On March 8, 2012 several hundred Indigenous people began a two week march across Ecuador to call attention to their protest of a large-scale open-pit copper mine. Ecuacorriente, a Chinese company, has been authorized by the Correa government to develop a mine near El Pangui, Zamora-Chinchipe Province, in the southern part of the country.
By Sandra Peláez (CS Intern)
The Camentsa Shnan Wabuatmeng Indigenous Association is an organization composed of members of the Kamëntsá Peoples—primarily midwives, traditional healers (sobanderas), medicinal knowledge keepers, traditional doctors, and apprentices—both women and men. The Kamëntsá, who refer to themselves as Kamuentsa Ÿentsá, Kamëntšá Biÿá (Peoples of this place, with their own thought and language)—are an Indigenous Peoples living in the Sibundoy Valley, Colombia.
By CS Staff
The rights of Indigenous Peoples to their lands, territories, and natural resources constitute the material and spiritual basis of their self-determination, cultural identity, food systems, political organization, and intergenerational continuity.
By Nichodimas Cooper (Nama, CS Journalism Fellow)
By Gregory Jones (Shawnee)
By Mathias Tooko (Maasai, CS Fellow)
By Jagat Man Lama Dong, Chairperson, Indigenous Rights Foundation
The rural municipality of Umakunda, located in the ancestral homeland of the Sunuwar People, is a prime example of the disruption to communities caused by climate change. Many Sunuwar are leaving for cities because they can no longer earn a living from farming, their traditional occupation. Biren Sunuwar (Sunuwar) from Kubukasthali articulates the trend: “There is nothing in the village. It’s impossible to make a living here.”
By Lucas Kasosi (Maasai, CS Fellow)