Native Peoples at Peoples Climate March 2014 Photos by Roberto Nutlouis

Photos by Roberto Nutlouis, Dine' from Pinon, Arizona, Peoples Climate March, New York 2014

World Conference is Not the Voice of Grassroots Indigenous Peoples

Reminder - The High Level Plenary Meeting (that is not a World Conference on indigenous Peoples) at the UN, begins in the morning

By Glenn Morris
Censored News

Hello, all,

I am sending this reminder to folks in Denver, that the HLPM begins in the morning. The pomp and circumstance of the opening session begins at 6:30 am, Denver time. The UN is scheduled to webcast the meeting at this url: http://webtv.un.org/#. We will be watching the proceedings all day in the Political Science library on the 3rd floor of the new Academic Building. The Fourth World Center will also be open for any of your academic or research needs. Any of you who will be joining us to watch and comment on the proceedings should download the final Outcome Document, which can be found on the HLPM/WCIP website at: http://wcip2014.org/. The program is here: http://wcip2014.org/wcip-2014/programme. The Tuesday session is only on the afternoon: 1-4 pm, Denver time. We will be viewing that session, also.

I am including people who are not in Denver on this message because my hope is that we can all share our critical comments about the session via Twitter. The Fourth World Center handle is @4thWorld Center, and my personal handle is: @gtm303. The official HLPM handle is @WCIP2014, #WCIP2014. We have developed a critical hashtag: #WCIP2014sham, that we can use for providing critical commentary. Once again, I've never been on Twitter before, so, If I can do it, anyone can. I look forward to seeing you all in the Twitter world. 

To reiterate, the point of our observing and critiquing the HLPM is not to engage in an exercise of masochism -- wallowing in what we all know will be a negative outcome. Rather, it is to provide a record of resistance to this process that many of us have vocally critiqued as another attempt to finalize the colonization, domestication and total domination of our peoples and our homelands. It is also for those of us who have been in this struggle for some time to provide spiritual grounding, history and analysis for younger people to continue our resistance to invasion and colonization. While it might be dis-spiriting to see a number of other indigenous individuals collaborating in the HLPM process, we should take strength and courage in the knowledge that many of us remain in active resistance, and will continue to organize, mobilize and continue the struggle beyond the Kabuki theatre that will play out over the next two days in New York.

In Struggle,

Glenn

Program:
Monday 22 September
9am-1pm – Opening Plenary Meeting
3-6pm – Roundtable 1: United Nations system action to implement the rights of Indigenous peoples
3-6pm – Roundtable 2: Implementation of the rights of Indigenous peoples at the national and local level

Tuesday 23 September
3-5pm – Roundtable 3: Indigenous peoples’ lands, territories and resources
3-5pm – Panel Discussion: Indigenous priorities for the post-2015 sustainable development agenda
5-6pm – Closing Plenary Meeting

Guatemala: Indigenous Council denounces upcoming UN World Conference

Guatemala: Indigenous Council denounces upcoming UN World Conference

​

Declaration of the Abya Yala Council
Ixim Uleu Maya Territories [Guatemala]

August 12, 2014"We denounce the lack of legitimacy of the representation of self-appointed indigenous peoples or those appointed by successive governments states who do not represent the legitimate demands of our peoples as in the case of the upcoming "World Conference on Indigenous Peoples" which is nothing more than a plenary assembly of the UN member states.  We demand that these governments instead comply with the relevant international covenants and treaties in full recognition, respect, and protection of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Likewise, we reject the representation of the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA) because they do not represent us as Indigenous Peoples, instead they represent the interests of successive national governments and oligarchies.  We demand an audit of the investment of the funds allocated to this institution on behalf of our Indigenous Peoples.The mechanisms of Indigenous representation underwritten by the government states of North, Central and South America are illegal and illegitimate because they were not elected by our indigenous peoples or Original Nations according to our laws, so their opinions do not have our support and consent, such as the case of the Central American Indigenous Council (CICA).  As Indigenous Peoples we engaged are in the reconstitution of our original nationalities therefore we shall decide for ourselves the representation of our delegations as Original Nations.

We add our support and solidarity with the decision of the North American Indigenous Peoples Caucus (NAIPC) at the continental level of Abya Yala, Turtle Island and will not participate in the "World Conference of Indigenous Peoples" because this initiative does not represent the legitimate interests of our Indigenous Peoples and Original Nations, but the discriminatory and racist interests of the states and multi-national corporations.  We demand that the international community comply fully with the international conventions and treaties in recognition, respect, and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples."

SoundCloud:

KPFK American Indian Airwaves September 2, 2014

Report from Guatemala

​

Winnemem Wintu War Dancers: Shasta Dam a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'

Winnemem Wintu War Dancers: Shasta Dam a 'Weapon of Mass Destruction'

By Dan Bacher Indigenous Resistance

Mark Miyoshi and Chief Caleen Sisk watch as Jesse Sisk and James Ward work on lighting the ceremonial fire. (Photo: Dan Bacher)

For the US Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service, the 602 foot-high Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River north of Redding is a keystone of the Central Valley Project and a monument to engineering skill.

“Shasta Dam, dwarfed only by Hoover and Grand Coulee dams when it was completed on the Sacramento River in 1945, is breathtaking not only for its great size, but for its majestic setting in the southern range of the Cascades,” according to the National Park Service.

However, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe has a much different view of the dam and the reservoir it created. Tribal Leaders view the massive curved concrete dam - and a federal plan to raise the dam 18-1/2 feet - as a “Weapon of Mass Destruction.” This dam expansion plan would flood many of the remaining sacred sites of the Tribe that weren’t inundated by the construction of Shasta Dam in the 1940s.

Indigenous and Via Campesina denounce upcoming UN Climate Summit

Indigenous and Via Campesina denounce upcoming UN Climate Summit

Press Release: Social Movements representing more than 200 million people around the world denounce corporate take-over of Ban Ki-Moon Climate Summit

Social movements such as La Via Campesina, OilWatch International, Migrants Rights International, Global Forest Coalition, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, ATTAC France and more than 330 organizations (1), representing more than 200 million members around the world, including peasants and small farmers, indigenous peoples, migrants, workers, women, people of color, environmental and climate justice activists and water warriors, have publicly denounced the corporate take-over of the upcoming Ban Ki-Moon Climate Summit. In a joint statement published on September 16, they call for systemic change rather than the voluntary pledges and market-based and destructive public-private partnership initiatives that currently feature on the Summit’s agenda, like REDD+ Climate-Smart Agriculture and the Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

The statement calls for 10 concrete actions to be taken to prevent climate chaos including immediate binding commitments to keep the temperature rise to no more than 1.5degrees Centigrade. The social movements go on to warn against what they call the “false solutions” and harmful actions that the big corporations that have been invited by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to play the lead role at the upcoming Climate Summit in New York are pushing for.

“Climate change negotiations are being dominated by irresponsible states, polluters and corporations that only care about current operations and the furtherance of profits through more fossil fuel exploitation, new carbon markets and other false solutions like industrial bioenergy that are destroying forests, soils, wetlands, rivers, mangroves and oceans,” states Genevieve Azam, Spokesperson of ATTAC France.

Carlos Marentes Director of Border Agricultural Workers and Member of La Via Campesina International adds, “Ban Ki Moon’s New York Climate Summit has been surrounded by a lot of fanfare but does not call for genuine systemic actions. It instead proposes several of the false solutions of the green economy, including dangerous techno-fixes and market-based solutions that will do more harm than good. It fails to recognize that climate change is the result of an unjust economic system that is in the business of pursuing endless growth, concentrating wealth in the hands of a few and over-exploiting nature to the point of collapse.”

The social movements point out halting climate change calls for an end to the neoliberal free trade regime that promotes this pursuit of endless growth and endless profit for transnational corporations. They call for an end to the often secret negotiations on the corporate trade and investment regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the proposed TransPacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement (TTIP) and other bilateral, regional and plurilateral agreements that seek to commodify all aspects of life and nature. Nnimmo Bassey of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nigeria points out, “These agreements undercut domestic labor, destroy nature, and substantially reduce the capacity of nations to define their own economic, social and environmental priorities.”

The New York Summit is said to be a key milestone in the road to the 21st Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in 2015, but the social movements supporting the statement point out that this requires firm legally binding commitments and transformative change rather than the business as usual currently proposed. ““Of course, we need real and concrete actions. But not any kind of action. No more voluntary pledges and empty promises. There will be no going back from the climate chaos if we do nothing to confront and challenge the inaction of our governments’ policy-making being taken over by polluting corporations. It is crucial for us to all strengthen our concrete struggles on the ground and focus our energies on changing the capitalist system.,” concludes Cindy Wiesner of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance.

(1) The statement and the full list of organizations can be found here: http://climatespace2013.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/mobilize-and-organize-to-stop-and-prevent-planet-fever/

To arrange for interviews with any of the spokespersons, please contact any of the following:

Annelies Schorpion annelies.schorpion@viacampesina.org (French, English and Spanish)

Maxime Combes maxime.combes@gmail.com (French, English and Spanish)

Alberto Zoratti azoratti@yahoo.it (Italian and English)

Sha Grogan-Brown sha@ggjalliance.org (English and Spanish) mobile number:+1-917-586-9044

.

"Despite governments and corporations negotiating the next round of an international treaty for mitigating climate change, we continue to face the onslaught of business-as-usual within the homeland of Indigenous Peoples’ where oil drilling, tar sands, hydraulic fracturing, coal extraction and the combustion of dirty fossil fuels continues and is expanding." - Indigenous Environmental Network 2014

World Conference on Indigenous Peoples Reception

Indigenous Resistance to the Mount Polley Mining Disaster Webinar

Indigenous Resistance to the Mount Polley Mining Disaster Webinar

Wed. 17, 2014, 8 pm Eastern Standard Time

"Industry is an attack on our very existence as Indigenous people. We need to uphold our responsibilities to our lands and territories" -- Kanahus Manuel

The Youtube streaming link to this webinar will be posted here 10 minutes before the webinar begins:
http://www.idlenomore.ca/mount_polley_webinar

'Indigenous Resistance to the Mount Polley Mining Distaster' will be the third webinar from the @[null:#TurnTheTables] webinar series organized by Idle No More and Defenders of the Land.
Moderator Kanahus Manuel

Kanahus Manuel is a mother of four and a grassroots community organizer from the Secwepemc Nation & a member of the Secwepemc Women Warriors Society. She has been arrested for upholding her inherent responsibilities to protect the land and water. Kanahus is part of the Native Youth Movement, and started the Sacred Fire in her territory in response to the recent Mount Polley tailings spill, which has devastated the freshwater salmon populations in Secwepemc territory.

Secwepemc Elder Jean William

Jean William is a Secwepemc Elder and a Secwepemc language teacher who was born and raised in T'exelc. She is an expert of her Secwepemc culture, and has extensive knowledge of the cultural, spiritual and historical significance of the area impacted by the Mount Polley tailings disaster.

Education and Research Joan Kuyak
Joan Kuyek is a strategist, researcher and educator living in Ottawa. She was the founding National Co-ordinator of MiningWatch Canada from 1999-2009. Joan teaches Mining Law, Policy and Communities at Queen’s University Law School (Law 514), Community Development and Social Change (SW3206) at Carleton University, and Mines and Communities in the CESD program of Algoma University Spring Institute.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/469172703225983/