Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to ICT
Around the world: Nicaragua draws sharp words over recent assaults on Indigenous communities, First Nations sign an agreement in British Columbia to combine efforts on child welfare, a new generation revives Okinawa’s once-banned Indigenous body art, and a Māori leader calls for new voices on water policies.
NICARAGUA: UN condemns recent assaults
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has condemned a March 11 attack in Nicaragua in which a group of armed marauders killed six Mayangna Sauni As men in the Wilu community and left another injured, Mongabay.com reported on March 21.
Several other community members remain unaccounted for, the commissioner’s office reported.
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“The Office calls on the State of Nicaragua, in accordance with its international obligations, to take the appropriate measures to protect the life, safety, and physical and mental integrity of all the people of the Wilu community,” the UN statement said, according to Mongabay.com.
The condemnation followed a surge of violence in March in and around Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, the country’s largest protected area, by groups suspected to have links to cattle ranching, logging, and illicit mining, Mongabay.com reported.
The violence largely targeted the Mayangna and Miskitu communities, according to Mongabay.com.
“The increasing number of settlers and land traffickers on (Mayangna) Sauni As territory hasn’t stopped,” the Indigenous territorial government said in a letter to officials, according to Mongabay.com. “The environmental destruction has been unstoppable, leading to disastrous consequences for human lives and the greater wellbeing of the communities.”
In the March 11 attack, about 60 marauders burned down homes of Indigenous residents, sparing only the community’s church, the pastor’s residence, and school, according to the Legal Assistance Center for Indigenous Peoples, a non-governmental organization.
The reserve, which covers about 4.9 million acres, shares a border with the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, designated in the 1980s to grant Indigenous communities self-rule. The reserve’s uninhabited forests, however, have lured colonizers seeking to exploit the region’s resources, Mongabay.com reported.
CANADA: Two First Nations join together for child welfare
The Simpcw and Gitsegukla Nations have agreed to work together to handle child welfare cases in British Columbia, APTN News reported on March 20.
The signing on March 15 in Prince George, British Columbia, brought the two nations together with an exchange of sockeye salmon as they pledged to share responsibilities for their children, APTN reported.
“I’m honored to stand with you today in this historic signing in two nations working together for our children … and future generations,” said Chief Counsellor Anne Howard of Gitsegukla First Nation said, according to APTN News.
Simpcw First Nation’s chief, George Lampreau, expressed his gratitude for the collaboration.
“It’s been a long road, but here we are sharing this agreement with another amazing nation that has been trendsetters for the rest of the country, not only here in B.C. but across Canada,” he said, according to APTN News.
Simpcw signed the Tcwesétmentem Agreement with British Columbia’s Ministry of Children and Family Development last year for child welfare planning, protection, and placement.
Gitsegukla, a Gitxsan community, was part of the historic Delgamuukw Supreme Court case defining Aboriginal title 25 years ago. During the news conference, both nations stated that their traditional laws would inform their approach to caring for their children and families.
JAPAN: New generation revives once-banned body art
A new generation in Japan is reviving the once-banned hajichi body art of the Indigenous Ryukyu people of Okinawa, Japan Times reported on Feb. 28.
The Ryukyu, who once inhabited the southern islands of what is now Japan, traditionally adorned their bodies with hand-poked hajichi markings to commemorate important events in a woman’s life and to ensure a smooth passage to heaven.
Japan’s annexation of the Okinawa island chain in 1879, however, brought forced assimilation and a ban on the hajichi tradition, since tattoos were linked to criminal activity on the mainland.
The prohibition on hajichi markings was lifted after World War II, but the practice did not resurge until recently.
Moeko Heshiki, a tattoo artist who is now preserving hajichi body art, discovered hajichi while looking into potential tattoo designs. Her father is from Okinawa and her mother is from Honshu.
She found a tattooist specializing in tribal work to ink them on her, and said she felt “more connected to myself, or to Okinawa.”
She now has hajichi tattoos in various designs, including arrow-shaped markings on her fingers, geometric patterns and dots on the backs of her hands, and larger versions on her wrists. She is now a “hajicha,” and recreates traditional designs for clients.
Hajichi was originally created using bamboo sticks and ink made from charcoal and the Okinawan liquor, awamori. Heshiki hand-pokes the designs using regular needles and ink.
Hiroaki Yamashiro, an expert on hajichi who hails from Okinawa Prefecture, began documenting the practice in 1970 with a study about 30 women with hajichi tattoos, including a 107-year-old woman who still recalled the pain of receiving the markings.
He supports the revival of hajichi but believes that it should not be reduced to a fashion trend.
“This is a culture only practiced by Ryukyu women,” he told Japan Times. “It’s something completely different from tattoos.”
NEW ZEALAND: Māori voices needed to shape freshwater policy
A Māori leader in New Zealand is calling for the Māori people to share their knowledge and experiences as a local government embarks on a new freshwater policy, Te Ao Māori News reported on March 21.
Toi Iti, chairman of the Ōhiwa Harbour Implementation Forum and one of three Māori constituency councilors on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, compared the freshwater policy development program to a “moving train.”
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council has organized a series of community meetings and hui-a-iwi, or tribal gatherings, from April to September to draw comments on its Essential Freshwater Policy Programme.
The Central Government’s Freshwater Policy Statement 2020 requires the regional council to manage freshwater, including collaborating with Māori and other communities to establish long-term visions in the regional policy statement.
Iti said during a March forum that the council wanted “to find ways to better convey the stories” of the Māori people.
“What we’re largely trying to do is work out how do we — as communities, as councils, as Māori — look after the freshwater,” said Iti, who has worked to manage the silt flow from the Nukuhou River into Ōhiwa Harbour.
My final thoughts
My final thoughts are in Nicaragua, where the government’s inaction to a surge of violence by land invaders who are violating human rights and destroying the country’s vital forests has led to too much suffering.
It defies logic for a government to stand by and do nothing as the people are attacked. However, let me thank the United Nations for taking a stand and condemning the violence. I hope the Nicaraguan government does what it should do, sooner rather than later.
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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