On November 12, 2010 the government of Canada finally formally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The government's official statement falls far short of actual endorsement, however, emphasizing that the declaration "does not reflect customary international law nor change Canadian laws" and further emphasizing Canada's objection to most of the major rights spelled out in the declaration.
By Bryan Bixcul (Maya-Tz’utujil), SIRGE Coalition Global Coordinator
By Brandi Morin (Cree/Iroquois)
Photos by Julien Defourny
By Mariana Kiimi Ortiz Flores (Ñuu Savi/Mixteca, CS Staff)
By Elisa Ribeiro (CS Intern), Daniela Mostacilla (Nasa), and John Sabogal
By Edson Krenak (Krenak, CS Staff)
Indigenous Peoples represent one of the most significant multilateral and democratic contributions to climate and land issues, as they are the frontliners of the climate crisis, leaders in ecosystem protection, legal land tenure, and sustainable development. However, at the COP, they struggled to be heard.
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
Indigenous Peoples’ collective closing statement at COP30, delivered by Diana Chavez Vargas of Ecuador.
Thank you, Chair,
The Amazon, our home is the next global oil frontier.
Indigenous Peoples are under attack.
We face colonial militarization of our territories, where states and corporations trade our lives for fossil fuels, transition minerals, and large-scale renewables.
We stand in solidarity with our Amazonian relatives and condemn the killing of land defenders. This was mirrored by the heavy militarization of this COP.
By Francesco Torri
“We were raised as warriors. It’s part of our culture, but there has been too much bloodshed. Now, we fight for peace,” says Simonpeter, a young ex-combatant from the Jie ethnic group, known as Karachuna in the local language.
The Xikrin Peoples face severe humanitarian and environmental crises as Vale’s nickel and other metal mining contaminates their rivers, harms their health, and destroys their ancestral territory, endangering their cultural survival and the environmental integrity of the region. The negative impacts on the health of the Xikrin people are so severe that some studies show that 98% of the communities in the Cateté lands are seriously contaminated.
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.
