Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to ICT
Around the world: ‘Systemic racism’ in Peru leads to deaths of protesters, Mi’kmaw regalia will finally return home from Australia, an educational partnership boosts opportunities for Indigenous children, fishing communities create refuges for biodiversity in Chilé, and Māori kiwifruit growers fight weather setbacks.
PERU: Amnesty International finds ‘systemic racism’
Amnesty International’s investigation into the two-month-long, anti-government protests in Peru found that the government used excessive force that led to 60 deaths caused by “systemic racism” against predominantly Indigenous and campesino communities, The Guardian reported on Feb.16.
Amnesty International examined 46 possible cases of human rights abuses, and documented 12 cases of deaths from firearms. All the victims had been shot in the chest, torso or head following visits to the capital city of Lima and the southern cities of Chincheros, Ayacucho and Andahuaylas.
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The Peruvian authorities had allowed “excessive and lethal use of force to be the government’s only response for more than two months to the demand of thousands of communities who today call for dignity and a political system that guarantees their human rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, the organization’s Americas director.
“The grave human rights crisis facing Peru has been fueled by stigmatization, criminalization and racism against Indigenous peoples and campesino communities who today take to the streets exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and in response have been violently punished,” she told journalists, according to The Guardian.
The number of deaths was disproportionately concentrated in largely Indigenous regions. Indigenous populations represent only 13 percent of Peru’s total population but accounted for 80 percent of the deaths registered since the crisis began, the organization concluded.
“It’s no coincidence that dozens of people told Amnesty International they felt that the authorities treated them like animals and not human beings,” said Guevara-Rosas. “The systemic racism ingrained in Peruvian society and its authorities for decades has been the driving force behind the violence used to punish communities that have raised their voices.”
The report comes as President Dina Boluarte and her government face extensive allegations of excessive force against civilian protesters. Last month, at least 48 people were killed by security forces, prompting the United Nations Human Rights Office to demand an investigation into the deaths and injuries.
CANADA: Australian museum will return Mi’kmaw items
Numerous pieces of Mi’kmaw regalia that were donated to an Australian museum more than a century ago will be returned to Nova Scotia next month, CBC News reported on Feb. 14.
Officials at Museums Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, have agreed to return the items – now kept in storage – to the Millbrook Cultural and Heritage Centre in Millbrook, Nova Scotia, where officials had for years displayed only a photo of the man’s jacket, moccasins, leggings, a pouch, broach and pipe.
The items are believed to have been made by Mi’kmaw artisan Christina Morris, who lived in the Millbrook area during the 1840s. Officials believe the regalia was commissioned by a Canadian man with an interest in Mi’kmaw culture, who eventually died in Australia where he left the items to the museum.
Heather Stevens, manager of the Millbrook Cultural and Heritage Centre, said she had been trying to get the regalia returned since 2012, when she started working at the center. She didn’t understand why the Millwood center displayed only photos of the items.
She reached out to a counterpart in Australia who managed the museum’s Indigenous collections.
“Our focus was on our culture, our heritage, everything that means something to us, because she was Indigenous herself,” Stevens said, according to CBC News.
The jacket is beautifully sewn with beadwork along the bottom, lapels, shoulders, cuffs and back. The moccasins and pouch have similar beadwork, CBC News reported.
The pipe is created from wood and porcupine quills and features sculpted animals.
AUSTRALIA: Partnership boosts education opportunities
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria and the nonprofit Yalari organization have launched a three-year partnership to help support educational opportunities for Indigenous children from regional and remote communities across Australia, National Indigenous Times reported on Feb. 17.
The collaboration will provide scholarships for secondary education at leading Australian boarding schools.
Yalari officials said the goal is to empower Indigenous children “to bring about generational change.”
“The generosity of in-kind and financial support is overwhelming,” said Llew Mullins, Yalari managing director, according to National Indigenous Times.
RACV managing director and chief executive Neil Taylor said organizations such as Yalari are essential in helping to address the systemic disadvantages experienced by First Nations communities across Australia.
“Every Australian should have access to quality education – despite their location – and educational support from organizations like Yalari make a positive difference in young people’s lives,” Taylor said, according to National Indigenous Times.
“We look forward to supporting Yalari to deliver quality education that will provide students with the tools they need for a brighter future for themselves and their communities.”
CHILÉ: Marine reserves protect coastal biodiversity
Artisanal fishers in the Valparaíso region of Chilé have established community-based marine reserves in order to safeguard marine biodiversity, Mongabay.com reported on Feb. 16.
The reserves, though small, serve as a refuge for marine organisms to thrive and reproduce, helping to restore coastal biodiversity and enhancing the region’s ability to withstand climate change, Mongabay.com reported.
The protections ensure additional resources for fishermen in the future, Mongabay.com reported.
“Climate change is a stressor that will obviously have worse impacts on those areas that are already affected by other activities,” according to marine biologist Daniela Diaz, according to Mongabay.com.
“Populations in marine protected areas are more resilient to abrupt changes like heat waves or physical disturbances, for example, as well as the long-term effects of climate change,” Díaz said.
More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods worldwide, and oceans absorb more than 90 percent of surplus heat generated ty climate change.
Chilé safeguards more than 40 percent of its marine territory through various forms of protection, making it the leading Latin American nation in water conservation. Most protected areas, however, are far from the coastline, Mongabay.com reported.
NEW ZEALAND: Māori kiwifruit growers will start anew
Māori kiwifruit growers vowed to bounce back after crucial agricultural areas were hit first by a hard frost in September and then a cyclone in mid-February, Te Ao Maori News reported on Feb. 17.
The kiwifruit plantations had a significant reduction in this season’s yield after the severe frosts when they were hit by what is known in New Zealand as Cycle Gabrielle, according to Anaru Timutimu, a prominent Māori grower.
Timutimu serves as the chair of Māori Kiwifruit Growers Inc. and is a stakeholder in the Ngāi Tukairangi Trust, the largest Māori kiwifruit venture in the nation.
“We’ll start again,” he said, citing a television interview of a weeping cultivator. “That just showed the resilience not only of Māori communities but also reflects Māori businesses … We will continue on.”
Indigenous-owned kiwifruit plantations in New Zealand produce nearly 14 million kiwifruit trays every year, accounting for around 10 percent of the country’s total kiwi exports. Kiwifruit is a $2 billion export industry that has faced multiple difficulties in recent seasons, including weather problems and a labor shortage.
My final thoughts
My final thoughts are in Nova Scotia, Canada, where numerous pieces of Mi’kmaw regalia that were donated to an Australian museum more than a century ago will be returned home next month. This is one century too late.
And there are many more items from various First Nations around the world that were either “donated” or forcefully taken away by intruders. Today, I want to say to them, please return these cultural items, which mean so much to their communities.
Global Indigenous is a weekly news roundup published every Wednesday by ICT (formerly Indian Country Today) with some of the key stories about Indigenous peoples around the world.
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