The following is the Opening Statement of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) at the UNFCCC SB58 meeting in Bonn, Germany, made on June 5, 2023.

On June 5th, 2023, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day, an annual celebration established by the UN General Assembly in 1973. Since its inception, the day has become the largest global platform for inspiring positive change and celebrating environmental action.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders is a position that is well known by activists from all around the world.

In Gordon, Nebraska, a small border town on the grassy expanse of the northern Great Plains, there is a gravestone in the town’s cemetery etched with one word: “Unknown.” It rests on the grave of an Indigenous woman whose body was found underneath a stone bridge in 1970 and, like many Native women before and after her, was never identified. 

On August 15-17, MKW Co-conveners and partners will convene the Mni Ki Wakan (Water is Sacred) Summit, themed, “Indigenous Water Justice, Global Collaboration, & Dismantling Water Colonialism,” occurring in Rapid City, South Dakota, United States (mnikiwakan.org). The MKW Summit will bring together Indigenous Peoples, youth, and Indigenous-led environmental water organizations.

We are a radio group composed of Mapuche Lafkenche from Budi, Chile, an ancestral territory located in the ninth region of the Araucanía, a Wallmapu (traditional territory of the Mapuche people). We are Indigenous farmers and subsist on raising small-scale livestock. We are adult speakers of the Mapuche language. We are an autonomous media, self-financed mainly by the communities we serve. We are in charge of providing information, cultural activities, and above all, addressing conflicts that affect the territory.