In a now viral video of a 2016 interview, the Brazilian president claims he would eat human flesh
It was a shocking statement, even for a politician who has glorified torturers and called for rivals to be shot.
“I’d eat an Indian, no problem at all,” Jair Bolsonaro bragged to a foreign journalist in 2016, as he described a trip to an Indigenous community where he had purportedly been offered the chance to consume human flesh.
Continue reading...Herders lodge appeal against ruling in their case against the Tanzanian government, which they say is violently evicting them from ancestral land
Lawyers for Maasai herders who say the Tanzanian government is trying to violently evict them from their ancestral land to make way for a luxury game reserve have lodged an appeal against a court ruling that dismissed their case.
Donald Deya, lead counsel for the herders and chief executive officer of the Pan-African Lawyers Union (Palu), said his team had, on Wednesday, appealed against the verdict of the east African court of justice, which campaigners branded “a shocking blow” to Indigenous land rights.
Continue reading...Investigation reveals cattle raised on Mỹky territory ended up in global supply chain including food giant
On one side of the fence, in dense forest, the Mỹky people grow their crops: cassava, pequi and cabriteiro fruit. On the other side, ranchers raise cattle on devastated land. That land is the Mỹky’s, they say.
Xinuxi Mỹky, the village elder, says this region used to be a forest where different villages thrived. Only one now remains and the farms have cut into that land as well. “This pasture, where the whites live, was also our village, but now they are raising cattle. The land belonged to us: Indigenous peoples.”
Continue reading...Amazon ecosystem is on verge of collapse, leaders tell brands such as Apple and Tesla as UN gathers in New York
Indigenous leaders from the Amazon have implored major western brands and banks to stop supporting the ongoing destruction of the vital rainforest through mining, oil drilling and logging, warning that the ecosystem is on the brink of a disastrous collapse.
Representatives of Indigenous peoples from across the Amazon region have descended upon New York this week to press governments and businesses, gathered in the city for climate and United Nations gatherings, to stem the flow of finance to activities that are polluting and deforesting large areas of the rainforest.
Continue reading...While some have offered unflinching takes on the damage of British colonisation, others say the monarch held ‘a special place’ in their hearts
The reaction to the death of the Queen among Indigenous people and people of colour, including those from Commonwealth nations, has been swift and, at times, unflinching.
For many the Queen was the personification of British colonisation and the damage it has wreaked in their countries – and they were not afraid to say so. Yet others expressed their condolences for the monarch who has long held “a special place” in their hearts.
Continue reading...Myles Sanderson went into ‘medical distress’ after his arrest, and later died in hospital, say police
The fugitive wanted over a mass stabbing in Canada that killed 10 people and injured 18 has died in hospital after his arrest, police have confirmed, with sources saying his death was the result of self-inflicted wounds.
Myles Sanderson went into “medical distress” after his arrest and was taken to hospital where he died, Royal Canadian Mounted police assistant commissioner Rhonda Blackmore said in a press conference on Wednesday night. Police found a knife in the truck, which officers had rammed off the road into a ditch, but Blackmore would not comment on the cause of his death.
Continue reading...Province of Saskatchewan releases names of victims in Sunday’s rampage as police arrest fugitive brother Myles Sanderson
A beloved veteran described as a “hero”, an elder who served as an addictions counsellor, a mother of five and a widower who spent his days volunteering are among the 10 victims of Sunday’s deadly knife attack in western Canada.
Police in the province of Saskatchewan have named the victims of Sunday’s stabbing rampage, their ages ranging from 23 to 78.
Thomas Burns, 23
Carol Burns, 46
Gregory Burns, 28
Lydia Gloria Burns, 61
Bonnie Burns, 48
Earl Burns, 66
Lana Head, 49
Christian Head, 54
Robert Sanderson, 49
Wesley Petterson, 78
Continue reading...Body of Damien Sanderson found by police still hunting for his brother Myles after the RCMP formally charged the two suspects with first degree murder
One of the suspects in the stabbing deaths of 10 people in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan has been found dead, police said, but warned that his accomplice remains at large.
The body of Damien Sanderson was found with visible wounds in a grassy area near a house being examined by police. His injuries are not believed to be self-inflicted.
Continue reading...Janildo Oliveira Guajajara had recently taken part in an Amazon assembly organised by murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira
A rainforest activist from one of Brazil’s leading Indigenous protection groups has been killed just weeks after participating in an Amazon assembly organised by the murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira.
Janildo Oliveira Guajajara, a member of the Guardiões da Floresta (Forest Guardians) collective, was reportedly shot dead in the early hours of Saturday near the Araribóia Indigenous territory where he lived.
Continue reading...Edmonton decided Ken Lum’s paired figures of a bison and fur trader could ‘cause harm and induce painful memories’
A Canadian city has pulled a public art project over fears that a pair of towering bronze statues could be seen as an endorsement of colonialism – the exact opposite of the work’s intended meaning, according to the artist.
The work, which cost C$375,000 (US$285,000), comprises two large bronze figures which were intended to stand on either end of a pedestrian bridge in Edmonton. On one end, a 13ft bison was to stare out over the water. At the other, a colonial fur trader, measuring 11.5ft, would sit atop a pile of bison pelts.
Continue reading...Man resisted all attempts to contact him, laying traps and firing arrows at anyone who came too close
An unidentified and charismatic Indigenous man thought to have been the last of his tribe has died in the Brazilian Amazon, causing consternation among activists lamenting the loss of another ethnic language and culture.
The solitary and mysterious man was known only as the Índio do Buraco, or the “Indigenous man of the hole”, because he spent much of his existence hiding or sheltering in pits he dug in the ground.
Continue reading...Gean del Aguila’s body was recovered after he disappeared last Sunday when he encountered the Mashco-Piro tribe while fishing
The death of a logger who was shot with arrows has cast a spotlight on the growing conflict around an Indigenous reserve occupied by an Indigenous tribe that has long lived in voluntary isolation on Peru’s south-eastern Amazon border with Brazil.
The body of Gean del Aguila, 21, was recovered on Thursday after a four-day hunt by a search party of police, Indigenous guides and company workers.
Continue reading...Dawn Walker, who says she fled domestic abuse, is arrested and accused of stealing friend’s identity to cross border
An acclaimed writer who says she fled Canada to escape domestic abuse is to be extradited from the US, amid accusations she faked her own death, kidnapped her son and illegally crossed the American border.
Dawn Walker, an Indigenous author from Okanese Cree Nation in the province of Saskatchewan, was due to be driven to the border on Wednesday by US officials and handed over to Canadian police, more than a month after she first went missing.
Continue reading...Government pays stipend to employees who speak French and English but Treasury Board says it has no plans to expand scheme
Canada’s federal government says it will not expand the scope of a program that pays an annual bonus to bilingual employees, excluding hundreds of government workers who speak an Indigenous language on the job.
Since the late 1970s, the federal government has paid a bonus of C$800 (US$617) to workers who use English and French, the country’s two official languages. But Canada has more than 60 Indigenous languages, and about 500 federal employees frequently speak an Indigenous language on the job.
Continue reading...Perenco sues Peru government for repeal of law that offers recognition to proposed Napo-Tigre reserve
Isolated Peruvian tribes face a threat to their existence from a push to scrap a planned Indigenous reserve led by an Anglo-French oil company, Indigenous groups say.
The firm, Perenco, whose slogan is “Oil remains an adventure”, filed an injunction in May for the repeal of a law offering preliminary government recognition to a proposed Napo-Tigre reserve. The first hearing is scheduled on 7 September.
Continue reading...Michelle O’Bonsawin’s appointment to the court would address longstanding criticism over lack of First Nations representation
Justin Trudeau has nominated an Indigenous woman to Canada’s supreme court, in a landmark appointment after decades of criticism over a lack of Indigenous representation on the country’s highest court.
The prime minister announced on Friday that Michelle O’Bonsawin had been selected to fill an upcoming vacancy on the court.
Continue reading...Bunge and Cargill, behind more than 30% of soy exports to EU and UK, accused of exposing suppliers to link with indigenous rights violations
Two of the world’s biggest grain traders are sourcing soy from a Brazilian farm linked to abuses of indigenous rights and land, a report from the environmental group Earthsight claims
Earthsight named the companies as Bunge and Cargill and said they sourced soy produced on a farm located on ancestral land of the Kaiowá indigenous group.
Continue reading...Nearly 50 years after speech on behalf of Marlon Brando about depiction of Native Americans, Academy apologises for ‘unwarranted’ abuse she endured
Nearly 50 years after Sacheen Littlefeather stood on the Academy Awards stage on behalf of Marlon Brando to speak out about the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences apologised to her for the abuse she endured.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Monday said that it will host Littlefeather, now 75, for an evening of “conversation, healing and celebration” in September.
Continue reading...A suspect already in custody likely leader of illegal fishing mafia based in Amazon region, police say
Brazilian police arrested another five people in connection with the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira on Saturday, and said one of the suspects already in custody was likely the leader of an illegal fishing mafia based in the Amazon region.
Although they gave few details, police said three of those detained in operations near Brazil’s borders with Peru and Colombia were wanted for helping bury the bodies of Phillips and Pereira.
Continue reading...‘This is a trip of penance,’ says Pope Francis, ahead of mass to be held during five-day trip
Pope Francis landed in Canada on Sunday to kick off a five-day trip that will centre around his apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the abuse that Indigenous children endured at mostly church-run residential schools.
“This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit,” the pope told reporters after his flight took off from Rome.
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