#indigenous activism

[wachinyeya]

#whales #indigenous #indigenous peoples #indigenous activism #new zealand #tahiti #cook islands #personhood #marine biology #marine life #marine animals

[allthecanadianpolitics]

When Cody Diabo recently learned that the bay restoration project on Kateri Tekakwitha Island was near complete, he took his family for a walk there to see its transformation from a dry, rocky shore into a marsh teeming with life. 

The island off of Kahnawà:ke, a Kanien'kéha:ka community south of Montreal, was once a small archipelago of lush, natural islands — but it became a single piece of land after sludge from the river and blasted rock was dumped onto the archipelago by construction crews building the St. Lawrence Seaway about 70 years ago. 

"For the first time coming to the island since I was a little child, I saw corn growing," Diabo, council chief responsible for the environment portfolio at the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke, said at a news conference Wednesday announcing the completion of the nearly decade-long project to restore water flow in the bay and naturalize its surroundings. 

"To be able to see a substance that's dear to Onkwehonwe people and Kanien'kéha people — corn — growing here, where it was essentially barren for a while … that was just a sign that we were doing something really good." [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #Montreal #Kanien'kéha:ka #Mohawk #Kahnawà:ke #conservation #Indigenous politics #Indigenous activism #Indigenous resistance

[noctivagantpodcast]

I Live On Stolen Land

Consider donating to one of these wonderful charities dedicated to preserving the cultures, livelihoods, rights, and dignity of Indigenous peoples.

First Nations Development Institute. Information taken from their 'Our Programs' page: Grantmaker dedicated to addressing financial inequality and its many, many negative impacts. In additional to financial aid, FNDI provides job training and participates in policy-making and advocacy, often focusing on environmental concerns, food insecurity, and tribal sovereignty. Some examples of current projects include "Fortifying Our Forests" AKA restoring and protecting sacred land in partnership with the Forest Service, Native Language Immersion Initiative AKA ensuring the survival of Native languages, and Native Farm To School AKA connecting Native youth with traditional means of growing and harvesting food.

Native American Rights Fund A registered non-profit that provides legal representation in matters of Native interest, be that a single individual or an entire tribe. Since their inception, they have won cases that made critical contributions to the advancement of Native rights in the United States. Their efforts have helped uphold tribal sovereignty, compelled museums, universities, and other institutions to return the remains of Native ancestors, and protected the voting rights of pretty much everyone.

Redhawk Native American Arts Council This organization's primary focus is on the preservation of Native American arts through educational programs. We can also thank them for granting scholarships to Native students seeking higher education, and for running a youth program which aims to help Urban Indigenous youth connect with their heritage through the arts.

Seventh Generation Fund A "fiscal sponsor" for smaller community groups that are run by and for Native tribes/individuals, with the focus of preserving heritage and defending tribal sovereignty, as well as continued survival post-genocide. One example of their work is the Flicker Fund, a disaster fund dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities during times of crisis, be that a pandemic, extreme weather, or a severe drought. Another is the Traditions Bearers Fellowship, which provides financial support to tribal community members who carry on pre-colonization traditions.

Quiluete Move To Higher Ground Stephanie Meyer committed a serious of egregious acts of cultural appropriation and exploitation, and made a very large fortune off a very real tribe. This very real tribe now finds themselves living in a tsunami zone and unable to afford a move to a safer area. As of 2022, the move of the Tribal School, the most important phase, is complete, but there's much more work to be done.

Indigenous Women Rising Abortion Fund A fund to provide Native individuals and family access to abortion care, menstrual hygiene supplies, and midwifery. Here are two separate articles verifying their status as the ONLY indigenous specific (and Indigenous led) abortion fund. For more information on how the destruction of Roe V Wade has negatively impacted Indigenous women, look here and here.

South Dakota Historical Society Foundation So, this isn't a Native led or Native specific organization, but, they work closely with Indigenous communities in South Dakota to preserve their heritage alongside the state's history. I recently had a lovely conversation with one of their representatives about the Ghost Shirt their society is sheltering until such a time as the tribe it rightfully belongs to can house it safely. Article about the shirt's repatriation with some cool info on the shirt's history is here.

#native american rights #indigenous issues #indigenous activism #native american art

[reasonsforhope]

"When President Lula da Silva took office this year in Brazil, many environmental and indigenous rights groups hoped he would fulfill campaign promises of better protection for the Amazon rainforest and the people who live there.

Nearly four months into his tenure and early signs are that Lula was telling the truth, as Brazilian police have evicted dozens of illegal gold miners from the Yanomami Reserve, an area the size of Portugal inhabited by around 35,000 [Indigenous people].

Illegally-mined gold accounts for around half of all the country’s exports, and a new Environment of the Amazon division of the federal police is seeking international assistance in building a first-rate structure for targeting the outside funding toward and sales from illegal gold mining.

Reuters says that so far, the new division has ousted nearly all miners from the area, including overseeing the destruction of 250 mining camps and 70 low-tech boats used for dredging. 48 planes and helicopters for smuggling the gold out of the reserve have been seized as well.

The police hope to use radioisotope technology and methods to be able to pinpoint the exact mineralogical makeup of illegally mined gold as a way of targeting it in the market even after it’s melted into ingots.

They also plan to remove miners from 6 other Amazon reserves this year, while setting up a permanent, floating police station on a river in the Yanomami Reserve.

At the moment, the Lula Administration is considering the best set of laws for tackling the problem. While 804 miners have been arrested in the raids, all were let go, and many others fled in the police advance.

Humberto Freire, from the new Amazon division, told Reuters he and his department hope to create a sophisticated electronic tax receipt for any transactions of precious metals to help pinpoint sales and distribution of suspected illegal bullion."

-via Good News Network, 3/23/23

-video via Reuters, 3/22/23

#lula da silva #amazon #amazon rainforest #rainforest #conservation #indigenous peoples #indigenous activism #illegal mining #gold mining #brazil #south america #yanomami #environmental justice #amazonia #latin america #conservation news #good news #hope #Youtube

[parasocial-work]

According to Cobb, “You have to build the new society within the shell of the old,” and Dishgamu Humboldt can provide a blueprint for what a better world—the one being born—might look like. As parts of the world flood and burn, perhaps projects like this can show us how the land and the people can heal from the wounds of the past, and grow a better future, together.

#landback #land back #give land back #indigenous rights #indigenous activism #indigenous resistance

[omg-whathaveidone]

Gather is an intimate portrait of the growing movement amongst Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, while battling the trauma of centuries of genocide.

Gather follows Nephi Craig, a chef from the White Mountain Apache Nation (Arizona), opening an indigenous café as a nutritional recovery clinic; Elsie Dubray, a young scientist from the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation (South Dakota), conducting landmark studies on bison; and the Ancestral Guard, a group of environmental activists from the Yurok Nation (Northern California), trying to save the Klamath river.

Please share!!

#please share #indigenous lives matter #indigenous #food sovereignty #activism #food #environmental justice #share share share #share #indigenous activism #nativeamericans #native plants #native women #repost this #film #documentary #films to watch #netflix #streaming now #thank you to the Allied Media Group in Detroit for hosting a screening #blaze it

[sailorpants]

Help build yurts for the unhoused people of Camp Nenookaasi in preparation for the oncoming Minnesota winter!

From the campaign description:

We are a group of neighbors in South Minneapolis raising funds to build warm winter structures for unhoused relatives at Nenookaasi Healing Camp. Yurts make winter in Minnesota survivable. With a wood stove and used blankets as insulation, yurts can make a life or death difference in sub-zero temperatures. Below is a breakdown of what each yurt costs:

Slats for walls and roof: $135

Plyboard center circle: $30

5 2 x 4 x 8's for center supports and door: $20

Rope: $50

Hardware: $10

Barrel stove and stovepipe: $35

Large tarp and blankets for insulation: $220

TOTAL cost per yurt: $500

Our goal is to raise $10,000, which would build 20 yurts to house 150-200 people at Nenookaasi Healing Camp this winter. Everyone deserves a warm place to take shelter, most especially Indigenous neighbors facing the cruelty of being unhoused on their own homelands. If you've been blessed with the safety and security of stable housing, please consider sharing those blessings.

As of Oct 14 2023 there’s only about $2k left out of a $10k goal and some of the yurts have already been built!

I know that the world is crazy, life is expensive, and there are plenty of fundraisers and worthy causes to support—this is simply one that’s nearby to me. I’m sharing this link to spread awareness of a really cool project in the hopes that maybe some folks farther away can help too.

#housing justice #minneapolis #Indigenous activism #solidarity

[olowan-waphiya]

“Oyate” elevates the voices of Indigenous activists, organizers, and politicians offering our perspectives on our complicated history and present-day circumstances, contextualizing the movement to stop the Dakota Access pipeline, and illuminating the interconnectivity among the issues facing Indigenous People today. It features excellent music, tells some of our personal stories, and delves deeply into our movement for Native and environmental justice.

—

RSVP here and mark your calendar for our live-streamed "Oyate" worldwide watch party happening at noon PST (3 p.m. EST) on Saturday, January 20th. We’ll send you a reminder later with the link to join this very special event!

#indigenous #native american #ndn #oyate #indigenous people #indigenous activism #environmental justice #climate change #climate crisis #Youtube

[mucking-faori]

If you wanna support those who recently protested colonial narratives and historical erasure at Te Papa, here are some opportunities to do so:

Attend their court hearing at 2.45 pm, Thursday the fourteenth of December, at Wellington District Court;

OR If unable to do this, you can donate to those arrested and their whanau using the bank account 02-1245-0323638-003.

This is a really important kaupapa to support, not only because of the times we are in and the importance of the action itself; but because this protest is likely the first of many, and this court case will inform responses to them going forward.

Funds and general updates can be found on aotearoaliberationleague on Instagram (not sure if they have other socials sorry)

#aotearoa #activism #indigenous activism #indigenous #maori #māori #new zealand #torangapu #nzpol #nz #nz politics #ahau

[climatecalling]

Marco Antônio Silva Batista carried a drone. “If I die, it will be for a good cause – ensuring our territory is preserved for future generations,” said the 20-year-old activist-journalist, whose ability to spy on environmental criminals from above has made him a key member of GPVTI, an Indigenous patrol group in the Brazilian state of Roraima. Batista, who belongs to South America’s Macuxi people, is part of a new generation of Indigenous journalists helping chronicle an age-old battle against outside aggression. For centuries, non-Indigenous writers and reporters have flocked to the rainforest region to tell their version of that ancestral fight for survival. Now, a growing cohort of Indigenous communicators are telling their own stories, providing first-hand dispatches from some of the Amazon’s most inaccessible and under-reported corners. ... Caíque Souza Wapichana, an Indigenous photojournalist who teaches Rede Wakywai’s reporters to use cameras and drones, said he was inspired by a famous 1989 photograph showing a Kayapó activist using a machete to confront the president of a hydropower company plotting to dam a river in another part of the Amazon. “In the old days we pointed machetes. These days we fly drones,” Souza said, calling unmanned aerial vehicles “defensive weapons” against invaders.

#climate activism #climate emergency #indigenous #indigenous activism #brazil

[wachinyeya]

—

“the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State of Alaska’s bid to fast-track the legal process, overrule the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and gain approval for the Pebble Mine — slated to extract enormous amounts of copper, gold, and molybdenum from the pristine and sensitive ecosystem known as Bristol Bay.

A diverse coalition led by Alaska Natives has consistently fought against the proposed mine for more than two decades. It eventually gained support from the EPA, which ultimately blocked the mine proposal in January 2023 over concerns it would threaten an aquatic ecosystem supporting the world’s most prolific sockeye salmon fishery.

This decision is significant, particularly considering the current High Court’s tendency to support states’ rights, limits on regulation — especially of the environmental variety — and corporate concerns. Alaska’s request, filed in June, was unusual in that it sought to skip lower appeals courts to challenge the EPA’s decision on the basis that it violated Alaska’s state sovereignty.

Under the law, alleged violations of state sovereignty are one of the few categories of cases that grant the Supreme Court original jurisdiction — meaning a state can bypass the usual state/federal court appeals process and file straight with the High Court. The justices could easily have decided to hear the case and decide in favor of the mining company, which has shown no qualms about engaging in some shady business practices over the years.

As the single most productive sockeye salmon fishery in the world, Bristol Bay contains biodiversity and abundant wild fish populations which present a stark contrast to many other fisheries in the Pacific Northwest (and worldwide). Most have experienced severe depletion over the last few decades. Sockeye salmon — like all Pacific Salmon — are a keystone species, vital to the health of an entire ecosystem. Of course, salmon also provide a sacred food source for Indigenous communities up and down the West Coast.”

-from the Lakota People’s Law Project

#good news #environmentalism #nature #environment #environmental law #environmental justice #indigenous activism #conservation #fish #salmon #usa #alaska #alaska natives

[allthecanadianpolitics]

It was a jarring sight for more than one reason: plains bison darting from a cattle trailer onto long grass on land owned by the Louis Bull Tribe.

One by one, the 25 young animals sprung forcefully from the open back gate of the trailer and raced up a gentle hill toward the horizon on a cloudless Monday 90 kilometres south of Edmonton almost as though they’d done it before.

Except it was the first time in generations that bison had seen these homelands. It was the culmination of a four-year effort to reintroduce them to Maskwacis by the Louis Bull Tribe and Elk Island National Park.

Among the people watching the display was Louis Bull Tribe Chief Desmond Bull, who described the historic scene as one of mixed emotions.

“Pride, definitely. I felt a little bit of sadness, but honestly, a lot of hope,” Bull said. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @abpoli, @vague-humanoid

#cdnpoli #Alberta #First Nations #Indigenous activism #conservation #flora & fauna #Maskwacis #Louis Bull Tribe

[dailyhistoryposts]

On This Day In History

November 20th, 1969: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island.

#history #world history #indigenous activism #native american history #alcatraz

[thenuclearmallard]

Indigenous Russian voices speaking out

#indigenous #culture #indigenous russia #indigenous russian #important #russia #fypシ #colonization #fypage #landback #stop putin #indigenous rights #indigenous people #indigenous activism #protests

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Two PNW tribal nations sue oil companies over costs of climate change

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/two-pnw-tribal-nations-sue-oil-companies-over-costs-of-climate-change/

Major oil companies for decades deliberately sought to downplay and discredit scientific warnings about the central role of fossil fuels in causing climate change, alleges two lawsuits filed this week by the Makah and Shoalwater Bay tribes.

The lawsuits filed in King County Superior Court name ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 as defendants, and seek compensation for the millions of dollars already spent, and likely to be spent in the future, for the tribes to respond to climate-induced disasters such as extreme heat, drought, wildfire, shoreline erosion, sea level rise and flooding.

The lawsuits allege the companies have known fossil fuels would cause catastrophic climate change since at least 1959, but continued marketing massive quantities of oil and gas. They allege the oil companies tried to mislead the public by funding op-eds and advertisements in Seattle and national newspapers that claimed the science of climate change was uncertain or lacking evidence.

The complaints outline the companies’ research and misleading marketing around their products’ role in causing climate change and the sea level rise, extreme weather, public health harms and other climate effects on the tribes and their lands.

With both the Makah and Shoalwater Bay reservations on the Pacific Ocean, they are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, the lawsuits state. Both tribes have already incurred the costs of moving their citizens to higher ground, and ocean acidification “at an alarming rate” from burning fossil fuels has endangered the tribes’ coastal ecosystems and economy, according to the lawsuits.

“We are seeing the effects of the climate crisis on our people, our land, and our resources. The costs and consequences to us are overwhelming,” said Makah Tribal Council Chair Timothy J. Greene, Sr. in a statement. “We intend to hold these companies accountable for hiding the truth about climate change and the effects of burning fossil fuels. And we aim to force them to help pay for the high costs of surviving the catastrophe caused by the climate crisis.”

The lawsuits also cite a report by the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington that suggests with global warming of at least 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, Washington is projected to experience a 67% increase in the number of days per year above 90 degrees, relative to 1976-2005, leading to an increased risk of heat-related illness and death, warmer streams and more frequent algal blooms. 

The report also found warming would fuel a decrease of 38% in snowpack, relative to 1970-99, leading to reduced water storage, irrigation shortages, and winter and summer recreation losses, as well as increases in winter streamflow, decreases in summer streamflow, leading to reduced summer hydropower, conflicts over water resources and negative effects on salmon. 

“These oil companies knew their products were dangerous, yet they did nothing to mitigate those dangers or warn any of us about them, for decades,” said Shoalwater Bay Chair Charlene Nelson in a written statement. “Now we are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to relocate our community to higher ground and protect our people, our property, and our heritage. These companies need to be held accountable for that.”

The tribes bring their claims under Washington’s Products Liability Act for failure to warn, misrepresentation and intentional concealment. The complaints request jury trials, and ask the court to order the companies to create a fund to be managed by the tribes to remediate and adapt reservation lands, natural resources and infrastructure to climate change.

#Washington state #makah #shoalwater bay tribe #climate change #fossil fuels #environment #indigenous activism

[ashbur]

I hope that nonnatives on this site realize how little ndn issues actually get talked about in the broader public and media. Left wing parts of this site regularly circulate posts about certain(!!!) indigenous issues, to a greater extent than I typically see in nonnative spaces. Please do not forget how little visibility we actually get. Please understand that we still need your active fucking support in the real world to have our voices heard. We need you to mention our issues in political conversations and go out of your way to investigate and uplift indigenous perspectives, because our voices have always been suppressed. Policymakers and media are actively invested in silencing indigenous people. You know about a fraction of the atrocities we have faced and a fraction of the ways we are ongoingly oppressed. Your parents and your coworkers and your classmates probably know even less. Our voices are not being heard, we still need your active allyship.

#indigenous issues #indigenous activism