Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to ICT
Highs and lows: Pope Francis finally apologized in Canada for residential school abuses, climate change and the environment dominated worldwide discussions, and Indigenous peoples continued fights for their homelands. Some good news also brightened the year.
RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS: Pope apologizes for school abuses
Pope Francis issued a historic apology during a “penitential pilgrimage” through Canada in July for the operation of Canada’s Indigenous residential schools, saying the forced assimilation separated children from their families, culture and language.
“I am deeply sorry,” the Pope said to a crowd that included thousands of survivors and Indigenous community members at the site of the former Ermineskin Indian Residential School in Maskwacis, Alberta, south of Edmonton, in the heart of the Cree First Nations and other Indigenous communities.
“I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples,” he said.
Read more of ICT’s coverage of the Pope’s visit:
—Apology at last in Canada
—Reaction to apology: ‘It’s going to take a long time’
—Pope speaks of healing at Lac Ste. Anne
It was the first public event in the six-day trip with stops in the homelands of Canada’s Indigenous peoples – First Nations, Métis and Inuit.
The Pope conducted mass for thousands at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton before going on to Lac Ste. Anne and Quebec City, ending with another apology at Iqaluit in the arctic north before returning to Rome on July 29.
The move stirred questions about when he would apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in the United States in what has been described as cultural genocide in the nation’s Indian boarding schools.
CLIMATE CHANGE: Indigenous call to arms
Climate change dominated discussions around the world in 2022 as Indigenous communities struggled to control the impact of heat, rain, drought and rising sea levels on their homelands.
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At the United Nations COP27 climate conference in Egypt this year, Indigenous participation was at its highest levels ever, but the delegates’ push to put human rights at the center of the discussions were largely ignored.
More than 300 Indigenous delegates participated in the conference, which ended Sunday, Nov. 20, with an historic agreement to create a loss-and-damage fund but no agreement on reducing emissions.
The meeting came as members from the world’s three forest titans – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo – signed a cooperation agreement in Jakarta calling for more funding to assist in protecting half of the world’s rainforests.
And climate activists were cheering other changes in Brazil, where Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in a tight election Oct. 30. Lula pledged to Indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest to fight deforestation and protect environmental activists.
In Columbia, the Kogi people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains launched a campaign to buy back their stolen lands to reverse the impacts of climate change.
The Kogi people, descendants of the Tayrona, are among four Indigenous groups in the mountain range known as “The Heart of the World,” with others being the Arhuaco, the Wiwa and the Kankuamo.
ENVIRONMENT: Fighting violence, mines and deforestation
Indigenous groups around the world are fighting to stop the environmental damage wrought by deforestation, mines and other destruction, with many facing violence for their opposition.
A number of environmental activists have been killed around the world for their efforts, including a 14-year-old Indigenous youth murdered in January while patrolling with an unarmed group known as the Indigenous Guard, a group viewed as a protector of the land and the environment.
It is the latest in a wave of killings in the South American country, with an environmentalist or social leader killed every 60 hours in 2021.
And deforestation continued to damage the environment in a number of countries. In Brazil, pesticides were reported being dropped from planes and helicopters in January to speed up the deforestation of the world’s largest rainforest, a move that allowed developers to avoid scrutiny from the Brazilian Environmental Agency.
In Cambodia, illegal logging of protected forests threatened the cultural survival and livelihoods of the Kuy Indigenous people, according to a report from Amnesty International published in January.
Cambodia lost more than 6 million acres of forest cover between 2001 and 2020, according to the report, with Illegal logging threatening the country’s remaining forests, biodiversity and climate.
The Kuy people, among the largest of Cambodia’s 24 Indigenous groups, are linked culturally and spiritually to protected forests such as Prey Lang and Prey Preah Roka.
And in Europe, teenage activist Greta Thunberg denounced the decision by the Swedish government to allow a British company to dig an open-cast, iron-ore mine on the Indigenous Sami peoples’ land. The Sami are among Sweden’s official national minorities.
“Sweden today confirmed its shortsighted, racist, colonial and nature-hostile approach,” said Thunberg, 19, who is Swedish.
London-based Beowulf Mining fought almost a decade to win endorsement for the mine, which had faced stiff opposition from the Sami people and environmentalists. Sweden’s business minister, Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson, however, said the mine was in the public interest.
LANDBACK: Fighting for homelands
Fighting for the return of homelands remained an important issue around the world in 2022, and sometimes Indigenous people won the fight.
In Canada, the City Council of Elliot Lake, Ontario, in Canada voted to return a small parcel of municipal waterfront land to the neighboring Serpent River First Nation in what it called “an act of reconciliation and economic development.”
And the Canadian government agreed to return nearly 300 acres of disputed land with $31 million in compensation to the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte in Ontario.
But not every fight ended in victory. In Tanzania, the Maasai people pleaded for international help to stop them from being evicted from their homelands.
The Tanzania government was planning to expel more than 150,000 Maasai people because the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, and a safari company are planning to use the lands for conservation and commercial hunting.
The Maasai people said their lives are at stake, since they will be unable to keep livestock or provide food for themselves if they are expelled.
GOOD NEWS: Homes, honors and recognition
Not all news was bad for Indigenous people around the world in 2022.
In Australia, an Indigenous-led program helped First Nations people buy new homes. The program, named Jalbi Jiya, which in the Yawuru language means Your Home, offers people a rent-until-you-buy option to help them gain access to homeownership.
In New Zealand, the families of 24 Māori Battalion soldiers who fought in World War II received long-awaited medals at a ceremony at Whirinaki Whare Taonga in Upper Hutt. The medals were awarded to the families to recognize the service and sacrifice of soldiers and officers of the 28th Māori Battalion.
Earlier in the year, the Māori Battalion’s last survivor was made a Knight of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Sir Robert “Bom” Gillies, 97, who served in World War II as a teenager, took the opportunity to seek justice for the 28th Māori Battalion. He has been fighting for decades for acknowledgement of the poor treatment the Māori Battalion received, and has pushed for the battalion’s honors to be enshrined on its flag, as other regiments have done.
My final thoughts
This being the last column of the year, my final thoughts are about the coming new year. In 2022, many environment defenders, including Indigenous peoples, lost their lives protecting their lands against invaders and exploiters. Their demise will be in vain if we don’t continue the fight that they started. It is against that backdrop that I thank all those who have supported us with donations so as to continue publishing stories about Indigenous peoples’ affairs in the United States and around the world, and I call upon all of you to continue the much-needed support. Happy holidays and a prosperous new year.
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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