Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to ICT
Around the world: An archbishop in Brazil faces threats for defending Indigenous peoples, medals finally reach Māori Battalion families in New Zealand, and a First Nations woman becomes the first Indigenous Rhodes Scholar from Canada
BRAZIL: Archbishop faces threats over Indigenous rights
Dom Roque Paloschi, an archbishop in the state of Roraima, Brazil, since 2015, has been under attack for denouncing human rights violations against Indigenous people. Mongabay.com reported on Dec. 28.
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The archbishop, who is secretary of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network, known as REPAM-Brasil, and president of the Indigenous Missionary Council, has been targeted with threats and intimidation even while celebrating Mass.
“We live in this region that is typified by attitudes opposing not only the issue of Indigenous people but also of poor peoples’ rights,” Paloschi said, according to Mongabay.com. “Our lives are shaped by this economy of destruction. And the traditional communities here are no longer seen as individuals but simply as obstacles to so-called development.”
Paloschi led denouncements of rights violations against Indigenous peoples and their territories during religious assemblies in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and has spoken out elsewhere around the world, including at the Vatican. He lives in Rondônia, one of the most deforested states in Amazonia.
NEW ZEALAND: Māori Battalion families ‘happy and grateful’
A Māori lawyer in New Zealand is delivering long-awaited medals to the remaining family of the 28th Māori Battalion who fought years for recognition of their service in World War II, Te Ao Maori News reported on Dec. 30.
Lawyer David Stone visited families in New Zealand’s Northland in the last week of December and will be on hand when the Army presents A Company medals in Waitangi on Feb. 18, according to Te Ao Māori News.
The most moving moments have been when the widows of the Battalion soldiers are present to receive the medals, he said.
“Their husbands have been gone for decades,” Stone said. “When they tell you how grateful and thankful they are, you just feel really humble.”
Stone’s inspiration to find the rightful homes for the medals stems from his grandfather, who spoke at Massey University in 1990 about losing his brother during the war.
“He last saw his brother when he was 10 years old,” Stone said, according to Te Ao Māori News. “He said to me that he ended up breaking down during his tribute to his brother. I was completely speechless when my grandfather admitted that to me. I realized … that my grandfather in his 60s had been carrying this grief for his brother for over 50 years.”
CANADA: First Nations woman makes history as Rhodes Scholar
Iakoiehwáhtha Patton, a First Nations woman from Kahnawake, Quebec, has won a fully funded Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England, CityNews Montreal reported on Dec. 28.
Patton, who is currently completing her undergraduate degree in the history of art, anthropology and Renaissance studies at the University of Toronto, will make history as the first First Nations person from Canada to become a Rhodes Scholar.
“I just immediately started crying,” Patton said, upon learning the news, according to CityNews Montreal. “As soon as the call ended, I immediately called my mom and I told her, ‘I’m a Rhodes Scholar.’”
She said her mother started crying, too. “And she was like, ‘If this is a joke, I’m going to kill you,’” Patton said.
At Oxford University, she will continue her studies in art history, focusing on Dutch art and colonialism, and its connection to her Indigenous heritage.
“The Dutch had a colony in the Americas in the 17th century,” she said. “It’s called New Netherland, and that’s where my people are from. That’s originally where the Kanien’kehá:ka people were from, the Mohawk people … There is very much an intrinsic tie there from my identity and my work.”
My final thoughts
This is my first column in the new year. Dear readers, welcome to 2023. The struggle for the rights and freedoms of Indigenous peoples the world over continues. It is another year when we have to rise up to the occasion and fight in defense of Indigenous peoples’ rights, freedoms and above all, Indigenous lands and territories. This fight has been going on, and some peoples have won and others lost and are in the fight again. This will have to continue until full victory is achieved. As the people of Mozambique said in the 1970s in their fight for independence, “A luta continua! (The struggle continues.)”
Global Indigenous is a weekly news roundup published every Wednesday by ICT with some of the key stories about Indigenous peoples around the world.
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