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Indigenous Communities, Rights And Traditional Ecological Knowledge

/Indigenous Communities, Rights And Traditional Ecological Knowledge

 

25 08, 2022

‘Grandmothers Are Our Weather App’: New Maps And Local Knowledge Power Chad’s Climate Fightback

2023-03-05T23:46:25-05:00Tags: |

Mbororo environmental activist Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim has been working with communities in her native Chad to create maps, settling disputes regarding the sharing of natural resources. Ibrahim and representatives from EOS Data analytics used high-resolution satellite images to work alongside Indigenous leaders from more than twenty villages to map 1,728 square kilometers, collaboratively adding important markers like medicinal trees, sacred forests, rivers, settlements, roads, and more. Each community was given a laminated copy of the finished map, and Ibrahim is now working on a similar project in the Lake Chad area. Ibrahim hopes that her mapping projects will demonstrate the combined power of Indigenous knowledges and technology as a response to the climate crisis. Photo credit: IISB

9 08, 2022

‘We Need Green Energy, But There Is An Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Threshold You Can’t Cross’

2023-02-26T12:35:31-05:00Tags: |

Some nations’ governments are increasing efforts to protect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, which will affect many extractive corporations’ abilities to operate as usual. In recent years, corporations have been left mostly unchecked to devastate the land. As Indigenous rights are bolstered at the national level, however, companies and investors will need to strengthen their working relationships with Indigenous Peoples and seek free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from Indigenous communities if they plan new extractive projects like mining, drilling, and fracking on their lands. Executive Director of Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) Osprey Orielle Lake asserts that institutions need to have a strategy in place for when Indigenous communities say no to proposed projects, both renewable and nonrenewable. She contends that “Indigenous sovereignty and rights are central to a Just Transition,” and “No Go” policies should be implemented to allow Indigenous communities to reject projects and to ensure that their decision is respected by the institutions involved. Indigenous lands and local knowledge must be respected and upheld for Just Transition.

27 06, 2022

Redefining Gender In The Amazon

2023-02-01T23:05:45-05:00Tags: |

This article shares the story of Uýra Sodoma, the spirit of Indigenous trans nonbinary artist and biologist Emerson Pontes (she/they). Uýra speaks through Pontes in order to highlight the importance of protecting the Brazilian Amazon. A new documentary, Uýra: The Rising Forest, shows Emerson’s journey driving collective and educational experiences that engage communities in environmental justice activism. She has faced challenges not only from the mass deforestation of the Amazon, but also from Brazil’s homophobic and transphobic government policies. However, they have continued to use performances to bridge the movements for conservation and LGBTQ+ rights. They emphasize that the concept of the gender binary is a concept imposed by colonizers, using drag to connect with nature and the queer community. Photo Credit: Uýra: The Rising Forest    

27 06, 2022

How Defeating Keystone XL Built A Bolder, Savvier Climate Movement

2023-02-02T16:24:35-05:00Tags: , |

Over ten years of resistance against the Canadian tar sands and the Keystone XL pipeline has reinvigorated the greater climate movement through coordinated strategies of direct action and coalition building. The Keystone XL resistance gained traction in 2006 following the advocacy of three women from the Deranger clan of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in Alberta in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network. The Tar Sands Action sparked new waves of civil disobedience that became common tactics in direct actions to follow. From Maggie Gorry leading a Tar Sands Blockade in northern Texas to Joye Braun fighting for Indigenous sovereignty on her home lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux Nation in South Dakota, these grassroots direct actions were essential to the successful fight against Keystone XL. 

22 04, 2022

Helena Gualinga Is Preserving The Land And Teachings Of The Ecuadorian Amazon

2023-03-05T23:33:01-05:00Tags: |

Helena Gualinga, Native Ecuadorian environmental justice activist and land defender, considers herself a “spokesperson” for the Amazon and uses her voice to speak out against extraction, deforestation, and other forms of colonial and capitalist destruction of the land and waters she calls home. Gualinga has grown up amongst a community of land defenders and Amazon protectors, and she has learned from and rallied alongside her Sarayaku elders in the fight for environmental justice and human rights. Recently, she has been a speaker at the United Nations Climate Change Conferences, and in 2021 she co-led a youth climate march of more than 100,000 people. Gualinga and her sister were the first Indigenous women on the cover of Revista Hogar, a popular lifestyle magazine in Ecuador and used this honor as an opportunity to highlight the many Amazonian women who put their lives on the line to protect their territories, lands, and bodies from violence. Gualinga continues to raise awareness and resist colonialism through her activism, talks, and social media activity.

14 01, 2022

Selina Leem, 18 year old from Marshall Islands, speaks at final COP21 plenary

2022-05-14T15:58:09-04:00Tags: |

Selina Leem, an 18-year-old woman from the Marshall Islands, gives a captivating speech about the impacts of climate change on her native coastal lands during the closing ceremony of the COP21 climate change talks in Paris in 2015. This young leader shares the symbolism of the coconut leaf in the tradition of her ancestors and how she hopes to be able to pass this down to her children and grandchildren in the future. Leem calls for this to be a global turning point where leaders take responsibility for climate change and strive to create a sustainable world. Video credit: 350.org

13 12, 2021

Voices From The Frontlines: Rose’s Story

2021-12-13T20:55:11-05:00Tags: |

Rose Whipple from the Santee Dakota and Ho-Chunk nations is protecting her ancestral lands from pipelines in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. Whipple describes her recent community organizing against the Line 3 pipeline which would be the largest in North America and run through rare Wild Rice beds in Anishinaabe and Dakota territory. Inspired by the solidarity of Indigenous communities at Standing Rock, Whipple has learned to use the strength of her voice as a youth leader to stand against the corporate greed of fossil fuel companies which harms the health of people and our planet. She continues to fight for community resilience and a full transition to renewable energy. Photo credit: Jaida L. Grey Eagle

1 12, 2021

Lax Kw’alaams Woman Crashes Trudeau LNG Press Conference

2021-12-13T21:13:22-05:00Tags: |

Prime Minister Trudeau’s administration held a press conference in which Premier Christy Clark announced the approval of the Pacific Northwest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Project. Premier Clark was praising the project for promoting clean energy and being of low cost when Christine Smith-Martin, of the Lax Kw’alaams, interrupted the conference to ask a very pressing question: “what about our salmon?” Smith-Martin then elaborated, saying that the environmental impact of the project was not being addressed by conference speakers, nor had indigenous communities been consulted in a meaningful way prior to the decision. Minister Catherine Mckenna, in turn, said that the impact on salmon has been assessed and there should not be significant effects. Smith-Martin was not convinced, and she insisted this project must be opposed. Salmon is vital to indigenous communities, and it must be treated as such. Video credit: Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition

13 10, 2021

Food Sovereignty: A Growing Movement

2021-12-13T21:07:14-05:00Tags: |

In this episode of the All My Relations Podcast, idigenous women Matika Wilbur and Adrienne Keene discuss food sovereignty and colonised food systems with Valerie Segrest of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. A Native nutrition educator, Segrest uses her specialisation in local and traditional foods to touch on topics such as breastfeeding, food sovereignty activism, the issue with the term “food desert,” and systems of colonisation through food. Photo Credit: All My Relations Podcast

13 09, 2021

WWF-Canada’s Megan Leslie Wants To ‘Decolonize’ the Environmental Movement

2021-12-13T21:02:06-05:00Tags: |

Megan Leslie, the recently instated president of World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada), insists that, going forward, environmental conservation efforts should include the perspectives and desires of indigenous peoples. Towards that end, WWF-Canada has partnered with Gitga’at First Nation, at their behest, to preserve marine life in British Columbia. Additionally, WWF-Canada has been working with remote Arctic communities such as the Nunawat people to promote their use of renewable energy as opposed to diesel fuel. As for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion plans, Leslie says her organization prefers not to engage in specific infrastructure battles, though they consider investment in fossil fuel infrastructure the wrong step. Photo Credit: Alex Tétreault

17 07, 2021

Local Indigenous People Gather To Bring Back Food Sovereignty

2021-07-17T18:33:58-04:00Tags: |

In a recent screening of the documentary “Gather,” a film recounting Indigenous food sovereignty initiatives, members of the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes described their own local food sovereignty struggles. Hosted by Rhode Island’s first food gleaning project, Hope Harvest Rhode Island, the event featured Narragansett-Niantic speaker Lorèn Spears, the executive director of the Tomaquag Museum. Alongside other tribal members, Spears emphasized the radical power of food sovereignty initiatives to resist oppression by the dominant society through the reclamation of intergenerational Indigenous knowledge. Photo Credit: Gather

6 07, 2021

New Fossil Fuel Projects Meet Indigenous Resistance in New Mexico

2021-07-06T17:04:05-04:00Tags: |

Kendra Pinto is a member of the Navajo Nation’s Eastern Agency in the Greater Chaco region of northwestern New Mexico. In response to the rapid changes occurring since the fracking boom of the past decade, she is fighting for greater protection of her lands and community. Pinto plays an active role in the group Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment (Diné CARE) and has testified before Congress to demand justice from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and oil and gas companies who continue to receive new frack well permits. In partnership with the Sierra Club and Earthworks, she is calling for accountability by taking air quality samples to monitor methane emissions violations and other infractions from nearby frack wells. Photo credit: Randall Hyman/Truthout 

6 07, 2021

Small-Scale Women Seaweed Farmers Ride the Rough Tides of Climate Change

2021-07-06T15:01:13-04:00Tags: |

On the Philippine island of Palawan, traditionally, fishing has been the means of support for most inhabitants. Over the last twenty years, because of climate change and a variety of other factors, fish are no longer as abundant as they once were. Local women, who were previously largely homemakers, have responded to this difficult situation by taking up seaweed farming. The revenue offered by this endeavor has been a welcome addition to household incomes. But climate change is also already affecting the viability of seaweed farms. The women farmers are rising to the challenge by improving seaweed harvesting and drying methods, using better tools and developing early warning systems for typhoons. Photo credit: Mongabay

13 04, 2021

CASA Y GAGGA – Agua, Derechos E Igualdad

2021-04-13T17:49:14-04:00Tags: |

Though South America has many water sources, many communities in the region go without sufficient clean drinking water. Lack of water puts a serious strain on women’s lives as well as their ability to farm. This is particularly true of Bolivian women living in the Chaco area, a region that is dry for many months of the year. During the dry period, communities rely on the muddy water that remains in the bed of the Rio Grande. Purifying the water with a local plant helps but it yields a product that is far from potable. The CASA Socioenvironmental Fund is an organization that runs many projects across South America with the objective of empowering local women so they can better serve their community and further environmental justice. The projects include water storage tanks for specific regions, developing farmers associations, and supporting indigenous female leaders. Video Credit: Fundo Casa Socioambiental. Caption: Video is in Spanish, but English subtitles are available.

13 04, 2021

Women Speak Out Against Criminalization Of Land Defenders, Water Protectors

2021-04-13T17:28:07-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights the issue of unjust criminalisation and disproportionate state violence against indigenous women water and land protectors. While indigenous people constitute about 4% of Canada’s population, they represent 27% of the incarcerated population in 2018. According to the Canada’s Correctional Investigator Indigenous, women constituted 37% of all women behind bars and 50% of all maximum security inmates in 2017. Mi’kmaw lawyer and academic Pam Palmater evokes the targeting and criminalisation of Indigenous women by Canadian state authorities as historically rooted in a colonising strategy, since they bear children who will carry on the culture and language of their nations. Pamela says that indigenous women’s perseverance and leadership should not be lost in the conversation and concludes that ‘even though Indigenous women have always been targeted, both in the law directly and indirectly, they continue to stand up for the land and for their children despite knowing what’s coming’. Photo Credit: Amber Bernard/APTN

13 04, 2021

Sustainable Missoula: Food Sovereignty Is On The Line This Year

2021-04-13T17:20:19-04:00Tags: |

Based in Missoula, Montana, Indigenous ethnobotanist and Salish scientist Rose Bear Don’t Walk describes her personal relationship to Thanksgiving, while imploring readers to bring food sovereignty values to their own plates. She reclaims the settler-colonial notion of Thanksgiving by using the holiday to give thanks, spend time with family, and support her local farms— further forging a connection between herself, her family, and the land around them. Photo Credit: Missoula Current

9 04, 2021

Over 75 Indigenous Women Urge Biden To Stop Climate-Wrecking Pipelines And Respect Treaty Rights

2021-04-09T13:17:36-04:00Tags: |

Prior to inauguration day, over 75 Indigenous women from First Nations across the country call on President-elect Joe Biden to end destructive pipeline projects including Line 3, Keystone XL, and Dakota Access Pipeline. Signatories include Casey Camp-Horinek of the Ponca Nation and the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe and founder of Giniw Collective, and Joye Braun of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) among dozens of other Indigenous leaders. The collective letter shares personal stories as well as research on how these pipeline projects perpetuate violence against Indigenous peoples and lands and violate key treaty rights. Photo Credit: Tiny House Warriors/Facebook

9 04, 2021

‘What’s At Stake Is The Life Of Every Being’: Saving The Brazilian Cerrado

2021-04-09T13:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous communities in the Cerrado region of Brazil are organizing to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of agribusiness and deforestation on their native lands. The region is even richer in biodiversity than the Amazon, playing a critical role in global carbon sequestration. Diana Aguiar, political advisor to the National Campaign in Defense of the Cerrado, describes the devastation that has been caused in recent decades due to agribusiness and cattle ranching, compromising the headwaters of major rivers and the livelihoods of Indigenous communities. Local communities and partner NGOs are working to bring greater attention to the importance of this vast savanna and to increase pressure to protect the region as a dedicated world heritage site.  Photo Credit: Elvis Marques / CPT Nacional

19 02, 2021

‘It’s Cultural Genocide’: Inside The Fight To Stop The Line 3 Pipeline On Tribal Lands

2022-06-27T13:05:38-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women in Minnesota are leading the fight against the proposed expansion of the Line 3 pipeline through tribal lands and major water sources. Tara Houska, an Ojibwe woman of the Couchiching First Nation, has set up camp for the past three years in resistance. Houska, tribal attorney and founder of Giniw Collective, explains that the pipeline compromises the health of her community and violates treaty rights, perpetuating cultural genocide of Indigenous communities. She is working with congresswoman Ilhan Omar to increase pressure on President Biden to take urgent action to halt the dangerous trajectory of pipeline expansion, including revoking water-crossing permits for future preventative measures. In addition, local organizer and member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Nancy Beaulieu, calls for tribal leaders to be held accountable for not providing prior informed consent to their members about the pipeline project. Photo credit: Jenn Ackerman and Tim Gruber/The Guardian

18 02, 2021

To Keep Indigenous Women Safe Joe Biden Must Go Beyond Keystone XL

2022-06-24T15:16:54-04:00Tags: |

In this article written by Anya Zoledziowski, Indigenous community leaders call on President Biden to follow the decision to end construction of the Keystone XL pipeline with more direct action to protect Indigenous women. Angeline Cheek, member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes in Montana, is relieved that there won’t be an influx of transient workers or man camps in her community due to the pipeline cancellation. However, Cheek and Carla Fredericks, an enrolled member of Fort Berthold and the executive director of the Christensen Fund, demand President Biden follow his other campaign commitments to protect Indigenous women from high risks of sexual assault and trafficking by reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). They call for safety and accountability measures to end the disproportionate violence which is often inflicted by transient infrastructure workers who are non-Indigenous members. Photo Credit: Kokipasni Youth Group/VICE World News

29 09, 2020

Protect Indigenous People’s Rights To Avoid A Sixth Extinction (Commentary)

2023-02-06T00:28:46-05:00Tags: |

In this commentary, Susan Lieberman, David Wilkie, and James Watson from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) contend that the protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights is crucial to the survival of humanity. The destruction of the Earth’s ecological systems has set the planet on a path toward its sixth mass extinction event: climate change catastrophe. The authors argue that if 30 percent of the world’s intact land and water is equitably protected by 2030, this crisis could potentially be diverted; however, evidence shows that this is only possible if leaders recognize the value and critical importance of Indigenous ecological knowledges and land stewardship to the survival of animals, plants, lands, waters— and, ultimately, humanity. Indigenous rights and traditional stewardship must be respected, honored, and protected by people, corporations, and governments across the globe. Photo credit: David Wilkie/WCS

8 09, 2020

How Indigenous Land Rights Could Help Save The Brazilian Amazon From Deforestation

2023-02-06T00:37:15-05:00Tags: |

Anna Kusmer explains that although the Brazilian Amazon is incredibly vulnerable to destruction, the legal recognition of Indigenous land rights could offer it much-needed protection. In 2020, the Brazilian Amazon was hit hard by forest fires and illegal deforestation, mining, exploitation, and trafficking–- more than any other year in recent history. Sometimes, as many as 30,000 fires were burning at once, set intentionally, and illegally, by people who were trying to clear the forest to make room for “productive” industry like farming and livestock. This violence against the Brazilian Amazon not only leads to biodiversity loss but also raises climate change concerns. According to Kusmer, the best solution to this issue is homologation, the legal acknowledgement that the land belongs to Indigenous peoples. Indigenous stewardship of the land has been shown to preserve biodiversity, conserve natural resources, produce fewer carbon emissions, among other benefits. Although Indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon still face political roadblocks and little governmental support, they continue to take care of the land the same way they have for generations. Photo credit: Andre Penner/AP

6 09, 2020

In California Wine Country, Undocumented Grape Pickers Forced To Work In Fire Evacuation Zones

2020-10-05T16:49:57-04:00Tags: |

Amid pandemic economic impact, many Latin American Indigenous immigrants have no choice but to do farm work in hazardous conditions during wildfires, increasing their vulnerability to COVID-19 due to their exposure to smoke. Movimiento Cultural de la Unión Indígena, an Indigenous workers’ group, is pushing for appropriate working regulations, in addition to providing economic and social assistance, especially to the undocumented suspicious of federal support. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

30 08, 2020

Indigenous Activists Brace For Worsening Wildfires Under Climate Change

2020-11-20T17:37:27-05:00Tags: |

The Three Sisters Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico is leading local efforts to address climate change impacts in Indigenous communities. Carrie Wood, member of the Navajo Nation, and Christina M. Castro, member of the Taos and Jemez pueblos, are two of the women who have been supporting critical local responses such as making air purifiers for elders in the Nambé, Tesuque and Pojoaque pueblos who have dealt with excessive smoke from the Medio Fire combined with other wildfires in the western US. Their support stems from long-held mutual aid traditions led by Indigenous women, stressing the importance of investing in Indigenous knowledge and tribal fire management techniques for community resilience. Photo credit: Cody Nelson/NM Political Report

7 08, 2020

Strengthening Indigenous Rights And Leadership In The Face Of Global Challenges – COVID-19, Climate Change And Environmental Degradation

2020-09-18T18:00:21-04:00Tags: |

A global representation of indigenous peoples organizations along with the International Union for Conservation of Nature are working to address climate change through increased partnership and shared leadership. Ahead of the World Conservation Congress in January of 2021 the IUCN is making the decision to increase indigenous leadership positions and define key proposals around indigenous roles, rights and relationship to the environment. The IUCN is also calling for support from member states in indigenous stewardship of their lands, territories and seas especially by indigenous women. A new document produced through this collaboration aims to draw attention to solutions and challenges faced by indigenous peoples around Covid-19. Through increased sharing of proposals and techniques there is growing hope for indigenous resilience and the protection of their way of life under increasing threat from the pandemic along with the long-term challenges of climate change and environmental degradation. Photo credit: Asociacion Ak’Tenamit

24 07, 2020

Rice Production Necessitates Women Farmers

2020-09-18T17:28:40-04:00Tags: |

Women in Guyana are becoming a larger force in rice production, the country producing the most rice per capita in the world. When given access to the same resources as men, such as water and land ownership, these women farmers can help reduce poverty and improve nutrition.  In order to meet the increasing global demand for rice, it is imperative that climate change vulnerabilities and gender inequalities are simultaneously addressed. Photo credit: Tanja Lieuw

10 07, 2020

Water Protectors Celebrate As Dakota Access Pipeline Ordered To Shut Down

2020-10-10T19:55:28-04:00Tags: |

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, an elder of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and founder of Sacred Stone Camp and Tara Houska, Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective are interviewed by reporter Amy Goodman after the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is ordered to shut down by August 5, 2020. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard has opened her home in North Dakota to supporters from the beginning of the resistance in order to protect sacred sites, water sources, and the health of her community members. She has joined forces with Indigenous leaders and water protectors from around the world, many of whom have faced similar harms from extractive industry. Tara Houska asserts that the shutdown of this massive pipeline sends a critical message to the fossil fuel industry that these dangerous projects will not be tolerated and that a regenerative green economy is non-negotiable. Photo credit: Democracy Now! (video screenshot)

24 06, 2020

Where Do You Draw The Boundaries Of Home? Understanding Bioregions Might Give You An Idea

2023-03-05T23:49:37-05:00Tags: |

Carlita del Sol explains the concepts of bioregionalism and place-based governance. In pre-colonial times, Indigenous Peoples lived on their ancestral territories for thousands of years, and hyper-localized knowledges of their regions were passed down through generations. These knowledges allowed Indigenous Peoples to live in reciprocal relationship with the land, taking care of the region and its “lifesources,” while also depending on the land, animals, and local food systems for their own survival. del Sol includes a list of steps that people can take to re-orient themselves with the bioregions that they are already in relationship with. Photo credit: Mervin Windsor (Haisla-Heiltsuk), from Decolonial Atlas

3 05, 2020

Fierce Life: Maria do Socorro Silva

2023-01-25T11:40:52-05:00Tags: |

Maria do Socorro Silva is a descendant of enslaved Africans, and an Indigenous woman of the Amazon forest, in the region of Barcarena. Like her ancestors, Maria has resisted and rebelled against colonial, capitalist forces, who see the land and women’s bodies as property for the taking. Norst Hyrdo is a Norwegian company that extracts raw materials from Barcarena. High levels of aluminum, iron, copper, arsenic, mercury and lead have been found in the Murucupi River in Barcarena, contaminating the river that Indigenous communities depend on, leading to illness and death. Maria, herself fighting cancer caused by the contamination, also fights by sharing her story to young climate activists, explaining to them the connection between the health of Indigenous Peoples to the health of the environment. Like her ancestors, Maria resists and fights for the next generation. Photo credit: Liliana Merizalde/Atmos

24 04, 2020

Meet Isabel Wisum

2020-04-24T15:51:56-04:00Tags: |

Isabel Wisum became the first woman to be elected Vice President of Achuar Nation of Ecuador (NAE) in 2016, and the first woman to have a leadership position in that community. She has supported the maternal and neonatal health of other women in the Amazon rainforest, empowering generations of women as rainforest guardians. A trained community health promoter, her leadership inspires other women of NAE to participate in the local decision-making process, helping to build resilience for her culture, land and people. Photo Credits: Pachamama

14 10, 2019

On Indigenous People’s Day, Anishinaabeg Leaders March Against Enbridge’s $7.5 Billion Oil Pipeline

2020-11-20T17:50:08-05:00Tags: |

Anishinaabeg leaders march in resistance to the proposed Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline in Clearbrook, Minnesota on Indigenous People’s Day. Tara Houska, member of the Anishinaabeg Nation and Founder of Ginew Collective, leads the march with more than 200 supporters to protect Ojibwe culture and treaty rights along with key water sources that would be compromised in the Great Lakes region with the potential to harm millions. The pipeline construction company, Enbridge, faces several lawsuits after the environmental review was overturned due to high risks to waterways. Houska and other Indigenous leaders continue to garner greater support for resisting construction and protecting their ancestral lands. Photo credit: Amelia Diehl/In These Times

11 06, 2019

4 Activists Explain Why Migrant Justice Is Climate Justice

2020-12-02T20:13:50-05:00Tags: |

The four climate justice advocates Maya Menezes, Nayeli Jimenez, Niria Alicia and Thanu Yakupitiyage share their perspectives on the strong connections between the climate crisis and issues of migration and asylum. Drawing from different examples and experiences, they make a strong case to address the climate crisis in the broader framework of anti-capitalist and anti-colonial struggles and to stand in solidarity with movements to protect the rights of indigenous people, migrants and asylum seekers. Photo Credits: Getty Images

28 04, 2019

The Amazon is a Woman

2023-01-25T12:23:37-05:00Tags: |

In Brazil, Indigenous women are fighting against the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest in more ways than one. To protect the Amazon, women are on the frontlines of marches, publicly sharing their stories, leading public meetings, physically preventing access to the forest, relearning their language and culture, teaching children how to resist and act collectively, filing lawsuits against foreign companies exploiting the Amazon, and cultivating alliances with young European activists to jointly protect the Amazon. This does not go without risk. These women withstand threats to and attempts on their lives. These Amazonian women persist because the survival of the Earth and future generations depend upon it. Photo credit: Liliana Merizalde/Atmos

27 04, 2019

How The Tree-Hugging Movement Got Started In A Small Indian Village

2021-01-27T20:32:06-05:00Tags: |

  On March 26, 1973, a young girl spotted loggers heading towards Gopeshwar forest near the small village of Reni, in Uttarakhand. The village advisor, Gaura Devi, recruited 300 village women to hug trees in the forest and physically prevent their deforestation. As large corporations attempted to log near other rural villages, the local women hugged the trees, drawing inspiration from the events at Reni. The movement soon earned the title of the “Chipko andolan,” meaning the “stick-to movement.” Finding its roots in the 1730 Indian tree revolt, and using guiding principles from the Gandhian philosophy of self-sufficiency and self-sustenance, the woman-led Chipko Movement serves as a precursor for modern environmentalism. Photo Credit: Sanjeev Verma/Hindustan Times via Getty

13 04, 2019

A Queer, Female Entrepreneur Is Taking Back Turmeric For Indian Farmers

2020-10-23T23:02:04-04:00Tags: |

Sana Javeri Kadri, a queer immigrant woman of colour, is challenging colonial trade practices with her Oakland-based company, Diaspora Co. Her company aims to support sustainable agricultural practices within the turmeric industry, provide fair compensation to Indian farmers (above ten times the market price), and empower marginalized communities. Diaspora Co. sources their turmeric from Kasaraneni Prabhu, a fourth-generation turmeric farmer working in Southeast India who uses traditional pest control methods involving companion crops. Javeri Kadri also hires queer, especially those of colour, whenever possible aiming to be radically inclusive in order to counter the social injustices and inequities prevalent in the food industry. Photo credit: Elazar Sontag

10 04, 2019

Ensuring Women’s Land Rights In Nigeria Can Mitigate Effects Of Climate Change

2020-10-05T17:02:40-04:00Tags: |

Africans and women will be some of the main groups hit the hardest by climate change, and it is becoming increasingly more important to protect women’s land in Nigeria to help mitigate these effects. Women are responsible for 70% to 80% of all agricultural labor in Nigeria, but only 10 percent of land owners in Nigeria are women. This is partly due to the customary laws and property ownership, which makes it extremely hard for women to inherit land. With decreasing amounts of arable land coupled with continued population growth in Nigeria, 70% of Africans who rely on the land are at risk as climate change worsens. Those affected the most in are the women who perform the majority of agricultural labor and have more intimate relationships with the land. Empowering women to own the land where they work will improve Nigerian communities’ climate resiliency, creating a more sustainable relationship between humans and the environment. Photo credit: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images

12 03, 2019

The Untold Story Of Women In The Zapatistas

2019-04-13T16:02:00-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Law is a journalist who spent 6 years with the Zapatista movement in Southern Mexico and published Compañeras: Zapatista Women’s Stories. She gives an overview of the Zapatistas, the influence women have in the movement and the impact the movement has had on their lives. The Zapatistas began organizing in the 80s and declared war on the state of Mexico in 1994, on the exact day the NATO the free trade agreement began.  Since then the movement is renowned for the peaceful protests, indigenous organization, and their autonomy. Women have played a key role in the Zapatista communities accomplishing a drastic reduction of violence against women, the prohibition of alcohol (connected to abuse), the freedom to participate and lead in politics, and autonomy over their lives. Victoria sheds light to many things that can be learned from the organization of the Zapatistas and the key role that women continue to play in their liberation and in the liberation of their people. Photo Credit: Mr. Thelkan

21 02, 2019

Afro-Ecuadorian Women As Carriers And Purveyors Of Traditional Medicine

2020-04-24T16:31:04-04:00Tags: |

Women in Afro-Ecuadorian communities are uniquely and historically responsible for traditional medical practices. Like Indigenous Ecuadorians, Afro-Ecuadorians have made the rich botanical resources of Equator the foundation of their medicinal treatments. Traditional medicines are often coupled with healing practices such as singing songs and saying prayers for spiritual ailments as well. However, women practicing Afro-Ecuadorian medicine are now facing threats to their traditional practices due to restrictive policies that label ancestral medicine as “alternative” and from increased pesticide use, and cheaper western healthcare services. Photo Credit: Raul Ceballos

21 12, 2018

Overfishing Threatens Malawi’s Blue Economy

2020-10-05T17:08:23-04:00Tags: |

Despite once providing bustling profits for fishing families, Lake Malawi — one of Africa’s largest lakes — suffers from overfishing and women in Malawi are feeling the brunt of this. The fishing industry employs close to 300,000 Malawi workers and fishers, but fish are no longer being found in abundance. Stiff competition from fishermen is drastically depleting fish levels. The fish that are now being found are smaller and priced higher, reducing the profitability of a market that used to flourish in the past. Women who used to buy fish cheaply and trade it for more, are then forced to buy from fishermen, who have also been pushed out of business, at increased prices. Moreover, they are no longer able to provide local fish as a cheap protein to their families because overfishing has left women under tight restraint. Thankfully successful community efforts have been rallied around creating bylaws that would close down the lake for a temporary amount of time to promote lake health. And it appears these laws put in place were working — a man was hit with a hefty fine for fishing on the lake when it was close. Photo credit: Mabvuto Banda

20 11, 2018

The White Man Stole The Weather

2020-11-20T17:21:30-05:00Tags: |

In this Mothers of Invention podcast, former Irish president Mary Robinson and New-York-based Irish-born comedian Maeve Higgins focus on money and climate change. This episode specifically addresses climate change as a human rights, justice and climate issue; and highlights the importance of divesting from the carbon economy to invest into renewable energy, the green economy and jobs of the future. Divestment, from fossil fuel, pipelines, oppressive systems etc. is powerful and effective as ‘it speaks to people’s pockets’. The podcast features female activists’ experiences and campaigns from South Africa and the US. Yvette Abrahams is a former apartheid activist and Commission for Gender Equality. May Boeve is an an American environmental activist, organiser and Executive Director of 350.org, a global grassroots climate movement. Tara Houska is a Couchiching First Nation citizen; a tribal rights US attorney, environmental and indigenous rights advocate, and the National Campaigns Director of Honor the Earth. Photo Credit: Unknown

20 10, 2018

The Bearded Seal My Son May Never Hunt

2020-11-07T18:07:29-05:00Tags: |

The author Laureli Ivanoff is an Inupiat, a northern indigenous population with communities from Alaska to Greenland. She reflects on the future of her people who now have to learn to live without the cold: last winter there was less ice in the Bering Sea that any winter since the 1850 when record-keeping started. The Inupiat need the northeastern Bering Sea to stay cold so that the creatures they traditionally rely on can thrive. She particularly thinks about her newly born son Inuqtaq, to whom hunting was going to be an act of intentional decolonization, a way of keeping alive a custom that’s become sacred and of staying connected to his heritage and identity. As she hurts for him and for her family, Laureli hopes the world quickly adapts and also respects the earth as they have for millennia. Photo credit: Ash Adams/The New York Times

18 10, 2018

Why A Farmworker’s Daughter Interrupted Governor Brown At The Global Climate Action Summit

2019-04-13T16:39:10-04:00Tags: |

At the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco California, Niria Alicia stood up and sang out in protest to Governor Jerry Brown’s refusal to take action against oil and gas companies. In this piece, Niria describes why she joined eight other young people in singing the Women’s Warrior Song as an act of resistance at the summit. Niria sites her own identity as an Indigenous woman, and daughter of a farmworker to poignantly explain the consequences of fossil fuel divestment. Photo credit: Niria Alicia

16 10, 2018

Gender Equality In The Cocoa Trade: Two Female Farmers From Cote d’Ivoire Readdress The Balance

2020-10-06T23:33:28-04:00Tags: |

Aminata Bamba and Traore Awa are two women leading the charge on gender equality in the cocoa industry in Western Africa. Both with senior positions in their cocoa cooperatives, Ecookim and CAYAT cocoa cooperative respectively, and having returned from a Fairtrade Conference, they defy the traditional gender roles prevalent in their country and help lift the taboo on women leadership. In a community where unpaid labour often mean that women working throughout the production chain are often not recognised and gender expectations result in a male-dominated industry, the Fairtrade Women’s School of Leadership is working to empower women to take the lead and has trained 413 women in Awa’s community. Their program provides guidance and business support and last year’s conference tackled the future of trade and systemic issues in supply chains. Photo credit: Tony Myers.

15 10, 2018

Be The Hummingbird, Be The Bear

2020-12-15T21:40:17-05:00Tags: |

In this essay published in the Earth Island Journal, philosopher, writer and climate activist Kathleen Dean Moore calls to action the mothers, grandmothers, aunties, godmothers and all those who love the children. From her cabin in Alaska, she witnessed her a hummingbird saving her nestlings from a squirrel, and a bear saving her cub from wolves. She highlights the power of love, ferocity and responsibility of mothers and grandmothers protecting children and the planet against global warming and ecosystem collapse. She evokes grandmothers Annette Klapstein and her friend Emily Johnston, who shut off the flow of Canadian tar-sands oil by cutting the chain on an oil-pipeline valve in Minnesota. She relates the work of Leatra Harper and Jill Antares Hunker, mothers who devise strategies against fracking from their kitchen tables. This eloquent piece is illustrated by Lisa Vanin, whose work focuses on the magic and mystery of nature. Illustration Credit: Lisa Vanin

15 10, 2018

The Power of Rural Women To Reduce Global Food Insecurity And Cut Emissions

2020-11-20T17:58:24-05:00Tags: |

Santona Rani, President of the Rajpur Women’s Federation, is working to increase climate and community resilience in her flood-prone area of Tajpur, Lalmonirhat in northern Bangladesh. Climate change is increasing the detrimental effects on crops and productivity. Her organisation is made up of twenty groups that work to assist 500 vulnerable and marginalized women. It works alongside ActionAid’s Promoting Opportunities for Women Empowerment and Rights (POWER) to boost independence through sustainable agriculture that fosters climate resilience. They also work to address the unjust gender roles that exist within the society; aiming to increase income and recognise the amount of work women do, provide training around leadership, women’s rights, financial aspects, sustainable farming and communication skills, as well as endeavour to prevent violence against women. Their work is community based, and involves interactive theatre shows, informative leaflets, and a seed bank and grain store that protects against the damages of flooding or natural disasters. Photo credit: ActionAid.

15 10, 2018

We, The Industrialized Ones, And The International Rights Of Nature

2018-12-19T17:26:25-05:00Tags: |

In 2008, Ecuador re-thought its democracy and included “Rights of Nature” in its constitution. Following in these footsteps, Shannon Biggs (United States), Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation, United States), Pella Thiel (Sweden), Pablo Solón (Bolivia) and Henny Freitas (Brazil) have also started the process to incorporate the Rights of Nature into national legal frameworks. Mari Margil, associate director of the U.S. Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, helped draft state-wide legislation, the first of its kind in the world. Pablo Solon, an environmental and social activist as well as former ambassador of the United Nations, acknowledges that nature helps humans be more humane. Similarly, Patricia Gualinga, former director of Sarayaku Kichwa Native People’s head of international relations, views nature as an actor in democracy rather as an outside subject. Photo Credit: Hugo Pavon/Universidad Andina

12 10, 2018

Colombian Women Are Putting Their Lives On The Line For The Earth

2020-09-02T23:29:09-04:00Tags: |

The murder of Earth Defenders is on the rise, especially throughout Latin America, according to Global Watch. Nevertheless, Colombian women like Jackeline Romero Epiayu, Briceida Lemos Rivera, Isabel Zuleta, and Nini Johana Cárdenas Rueda continuously fight for the land and their livelihoods. Through community organization and outreach, these women are bravely resisting the expansion of mining industries and  infrastructure projects that have devastating impacts on the environment and local communities. But with such force comes danger as these four women are facing harassment from Colombian authorities, anonymous threats to their lives and loved ones, and have even escaped attempted kidnappings and murders. Photo Credit: Ynske Boersman

23 09, 2018

Indigenous Women Rise Against Climate Half-Measures

2020-10-23T22:20:10-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women organizers lead Solidarity to Solutions Week (Sol2Sol) during the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, CA. Kandi Mossett with the Indigenous Environmental Network grew up in the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota whose community experienced high cancer rates from close proximity to coal plants and uranium mining. Isabella Zizi with Idle No More SF Bay was raised in Richmond, California near the Chevron refinery with accidents disproportionately impacting Indigenous and communities of color. The week of action criticizes politicians who cling to false solutions to the climate crisis that support the fossil fuel industry and market-based solutions while leaving out frontline communities. Mossett and Zizi describe alternative community-based events during Sol2Sol including a People’s Climate March led by the Ohlone people native to the Bay Area, prayer ceremonies on sacred sites, visits to nearby sustainable farms, and educational workshops. Photo credit: Daniela Kantorova/Flickr

24 07, 2018

A Mohawk Midwife’s Birth Stories

2018-12-19T17:40:15-05:00Tags: |

Katsi Cook, founder of the first school of Indigenous midwifery, traces the trajectory of her life and explains how the traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities is helping to conserve  moral values and the environment. Her interest in environmental health was inspired by her experience delivering babies as a midwife, when a mother asked a simple question: “Is it safe to breastfeed?” Her research led to the first human health study at a superfund site, which revealed that Mohawk indigenous women are disproportionately affected by the nearby industrialization of the Great Lakes basin. Their breastmilk has been contaminated with harmful chemicals that in turn impacts their offspring. Cook shares the stories of her ancestors which are helpful for her to empower her fellow women. Photo Credit: Yes Magazine

21 07, 2018

‘A Hitman Could Come And Kill Me’: The Fight For Indigenous Land Rights In Mexico

2020-10-10T20:29:50-04:00Tags: |

Isela Gonzalez, director of Alianza Sierra Madre, uses civic activism to fight for political change as a way to confront the vested economic interests of not only big corporations, but also narco-gangs and corrupt politicians, that violate indigenous land rights. In a country that is painted in violence, with assassinations as an answer to those who have a different vision than governmental or corporate agendas, standing up for environmental and social causes come with serious risks. Often facing threats to her life, which has resulted in armed guards, panic buttons and crisis training, Gonzalez is staunch in her battle to defend the Tarahumara’s rights. The three tribes who live among the pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre have a worldview that sees themselves as part of the land and it was this, as well as their way of life, that inspired her to refocus the direction of Alianza Sierra Madre on indigenous rights as the frontline for environmental protection. Photo credit: Thom Pierce for The Guardian.

13 07, 2018

“We Are Not Small Islands. We Are A Vast Oceanscape.”

2018-07-13T16:49:35-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Maureen Penjueli of the Pacific Network on Globalization (PANG), shares the group’s efforts to protect the land and ocean sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples in the Pacific region. Free trade deals and foreign investments that open channels for seabed mining and extractive industries threaten customary land tenure systems and disregard Indigenous ways of knowing. PANG helps Pacific people achieve economic self-determination by educating them about policy levers such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples or Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) to fight exploitation and put pressure on government leaders. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

10 07, 2018

This Indigenous Tribe In Colombia Is Run Solely By Women

2018-11-25T12:20:04-05:00Tags: |

Neris Uriana, the first female chieftain of Wayuu tribe in La Guajira, was elected in 2015. She had tremendous support from her husband Jorge Uriana who thinks the future is female. Jorge was the previous community leader and decided women should participate in decision making and worked to dismantle machismo culture. After becoming chieftain, Neris has introduced sustainable agriculture methods to her tribe and collaborated with other communities to improve irrigation, crop cycles, and land use. Neris has successfully created many women leaders in her tribe, such as Pushaina, who is growing the crops with minimum water supply. Photo Credit: Lucy Sherriff/PRI

6 07, 2018

The Elderly Kenyan Women Weaving Their Way To A More Sustainable Future

2020-10-05T20:25:33-04:00Tags: |

A group of elderly Kenyan women in Mathiga village, northeast of Nairobi, have become entrepreneurs by taking advantage of their basketry skills, in an area where they could barely manage to farm. By selling their baskets to tourists, as the demand increased, their livelihoods got better. Despite the challenges to the tourism sector brought about by attacks by Somali-linked Islamists, their goods still got attention, even beyond Kenya’s borders. Basketry has not only offered them a source of livelihood, but it has also opened doors for them in the world. Photo credit: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Caroline Wambui  

27 06, 2018

Women And The Feminine Hygiene Myth

2020-10-10T19:32:57-04:00Tags: |

The feminine hygiene industry markets products that are manufactured with dangerous chemicals and which perpetuate harmful myths around period bleeding. Much of the marketing languages capitalizes on the notion that bleeding is shameful and should be hidden or kept from public discourse. Further, women and girls are often encouraged to use mainstream products such as bleached tampons and pads that threaten their health. This article encourages women to explore reusable, and non manufactured alternatives to managing their periods. Photo Credit: Orlando Begaye AKA Treeman

15 06, 2018

Immigrant Women Are Providing A Taste Of Oaxaca In California’s Central Valley

2020-10-05T16:55:59-04:00Tags: |

In Madera, California, Sylvia Rojas and Rosa Hernandez own Colectivo Sabor a Mi Tierra, a restaurant that offers traditional Oaxacan dishes such as tamales, picaditas, pozole, and mole. Many of these dishes have indigenous roots and reflect the migration from indigenous Mexican communities to the United States. Formerly farmworkers, Hernandez and Rojas opened up the restaurant with support from organizations such as the Pan Valley Institute, a group that focuses on uplifting women and building inter-ethnic relationships amongst rural Californian farming communities in the Central Valley. Photo Credit: Lisa Morehouse

31 05, 2018

Jaylyn Gough Asks: Whose Land Are You Exploring?

2020-10-07T01:10:59-04:00Tags: |

Jaylyn Gough, a Diné outdoors woman, is addressing and changing colonial narratives of the outdoor industry. In 2017, Gough launched Native Women’s Wilderness. What began as a platform for Native girls and women to share photos of their outdoor experience has since morphed into a movement. One of Native Women’s Wilderness’ key initiatives is growing awareness around whose land is being explored and addressing the exclusivity and white centric culture of the outdoor industry. One idea is a symbolic reclaiming of the ancestral Paiute trade route, today known as the 210-mile John Muir Trail. Gough is optimistic that the shift towards reconciliation of the genocidal history of the United States can begin with the outdoor industry. Photo credit: Jayme Moye

25 05, 2018

Navajo Women Struggle To Preserve Traditions As Climate Change Intensifies

2018-12-19T17:33:57-05:00Tags: |

Lorraine Herder belongs to a shepherd family: she grew up raising sheep and using its wool in a remote area on the Navajo reservation. But now, shrinking water reservoirs due to climate change are making it difficult to keep this tradition alive. Dr. Margaret Redsteer, a scientist at the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, notes that the amount of groundwater has decreased drastically over the past century, putting a strain on the animals’ health and the Navajo way of life. The water crisis is also caused by other factors like coal mining, according to Nicole Horseherder, founder of non- profit organization “Scared Water Speaks”.  Photo Credit: Sonia Narang/PRI

21 05, 2018

Warming Waters Hurt Zanzibar’s Seaweed. But Women Farmers Have A Plan

2021-02-16T20:51:24-05:00Tags: |

Seaweed farming in Zanzibar, an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania, is largely done by local women farmers. Most of the men find the work too hard for the small pay, but the income remains significant to women. As a result of their engagement in industry, women farmers and their family have significantly benefited. However, the Western Indian Ocean’s temperature is rising, which is leading to loss of the seaweed crop. The women farmers are responding to this adversity in various ways. One solution has been to farm farther in the ocean. This solution requires the participation of at least some strong swimmers, but seeing as most women in Zanzibar do not know how to swim, many of the farmers are having to learn to swim as they go. Another solution the farmers have enacted is cooperating with local and international researchers. The hope is that fostering this dialogue will benefit both parties and that the seaweed industry will remain viable. Photo credit: Karen Coates

18 05, 2018

The Erin Brockoviches Of Ecuador

2020-10-05T16:40:01-04:00Tags: |

In the Ecuadorian Amazon, women from different indigenous frontline-communities are leading the protests against further oil and mining concessions. As they see the wellbeing of the people and an intact environment as inextricably linked, they frame their struggle against resource exploitation as a human rights issue. In the areas affected by former oil drilling, the water and soil contamination from former oil wells pose a great health risk to the residents and deteriorate formerly fertile soil. Additionally, women living in towns where oil extraction occurs have been found to face a greater risk of gender-based violence. Photo credit: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images

1 05, 2018

Climate Solutions: #LeadingWomen – Alaska & Global Warming: Climate Genocide

2019-02-09T19:48:09-05:00Tags: |

Faith Gemmill sees the effects of climate chaos firsthand, and has the solutions: she is executive director of Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands (REDOIL), a grassroots Indigenous environmental network fighting to protect Indigenous land and culture in Alaska. Gemmill, Pit River/Wintu and Neets’aiiGwish’in Athabascan, lives a land-based, subsistence lifestyle in an Alaskan village next to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 110 miles above the Arctic circle. Her community’s livelihood depends on the Porcupine Caribou Herd -- but oil companies directly target this sacred birthplace and nursery, and rising temperatures have already caused many climate refugees to relocate. REDOIL provides knowledge and resources to build resilience in this vulnerable region. Because Gemmill’s community lives in intimate interdependence with the “biological heart” of the Arctic Refuge, they have been fighting for human rights for decades, with no sign of stopping. Photo Credit: MrsGreensWorld

1 05, 2018

Where Women Lead On Climate Change

2019-01-14T18:06:24-05:00Tags: |

Most of the Guatemalan population financially depends on farming. Facing destructive landslides, strong winds and volcanic peaks, the women of Guatemala came forward to find the coping strategies for water and forest conservation. Eulia de Leon Juarez, founder of a women’s rights group in Guatemala’s western highlands, says that climate change has changed the pattern of seasons. To address these micro problems at a macro level, women’s non-profit organizations like Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) are working rigorously to develop women’s leadership. Climate change has amplified the inevitable process of migration, increasing the number of female-headed households in rural areas as more men move to cities. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, Africa program director for Rights and Resources Initiative, sees this as an opportunity for more women to take greater responsibility in their communities. Therefore, women should be seen as active participant preventing and coping with climate change and not merely as victim of it. Photo Credit: Sara Schonhardt

16 04, 2018

Cooperative Agro-Forestry Empowers Indigenous Women In Honduras

2020-04-24T15:47:48-04:00Tags: |

The community of Lenca women, Indigenous to Honduras, has been practicing agroforestry for millennia as a sustainable farming method in their dry region. They are keeping this traditional knowledge alive by growing organic, fair trade crops like coffee in worker-owned cooperatives. Farmers like Eva Alvarado helped to create an all-female growers’ cooperative in 2014, as part of the Cosagual coffee growers’ organization. Their coffee is now sold around the world, and the women bring home a larger share of the profits than before. The Lenca group is known for radical work: Berta Cáceres, the famous Indigenous activist murdered in 2016, also belonged to the community. The idea of this cooperative was seeded at a gender equality workshop with the Association of NGOs. Agroforestry, which involves planting fruit and timber trees in the shade, is an effective way to combat food insecurity, erosion and acts as a carbon sink. Women in Honduras are coping with climate change using agroforestry, a method that can provide a sustainable livelihood to many communities. Photo Credit: Monica Pelliccia

13 04, 2018

Taking Our Power Back: Women and Girls Are Key To Food Security During Conflict

2020-12-02T21:58:31-05:00Tags: |

Saiyara Khan writes about the fundamental role that women and girls play in ensuring food security during times of conflict. Often, gender inequalities and societal norms restrict their participation in the management and decision-making processes over key resources such as land or livestock. However, given that they are involved in key processes such as food production and water collection for the household, women’s empowerment is a fundamental determinant in whether communities have access to food. Photo credit: UN Women

13 04, 2018

Women In Brasil Defending Our Sacred Waters – Stories From The Alternative World Water Forum (FAMA)

2020-04-24T16:03:01-04:00Tags: |

At the Alternate World Water Forum (FAMA), women led the charge in speaking out against the governments, NGOs and multinational corporations that privatize and exploit everyone’s water. Alessandra Munduruku, an Indigenous warrior of the Amazonian Munduruku tribe, uplifted her community’s fight against dangerous extraction and contamination on the Tapajós River. Andreia Neiva, a Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB) militant, urged others to follow her community’s lead in battling large farming companies who are stealing and polluting water sources. In her city, Correntina, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, people are rising up against repression to occupy the industrial farms, and she hopes to see others join. Grassroots leaders from around the world shared their stories, emphasizing that just as all water is connected, these struggles are interdependent.   Photo Credit: Idle No More SFBay Blog

3 04, 2018

A More Just Migration: Empowering Women On The Front Lines Of Climate Displacement

2020-09-02T21:07:22-04:00Tags: |

Migration is one way women may be forced to adapt to climate change, but this displacement also puts women at greater risk for violence, a group of women leaders explained at a Wilson Center event. Eleanor Bornstorm, Program Director for the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), noted that because women are often in caretaking roles, they are also expected to volunteer and shield their communities from harm. Yet structural inequalities put women disproportionately at risk to violence during climate displacement. Carrying forward the former statement, Justine Calma, Grist environmental justice reporting fellow, vocalized the violence faced by women and young girls during climate displacement. For example, during the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, young girls were sexually exploited, sold and trafficked for food and other resources. Poor or uneducated women, women of color and migrant women are vulnerable to intersectional forms of discrimination, and their needs are often more urgent. Because of these structural inequalities, empowering women and enhancing their leadership may be the best strategy to address climate change, rather than mitigating its effects. WEDO is assessing factors impacting women during climate displacement, filling in the gaps unaddressed at the national and international level. Photo Credit: Agata Grzybowska.

30 03, 2018

Meet The People Courageously Resisting New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

2020-11-07T18:11:24-05:00Tags: |

Oliveria Montes is the spokeswoman for several Indigenous communities including the Totonacos, the Nahuas, and the Otomies in Mexico in active resistance to the Tula-Tuxpan gas pipeline in Puebla and Hidalgo. These communities are organizing against the final portion of the pipeline construction which if completed would run through key water sources and mountainous ancestral lands. Montes affirms that their struggle is not only to protect the land and Indigenous communities, but is also a fight against ongoing foreign corporate influence intertwined with political corruption in Mexico. In the face of intimidation and violence, Montes is spreading awareness of these corrupt actions to international activists for further support. Photo credit: [Video screenshot]

23 03, 2018

Impunity For Violence Against Women Defenders Of Territory, Common Goods, And Nature In Latin America

2020-10-23T23:16:06-04:00Tags: |

This report by Urgent Action Fund of Latin America and the Caribbean (UAF-LAC) analyzes the condition of women who defend environmental rights in Latin American countries. By analyzing the case studies of thirteen women defenders, a clear continuum of structural violence against the women emerges. On the one end, women defenders are subject to the criminalization of their activities and to harassment from various actors such as companies, the police, and the media. At the most extreme end of this violence continuum, women defenders are assassinated or “disappeared.” In cases such as these, the state, if it is not actively colluding with the perpetrators, often remains silent. UAF-LAC, then, calls for the state to protect women defenders by eliminating the impunity perpetrators currently enjoy, by eliminating the criminalization of defenders’ work and by creating a safe environment for them to work in. Specifically, the state must financially, politically, legally and psycho-socially support women defenders. Photo credit: UAF-LAC

22 03, 2018

‘It’s About Taking Back What’s Ours’: Native Women Reclaim Land, Plot By Plot

2020-04-24T15:42:34-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women are decolonizing land in the Bay Area through the Sogorea Te Land Trust, a grassroots, women-led organization that aims to reclaim Ohlone land. Refusing to have their culture and land erased by development, Corrina Gould, activist and leader of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone, and Johnella LaRose of Shoshone-Bannock and Carrizo, founded the organization in 2012. After a food justice organization donated a quarter-acre of land to the trust, other local NGOs, LGBTQ, faith groups and affluent residents are showing support. Leaders want to see the repatriated land return to Indigenous stewardship, through community gardens and ceremony, which will also generate more sustainable spaces. The Sogorea Te Land Trust has the potential to decolonize not only the land, but the minds of who is on that land.  Photo Credit: SOGOREA TE LAND TRUST AND PLANTING JUSTICE/HuffPost

14 03, 2018

Ecuador: Indigenous Women Protest Lack Of ‘Consultation,’ Environmental Damage Caused By Mineral, Oil Extraction In Amazon

2020-12-02T20:03:36-05:00Tags: |

Ecuador’s National Assembly recently passed a law intended to benefit regional development and expand social services for the most impoverished; however, dozens of Indigenous Amazonian women are protesting the law’s support for continued mining activities and oil extraction, which are responsible for environmental contamination and human displacement threatening the indigenous way of life. These activists are camping outside the presidential office until president Lenin Moreno meets with them and hears their mandate to reject extractive industries, ensure food sovereignty, and deliver intercultural education, among other concerns. Photo credit: CONFENIAE  

13 03, 2018

Ecuador’s Indigenous Women’s Restless Defense Of The Amazon “Living Forest”

2018-10-11T17:02:34-04:00Tags: |

On International Women’s Day, in Puyo, the capital of Pastaza, Ecuador’s biggest Amazonian province, over 350 Indigenous women from across Amazonia marched to pressure the Ecuadorian government for failing to meet commitments to Indigenous communities.  The march was followed by a 3-day gathering led by female Indigenous leaders from the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CPONFENAIE). With leaders from 7 Amazonian nations present (Andoa, Achuar, Kichua, Shuar, Shiwiar, Sapara and Waorani) attendees established the Assembly of Amazonian Women. During her long awaited speech Patricia Gualinga, the well-known Sarayaku leader, outlined her community’s proposal to protect the Amazon, Kawsak Sacha “Living Forest”. The proposal seeks to leave responsibility of forest protection to Indigenous communities who have a holistic relation to nature. Photo credit: Andrés Viera V. (March in Puyo on Women’s Day)

9 03, 2018

Indigenous Women March In Ecuador, Vow To ‘Defend Our Territory’

2020-10-23T22:23:24-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women leaders throughout the Ecuadorian Amazon are committed to the longstanding fight for Indigenous territorial autonomy, women’s rights, and environmental protection. On International’s Women Day, about 350 of them gathered in the city of Puyo to protest the extractive industries in their communities and their role in mass displacement and environmental contamination. For leaders including Hilda Ande of the Quichua nation and Ena Santi from the Sarayaku territory, legal and physical protections for women are critical needs because of the acute violence and abuse women face due to exploitative industries disrupting traditional lifestyles and ecosystems. The march began with a traditional cleansing ritual to pay respects to the earth and reignite their spirits and ended with speeches by numerous women representing diverse nationalities such as the Quechua, Woarani, Zapara, and Sarayaku. Photo credit: Kimberley Brown/Mongabay

7 03, 2018

Guardians of the Amazon Rainforest – Women Rising Radio

2019-04-13T15:59:20-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous land and rights defenders, Gloria Ushigua of Ecuador and Aura Tegria of Colombia, share the heart moving victories and struggles of their people against mega extraction projects on their land, weaving in significant moments from their personal stories. Gloria Ushigua is President of Sapara Women’s Association in Ecuador. She was publicly mocked on television by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa after protests in 2001 and violently persecuted after organizing significant mobilizations against oil drilling in 2015. Aura Tegria is an indigenous U’wa lawyer on the Legal Counsel to the U’wa people of Colombia. The childhood memories of her people organizing to protect their land inspired to become the U’Wa defender she is today. After intense protests, campaigns and legal action in 2014 and 2015, they successfully kicked out Occidental Petroleum followed by the successful dismantling of the large Magallanes gas well from their land. Part of the U’Wa resistance has also been against the Catholic and Evangelical church that historically promoted cultural extermination through their boarding schools for indigenous children and other oppressive practices. Both women share the history of their people’s resistance since colonization, their personal stories linked to that resistance, the recent struggles of their people and the inspiring victories.Photo Credit: Amazon Watch

7 03, 2018

Finland’s Reindeer-Herding Sámi Women Fight Climate Change

2020-04-24T15:57:47-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Sámi women like Inka Saara Arttijeff and Saara Tervaniemi in the northern reaches of Finland are standing up for their traditional way of life, which is now threatened by climate change. As reindeer herders, they have seen firsthand the devastating effects of rising temperatures and intensified logging, which disrupt the reindeers’ diets and migration routes. Women are making their voices heard, from Arttijeff advocating as part of a delegation of Indigenous representatives at the United Nations climate change talks, to Tervaniemi staying active as a member of the Saami Council. Gender equality and Indigenous rights are central issues of political life here, as seen with the Sámi NissonForum (Women's Forum) which brings together Sámi women from the northern countries. Photo credit: Sonia Narang/ PRI

5 03, 2018

Decolonizing Birth: Women Take Back Their Power as Life-Givers

2020-12-15T21:44:23-05:00Tags: |

This article relates Zintkala Mahpiya Win Blackowl’s experience of giving birth to her six children in the comfort of home and safety of a sacred space. Writer Sarah Sunshine Manning relates how a heavily pregnant Blackowl, who is Sicangu Lakota and Ihanktonwan Dakota, joined the Standing Sioux Rock reservation resistance camp. This is where she eventually gave birth to her baby girl, Mni Wiconi (Water of Life). This story reflects the larger Indigenous birth movement in which Native-American women reclaim not only their roles as life-givers and birth-workers, but also their rights to their bodies, traditions and birthing experiences. Counteracting the medicalised and colonised hospital-based birth environment, nurses such as Nicolle Gonzales, Navajo executive director of the Changing Woman Initiative, promotes Indigenous birth and midwifery knowledge; Jodi Lynn Maracle, traditional doula of the Tyendinaga Nohawl nation, works towards the reclaiming of Indigenous women’s powers, self-determination and ancestral traditions. Photo Credit: Unknown

22 02, 2018

Indigenous Women Cope With Climate Change

2020-11-07T17:51:11-05:00Tags: |

Bolivian women are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as it is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and suffers from one of the worst patterns of gender inequality.  Women in indigenous farmer communities are one of the hardest hit from climate change as agricultural production is put under peril leading to lower food security and higher food prices. As food supply becomes volatile, women, who are responsible for the provision of food to their family, are challenged to prepare enough nutritious food. Furthermore, men are pushed to migrate to find work in rural areas or coca plantations leaving women behind to raise children.  The government and NGOs, such as INCCA, have been taking initiative in empowering women and teaching communities how to mitigate the effects of climate change. These initiatives started ten years ago with NGOs such as INCCA and Solidagro who implement conservation and food security programs. Photo Credit: Sanne Derks/Al Jazeera  

16 02, 2018

Environmental Defender Guadalupe Campanur Tapia Murdered In Mexico

2018-03-02T13:07:51-05:00Tags: |

Purépecha activist Guadalupe Campanur Tapia was a courageous Indigenous woman human rights and Earth defender of Cherán, Michocán, Mexico. Her bravery and leadership helped mobilize local Indigenous communities to protect regional forests against illegal logging, and to claim independence against a corrupt government. However, her activism resulted in threats of violence from organized crime groups, and she was murdered in January 2018. Campanur is among an increasing number of defenders across the globe who have been killed in recent years, especially women. This article recounts Guadalupes death in the context of the 312 defenders across 27 countries who were murdered in 2017. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

15 02, 2018

Gender Equality Crucial to Tackling Climate Change – UN

2020-10-23T23:42:17-04:00Tags: |

Women are disproportionately more susceptible to the impacts of climate change due to the hindrances caused by gender inequality that they must also face. The report written by UN Women on “Gender Equality in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, draws attention to the need to place gender equality front and centre throughout the implementation of the SDGs Agenda. The report highlights that, globally, more than one quarter of women work in agriculture. As the impacts of climate change on agriculture are already being severely felt, this is one of the areas that needs urgent action. Women face many restraints in accessing land, agricultural inputs and credit which increase their vulnerability reducing their resilience against climate change. However, women are an important representation of strength for combating climate change, they are not just victims. The report emphasizes that diverse women must be present in decision-making environments to ensure inclusive mitigation and adaptation to climate change at local, national and international levels. The UNFCCC has been increasingly recognizing the importance of equal gender representation in the development of gender responsive climate policies. In fact, the Gender Action Plan (GAP) was adopted at the COP23 to guide this goal.

14 02, 2018

The Indigenous Climate Action Women Fighting For Mother Earth

2019-01-21T21:33:46-05:00Tags: |

Ta’ah is an elder indigenous to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, or what has been known as Canada. With her team of six women, she has been working vigorously for climate justice and indigenous sovereignty with the award-winning organization Indigenous Climate Action (ICA). ICA empowers indigenous communities across Canada to strengthen the solutions that already exist in different nations, from tiny houses to building partnerships. Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, the organization’s executive director and founder, has seen her native homeland of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation struggle due to tar sands and other harmful extraction. Because their communities has experienced so much cultural and environmental devastation, they look to the next generation for hope. Indigenous activist Kanahus Manuel says that indigenous people already practice sustainability, and calls on everybody to cease the destruction of the environment. Photo Credit: Lauren Marina

13 02, 2018

Cord Blood, Blood And Hair Tests Show Mercury Exposure In Grassy Narrows

2020-10-05T20:34:41-04:00Tags: |

Decades after a paper mill in Northern Ontario dumped 10 ton of mercury into an Ontario river, residents of Grassy Narrows First Nation and Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) First Nation are only beginning to get answers. From 1970 to 1992, Health Canada collected umbilical blood and hair samples from the communities that were potentially exposed to the harmful substance. The results, however, have remained closed in boxes until only recently. Now, residents such as Chrissy Swain and Alana Pahpasy are finally getting the results, only to find out that they’ve been living with dangerously high mercury levels for years. Despite the fact that a Mercury Disability Board was set up, it has been criticized as inadequate and has turned the majority of applicants away. It is suspected that the high levels are now impacting the next generation of these communities. The health impacts of mercury poisoning include heart problems, learning disabilities, and motor skills deficits. Women and other members of the community are speaking out against the government, outraged at this wrongful neglect. Photo credit: David Sone/Earthroots

13 02, 2018

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz: Indigenous Women’s Rights Are Human Rights

2018-07-13T17:25:17-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples discusses the multifaceted human rights abuses experienced by indigenous women. The murder and sexual violence rates committed against indigenous women worldwide are exceedingly higher than those of non-indigenous women; though current statistics are considered to be underestimated. The author also speaks about the work indigenous women are doing to train and organize themselves to be aware of their rights and to empower each other.  Photo Credit: Midia Ninja.

2 02, 2018

Rise: From One Island To Another

2021-01-15T17:11:52-05:00Tags: |

In a powerfully raw and attention-demanding short film, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna use poetry and imagery to showcase their inextricably linked climate realities of melting glaciers and rising sea levels. Jetñil-Kijiner and Niviâna highlight the interconnections between their ice and sea worlds and make it known that the rest of the world is as connected to our global climate change reality. The two women affirm that colonizers largely responsible for climate impacts can only hide behind screens and watch island and glacial ancestral homelands disappear for so long before they too are affected. Jetñil-Kijiner and Niviâna demand colonizer participation in climate action, and avow that they will not disappear while the world remains silent. Their poetic language showcases the strength and resilience of their communities and places the responsibility for climate change impacts squarely on colonizers’ shoulders. Jetñil-Kijiner and Niviâna declare that colonizers will no longer decide who will live and who will die--that, together, each and every one of us must decide if we will rise. Video credit: Dan Lin, Director

23 01, 2018

No Indigenous Women, No Women’s Movement

2018-08-14T14:16:07-04:00Tags: |

The term “feminism” continues to be debated in tribal communities. Laura Tohe, Indigenous scholar states, “There is no word for feminism in my language,” affirming, “there was no need for feminism because of our matrilineal culture”. Indigenous women, like Tohe seek to reconnect to the matriarchy and egalitarian roots of the land. The lived experiences of Indigenous women have been and continue to be different from those of white women. White women are oppressed by the patriarchy, but Indigenous women know that patriarchy alone is not the only source of their oppression. Colonialism, capitalism, racism, and rugged individualism work with patriarchy. Indigenous women have been organizing events and attending Women’s Marches across the United States to rematriate the space and spotlight the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). Photo Credit: Ted S. Warren / AP