Statement from Indigenous Peoples on Climate Summit

Cultural Survival supports youth around the globe who are striking this September 20, 2019 in a call for urgent action for the climate.  

As one of its 5 core demands, the Youth Climate Strike Coalition urges Respect of Indigenous Land and Sovereignty. They call on legislators to:

Allegedly criminally set fires have destroyed nearly all of Xavante Indigenous Territory Areões, about 219,000 hectares, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, according to a report by Globo News, a leading mainstream media source in Brazil. Areões is an Indigenous Territory, home to about 1,500 Xavante who are now facing the catastrophic impacts from the fires.

By Chris Swartz

On August 19 and 20, 2019, the United States saw its first ever Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. There, Tribal leaders and Native organizers, including Native youth, were able to ask the nine candidates questions concerning topics such as the climate crisis, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and continuous government neglect of Native American peoples. Each candidate was individually questioned by a panel of six to eight panelists, in front of an audience of members from different Tribal Nations across the country.
 

By Allen Perez                                                    En español

By Katherine Hamilton

Nestled amongst the beauty of Boston’s historic coastline lies an intensifying disagreement over Long Island, one of the 34 islands comprising Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park, part of the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and, less well known, the site of a former concentration camp and Native burial ground.

The Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) is a consortium of 15 sovereign Tribal Nations located in Southeast Alaska. SEITC has authority derived from Tribal governments, and each member Tribe has a formally designated representative. Established in 2014, SEITC was founded in order to protect and represent the cultural connection to the sacred rivers and waterways that are essential to sustaining local communities.

In June 2019, Dmitry Berezhkov and Pavel Sulyandziga authored a report titled, “Acts of intimidation, criminalization and other types of activities with the aim to prevent human rights work of Indigenous activists in Russia.” Berezhkov is the director at Arctic Consult, a database of documentation that Indigenous Peoples have compiled about their rights on land, resources, and self-determination.

By Haley Albano 

By Dev Kumar Sunuwar

By Dev Kumar Sunuwar

At one time media in Nepal were criticized for ignoring the voices, participation and access of Indigenous Peoples.  The Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (ACORAB)—an umbrella organization of community radio stations in Nepal, AMARC-Asia Pacific, UNESCO and UNDP Nepal recently jointly organized a national consultation on the state of Indigenous broadcasting to best address the concerns of Indigenous peoples in community radio.