Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to ICT
Around the world: Members of Parliament in Canada are calling for a national emergency for MMIP, Mexico endorses mining reforms to protect the environment, Western Australia’s largest Aboriginal art market returns to Fremantle, and activists demonstrate outside Thai embassies and consulates to demand better treatment of Uyghur detainees
CANADA: MPs call for national emergency for MMIP
Canada’s House of Commons passed a unanimous motion on Tuesday, May 2, calling for the federal government to declare a national emergency on the ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, CBC News reported on May 2.
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The motion also asks the government to make an “immediate and substantial investment” in establishing a Red Dress Alert system, similar to an Amber Alert, for missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people.
“I’m very pleased today that all members of Parliament are acknowledging the truth about the history in this country, as a way to move forward,” said MP Leah Gazan, Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation in Saskatchewan, who presented the motion. Gazan is a member of the New Democratic Party from Winnipeg Centre, Manitoba.
“It’s one thing to acknowledge the truth. It’s another thing to act on it,” she said, according to CBC News.
The government is creating a roundtable of federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous representatives to discuss the implementation of a Red Dress Alert and other solutions.
“It is clear that we need to do more,” according to a statement from the Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister’s Office.
Gazan, however, said the roundtable’s budget of $2.5 million over five years is not enough.
“This is a crisis,” Gazan said. “Our loved ones are going missing, and the government needs to act now.”
MEXICO: Lawmakers pass mining reforms
Mexico’s Congress approved mining reforms aimed at improving protections for the environment and Indigenous people, but not before pro-business opposition diluted the reforms, Mongabay reported on May 2.
The reform, proposed by President López Obrador in March, will require companies to get free and prior consent from local communities and conduct environmental impact assessments before obtaining mining permits.
Once a mine is closed, the companies will be required to restore the lands to their prior conditions.
Lawmakers negotiated down some of the key components, however, reducing Indigenous communities’ payments from 10 percent to 5 percent of profits, and setting mining concessions at a maximum of 80 years instead of the proposed 30 years.
“These topics were suppressed or modified without justification and under pressure from the business interests that are responsible for social and environmental devastation,” according to a statement from two mining activist groups, Colectiva Cambiémosla Ya and Alliance for Free Determination and Autonomy, according to Mongabay.
Despite the revisions, many activists in the region still celebrated the reforms as a step forward in industry oversight. Mexico’s mining industry has rapidly grown to become a top exporter of silver, zinc, and other minerals.
AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal art market returns to Fremantle
The largest Aboriginal art market in Western Australia returned after a three-year hiatus to the grounds of the Fremantle Arts Centre, featuring one-of-a-kind, artwork, textiles, jewelry, ceramics and carvings, National Indigenous Times reported on May 4..
The market was held on May 6 in conjunction with the opening of a new exhibition, “Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists,” which will run through July 23, 2023, at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
The exhibition features new and emerging artists from Western Australia and “celebrates the creativity, ambition, and diversity of contemporary Aboriginal Art practice here,” according to the Fremantle Centre website.
Since its creation, the Revealed exhibition has showcased more than 900 WA Aboriginal artists, generating over $3.5 million in sales.
Simone McGurk, the Member of Parliament for Fremantle, shared her enthusiasm about the exhibition and market.
“Fremantle is a creative community and it’s great to see the popular exhibition and market back for the first time in four years,” McGurk said.
GERMANY: Activists demand Thailand release Uyghurs
Protesters took to the streets outside Thai consulates and embassies in Germany and the U.S. after the death of an Uyghur refugee who died of suspected liver failure in an immigration detention center in Bangkok, Radio Free Asia reported on May 5.
The refugee, 40-year-old Mettohti Metqurban, was one of 350 Uyghurs who fled China in 2014; he had been held ever since in the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok.
He is the fifth Uyghur to die at the detention center since 2018, and the second to die this year.
“We demand liberty for Uyghurs!” shouted Zumretay Arkin, who lifted her fist high in the air as she yelled into a microphone outside the Thai consulate in Munich, Germany, on Friday, May 5. “We want justice and freedom! Release Uyghur detainees!”
Arkin, who is Uyghur-Canadian, was joined by about 20 other protesters, some of whom waved the blue-and-white flag of East Turkistan, the Uyghur’s homeland in what is now Xinjiang, China, Radio Free Asia reported.
Activists in Munich, Washington, D.C., and other cities held demonstrations calling on the Southeast Asian government to improve the living conditions of Uyghur refugees in detention and to allow United Nations human rights officers to have access to them.
They also called for Thailand to allow their release to other countries to resettle and reunite with their families.
The U.N.’s refugee convention has not been ratified by Thailand. As a special group, Uyghurs are under the management of national security agencies and are barred from registering for the refugee status determination process, Radio Free Asia reported.
My final thoughts
My final thoughts are with Canada’s House of Commons, which adopted a motion by unanimous consent calling on the federal government to declare the ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people a national emergency. the motion further proposes creation of a Red Dress Alert system similar to Amber Alerts to allow the public to be notified when Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people go missing.
Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit individuals have been disproportionately affected by violence in Canada, with a higher rate of homicide and missing person cases than non-Indigenous individuals.
The passing of this motion represents a significant step toward addressing the issue and improving the safety and well-being of Indigenous communities in Canada. I hope the authorities will implement it to the letter for the reasons it was passed.
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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