The traditional owner, an older woman with a tough grace, welcomed us to her land. Her words were plain and her voice was tinged with a sense of pride. Her group was one of the few in southern Australia to obtain a native title determination recognising the members as native title holders.  (via Reading the Constitution out Loud · Meanjin)

Marcia Langtons’ article on the history, process &  issues around constitutional reform for recognition of Aboriginal Australians.  Photo: Untitled (Marcia Langton) 2002, detail, Christian Bumbarra Thompson.

With the help of the US Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), located at Fort Leavenworth army Base in Leavenworth, Kansas, geography professors Peter Herlihy and Jerome Dobson have already mapped out indigenous communities in Mexico as part of the “Mexico Indigena” project, a piece of the larger mapping project, the Bowman Expeditions.

The FMSO researcher assigned to the Bowman Expeditions, Lt. Col. Geoffrey B. Demarest, is suspected of using the maps as military intelligence against indigenous communities that assert autonomy and self-determination through collectively governing and owning their territory…It should come as no surprise that Demarest was not only trained at the US Army School of the Americas—the facility famous for teaching torture and the creation of paramilitary death squads to Latin American military personnel—but also served as the US Military Attaché at the US Embassy in Guatemala between 1988 and 1991, a time of heavily US-backed military repression against indigenous communities in Guatemala and several high-profile cases of torture and murder.

Before his work on the “Mexico Indigena” project, Demarest was implementing his land data strategies in Colombia, at least up until 2003. A March 2003 FMSO essay written by Demarest titled “Mapping Colombia: Land Data and Strategy,” clearly states the ultimate use of the geographic data:  “While the forensic value of land ownership data is relatively obvious, not so obvious is the correlation between land data and military strategy, but this correlation precisely marks an essential attribute of successful counterinsurgent campaigns.”

In the same essay, Demarest takes it a step further and exposes the imperialistic intentions for land data and strategy: “Strategic power becomes the ability to keep and acquire ownership rights around the world. National, sub-, supra- or transnational power can be measured accordingly.”

The FMSO’s primary mission is to assess asymmetric and emerging threats to the national security of the US. By asymmetric threats they mean guerrilla armies, and terrorist organizations. The FMSO is therefore evaluating indigenous-influenced-social movements as emerging threats to the security of US political and economic interests in Mexico.

To push indigenous people off their land, and to rob them of their means of subsistence is tantamount to genocide. The constant bombardment of anti-indigenous propaganda in cartoons, TV shows, and newscasts is no accident. In the free-market, indigenousness is culturally devalued. Billboards on the highways between indigenous villages depict white-skinned consumers with absolutely no relationship to the land from which they consume…The most prevalent cosmetic product sold to indigenous women is skin bleach. For indigenous communities in Mexico to claim their autonomy and territory is therefore a deeply urgent reclamation of identity.

curate:

The President of the Philippines must be a fan of James Cameron’s movie Avatar, because he is turning the fictional world of Pandora into a reality. On October 12, he approved a military proposal to allow privately-owned mining companies (including Canadian companies) to form and fund militias that will be trained by the Philippine army. These hired militias supposedly protect mining companies, but militias in the Philippines have a history of targeting civilians, indigenous peoples, and environmentalists. Six anti-mining advocates have already been killed this year, and 33 environmentalists have been killed since 2001. None of these cases have been resolved to date. The most recent victim was Fr. Fausto Tentorio, an Italian missionary who advocated for indigenous people as they faced violations of their rights by mining companies. He was murdered on October 17th. Please sign a petition which calls for the immediate repeal of this law by clicking the Sign Petition button on the box on the left! If you can’t see petition box, click here to visit the petition on ThePetitionSite.com. (via PNoy Loves Mining Militias)

aphoticoccurrences:progressivefriends:

Removal of Indigenous Peoples of Belo Monte, Brazil Has Begun

The Brazilian government is moving ahead “at any cost” with plans to build the third-largest dam in the world and one of the Amazon’s most controversial development projects – the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River in the state of Pará. … Original plans to dam the Xingu have been greenwashed through multiple public relations programs over the course of two decades in the face of intense national and international protest.

In order to feed the powerhouse of the Belo Monte dam complex, up to 80% of the Xingu River will be diverted from its original course, causing a permanent drought on the river’s “Big Bend,” and directly affecting the Paquiçamba and Arara territories of the Juruna and Arara indigenous peoples. … Belo Monte’s two reservoirs and canals will flood a total of 668 km2 of which 400 km2 is standing forest. The flooding will also force more than 20,000 people from their homes in the municipalities of Altamira and Vitoria do Xingu.

An interview I did with a group of some of the women involved with the Justseeds artists co-operative, back in 2010, has just been published online at the (new) Aorta blog. It can be found here: www.aortamagazine.com/blog/women-of-justseeds

Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists based in Canada, the US and Mexico who have banded together to collaborate with and support each other and social movements.

via remember who you are: justseeds interview now online

cultureofresistance:

So angry. It should be apparent of the people in charge of making these decisions affecting all the lives around them, that they have absolutely NO care for the living. Why would they listen to the words and symbolic actions of those who do? They won’t be swayed. They have to be stopped.

—

A judge in Brazil has revoked a decision which had halted work on the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon region.

Judge Carlos Castro Martins reversed the order he had issued in September, which had barred any work on the Belo Monte dam that interfered with the natural flow of the Xingu river.

He said the company behind the project had subsequently shown its work would not harm local fishing.

The project has been heavily criticised by environmentalists.

Judge Martins had originally ruled in favour of a fisheries group which argued that the dam would affect local fish stocks and could harm indigenous families who make a living from fishing.

He had barred the Norte Energia company behind the project from all work which could interfere with the natural flow of the Xingu river, including building a port, using explosives, installing dikes and building canals.

Legal wrangling

Norte Energia appealed against the decision and Judge Martins ruled on Friday that construction work on the dam could go ahead as the company had shown that local fishing boats would not be blocked or hindered in their work.

“Since the course of the water won’t be altered, and there won’t be much variation in the speed of its flow, (the project) won’t have a major influence on the habitat of ornamental fish species used for fishing,” he said.

Judge Martins did, however, say that the wider environmental impact of the project “could only be felt and analysed once the work was completed, as the studies into its effects were only forecasts of what could happen”.

He also said that any work would have to comply with the regulations laid down by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department (Funai) and the National Environment Agency, Ibama.

Norte Energia said the temporary halt on the building work had not affected the project, as it had not yet reached the stage where the company needed to do any of the specific type of work which had fallen under the ban.

If it goes ahead, the 11,000-megawatt dam will be the third biggest in the world - after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.

The government says it is crucial to meeting growing energy needs, but environmentalists and those fighting for indigenous rights have been vociferous in their opposition.

Oh damn *bashes head*. Since when have regulations made jack difference to baseline local survival and global balance issues? I know some people in the North will come up will all kinds of false arguments about how, unconditional energy supply is like, egalitarian and if you question it you’re just a hater etc. etc. but…damn!

In the Souths, energy must come from somewhere, people have to live with the consequences.

selchieproductions:

Indigenous spokesman dismissed from Brazilian government
© Survival International

 Megaron Txucarramãe, an indigenous spokesman from the Brazilian Amazon, has been dismissed from his post in the government’sIndian Affairs Department, FUNAI.

Megaron, of the Kayapó tribe, has stated that his dismissal is a result of his opposition to the Belo Monte dam, which is being constructed on the Amazon region’s Xingu river.

The Belo Monte dam threatens to cause huge devastation to the forest and to fish stocks, upon which thousands of Indians rely.

It has sparked widespread opposition, amongst Indians, river communities, environmentalists, scientists and experts, and Brazil’s Public Ministry.

The Kayapó have appealed Megaron’s dismissal and stated that he has always fought ‘for the survival of all the indigenous peoples of Brazil’, and that he ‘is the best person to defend and fight for our interests and rights, as he always has done’.

Indigenous spokeswoman Sheyla Juruna, who travelled to Europe earlier this year to protest against the dam, was beaten up last week by opponents to the project, as a result of her campaigning.

In response to an appeal by the Public Ministry calling for the Indians’ constitutional rights to be respected, a judge recently stated that the Indians need not be consulted about the dam before the project proceeds, and that they are ‘privileged’ to have the right to be consulted at all.

This extraordinary assertion contradicts both the Brazilian constitution and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, both of which stipulate that indigenous peoples must be consulted about developments on their land.

Kayapó spokesman Raoni Metuktire recently warned the UN that the dam is causing ‘major suffering and negative effects for my people and my relatives’.

things that are not good

This week we’re looking at the role that Indigenous people have played and still play in Australia’s pastoral industry. As you might have heard, we’ve just marked the 45th anniversary of the Wave Hill walk-off. The anniversary was a celebration of the Aboriginal stockmen and their families, mainly Gurindji people, who in 1966 walked off Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory as a protest against work and pay conditions.

Their determination started a process that ended in bipartisan support for the recognition of the rights of Aboriginal people to land, fair wages and a brighter future for their children. The efforts of the Wave Hill stockmen and their families changed the lives of all Australians forever. They were typical of the men and women around Australia who contributed so greatly to the establishment of Australia’s pastoral industry. Seventy-five-year-old Herb Wharton is one of the old drovers who contributed so much. He was born in Cunnamulla in Queensland, where he began his working life as a drover, and he’s gone on to become a celebrated author and poet. He told Newslines’ Trevor Ellis about the importance of Indigenous men and women to the pastoral industry in the early days.

via indigenous.gov.au » Newslines Radio: Indigenous stockmen and women

Another way in which I’m a bit of a femme minority is that I’m Indigenous. I’m a member of the Wiradjuri nation, which is the largest tribal area in NSW. Indigenous femmes and other femmes of colour exist, although we don’t seem to be that common. Femme is largely perceived as a white identity, and if you ask your average queer to picture a femme, I’m fairly certain that the image they’d conjure would be white.

Femmes of colour often have to fight doubly hard to have our identities recognised, as one of the racist tropes women of colour face is the denial of our femininity. Women and femmes of colour are stereotyped as being masculine and unfeminine, and often portrayed as being unattractive as a result. As someone who is read as white, this is not something I have experienced a great deal of, but it’s definitely something experienced by my darker skinned sisters.

I have experienced a general ignorance about racial and Indigenous issue in queer and femme communities, and an expectation that anti-racist activism be considered secondary to feminist, anti-homophobic and anti-femmephobic activism, when queer femmes of colour often experience our identities to be one holistic piece. It is an impossible request for a femme of colour to separate her experiences as a person of colour from her experiences as a femme or her experiences as a queer, and it is unreasonable to ask us to prioritise racism last simply because it is not something that affects white femmes.

Significantly, this attitude promotes the idea that femme is an identity that cannot co-exist with an identity of colour, that one must choose between being a person of colour and being a femme, or that being femme is a “white thing”. This drives femmes of colour away from femme community, from femme organisations, and possibly away from femme itself as an identity and a self-label.

If femme communities and organisations are to acknowledge and embrace the diversity that exists amongst femmes, we must make an effort to be deliberately inclusive, to work to have femme viewed as something other than a white identity, and to acknowledge that working against racism should be something done by everyone.

etiquette-etc:

We as Indigenous peoples who have current and/or former life experience in the sex trade and sex industries met on unceeded Coast Salish Territory in Vancouver on Monday April 11th 2011. In a talking circle organized by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network we wish to share the following points about our collective discussion so that we may speak FOR ourselves and life experiences:

-We recognize that many of us have multiple identities and communities that we belong to – some of us take up the title of “sex worker” while others do not see themselves this way.  We have a myriad of experiences in the sex trade, everything from violence, coercion, to survival, getting by, empowerment, and everything in between.   We want to give voice to these issues so that those who are CURRENTLY involved in sex work and the sex industries feel supported and are the primary place where decisions surrounding our lives are made.  We should not be made to feel judged, blamed, or shunned from ANY of the communities we belong to or are coming from. We are the best deciders of what we want our lives to be.

-Despite the heightened statistics of the many realities we face as Indigenous peoples, we are not significantly represented in the leadership or decision making tables of sex work organizations and other social justice groups alike. By this we do not mean solely having one Indigenous coordinator or a few outreach workers – we mean meaningful, non-tokenizing, multiple positions and visible leadership roles across organizations, groups, collectives, and at any place where the sex trade is discussed. We are not interested in being included after the fact or having to continuously take a seat at a table we had to fight to be at in the first place – we want to be the center in which all decisions about our lives are coming from.

-We collectively and steadfastly resist the so-called “rescuing” and “saving” approaches to the issues going on in our lives that comes from the (in)justice system, social service agencies, prohibitionist groups, and many other areas.  What we are asking for is not to be saved or rescued or consistently painted as victims – we come from generations of peoples who have resisted this approach for the last 500+ years so we could be here today. We are asking for support that is unconditional and meets us where we are at.

-We are living through legacies of colonialism and genocide – which are extremely present today. When various individuals and organizations say things like “we are all oppressed in the same way” or refuse to take a stance on colonialism – this directly silences and further oppresses us. Just because we as Indigenous peoples may be involved in the sex trade as well does not mean that we are all oppressed in the same way as other peoples who are involved in the sex trade or even within our own communities. We demand the right to self-determination about what is specifically true for us as individuals and we refuse to be constantly grouped in “the other” or “unknown” categories – whether from well-intentioned allies or those who have never even considered our realities as Indigenous peoples.

-We want to address the rampant amount of homophobia, transphobia, cissexism, and heteropatriarchy that we witness from Indigenous and allied people alike.  Many of us are proud to be Two Spirit, trans, gender non-conforming, and many other identities that the English language cannot contain.  We hold both our Indigenous community members and allies accountable to respect who we are and understand that these identities for many of us prior to colonization were honored and respected – and we take this seriously as we seek to reclaim who we are.

-While it is true that we may experience violence on bad dates, on the street, and in other places where we are, we want to state that VIOLENCE SHOULD NOT INHERENTLY BE PART OF THE SEX TRADE. What remains unchallenged and inadequately criticized are the role and actions of the state, the police, and social service agencies that create and allow the conditions that create violent situations for us to begin with. The very creation of Canada and the United States is based off of the genocide and land theft of our peoples and fast forward to 2011 this is still happening. It is now sanctioned through the law, in the court system, and other organizations wishing to further control and exploit us by continuing to remove us from our homelands, or our communities of choice, or warehousing us in jails and prisons

-There is a severe lack of resources and support for those of us on reserves, in northern territories, and in rural and remote areas. So much of the dialogue about the sex trade is urban and metropolitan focused when so many of our rural and remote communities have the evidence to prove the urgency of shifting the dialogue to listen and support what is going on in the north and on the reserves.  Where can sex workers go when there are no supports in their own communities? Why should they always have to come to the city?

-While the criminalization of the sex trade is indeed harmful to us and we consistently resist the regulations forced onto us by a colonial white law and order system, we want to move beyond just discussing criminalization and decriminalization. There are many other factors that contribute to the realities of our lives specifically as Indigenous peoples that are being largely ignored because of these kinds of debates constantly happening

-At public events or in the media, supposed ‘experts’ or ‘allies’ often focus exclusively on violence and victimization, over-representation and exiting strategies. While these issues are important, we want to move the dialogue beyond this focus on ‘being saved’ and instead to hear from sex workers themselves about all the complex realities and needs they face. Why is it that in public forums, the only voices we hear are those wanting to save sex workers from violence rather than from sex workers themselves? Sex workers should be invited to speak to their own issues, representing a diversity of perspectives and experiences. For example, sex work is often seen as an exclusively urban issue. In reality, lots of people in rural areas are trading sex for money, rides, clothes, and many other reasons – but because of shame and silence, this aspect of sex work remains invisible.  Expanding our understanding of Indigenous involvement in sex work will entail including a diversity of perspectives, allowing these voices to inform policy and programs.  

-Sex workers and those involved in the sex trade are part of our communities – all of the things we are advocating for in terms of Indigenous rights and land sovereignty sex workers need to be part of as well. Internationally sanctioned Indigenous rights are determined by states – so how do we see our own rights in our own territories within the sex trade? We aren’t going to have only one approach – Indigenous peoples have never only had one approach. There are multiple nations, multiple view points, and multiple ways of dealing with things – Indigenous peoples are not one homogenized group and we need to move forward being accountable to all of these differences.

-There exists an extreme amount of stereotypes surrounding Indigenous sexuality and our bodies that have been used to legitimize violence against us and make the settlement of our territories by the colonizers possible. Distancing ourselves from stereotyping has in many cases also meant distancing ourselves from sexuality and ultimately from sex workers. This is just not about our own individual stories – we need to look at how are we treating all our relations and that especially means people who are most pushed aside by those in our communities. 

-We want to move forward to a place where we can discuss sex work and sex trade sovereignty – having autonomy of our bodies, our spaces, and the right to govern ourselves. We want to talk about our humanity instead of talking over people who are involved in the sex trade. We are more than just the numbers or statistics coming from the realities in our lives. We have voices, we are Indigenous peoples involved in the sex trade and sex industries, and we need to be heard

Written by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network and co-signed by:
Sarah Hunt, Kwakwaka’wakw
Bambie Tait, Gitxsan nation
Ivo Haggerty (Cargnelli)/Sta’xai’luum Blackstone
Lyn Highway