Dear Cultural Survival community,
At this difficult moment for all of us, we wish each and every one of you health and strength. We ask you to join us in sitting in gratitude for a moment, to recognize what we each might have that others may not. Whether that is a roof over our heads, sufficient food and water, the company of family, the safety of solitude, or –for all reading this message–access to technology that brings us together in this moment.
On February 26-29, 2020, the 8th Continental Conference of Indigenous Women of the Americas took place. The Conference was hosted by the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA), a network of organizations from 23 countries that has been fighting for more than two decades for the individual and collective rights of Indigenous women and children.
As the COVID-19 virus spreads to countries with low-resources, high levels of poverty and malnutrition, high levels of inequality, and discrimination against Indigenous Peoples, we know that this crisis will have a much deeper and more widespread impact.
“The traditional knowledge about biodiversity protection exists in Native languages. If we lose those Native languages, the knowledge will disappear with them.”
Costa Rican Authorities Fail to Respond to Ongoing Violence
José Francisco Cali Tzay (Maya Kaqchikel), a longtime defender of Indigenous rights, completed his term on the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on January 19, 2020. The CERD is the Treaty Monitoring Body for the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), and one of nine International Human Rights Treaties within the UN system. The ICERD is legally-binding for the 175 countries (State parties) which have ratified it to date.
By Octaviana Trujillo, Laurie Smith Monti, and Gary Paul Nabhan
By Tarcila Rivera Zea
El pasado 26 de febrero se llevó a cabo el VII Encuentro continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas en la ciudad de México, donde se dieron cita cerca de 150 mujeres Indígenas entre ellas, lideresas, sabias, artistas, parteras, parlamentarias, exparlamentarias, abogadas, comunicadoras, cineastas, defensoras de derechos, académicas y autoridades Indígenas de las 3 Américas, con el objetivo de realizar un balance intergeneracional sobre la situación del ejercicio de los derechos colectivos e individuales como mujeres Indígenas y construir soluciones articuladas con una ruta estratégica
Estimada Comunidad de Cultural Survival,
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.
