruna, Xipaya, Arara of the Volta Grande, Kuruaia and Xicrin of the region of Altamira, Guajajara, Gavião, Krikati, Awa Guajá, Kayapo of Mato Grosso and Pará, Tembé, Aikeora, Suruí, Xavante, Karintiana, Puruborá, Kassupá, Wajãpi, Karajá, Apurinã, Makuxi, Nawa of Acre, Mura from Amazonas, Tupaiu, Borari, Tapuia, Arapiuns, Pataxó, Tupiniquim, Javaé, Kaingang, Xucuru, Marubu, Maiuruna and Mundukuru from the states of Amazonas and Pará and from the other states of the Amazon region and Brazil, farmers and riverine peoples
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
