Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women | Action at U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain. COP25
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
MARDRID, SPAIN – U.S. Embassy — Over 75 Indigenous activists and their allies demonstrated in front of the US Embassy in Madrid, Spain to demand justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, two-spirits and girls(MMIW). The delegation was removed from the sidewalk by Spain’s National Police and followed for blocks. The police liaison with the group was held back and forced to show his documents.
In 2016, the Urban Indian Health Institute found that only 116 out of 5,712 cases of MMIWG reported in the United States were recorded in the Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database.
Many of these cases have been the direct result of extractive fossil fuel industries implanting “man camps” for transient industry workers located near Native American communities. This is especially apparent for rural areas in states such as North Dakota and Montana, which continue to be the epicenter of violence against Indigenous women. Additionally, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, 70 percent of Alaska Natives live in urban areas, where Indigenous women not only go missing, but are underreported by municipal police agencies and all too often ignored by local media. We can no longer allow for this issue to be invisibilized by the government or the media alike
“Whether in rundown motels or pop-up camps, certain things hold true. There is an influx of transient workers who bring alcohol, drugs and violence, such as rape, murder and human trafficking,” says Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma.
TransCanada and other fossil fuel corporations continue to build pipelines, like Keystone XL, that transport tar sands oil from Canada through jurisdictions in the United States that lack the bodies of justice such as Free, Prior and Informed consent, as well as transparent intercommunication between multilateral enforcement agencies, which are necessary to protect Indigenous communities and allow them to practice their respective cultures. The overarching result is violence against Indigenous lands, which perpetuates violence against Indigenous women.
It will take much more than an Executive Actions that allocates a perfunctory $1.5 million in federal dollars to address and dismantle human rights violations against Indigenous women and Indigenous lands. And pursuant to the 1991 Principles of Environmental Justice, governmental acts of environmental injustice are considered a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.
We call on the global community and all peoples of the United States to join our call for action, to join our call for recognition and to join our demands for the real action it will take to protect and respect Indigenous women,” said Bineshi Albert, Movement Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “This is not a political issue that should be used to generate votes, it’s a matter of life and death, of dignity, which is why all federal initiatives must include local Indigenous communities in positions of leadership that recognize and respect our sovereignty,” Albert continued.
MARDRID, SPAIN – U.S. Embassy — Over 75 Indigenous activists and their allies demonstrated in front of the US Embassy in Madrid, Spain to demand justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, two-spirits and girls(MMIW). The delegation was removed from the sidewalk by Spain’s National Police and followed for blocks. The police liaison with the group was held back and forced to show his documents.
In 2016, the Urban Indian Health Institute found that only 116 out of 5,712 cases of MMIWG reported in the United States were recorded in the Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database.
Many of these cases have been the direct result of extractive fossil fuel industries implanting “man camps” for transient industry workers located near Native American communities. This is especially apparent for rural areas in states such as North Dakota and Montana, which continue to be the epicenter of violence against Indigenous women. Additionally, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute, 70 percent of Alaska Natives live in urban areas, where Indigenous women not only go missing, but are underreported by municipal police agencies and all too often ignored by local media. We can no longer allow for this issue to be invisibilized by the government or the media alike
“Whether in rundown motels or pop-up camps, certain things hold true. There is an influx of transient workers who bring alcohol, drugs and violence, such as rape, murder and human trafficking,” says Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma.
TransCanada and other fossil fuel corporations continue to build pipelines, like Keystone XL, that transport tar sands oil from Canada through jurisdictions in the United States that lack the bodies of justice such as Free, Prior and Informed consent, as well as transparent intercommunication between multilateral enforcement agencies, which are necessary to protect Indigenous communities and allow them to practice their respective cultures. The overarching result is violence against Indigenous lands, which perpetuates violence against Indigenous women.
It will take much more than an Executive Actions that allocates a perfunctory $1.5 million in federal dollars to address and dismantle human rights violations against Indigenous women and Indigenous lands. And pursuant to the 1991 Principles of Environmental Justice, governmental acts of environmental injustice are considered a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.
We call on the global community and all peoples of the United States to join our call for action, to join our call for recognition and to join our demands for the real action it will take to protect and respect Indigenous women,” said Bineshi Albert, Movement Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network. “This is not a political issue that should be used to generate votes, it’s a matter of life and death, of dignity, which is why all federal initiatives must include local Indigenous communities in positions of leadership that recognize and respect our sovereignty,” Albert continued.
First Nations Demand Canada Reject Teck Frontier Mine During Double Protest In Madrid, Spain
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Madrid, Spain - Two symbolic protests were held in the city of Madrid, Spain yesterday. In the morning at the Canadian embassy and later in the day, inside the COP 25 UN Climate negotiations. The protests were led by Indigenous youth and elders with the support of Indigenous Climate Action and their partners from across Canada and the USA. At the Canadian embassy in the morning, the group held ceremonies, prayer, and rallied participants to add their voices to a long list demanding Canada reject the Teck Frontier mine, the biggest proposed surface mine ever in the history of the Alberta tar sands. A report released last week by 17 research and campaigning organizations used oil and gas industry projections to show that Canada will be one of the worst violators of the Paris Agreement if it expands its oil and gas extraction as planned, second only to the United States. Rejecting the Teck Frontier Mine is an important first step the federal government can take to ensure a safe climate future.
This morning at the Madrid Canadian embassy, representative of the Dene Nation, Elder Francois Paulette declared that all thirty three First Nations of the Dene Nation including his home community of Fort Smith Landing are unified in their opposition to the Teck Frontier mine and any further expansion of the Alberta tar sands.
“My First Nation the Smith Landing First Nation in Alberta, we outright opposed the teck project. Its 30 km south of Wood Buffalo National Park. This project did not consult with us, their report did not include Indigenous peoples traditional knowledge. As long as traditional knowledge of First Nations is missing from your report, you are missing the most important part of our relationship with Mother Earth, so do your homework before you build projects that are going to destroy yourself and the Earth.” Elder Francois Paulette, Representative of the Dene Nation and Smith Landing First Nation.
Ta’kaiya Blaney and Kalilah Rampanen, two First Nations youth from west coast First Nations, Tla A'min and Nuučaan̓uł spoke outside of the embassy. Rampanen performed a powerful song about protecting the land and spoke to her Cree heritage from the tar sands region and how hard it is for her to have to be fighting the Teck Mine as her Grandmother started the tar sands healing walk which she experienced when she was a child.
“Our actions have been against Teck Frontier and all associated pipelines. It is unacceptable that Canada is pushing narratives around reconciliation while simultaneously pushing these projects through our lands, right now in Canada land defenders and water protectors are being forcibly removed from their lands to make way for these projects by armed forces. Canada is responsible to the land it has stolen, responsible to the climate it has disregarded over profit, so we as Indigenous youth are here to say climate leadership must be Indigenous led, our way of stewarding land needs to be respected. We need to reject teck. '' Ta'kaiya Blaney, Member of Tla'amin Nation.
The Teck Frontier Mine has already received a recommendation for approval from the oil industry dominated, Federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). The CEAA review found that the project would directly impact the treaty rights of First Nations in the region and would also be devastating to both the ecosystem and endangered species like the Wood Buffalo and the whooping Crane. Indigenous Climate Action supported a delegation of frontline Indigenous youth to attend the UN Climate negotiations to pressure Canada and the Minister for Environment and Climate Change Wilkenson to meet Canada’s legal obligations to both the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Paris Agreement climate targets. Approving Teck would make this impossible.
“The largest tar sands mine on the planet is being proposed in my peoples territory right now, it will impact the woodland buffalo, the last remaining wild whooping cranes on the planet and many of the animals my people rely on for food. Aside from the detrimental impacts it will have on my peoples food security, treaty rights and water, It will add 6.1 million megatons of carbon annually to the atmosphere. We must force Canada to reject teck.” Eriel Deranger, Executive Director, Indigenous Climate Action.
Inside the UN Climate negotiations in the afternoon, a second reject teck protest supported by Indigenous Climate Action took place.
“This Teck Frontier mine is going to be a complete carbon bomb on Mother Earth, if Teck Frontier is built we will see the world begin to unravel. This is why we are here at COP 25 and this is why we have to reject Teck.” Said Nigel Henry Robinison, Indigenous Climate Action Youth Delegation Lead and member of Cold Lake Dene Nation.
Madrid, Spain - Two symbolic protests were held in the city of Madrid, Spain yesterday. In the morning at the Canadian embassy and later in the day, inside the COP 25 UN Climate negotiations. The protests were led by Indigenous youth and elders with the support of Indigenous Climate Action and their partners from across Canada and the USA. At the Canadian embassy in the morning, the group held ceremonies, prayer, and rallied participants to add their voices to a long list demanding Canada reject the Teck Frontier mine, the biggest proposed surface mine ever in the history of the Alberta tar sands. A report released last week by 17 research and campaigning organizations used oil and gas industry projections to show that Canada will be one of the worst violators of the Paris Agreement if it expands its oil and gas extraction as planned, second only to the United States. Rejecting the Teck Frontier Mine is an important first step the federal government can take to ensure a safe climate future.
This morning at the Madrid Canadian embassy, representative of the Dene Nation, Elder Francois Paulette declared that all thirty three First Nations of the Dene Nation including his home community of Fort Smith Landing are unified in their opposition to the Teck Frontier mine and any further expansion of the Alberta tar sands.
“My First Nation the Smith Landing First Nation in Alberta, we outright opposed the teck project. Its 30 km south of Wood Buffalo National Park. This project did not consult with us, their report did not include Indigenous peoples traditional knowledge. As long as traditional knowledge of First Nations is missing from your report, you are missing the most important part of our relationship with Mother Earth, so do your homework before you build projects that are going to destroy yourself and the Earth.” Elder Francois Paulette, Representative of the Dene Nation and Smith Landing First Nation.
Ta’kaiya Blaney and Kalilah Rampanen, two First Nations youth from west coast First Nations, Tla A'min and Nuučaan̓uł spoke outside of the embassy. Rampanen performed a powerful song about protecting the land and spoke to her Cree heritage from the tar sands region and how hard it is for her to have to be fighting the Teck Mine as her Grandmother started the tar sands healing walk which she experienced when she was a child.
“Our actions have been against Teck Frontier and all associated pipelines. It is unacceptable that Canada is pushing narratives around reconciliation while simultaneously pushing these projects through our lands, right now in Canada land defenders and water protectors are being forcibly removed from their lands to make way for these projects by armed forces. Canada is responsible to the land it has stolen, responsible to the climate it has disregarded over profit, so we as Indigenous youth are here to say climate leadership must be Indigenous led, our way of stewarding land needs to be respected. We need to reject teck. '' Ta'kaiya Blaney, Member of Tla'amin Nation.
The Teck Frontier Mine has already received a recommendation for approval from the oil industry dominated, Federal Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). The CEAA review found that the project would directly impact the treaty rights of First Nations in the region and would also be devastating to both the ecosystem and endangered species like the Wood Buffalo and the whooping Crane. Indigenous Climate Action supported a delegation of frontline Indigenous youth to attend the UN Climate negotiations to pressure Canada and the Minister for Environment and Climate Change Wilkenson to meet Canada’s legal obligations to both the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Paris Agreement climate targets. Approving Teck would make this impossible.
“The largest tar sands mine on the planet is being proposed in my peoples territory right now, it will impact the woodland buffalo, the last remaining wild whooping cranes on the planet and many of the animals my people rely on for food. Aside from the detrimental impacts it will have on my peoples food security, treaty rights and water, It will add 6.1 million megatons of carbon annually to the atmosphere. We must force Canada to reject teck.” Eriel Deranger, Executive Director, Indigenous Climate Action.
Inside the UN Climate negotiations in the afternoon, a second reject teck protest supported by Indigenous Climate Action took place.
“This Teck Frontier mine is going to be a complete carbon bomb on Mother Earth, if Teck Frontier is built we will see the world begin to unravel. This is why we are here at COP 25 and this is why we have to reject Teck.” Said Nigel Henry Robinison, Indigenous Climate Action Youth Delegation Lead and member of Cold Lake Dene Nation.
Tar Sands Toxic Tour, Fort McMurray
Lead 2 Life, Reimagining Violenece: A Guns to Shovels Ceremony on MLK Day
To honor MLK Day 2019, Lead to Life invited the city of Oakland to dream into, and create, our post-capitalist, post-white supremacist, post-colonial world — through a live alchemy ceremony that honors the transformative decomposition of violence.
Families who lost their children to gun violence ceremonially offered guns to the glowing foundry right in front of City Hall to be melted down as hundreds bore witness. The molten metal was then cast into the constellation of the stars at the time Oscar Grant was murdered by police ten years ago. The guns were donated by the Robby Poblete Foundation & United Playas, who collected them from volunteer gun "buy back" days across the Bay Area.
“I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that [they] will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they study war any more.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “A Christmas Sermon on Peace”
An addition the constellation of stars, the shovels also made during the ceremony will be used in tree planting ceremonies in honor of Earth Day, April 2019, where Lead 2 Life and volunteers will plant 50 trees at sites impacted by violence, and sacred sites across Oakland.
This ceremony sustains a prayer cast in Atlanta, GA in April 2018 where Lead 2 Life transformed 50 guns into 50 shovels to plant 50 trees to honor the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.
The idea to launch Lead to Life came to Brontë Velez amid twin despairs: the shooting death of a friend and the life sentence given to the 14-year-old perpetrator.
“I was grieving the loss of one life to violence, and the loss of another life, a child in prison,” said Velez, an artist and teacher at Planting Justice, where teams of former inmates learn landscaping, building over 400 edible gardens throughout the urban East Bay.
“We’re liberating the metal in the weapon from its history of violence — and giving it a new life,” said Oakland resident Kyle Lemle, who co-founded Lead to Life with Velez.
Families who lost their children to gun violence ceremonially offered guns to the glowing foundry right in front of City Hall to be melted down as hundreds bore witness. The molten metal was then cast into the constellation of the stars at the time Oscar Grant was murdered by police ten years ago. The guns were donated by the Robby Poblete Foundation & United Playas, who collected them from volunteer gun "buy back" days across the Bay Area.
“I still have a dream today that one day war will come to an end, that [they] will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, that nations will no longer rise up against nations, neither will they study war any more.” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “A Christmas Sermon on Peace”
An addition the constellation of stars, the shovels also made during the ceremony will be used in tree planting ceremonies in honor of Earth Day, April 2019, where Lead 2 Life and volunteers will plant 50 trees at sites impacted by violence, and sacred sites across Oakland.
This ceremony sustains a prayer cast in Atlanta, GA in April 2018 where Lead 2 Life transformed 50 guns into 50 shovels to plant 50 trees to honor the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.
The idea to launch Lead to Life came to Brontë Velez amid twin despairs: the shooting death of a friend and the life sentence given to the 14-year-old perpetrator.
“I was grieving the loss of one life to violence, and the loss of another life, a child in prison,” said Velez, an artist and teacher at Planting Justice, where teams of former inmates learn landscaping, building over 400 edible gardens throughout the urban East Bay.
“We’re liberating the metal in the weapon from its history of violence — and giving it a new life,” said Oakland resident Kyle Lemle, who co-founded Lead to Life with Velez.
Global Day of Action for the Amazon: Activations Across Six Continents
September 5, 2019
(San Francisco) In response to Bolsonaro's assault on Indigenous Peoples and the environment, the two largest Indigenous-led organizations in Brazil, COIAB and APIB, called for a Global Day of Action on Sept 5th to demand that Brazil’s government reinstate fundamental human rights standards and protect the Amazon.
(San Francisco) In response to Bolsonaro's assault on Indigenous Peoples and the environment, the two largest Indigenous-led organizations in Brazil, COIAB and APIB, called for a Global Day of Action on Sept 5th to demand that Brazil’s government reinstate fundamental human rights standards and protect the Amazon.