For Indigenous Peoples, gender has always been transcendent and fluid, interconnected to our lands, languages, cultures, spiritualities, and worldviews. The separation occurred during colonization and acts of genocide that regulated sexuality with the aim of eliminating gender diversity in Indigenous communities.
On May 6, 2023, as England was coronating a new king after weeks of mourning the passing of their previous ruler, Mashpee Wampanoags were also taking the day to fill the void of leadership left by the death of Vernon “Silent Drum” Lopez, the chief of Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe for the last 25 years of his life.
The following is the Opening Statement of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) at the UNFCCC SB58 meeting in Bonn, Germany, made on June 5, 2023.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders is a position that is well known by activists from all around the world.
In Gordon, Nebraska, a small border town on the grassy expanse of the northern Great Plains, there is a gravestone in the town’s cemetery etched with one word: “Unknown.” It rests on the grave of an Indigenous woman whose body was found underneath a stone bridge in 1970 and, like many Native women before and after her, was never identified.
People of Red Mountain (PRM), is an Indigenous grassroots organization that was formed to protect the sacred site, Peehee Mu’huh – Thacker Pass. People of Red Mountain has raised significant and urgent concerns regarding human, religious, and Indigenous Peoples' rights violations by the proposed mine.
“After many years of paralysis of Indigenous land demarcation and rights violations (by former governments), we are now back to having our rights recognized, our lives valued, and our territories defined,” said Brazil’s first Indigenous State Minister, Sonia Guajajara, in a social media post.
Standing in the hills overlooking the coast of England’s Plymouth Harbor, in the distance, a group of Wampanoag has gathered in a Bronze Age stone circle. It is small and humble compared to its cousin to the east, the famous Stonehenge, but it is intimate and well suited for our needs. About 10 meters in diameter, the stones stand only 3 or 4 feet in height, but unlike its famous cousin, this circle is nearly forgotten. When we arrived, we see the only visitor is a grazing cow.
Every year, on May 3, we celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom.
The second Conference of the Parties to the Escazú Agreement took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 19-21, 2023.
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.