Canada has reached an in-principle agreement totalling C$4bn (US$31.bn) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families and put into the welfare system, a major step toward reconciliation with the country's Indigenous people. David Sterns, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said: ‘This settlement is the largest class action settlement in Canadian history and it is believed to be one of the largest anywhere in the world.' The agreement includes C$2bn for potentially hundreds of thousands of First Nations children who were removed from their families. Another C$2bn is to reform the system over the next five years
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Canada agrees C$40bn deal to reform child welfare for First Nations
Half of total to be offered in compensation to 200,000 individuals and families who suffered from discriminatory system
A C$40bn agreement-in-principle has been reached in Canada to reform the child welfare system for First Nations people and compensate more than 200,000 individuals and families who suffered because of it.
At the heart of the deal is a legacy of discrimination in child welfare systems that saw many children removed from their homes and placed in state care, and others who were denied adequate medical care and social services because of their Indigenous identity.
Continue reading...Charity appeal in Guatemala, where the fight for land and water rights is a battle for survival
This year’s appeal has already raised over £500,000. We report on an organisation supporting Indigenous communities against wealthy vested interests
José Méndez walked up the mountain behind his rural Ch’orti’ Mayan community of Corozal in eastern Guatemala. He pointed towards an abandoned home of the plantation owner who used to run this hillside. “Right outside that house they killed our three compañeros, the exact same day the county government recognised us as an Indigenous community with rights to the land.”
Further up the mountain, in the mist of corn and coffee fields, Méndez shows off a large water reservoir that irrigates the community’s crops as well as small household gardens of nutritious and medicinal herbs. “This is what we sacrificed for. To recover our land and our water to have a chance to survive here.”
Continue reading...Images of India: from courtesans and colonial rule to a child’s-eye view – in pictures
Since its invention in the 1840s, photography has played an integral part in Indian art history. Although it is often said that India is the most photographed country in the world, the history of its representation is more complicated, and more political, than initially meets the eye. Visions of India: From the Colonial to the Contemporary is the first major survey of Indian photography in Australia and will be on show at the Monash Gallery of Art in Melbourne until 20 March 2022
Continue reading...Lives lost at Europe’s borders and Afghan MPs in exile: human rights this fortnight – in pictures
A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Mexico to Manila
Continue reading...Frog back from the dead helps fight plans for mine in Ecuador
Campaigners say if copper mine gets go-ahead in cloud forest, the longnose harlequin, once thought to be extinct, will be threatened again
Reports of the longnose harlequin frog’s death appear to have been greatly exaggerated – or, at least, premature. The Mark Twain of the frog world is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as extinct, which may come as a surprise to those alive and well in the cloud forests of Ecuador’s tropical Andes.
Known for its pointed snout, the longnose harlequin frog (Atelopus longirostris) is about to play a central role in a legal battle to stop a mining project in the Intag valley in Imbabura province, which campaigners say would be a disaster for the highly biodiverse cloud forests.
Continue reading...‘Heal the past’: first Native American confirmed to oversee national parks
The confirmation of Charles F Sams III marks a symbolic moment for many Indigenous communities
Charles “Chuck” F Sams III made history this week in becoming the first-ever Native American confirmed to lead the National Park Service.
Sams, an enrolled tribal member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, received unanimous consent by the US Senate on Thursday after being nominated by Joe Biden in August.
Continue reading...Mexican environmental campaigner missing after attack on villagers
Irma Galindo Barrios, a member of the Mixtec people, was defending indigenous lands from illegal logging
A Mexican environmental campaigner has been declared missing barely a week after a savage attack on indigenous villagers displaced from the lands she was defending against illegal logging.
Irma Galindo Barrios, a member of the indigenous Mixtec (ñuù savi) people who worked to protect forests in southern Oaxaca state, was last heard from on 27 October. She was scheduled to attend a virtual meeting so she could join a state mechanism for protecting journalists and defenders, but did not attend, according to Rosi Bustamante, a US-based activist who had been in close contact with Galindo.
Continue reading...Canada: First Nation exposed to high levels of cancer-causing chemicals
Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario finally wins access to data charting pollution from local petrochemical facilities
A First Nations community in Canada has learned that levels of a cancer-causing chemical in its air are 44 times higher than is considered safe, after years of fighting for the data.
Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Ontario is surrounded on all sides by petrochemical facilities, and members have long suspected that the facilities in “Chemical Valley” have exposed them to potentially dangerous substances. .
Continue reading...Palm oil land grabs ‘trashing’ environment and displacing people
Growing rush for land is destroying ecosystems and disrupting lives to satisfy global demand for goods, study warns
Businesses and governments must stop the growing rush of commodities-driven land grabbing, which is “trashing” the environment and displacing people, says new research.
Palm oil and cobalt were extreme risks for land grabs according to an analysis of 170 commodities by research firm Verisk Maplecroft published last week. It also warned that, alongside cobalt, other minerals used for “clean” technology, including silicon, zinc, copper, were high risk and undermined the sector’s label.
Continue reading...Transform approach to Amazon or it will not survive, warns major report
Panel of 200 scientists tells Cop26 Indigenous people, business, governments and scientists must collaborate
The world’s approach to the Amazon rainforest must be transformed to avoid an irreversible, catastrophic tipping point, according to the most comprehensive study of the region ever carried out.
More than 200 scientists collaborated on the new report, which finds that more than a third of the world’s biggest tropical forest is degraded or deforested, rainfall is declining and dry seasons are growing longer.
Continue reading...Newly translated letters offer indigenous take of Brazil’s bloody birth
Dutch-Portuguese war of 1645 split the Potiguara people but their leaders’ correspondence across battle lines has finally been translated from Tupi
In 1645, a bloody war raged between Dutch settlers and the Portuguese empire over the sugar plantations of north-east Brazil.
Trapped on either side of the conflict were the Potiguara, a powerful indigenous nation whose leaders penned a series of letters in the Tupi language, enticing their relatives to defect across enemy lines.
Continue reading...Canadian academic on leave amid row over Indigenous ancestry claims
CBC investigation into Carrie Bourassa has drawn comparisons with case of Rachel Dolezal in US
A Canadian official and academic specialising in Indigenous health issues has been placed on administrative leave from her university after an investigation challenged her claims of Indigenous ancestry.
Carrie Bourassa, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, has described herself as having Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit heritage. In 2019 she appeared at a TEDx talk wearing a blue embroidered shawl and holding a feather, where she identified herself as “Morning Star Bear”.
Continue reading...Regulating indigenous medicine in Mexico ‘could violate rights’
Academics and traditional medical groups warn against proposed legislation to grant state authority to control practice
Proposed legislation that would grant the Mexican state authority to regulate and control the practice of indigenous medicine could violate the country’s constitution and international conventions on the rights of ancestral communities, academics and traditional medical groups have warned.
The bill, introduced by the governing Morena party and unanimously voted through by the lower house in April, sets out to regulate and standardise traditional and complementary healthcare.
Continue reading...Herbalist’s murder highlights assault on Mayan spirituality in Guatemala
Spiritual guide Domingo Choc Che was tortured and burned by neighbors who accused him of witchcraft – and advocates say Christian churches are stoking prejudice
In meetings, Domingo Choc Che was quiet and reflective, speaking up only once others had said their piece. But he would come alive when he entered the jungles of Guatemala’s northern Petén department, sharing his knowledge of traditional medicines with anyone who wanted to learn.
“He was more at ease with plants,” said Mónica Berger, a sociologist and anthropologist at the University of the Valley of Guatemala who worked closely with Choc Che, a member of the indigenous Maya Q’eqchi community.
Continue reading...‘We know who we are’: Inuit row raises questions over identity and ancestry
Under Canada’s constitution, Indigenous groups have the right to self-govern – but there are fears that the recognition of NunatuKavut could weaken the authority of Inuit groups
For centuries, Inuit in Canada have thrived in the sprawling territory known as Inuit Nunangat – the homeland – which stretches from a thin sliver of land in the Yukon territory to northern Labrador, a vast domain more than 3.3m sq km (1.2m sq miles) in size.
“Inuit have long understood where our communities are, who belongs to our communities, and have fought over the last 50 years to create modern treaties that identify these specific homelands,” said Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a group that represents the four main Inuit regions.
Continue reading...Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity, Covid inquiry finds
Brazilian president savaged for ‘macabre’ and ‘slovenly’ response to pandemic and ‘deliberate neglect’ of indigenous people
Jair Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity and jailed for his “macabre” reaction to a Covid outbreak that has killed more than 600,000 Brazilians, including a disproportionate number of indigenous citizens, a congressional inquiry has found.
Two of the most dramatic accusations against the Brazilian president – murder and genocide of the country’s indigenous populations – were removed from a previous draft of the report on Tuesday night after talks between opposition senators serving on the inquiry.
Continue reading...Mexico City to replace Columbus statue with pre-Hispanic sculpture of woman
The statue is a replica of a mysterious carving of an Indigenous figure unearthed in January known as the Young Woman of Amajac
A replica of a mysterious pre-Hispanic sculpture of an Indigenous woman has been chosen to replace a statue of Christopher Columbus on Mexico City’s most prominent boulevard.
The statue was unearthed in January in the Huasteca region, near Mexico’s Gulf coast. It’s known as the Young Woman of Amajac, after the village where she was found buried in a field. But nobody really knows who the stone sculpture was supposed to depict.
Continue reading...Activists hold rally on Indigenous Peoples’ Day outside White House – video
Hundreds of protesters led by Indigenous activists have demonstrated in front of the White House to demand that Joe Biden stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare the climate crisis a national emergency. The rally was held for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Police moved in to break up the protest near the White House and made several arrests
Continue reading...Indigenous protesters urge Biden to stop approving fossil fuel projects
Demonstrators at Washington event want the president to declare the climate crisis a national emergency
Hundreds of protesters led by Indigenous activists from across the country demonstrated in front of the White House on Monday to demand that Joe Biden stop approving fossil fuel projects and declare the climate crisis a national emergency.
The rally marks the start of five days of demonstrations calling for greater attention to climate injustices as Native American leaders and tribal members head to the capital to publicize their demands.
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