By Idle No More
The February 14th Annual Women’s Memorial March is held on Valentine’s Day each year to honour the memory of Indigenous women, including trans and two-spirit women, who have died as a result of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual violence. Now in its 23rd year, the March remembers and honours murdered and missing women, and seeks to organize against ongoing gendered violence that women face.
The Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage research project (IPinCH) at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada has received an additional $50,000 in funding for the first Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Partnership Award. A previous $2.5 million grant provided the initial funding for the project, which began in 2008. The project explores the rights, values and responsibilities connected to cultural objects and cultural knowledge, as well as the ethics of heritage research.
Thanks to your commitment, thousands of letters were sent to Federal Review Panel and Canadian government officials during the Panel Review of the proposed New Prosperity Mine at Fish Lake.
On October 31, 2013, Canada’s Federal Environmental Review Panel submitted an extensive report with their major findings regarding Taseko’s plan to mitigate adverse impacts of the “New Prosperity” gold-copper mine, a project proposed on the lands of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation. Weeks earlier, the Panel heard considerable testimony from members of the Tsilhqot’in community. The Panel was required to review information presented by Indigenous groups in British Columbia.
On November 7, the Tsilhqot’in community members appeared in Canada’s Supreme Court to assert their title to traditional lands. This comes more than 20 years after a lawsuit was filed against the government of British Columbia over commercial logging on land the Tsilhqot’in claim as traditionally theirs.
On October 15, 2013, James Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, concluded an eight-day trip to Canada. During the trip, Anaya visited several locations, meeting with government officials and First Nations with the intention of examining the human rights of Canada’s Indigenous population. Summarizing the findings of his trip, Anaya had tough words for the Canadian government in a statement published on October 15.
ACTION ALERT - LET'S SAVE FISH LAKE FOR ALL TIME!
Reposted from First Peoples Worldwide
Idle No More is calling for an international Day of Action to be held in communities around the world on October 7th, 2013.
The Federal Environmental Review Panel that will decide on the fate of the “New Prosperity” Mine in British Columbia, Canada came to a close at the end of August after 63 days of intense testimony. The panel was attended by members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, including youth, elders, chiefs, and spiritual leaders from across British Columbia.
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.
