UNITED NATIONS – High energy, and even a hint of making history, pervaded the opening days of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, convening May 12 for its 10-day second annual session.
The celebratory mood of the gathering erupted at a reception in the UN lobby on the second day as the bouncing rhythms of the Ecuadorian band Yuyari brought participants from around the world to the dance floor long past closing time. Aymara ladies from the Andes in tiny black bowler hats danced with blonde Sami Natives from northern Finland in bright red dresses and velvet tunics and towering Masai holy men in yellow-spotted red togas.
Issues raised during the daylong rounds of speech making were certainly as serious as ever, and religious ceremonies in several traditions provided solemn moments. But one had the sense that indigenous peoples long engaged in lonely struggles to survive were drawing strength from the contacts with each other.
In one symbolic moment, the May 13 session opened with a procession into the UN conference room of Sacred Staffs of the Confederacy of the Eagle and the Condor, led by Permanent Forum representative Wilton Littlechild, Cree of Canada, as Roberto Mucaro Borrero, Taino, blew an echoing fanfare on a conch shell. Runners brought the staffs more than 500 miles through the Haudenosaunee territory of upstate New York and guarded them as they rested on the dais behind presiding officials during the day.
The staffs represented the Tlahkotan Aztlan, a group of unknown size calling itself an alliance of indigenous peoples of the American continents, and the leaders of the group presented a somewhat mystical call for world peace. But they were warmly received by the participants, especially the large contingent from South America, and their impromptu welcome into the meeting hall was a metaphor of indigenous spirit breaking through the stifling protocol of nation-state diplomacy.
“We have made this journey to the door of the United Nations headquarters as an assertion of our self determination, our right to self definition and spiritual fulfillment as Indigenous Nations of the Earth,” said Gustavo Gutierrez, coordinator. “The government states of the United Nations system may have status as internationally recognized governments, states, or government states, but we are the Nations.”
Indigenous history echoed from the opening of the Forum on May 12, when Borrero first sounded the conch shell and Sid Hill, Tadadaho of the Haudenosaunee, gave the opening blessing. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) League has sometimes been called a precursor of the United Nations idea. In keeping with this year’s theme of “Indigenous Children and Youth,” Ashley and Derek Bennett from the Onondaga Nation stood with Hill on the dais.
The indigenous viewpoint predominated in the broad range of speeches, and the least diplomatically worded often drew the loudest applause. But many statements represented carefully worked out policy positions from regional alliances. Several groups from the Arctic, including the Circum-Polar Inuit Alliance, called for more specific attention to a regional concern with worldwide implications, global warming.
Speaking to the theme, several delegates from South America and Africa denounced the stealing of their young, either for “civilizing” or serving in armed groups. Several speakers from Canada described the demoralizing of Native youth through loss of cultural identity, resulting in high rates of substance abuse and suicide.
Several nation-state representatives, from Finland and Canada, described government programs to preserve indigenous culture and language, but UN member nations were notably on the defensive. Chief Victor Buffalo accused Canada of inaction on youth drug abuse and called on the Forum to demand it do better. From Australia, the representative of the Foundation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research denounced his government for recent budget cuts he said would abolish the Aboriginal Commission and undermine aboriginal participation in the Forum. An Australian government delegate made an immediate response, calling the attack “unfortunate.” But he repeated his government’s position that funding for the Forum should come out of the existing UN budget, not a great sign of enthusiasm for its work.
The U.S. drew fire for lack of cooperation. Le’a Malia Kanehe of the Pacific Caucus said that a group from West Papua was denied U. S. entrance visas while en route in Jakarta, Indonesia, apparently because of U.S. fears of terrorism. U.S. diplomats were notably inconspicuous at the Forum.
International development bodies, on the other hand, used the meeting as a sounding board for some major announcements. Senior officers of the World Bank held a lengthy open meeting, one in a long series, and announced plans for a lending fund for indigenous projects. Zephirin Diabre, assistant administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP), endorsed the principle of “free, prior and informed consent” from Native peoples affected by development projects. He also said the UNDP was drafting a policy note on Native land rights, a major area of conflict between tribes and states in launching development projects.
These themes carried over in a proliferating series of side events. Amnesty International released a report on four areas of indigenous rights violations, which it said would become the focus of a yearlong campaign. In North America, it singled out the case of the Dann sisters and Western Shoshone land claims in Nevada and the Lubicon Cree in Alberta, Canada.
But its May 14 panel in the Church Center across First Avenue from the glass UN Secretariat tower concentrated on the exploitation of the tribal lands in the Amazon headwaters. Carlos Viteri Gualinga described a decade of conflict between the Amazonian tribes in Ecuador and oil companies exploring the east side of the Andes. Sebastiao Haji Manchineri, coordinator general of a coalition of 10 indigenous organizations in the Amazon basin, said that conflicts in Brazil over indigenous territory and natural resources had led to assassinations of tribal leaders.
“There is a saying in Brazil that killing an Indian is like killing an animal,” said Machineri. “It’s not just a saying. People actually do it.”
But, as Amnesty International underlined by coordinating its report with the Permanent Forum, Indigenous peoples now at least will no longer suffer these crimes in isolation.