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Indigenous Communities, Rights And Traditional Ecological Knowledge

/Indigenous Communities, Rights And Traditional Ecological Knowledge

 

10 05, 2026

In the Brazilian Amazon, an Indigenous Bioeconomy Takes Root

2026-05-10T13:18:50-04:00Tags: |

Reciprocity, redistribution, recognition, and respect. These are the 4 elements of a sustainable economic model called ‘Indigenous bioeconomy.’ Reciprocity necessitates that production benefits both people and the planet. Redistribution ensures that economic gains are equally shared. Recognition safeguards the land rights of Indigenous and traditional peoples. Respect is rooted in the preservation of ancestral knowledge and culture. An example of this in action comes from the Northeastern Amazon where women in the Baniwa community produce and harvest Jiquitaia chili peppers using traditional knowledge and methods. The women have authority over this process from seed to market and have shown how commercialization and collective benefit are not mutually exclusive. In addition, they use sustainable materials and techniques to create handicrafts such as basket and ceramics which support both their livelihoods and the life of the forest. The numbers don’t lie. Research shows that the loss of the Amazon forest is 30 times lower when managed by Indigenous people. Therefore, women like those in Baniwa are showing the world what sustainability really looks like—the ability to sustain for all people and all time.

25 04, 2025

Showcasing Indigenous Water Rights Activists

2026-03-29T17:57:45-04:00Tags: , , , |

Fiona McLeod, a freelance writer reporting on environmental justice issues, highlights the film “Water For Life” which tells the story of three Indigenous activists in Central and South America as they face threats to their lives in the fight to protect their communities’ access to clean water and ancestral lands from mining, hydroelectric projects, and large-scale agriculture plans. The three activists have all previously received the Goldman Environmental Prize, and include the now deceased Berta Cáceres, a leader of the Lenca people who successfully stopped construction of a hydroelectric project in Honduras; Francisco Pineda, a subsistence agriculture farmer who led a movement that stopped a gold mine in El Salvador; and Alberto Curamil, an Indigenous Mapuche leader in Chile who organized to stop two hydroelectric projects on the sacred Cautín River. The podcast invited the filmmakers to discuss the narratives and stories shared during the film, specifically the human costs, sacrifices, and loss of environmental defenders in Latin America. In the story of Berta Cáceres, they share how she mobilized her community to resist the construction of the Agua Zarca Dam on the sacred Gualcarque River by the Honduran corporation DESA. The river is considered sacred and to be a place where female spirits live, and the dam was planned to be built in the heart of the river. As Berta put forth, the Lenca consider the river and Mother Earth to have rights, sentiments spoken long before the Rights of Nature movement had been used as a legal precedent. Less than a year after earning the Prize, Berta was assassinated in her home. Her death inspired activists around the world to support the Lenca’s fight to protect their ancestral land. Her three daughters, Olivia, Berta, and Laura Cáceres, carry on her work, continuing to raise international awareness of Berta’s work.

25 04, 2025

‘We Are Nature’: Indigenous Women Come Together at the United Nations

2026-03-26T00:37:21-04:00Tags: |

On April 22nd, 2025, women from across the world convened at the United Nations Plaza to recount the longstanding, systemic difficulties they have faced in reclaiming ancestral lands. Indigenous women from Kenya, Tanzania, Siberia, the Onondaga Nation, and the Choctaw Nation spoke to the imperative of remaining dedicated to respecting Indigenous sovereignty, traditional knowledge systems, and free, prior, and informed consent. The stories shared revealed common themes of reservations, Indigenous territories, and sacred or culturally important lands being violated and polluted by sewage discharge and oil pipelines. Cindy Kobei, a member of the Ogiek people, emphasized the need for action and follow through with legislative and political decisions, describing how, despite the Ogiek being formally recognized as the ancestral owners of the forest per a 2017 African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruling, evictions and violence against them persist. Seeking to foster feelings of inspiration and hope, Galina Angarova, a representative of the Buryat peoples from Siberia, recited a poem written by members of “A Growing Culture,” saying that “[i]t’s not a time to despair, it is a time to press our palms to the soil, to dream in the language of our ancestors and to plan visions no regime can uproot.”

9 04, 2025

Not waiting for the government, Myanmar’s Karen people register their own lands

2025-04-09T19:40:17-04:00Tags: |

Kathmandu-based journalist Sonam Lama Hyolmo writes about the Karen people's efforts to advance their struggle for self-determination by mapping and documenting their ancestral lands. This initiative, led by the Karen National Union (KNU), follows a long history of armed struggle between the Indigenous Karen people and Myanmar’s central government. So far, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other tools, over 3.5 million hectares have been mapped, thanks to the active participation of local communities. Although the Karen traditionally view land as communal, the land title certificates that have emerged from this effort have provided villagers with a new sense of security against land grabs by the government, megaprojects, and extractive industries. Viewing their relationship with the land as reciprocal and themselves as its stewards, the Karen emphasize their desire for decentralized autonomy. With military aerial attacks forcing many communities into displacement, biodiversity is further threatened as demarcation and documentation efforts are delayed. Displaced communities find themselves forced to clear areas within the Salween Peace Park, a local biodiversity hotspot, to build shelter and cultivate crops. Despite these challenges, the demarcation efforts have successfully brought communities together, allowing them to analyze the data gathered in groups. Historically, the Karen have resisted the 1948 laws stating that all natural resources belong to the government, and they have taken up arms to defend their territorial rights. Since the beginning of their territorial mapping efforts, the government has expressed interest in studying land administration and governance practices from the KNU.

28 03, 2025

Rivers are increasingly being given legal rights. Now they need people who will defend these rights in court

2025-12-04T01:00:11-05:00Tags: |

Oluwabusayo Wuraola is the Lead for the Access to Environmental Justice Research Cluster at the Centre for Access to Justice and Inclusion at Anglia Ruskin University, lecturer in law at the same university, and a knowledge expert member of the United Nations Harmony with Nature Programme. She wrote an article discussing who should be appointed to represent the rights of rivers after the Lewes District Council in East Sussex recognized the fundamental rights of the River Ouse to flow freely, to be free from pollution, and to enjoy its native biodiversity—the first win of its kind in the United Kingdom. As Wuraola states in her article, who these representatives are, and how they think about nature and conservation, are as important as the granting of these rights in the first place. She cites examples of different models legal systems have adopted for representation, one case being the guardianship model in New Zealand for the Whanganui River where two “human faces” were appointed to act and speak on its behalf, which specifying that these representatives must have the skills, knowledge and experience needed to effectively advocate for the river’s rights. A second model involves appointing “all persons,” “a person,” or “a resident” as representatives or protectors, as seen in the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution, Uganda’s National Environment Act of 2019, and other places. Wuraola believes this model to be impractical as it cannot be expected for every citizen to truly care about the rights of nature, and having such broad representation can make these legal protections less effective. She argues for a third model aligned with a vision from law professor Christopher Stone: representatives should be trained to view nature as having intrinsic value and to protect it on that basis; essentially, nature should be represented by someone with an ecocentric perspective. Ecocentric advocates have proved to be the most effective defenders of the rights of nature in many court cases. Wuraola believes we will need an “army” of nature protectors across the Earth to enforce the rights enshrined to natural entities.

20 03, 2025

Climate Challenges and Adaptation Strategies of the Rendille Community in Kenya

2025-12-09T22:11:49-05:00Tags: |

In February of 2025, Cultural Survival held a gathering in Nakura, Kenya and met with Margaret Super. She is an advocate for pastoralist communities' livelihoods and women’s rights in the Marsabit County, of northeastern Kenya, as well as the founder and executive director of the Pastoralist Peoples’ Initiative (PPI). She dedicated her life to amplifying the voices of pastoralist women, promoting their ancestral knowledge and equipping communities to navigate contemporary issues like climate change, while preserving their cultures and livelihoods. Super is from the Rendille Indigenous community, a Cushitic-speaking ethnic group that inhabits northern Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands. Women in the community play a vital role in climate adaptation through water collection, food preservation, and family resource management. Super spoke with Cultural Survival about the impacts of the climate crisis on the Rendille community and their strategies for adaptation. She explained that climate change has significantly affected their livestock practices, biodiversity, and water access, and has disrupted their use of Indigenous methods of weather forecasting. They engage with traditional farming and land care strategies, traditional ecological knowledge, and collective decision-making on land use to manage natural resources. Elders also play a pivotal role in preventing the exploitation of resources. Super emphasized expanding water conservation projects, strengthening alternative livelihoods, and integrating Indigenous knowledge into climate policies, education, and sustainable development as the most effective solutions for strengthening the community’s climate resilience.

24 02, 2025

‘Our bodies know the pain’: Why Norway’s reindeer herders support Gaza

2025-04-09T18:43:31-04:00Tags: |

Multiple Sámi women speak about their connection to the Palestinian struggle, drawing parallels to the oppression they themselves have faced. The Sámi lived a free, nomadic existence in their lands—known as Sápmi—spanning Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, for over 9,000 years until Christian invaders arrived in the 9th century. Enforced colonial borders split families apart, with the longest unbroken border created in 1751 between Norway and Sweden. As cultural practices, including speaking their languages, were banned, the Sámi have witnessed a decline in youth participation in their traditions. Today, only nine Sámi languages remain, with Norway having upheld a ban on them until 1960. Reindeer herder Maja Kristine Jama, who practices reindeer husbandry in accordance with Sámi culture, is deeply familiar with the Fosen Peninsula in eastern Norway. She also stresses the importance of this practice to the Arctic ecosystem. Jama describes herself as not living off the land, but within it—yet she now sees the land being destroyed by borders, land seizures, construction, and extractive industries. The European Union’s push for self-sufficiency has accelerated the mining of nickel and iron ore, while smaller-scale mining and forestry projects continue to restrict the movement of reindeer and destroy their feeding grounds. Another Sámi woman, singer and artist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, speaks to the urgency of standing up for people being displaced from their homes. She calls for solidarity rooted in a shared struggle for Indigenous rights and self-determination. The Sámi have launched regular protests in Oslo against the war on Gaza, with many emphasizing the importance of recognizing that they live within a settler colonial society. They critique the United States and Europe for their inability to fully reckon with their own colonial histories. They also warn of “green colonialism,” pointing to a wind farm on the Fosen Peninsula co-owned by a state-funded Norwegian energy firm and foreign companies. While a compensation agreement was reached with the Norwegian company, no such deal has been made with the foreign firms. Jama notes that this not only has material consequences for the Sámi people but also erases Sámi history from the landscape.

20 12, 2024

Human Relationship as Land Ethic

2025-04-19T14:08:24-04:00Tags: |

The En’owkin Centre, a First Nations directed educational center, hosted the 2002 Bioneers National Conference about Native insights into land ethics. This particular speech was given by Jeannette Armstrong, an elder, environmentalist, and teacher of the En’owkin people. Her people are the first and ongoing custodians of this transboundary territory of the Northwest Plateau region. Armstrong comes from a long line of hunter-gatherers and grew up with her extended family on a remote reserve, learning her people’s traditional language and practices. In her speech, she shares observations on human relationships with nature and each other, illustrating that “how we look at each other impacts how we look at the land.” Okanogan peace practices are central to building reciprocal relationships, conflict resolution, and Indigenous practices of democracy and community. The deep, relational Okanogan understanding of the land expresses that humans are not just part of the land, but are the land. The Okanogan word for the human body contains the word for the land, underscoring the philosophy that we are one. Armstrong also speaks to the importance of including minority voices in community discussions as they highlight missed perspectives and issues and bring balance to conversations. She explains that rather than money and power, it is people and community that will sustain us and bring comfort and security. Armstrong has also been involved in seed collection, contributing to growing and revegetation projects centering ecoliteracy, outside time and community. Such processes are deeply healing for people from many backgrounds and help build connected, resilient communities.

19 12, 2024

Japan’s last ‘Ama’ sea women

2025-04-09T18:01:51-04:00Tags: |

In this short film, members of different generations of Japan’s Ama sea women are interviewed about their traditional practices. With thousands of years of history behind them, these freediving fisherwomen strive to live in harmony with nature—catching only what is needed while actively protecting the marine environment. Their seasonal harvest traditions reflect this balance: gathering seaweed in spring, abalone in summer, and turban shells in autumn. Many of the women also engage in spiritual practices, offering prayers for safe dives, and often remain active well into older age—the oldest active diver interviewed is 74 years old. However, the tradition is at risk of fading, as many daughters are no longer interested in following in their mothers' footsteps, and younger generations show declining interest in preserving Ama culture.

17 12, 2024

How Climate Change Is Leading to a Language Shift in the Russian Arctic

2025-12-09T22:22:57-05:00Tags: |

Activist and novelist Kseniia Bolshakova, advocating for the revitalization of her Dolgan language and ancestral lands, writes about the impact of climate change on Dolgans' livelihood, Indigenous languages, reindeer herding, and the Russian Arctic. Her novel, “The Frost Also Melts,” demonstrates these changes in her community. Growing up in a reindeer-herding family in the tundra on the Taimyr Peninsula, she is one of the youngest guardians of the language in her nation. As of today, the number of Dolgans who speak the native language, continue their nomadic way of life, and herd reindeer is less than 10%, with this number continuously decreasing over the course of decades. This change was not by choice – global warming has led to the death of reindeer by starvation, with domestic reindeer populations already being hard to restore. Bolshakova describes reindeer herding as their own production and livelihood, and states that by losing it, they are immersed in a world that was built and made by Russians. Referencing her novel, Bolshakova depicts observations within her community of the changing climate and their correlating concerns about its impacts on farming, shifting species patterns, increasing wildfires, and how a lack of bureaucratic support has left people to fend for themselves. 

24 11, 2024

These Women Are Leading The Effort To Protect Sacred Water

2025-12-04T00:08:30-05:00Tags: |

In Oklahoma, a powerful coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women are upholding the sacred duty to speak for the water and fighting to protect the state's rivers from pollution and corporate greed. Written from the perspective of Potawatomi leader Cheyenne Skye Branscum, the article highlights women like Charlotte Robins, a Cherokee citizen whose fight to save the Kiamichi River is documented in the new film Drowned Land by Choctaw filmmaker Colleen Thursten. It also features the work of allies in Tulsa, including scientist Lauren Haygood, who equips communities to test for pollution in the Arkansas River, and veteran activist Barbara VanHanken, who exposes the impact of oil refineries on low-income and tribal communities. Together, these women are challenging a legacy of environmental injustice, from agricultural runoff to toxic pollution from the fossil fuel industry that disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous, and low-income residents. Their collaborative resistance demonstrates women from all backgrounds standing together to protect water for future generations.

20 11, 2024

Kenya’s Maasai Face Deepening Water Crisis

2025-12-04T01:26:19-05:00Tags: |

Climate change has impacted access to clean water among the Maasai, an Indigenous community domiciled in Mara, home to Maasai Mara Reserve which is internationally recognized for wildebeest migration. Despite the high revenue generated from tourism at the Reserve, challenges of water resource management persist. Their impacts are disproportionate, with women and girls bearing the brunt due to economic hardships and power imbalances that subject them to cultural prejudices. They are socialized for marriage, childbearing, and relegated domestic chores such as  searching for water—a long walk through the Maasai Mara Reserve that exposes them to attacks by wild animals and puts their education at peril due to poor academic performance, chronic absenteeism, and high dropout rates. The safety of the water is not guaranteed due to pollution from waste and agricultural runoff. While local community members have organized associations for water management, inadequate funding, limited resources, and fragmented approaches inhibit coordination, limiting their effectiveness. Privatization and commodification of common water points, alongside political interference, corruption, and weak enforcement of regulations by the county government further undermine the efficiency and equity of water access, distribution, and management. The sparse population in Mara also discourages private sector players due to delayed return on investment. Nevertheless, Marafiki, an NGO, has developed a water grid to facilitate access to a primary school for  locals near Ololamutia Gate. This installation has increased the participation of women and girls in education and other income-generating activities.

18 10, 2024

How the Navajo Nation Is Reclaiming Food Sovereignty

2025-04-09T19:25:17-04:00Tags: , |

Mobile cooking classes, educational farms, and social media are transforming the food deserts that have long affected the Navajo Nation. For generations, residents of the Navajo Nation have struggled with food insecurity and limited access to fresh, unprocessed foods. This issue traces back to colonial history, when Indigenous communities were denied their food rights and forcibly displaced from their lands. The situation worsened after the Navajo people were returned to their lands following their imprisonment at the Fort Sumner prison camp in the late 1800s, where they became dependent on food rations provided by the US government. The impacts of systemic discrimination and slow violence have shaped food infrastructures within the Navajo Nation ever since. As a result, processed foods have become embedded in daily life, and health advocates are concerned about their negative effects. The prevalence of processed foods, compounded by poverty and the erosion of traditional knowledge around growing and foraging local foods, has contributed to rising rates of diabetes and other health issues. Women like Denisa Livingston, elected as the Slow Food International Indigenous Councilor, are leading efforts to combat these challenges. Livingston advocates for a junk food tax specific to the Navajo Nation and promotes increased nutritional diversity through traditional food practices. Rather than shaming individuals for consuming processed foods, especially in the context of poverty and limited access to whole foods or kitchen appliances, Livingston and other advocates emphasize the need to resist the colonial mindset that has left many feeling powerless. The goal is to empower communities to reclaim their food sovereignty and health through education and cultural revitalization.

8 10, 2024

Rural women, the drivers of change in forest-based climate action

2025-07-09T23:27:27-04:00Tags: , , |

Rural women around the world serve as community leaders, blending modern knowledge with ancient wisdom to protect their communities. They are among the most knowledgeable stewards of forest landscapes and stand at the forefront of environmental protection efforts. Briseida Iglesias, part of the Indigenous Guna community in Panama, is an environmental sustainability and cultural heritage advocate within her community. She promotes traditional plant knowledge, educates younger generations on forest stewardship, and plans for her community’s resilience to climate impacts. Sara Omi, a leader of the Emberá people of Panama, works alongside other Indigenous women across Mesoamerica to propose solutions for combating climate change and preserving traditional knowledge. Aissatou Oumarou, a climate activist from Chad and a member of the Mbororo Fulani tribe, draws attention to the challenges rural and Indigenous women face. She notes the biggest hurdles are access to land and water, support from authorities, and the environmental impact of outside actors on Indigenous territories. Nana Marina Cruz, spiritual guide and cultural advocate from the Maya Tz’utujil Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala, uses her voice to hold world leaders accountable. She shares a “plea for conscience” and condemns their pursuit of wealth at the expense of Mother Earth. According to the authors, these sentiments align with the UN-REDD Programmes’ goals. This knowledge and advisory programme by the United Nations focuses on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) in developing countries and fighting climate impacts through forest solutions. Local women play an ‘indispensable’ role in REDD+, and the Programme has a duty to provide a platform for them.

30 09, 2024

After Generations in the Dark, This Group Is Bringing Solar Power to Tribal Lands

2025-07-09T23:37:40-04:00Tags: , , |

35% of households in the Hopi Reservation do not have access to electricity, this issue is not unique to the Hopi Nation. Historically Indigenous Nations in North America have been subjugated to energy insecurity because of these communities being overlooked when it comes to improving energy infrastructure and promoting the energy sector within these communities. Yessenia Funes highlights the work of Native Renewables, an Indigenous and women-founded organization bringing solar power to Indigenous communities in the Southwestern United States to address the years of systemic neglect from the U.S. government. On the Hopi reservation in Arizona, 35% of residents, and over 13,000 households across the Hopi and Navajo Nations, lack reliable electricity. Native Renewables is working to change that. Suzanne Singer, one of the founder's motivations, stems from her childhood summers spent with her grandparents in the Navajo Nation. Despite power lines running overhead, her family never had access to electricity. Today, Native Renewables is not only lighting homes but also creating jobs, generating around 19 new positions in the renewable energy sector within these communities. This initiative has been led by tribes amid the continued absence of government support and failed promises that have not only led to energy poverty, but have exacerbated public health crises. Parvannah Lee, a Diné healthcare worker from the Sleep Rock People Clan and Old Zuni Clan, joined Native Renewables after realizing the energy crisis contributes to interconnected systemic health gaps in her communities. Working with Native Renewables, she and other energy leaders have been cultivating economic stability for themselves, while working to build brighter futures for their communities.

29 08, 2024

Could the ‘rights of nature’ save Yasuní and keep its oil in the ground?

2026-03-27T14:30:49-04:00Tags: |

In 2023, nearly 60% of people in Ecuador voted to stop oil drilling in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oil field, a decision that would keep a billion barrels of oil in the ground. The Yasuní National Park in the Amazon has one of the highest levels of biodiversity on earth, is home to endangered species and fragile ecosystems, and was designated a national park by Ecuador in 1979, as well as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1989. Multiple Indigenous groups live in the Yasuní, whose territorial rights are recognized by Ecuador’s Constitution. These groups include the Tagaeri and Taromenane who live in voluntary isolation. A petition was brought to Ecuador's Constitutional Court to bring the Yasuní citizen-proposed initiative (consulta popular) to a vote. Following this, the court ordered the suspension of oil drilling within one year, as consultas populares are binding and require immediate enforcement. However, drilling continues as government officials and oil corporations seek to put the vote outcomes on hold by citing costs and engineering challenges. These actions unconstitutionally ignore the will of the people and raise democratic questions. With the lack of enforcement, citizens have returned to the Constitutional Court for help, asking to invoke the rights of nature as a central argument to protect the Yasuní.

14 08, 2024

Indigenous women explore how to adapt to climate change in Asal regions

2025-04-09T17:47:08-04:00Tags: |

A group of women from Kenya, organized by the Samburu Women Trust and supported by the Defenders Coalition, gathered to discuss strategies for adapting to climate change. Arid and semi-arid regions have been especially hard hit by drought, and new challenges are emerging, including human rights violations and land tenure issues. These Indigenous women and human rights defenders are working to advance the rights of pastoralist communities, as well as Indigenous women and girls, with the goal of reducing harmful practices that deepen their marginalization. Many of the women have experienced forced evictions from ancestral lands and now face the threat of seizure of unregistered lands or disputes caused by overlapping title deeds. They also highlighted limited access to climate finance in the ASAL (Arid and Semi-Arid Lands) regions, along with the lack of resources, capacity, and information that grassroots communities need to leverage such financing. Additionally, women are often excluded from decisions about the use of natural resources. Jane Meriwas, executive director of the Samburu Women Trust, emphasized that women are frequently discouraged from speaking out due to cultural norms, making the collection of their voices and testimonies a milestone in itself. Kamau Ngugi, executive director of the Defenders Coalition, stressed the importance of this gathering to identify gaps and assess progress in the rights of Indigenous and pastoralist women, with the goal of developing unified, strategic responses. According to the participants, a coordinated and holistic approach is urgently needed—as they are already witnessing loss of life from climate-related disasters, compounded by a lack of government preparedness.

3 07, 2024

Meet the Indigenous Youth Defending the Amazon Rainforest

2025-04-18T11:48:02-04:00Tags: |

Helena and Nina Gualinga, members of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon, are at the forefront of a new generation of Indigenous youth fighting against extractive industries such as oil drilling, gold mining, and hydroelectric projects. Growing up deeply connected to their environment, both sisters experienced firsthand the destructive impact of these industries. Helena views the rainforest as a living entity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all its elements. Nina’s activism began early, resisting attempts by oil company workers to bribe her community with gifts. Their commitment to preserving their home has taken them to international platforms like the United Nations Climate Change Conferences, where they advocate for the Amazon's protection. Their activism contributed significantly to the historic decision to halt oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, demonstrating their powerful influence. Despite global recognition, their dedication remains rooted in rejecting exploitative practices and defending their culture and environment from ongoing threats.

7 06, 2024

The sea belongs to us: Stories from Thailand’s Ocean Defenders

2025-04-09T18:55:20-04:00Tags: |

As the climate crisis increasingly harms Thailand’s oceans, local communities also face mounting pressure from industrial projects—both onshore and offshore—and destructive fishing practices. In response, coastal populations are coming together to protect their homes and the rapidly changing marine ecosystem. Khairiyah Ramanyah, the daughter of a fisherman from Chana, Songkhla, began campaigning at just 18 years old against the government's decision to build the Chana Industrial Estate. She hopes future generations will experience the same healthy environment she grew up in. Most members of her community are fishers who provide seafood across Thailand and beyond. For four years, Khairiyah has fought alongside the Chana Rak Thin Network, protesting the flawed public hearing processes. In doing so, she has faced legal charges for exercising her rights to protest and freedom of expression. Today, she continues her activism by proposing policies and envisioning a future rooted in community cooperation. Matom Sinsuwan lives in a small fishing village near Rajakrud, Ranong, home to displaced Thai people. She is concerned about the expansion of large industrial estates and the development of a deep-sea port in Ao Ang. Years ago, she moved to the village as a displaced person and was left without an ID card after being missed in national surveys. Like many in her village, she survived through fishing, but their community has long been neglected by the government. Children still lack access to education, and Matom hopes to preserve the sea and its resources as a legacy that can provide stability for future generations. Despite their deep knowledge of and reliance on the sea, most coastal communities are excluded from decisions about its protection. Thailand’s marine ecosystem is largely regulated through zoning systems in national parks and reserves, which are designed and controlled by government agencies—offering little to no opportunity for communities to participate or share their local knowledge. Women like Khairiyah and Maton are pushing for change as they protect present and future communities.

6 06, 2024

Major land rights win for Indigenous Peoples over forest area the size of Hong Kong in Southwest Papua

2025-04-09T19:16:19-04:00Tags: |

Four thousand Indigenous Papuans from the Knasaimos peoples have recently received legal recognition of their customary rights over 241,000 acres of tropical rainforest in Indonesia’s Southwest Papua province. Before this, these Indigenous Papuans were largely ignored by the Indonesian legal system, while land concessions were given to loggers and plantation companies. As a result, much of the land was cleared and converted for industrial use. The land now recognized under customary rights is held by local clans, each with collective traditional titles over territories that include sago groves, food gardens, and housing. Outsiders are allowed only to rent land within the customary area. This recognition is particularly significant for women, many of whom rely on the land for their livelihoods. Duketini Marlina Youwe of Bentara Papua, a local organization, emphasizes that the traditional forests are integral to the Knasaimos' identity and serve as sources of food, building materials, and medicine. Many women collect food and medicinal plants, provide them to their families, and also generate income by selling produce. While this legal recognition represents an important step forward, many Indigenous communities continue to lose their land, forests, and biodiversity to corporate interests. Campaigners from Greenpeace Indonesia highlight that full legal protection and recognition of Indigenous forests are necessary for lasting solutions. Kiki Taufik, Global Head of Greenpeace Indonesia’s Forest Campaign, stresses that this recognition must be extended to all Indigenous peoples to truly protect their lands and cultures.

16 05, 2024

Mothers of Papua: The Relationship of Indigenous Women with Nature in the Land of Papua

2025-04-09T21:06:04-04:00Tags: |

Workers of the World Resource Institute Indonesia reflect on the special role of women in the Papua province of Indonesia, with a particular focus on their contributions in West Papua. Women in Papua play a crucial role in ensuring food security for their families, upholding and supporting traditions and ceremonies, and leading environmental protection efforts. Through groups like the Bersaudara Forest Farmers Group, they are actively engaged in reforesting their land to secure future access to water. Other women’s groups organize collective gardening efforts to preserve nature and protect the soil. This knowledge positions women as vital participants in mapping processes, conflict resolution, and their communities’ fight for the recognition of Customary Forests. In tribes such as the Kamoro, women are entrusted with managing natural resources and preserving traditional knowledge about the tribe’s history, as well as medicinal and agricultural practices. Their production of food and artisanal crafts—often sold at markets—also contributes significantly to household financial security. Papua’s distinctive context plays a key role in all of this, especially under the “special autonomy law,” which calls for maximum public participation. Nonetheless, as the authors point out, the target of a 30% quota for women’s representation in local governance remains unmet, currently stalled at just 15%, despite women holding many crucial roles within their communities. This underrepresentation is also evident in the 2021 local Gender Empowerment Index, which scored only 62.17 for West Papua Province—15 points below the national average. Although the Papua province scored slightly higher, it too remained below the national average. For Papuan women, this gap is visible in the everyday inadequacies of infrastructure and health facilities.

29 04, 2024

Palestinian Women Speak Out: The Drying of Jordan River, Depleting Water and Livelihoods

2025-04-18T11:32:06-04:00Tags: |

In the face of Israel's ruthless exploitation of the Jordan River, Palestinian women are elucidating the horrific manipulation of water as a tool of brutal warfare, revealing a longstanding strategy epitomized by Israel's deliberate destruction and weaponization of Palestine's natural resources. Megan Awwad's childhood encounter with the degraded river, once a symbol of vitality and history, starkly illustrates the ecological devastation wrought by occupation. Jan Selby's analysis underscores the pivotal role of water in Israel's colonial agenda, used to dispossess Palestinians and fuel territorial ambitions. Amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the plight of Palestine's natural environment and its people's rights is more apparent than ever. From the Nakba to the present day, Israel's manipulation of the Jordan River has caused irreparable harm, displacing communities and erasing cultural heritage. Abdelrahman Tamimi's poignant reflection highlights the river's significance to Palestinian identity, now threatened by deliberate desertification and displacement. As Palestinians endure systemic injustice and engineered food insecurity, Laura Alajma's testimony exposes Israel's exploitation of water resources to sustain illegal settlements. The weaponization of the Jordan River mirrors Israel's broader colonial project, epitomized by ongoing devastation in Gaza. Despite promises of environmental stewardship, Zayneb alShalalfeh's critique, as part of the Palestinian Women Water Practitioners Network, reveals Israel's greenwashing tactics, underscoring the urgent need for a political solution to address Palestine's ecological and humanitarian crisis.

6 03, 2024

Indigenous women discuss their contribution to climate action in Nepal

2025-04-09T18:29:47-04:00Tags: |

With the support of UN Women, the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Research and Development (CIPRED) in Banke, Nepal, organized a workshop that brought together more than 60 participants from across various districts. The event centered on the findings of a study exploring Indigenous women’s knowledge and contributions to climate action in Nepal. Discussions covered a range of themes, including climate change, traditional food practices, herbal medicine, handicrafts, small enterprises, and the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. While the workshop aimed to share insights from the study, it also invited feedback from key stakeholders, including government representatives, Indigenous organizations, and community members. A young Tharu woman emphasized the workshop’s importance, noting that many young women in her community are unaware of the significance of traditional knowledge, cultural values, rites, and festivals. She viewed the gathering as an important opportunity to bridge generational gaps. Another woman from the Sauka community pointed out that women are often excluded from information about funding and local initiatives, resulting in limited representation. Initiatives like this are crucial in expanding women’s participation in climate action and advancing climate justice.

8 02, 2024

New guidebook supports U.S. tribal nations in adopting rights-of-nature laws

2025-10-09T13:35:37-04:00Tags: , |

The “Guide to Rights of Nature in Indian Country” is a guidebook published by the Native-led Bioneers Indigeneity Program and authored by members of the Rights of Nature in Indian Country Team, including Cara Romero, Alexis Bunten, David Greendeer, Brittany Gondolfi, Samantha Skenandore, and Danielle Greendeer. The report provides strategies and resources for Indigenous communities interested in enacting laws granting ecosystems, landscapes, and species legal rights and personhood. The guidebook presents case studies of tribes that have enacted rights-of-nature laws, including through constitutions, ordinances, and resolutions, all while examining the pros and cons of each method, and examples of how tribes have navigated these decisions. A few of the several case studies covered of Tribal nations include the 2016 Ho-Chunk Nation resolution to add the rights of nature to its constitution; the 2017 Ponca Nation resolution to grant nature the right to exist and establish rights to clean air, water, and freedom from pollution; the 2018 White Earth Ojibwe resolution acknowledging the rights of wild rice to flourish; and the 2022 Sauk Tribe v. Seattle case with salmon as the plaintiff, resulting in the city agreeing to provide fish passages in any new permit or permit renewal for hydro dams. In addition to case studies, guidance is provided for community engagement steps like surveying community perspectives, holding educational gatherings, and forming planning committees, as well as tools and templates such as sample fliers, surveys, and presentations. Outside of this guidebook, the Bioneers Rights of Nature website states, “If you are interested in bringing this movement to your community, we would be happy to brainstorm with you.”

8 02, 2024

New guidebook supports U.S. tribal nations in adopting rights-of-nature laws

2025-12-04T01:02:32-05:00Tags: |

The “Guide to Rights of Nature in Indian Country” is a guidebook published by the Native-led Bioneers Indigeneity Program and authored by members of the Rights of Nature in Indian Country Team, including Cara Romero, Alexis Bunten, David Greendeer, Brittany Gondolfi, Samantha Skenandore, and Danielle Greendeer. The report provides strategies and resources for Indigenous communities interested in enacting laws granting ecosystems, landscapes, and species legal rights and personhood. The guidebook presents case studies of tribes that have enacted rights-of-nature laws, including through constitutions, ordinances, and resolutions, all while examining the pros and cons of each method, and examples of how tribes have navigated these decisions. A few of the several case studies covered of Tribal nations include the 2016 Ho-Chunk Nation resolution to add the rights of nature to its constitution; the 2017 Ponca Nation resolution to grant nature the right to exist and establish rights to clean air, water, and freedom from pollution; the 2018 White Earth Ojibwe resolution acknowledging the rights of wild rice to flourish; and the 2022 Sauk Tribe v. Seattle case with salmon as the plaintiff, resulting in the city agreeing to provide fish passages in any new permit or permit renewal for hydro dams. In addition to case studies, guidance is provided for community engagement steps like surveying community perspectives, holding educational gatherings, and forming planning committees, as well as tools and templates such as sample fliers, surveys, and presentations. Outside of this guidebook, the Bioneers Rights of Nature website states, “If you are interested in bringing this movement to your community, we would be happy to brainstorm with you.”

24 01, 2024

Trial of Land Defenders Fighting the Coastal GasLink Pipeline is Put on Hold as Canadian Police Come Under Scrutiny for Excessive Force

2025-03-28T11:30:11-04:00Tags: |

In January 2024, the trial of three Indigenous land defenders was adjourned until later that year due to excessive force used by law enforcement. They had protested the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline, linking this trial to a twelve-year-long struggle. Citing Canada’s “abuse of process” doctrine, the court determined that the mistreatment they faced during and after their arrests could undermine the legal system. As a result, an “abuse of process” hearing is set to take place in June. The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, who have never consented to the pipeline’s construction nor ceded their territory, place their hope in this legal process to end the human rights abuses faced by protesters. Previously, the governments of British Columbia and Canada had been repeatedly rebuked by both the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the U.N. Human Rights Council. Although many Wet’suwet’en villages signed agreements with CGL, these agreements are not valid beyond the boundaries of their reserves, where the pipeline was constructed. This has led to critiques of leadership and authority, raising suspicions about the financial incentives behind these agreements. Research by the Yellowhead Institute later found that while injunctions against First Nations were likely to be granted, injunctions against corporations and the government were overwhelmingly denied.

9 01, 2024

How 3 Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change

2025-02-21T17:21:36-05:00Tags: |

This article highlights the work of Amelia Marchand (Colville), Lydia Jennings (Pascua Yaqui and Huichol), and Roberta Turraq Glenn-Borade (Iñupiaq). These women embody the many Indigenous communities that have been living in harmony with the environment and leading the charge to protect the Earth. Marchand, a policy advocate and environmental educator, works with climate scientists to promote ethical research conduction, especially as it pertains to tribal knowledge. She focuses on maintaining data sovereignty, intellectual property agreements, and other rights that have not been upheld in past research. Jennings, a soil microbiologist, researches deferral agencies and policy surrounding natural gas and mineral mining in and around tribal land. She emphasizes the necessity of holding space for traditional ecological knowledge and protecting the rights and data of Indigenous communities. Glenn-Boarde, a geoscientist, bridges the gap between traditional ecological knowledge and Western scientific knowledge by working as a project coordinator and community liaison. She emphasizes the importance of listening to the communities that have been living the reality of climate change and have been adapting since. Indigenous people are catamount to addressing the climate crisis. Their rights and knowledge must be protected throughout the process.

30 11, 2023

The Forest People: How ‘Green Colonialism’ Is Hurting Indigenous Kenyan Women

2025-10-09T13:19:59-04:00Tags: |

The forceful evictions by Kenya’s Forest and Wildlife Service of the Indigenous Ogiek people from their homes in the Mau Forest of the Rift Valley present a stark example of a global trend of economic and environmental dominance in climate action. Despite rulings to recognize Indigenous rights, the government claims the Ogiek have encroached on the forest and evicted them to plant trees for a carbon credit scheme. These evictions are part of a broader push to mobilize climate finance by leveraging growing global carbon markets. While climate finance is a critical component of advancing climate action, particularly for highly vulnerable low-income countries that emit the least, the marketization of carbon sinks to generate these funds spurs green colonialism and perpetuates oppressive capitalist systems. Stripping the Ogiek of their traditional homes directly increases the community’s vulnerability to climate impacts. Yet, the Kenyan government conceded millions of hectares to a carbon trading company established by the UAE ruling family. Additionally, the country’s carbon legislation uses a dismissive definition of “communities”, objectifying them as mere hindrances to carbon trading business. Clare Rono, an Ogiek native and community leader from East Mau Forest, notes that for Indigenous women, the impact of displacement is two-fold, as Ogiek women are forest custodians who preserve their community’s resources, food security, and traditional medicines. Reports show that the threat runs even deeper, with instances of human rights abuses, sexual violence, and murder near a Tanzanian national park. According to Rono, realizing national climate goals while respecting the Ogiek people requires thorough consultation and recognition of their rights. The article closes with a clear call to action from Rono: “raise your voices internationally for our rights to be considered” - a simple request that we all have the power to act on.

25 09, 2023

Indigenous women are showing us how to fight for environmental and human rights

2025-02-21T17:33:06-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women in Brazil are leading the fight for climate and environmental justice by bringing ancestral strength and knowledge to the beacons of power in the country. These women have been protesting and reaching positions in congress, with their demands expanding on ecological frameworks of justice. They are pushing for a new bill to protect Indigenous women from violence linked to mining and exploitation of the environment and communities. Furthermore, the women have been creating spaces for strategic and successful sisterhood, decolonization, and community building for indigenous women in and out of government. They have successfully overturned the marco temporal legal concept which attempted to trivialize Indigenous claims to land, leaving protected peoples and environments vulnerable to violence and extraction. This is part of their mission to reforest politics and the mind—engaging in actions that heal the planet, people, and greater ecosystem. They are bringing regeneration not just to their environment, but to the world through knowledge, care, solidarity, and re-Indigenization. They are demanding the recognition and uplifting of Indigenous women and their work in order to restore the world.

14 09, 2023

Brazil’s Indigenous Women Rally to Protect Their Land

2025-04-09T20:47:20-04:00Tags: |

During the 3rd March of Indigenous Women, themed “Ecosystem Women in Defense of Biodiversity through Ancestral Roots,” demonstrators took to the streets of Brasilia calling for the protection of women’s rights and defending their right to Indigenous lands. Sineia do Vale, the national coordinator for Brazil’s Indigenous Committee on Climate Change, stresses that climate change is deeply interconnected with social and cultural issues and that their objective is to manage their territories in accordance with their traditional knowledge. The displacement of Indigenous people changes their way of life and prevents them from accessing local resources to remain self sufficient, resulting in higher rates of disease, alcoholism, malnutrition and suicide, according to Survival International. Women are involved in family farming at high rates, and are most often responsible for domestic duties, experiencing the effects of climate change much more directly. The organizers of the march proudly highlight the increasing visibility of Indigenous women and their role in the defense of their territories.

11 09, 2023

Reweaving the Future: Inside Fashion’s Biomaterial Revolution

2025-06-04T21:02:09-04:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry’s fragmented supply chains, use of harmful chemicals, and rising pollution have led a new wave of innovators to develop planet-positive materials. In 2020, Elissa Brunato founded Radiant Matter to produce naturally sparkling materials from plant-based cellulose, offering an organic alternative to the 33 million sequined garments demanded during the UK festival season that often end up in landfills within five years. As biomaterials gain popularity for addressing the industry’s ethical and environmental burdens, Alissa Baier-Lentz’s company, Kintra Labs, has drawn major fashion brands by creating a biodegradable polyester alternative from corn. Similarly, Noriko Fukushima, communication specialist at Spiber, explains how Brewed Protein, the company’s biomaterial, is produced using naturally-derived protein fibers through fermentation. She claims that the Brewed Protein is both durable and versatile making it an innovative textile solution. Bringing attention to underwater ecosystems, Keel Labs, founded by Tessa Callaghan in 2017, produces Kelsun, a seaweed-based fiber. These materials are essential for designers building responsible brands—like Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, who uses grape leather, rose sylk, and recycled cotton. However, nature-derived textiles are not new and have long been used by Indigenous communities. Their practices remain an inspiration to the fashion industry today.

11 09, 2023

How Traditional Indian Fabrics Are Reinventing the Wheel of Sustainability

2025-02-21T17:34:48-05:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry has had catastrophic impacts on the environment, health, and local economies around the world. Bandana Tewari highlights hemp and khadi, two Indigenous fabric sources that can help create a more sustainable, ethical, and tended to world. These materials are resilient, durable, and versatile, and can cut down on water and insecticide usage while maintaining a low carbon footprint. The plants also have deep historical and cultural significance—they have been used by Indigenous communities in India and other parts of the world for millennia, from ancient times through decolonization and revolutionary movements. Today, these fabrics have the potential to revitalize sustainable fashion while contributing to job opportunities and economic upliftment for rural India, especially for women. The rich culture, knowledge, and resilience of Indigenous communities in India are continuously woven into the fabric of hemp and khadi as they cultivate sustainable, permanent, and nonviolent alternatives to current systems of consumption.

11 09, 2023

Reweaving the Future: Inside Fashion’s Biomaterial Revolution

2025-05-22T12:50:37-04:00Tags: |

The fast fashion industry’s fragmented supply chains, use of harmful chemicals, and rising pollution have led a new wave of innovators to develop planet-positive materials. In 2020, Elissa Brunato founded Radiant Matter to produce naturally sparkling materials from plant-based cellulose, offering an organic alternative to the 33 million sequined garments demanded during the UK festival season that often end up in landfills within five years. As biomaterials gain popularity for addressing the industry’s ethical and environmental burdens, Alissa Baier-Lentz’s company, Kintra Labs, has drawn major fashion brands by creating a biodegradable polyester alternative from corn. Similarly, Noriko Fukushima, communication specialist at Spiber, explains how Brewed Protein, the company’s biomaterial, is produced using naturally-derived protein fibers through fermentation. She claims that the Brewed Protein is both durable and versatile making it an innovative textile solution. Bringing attention to underwater ecosystems, Keel Labs, founded by Tessa Callaghan in 2017, produces Kelsun, a seaweed-based fiber. These materials are essential for designers building responsible brands—like Hillary Taymour of Collina Strada, who uses grape leather, rose sylk, and recycled cotton. However, nature-derived textiles are not new and have long been used by Indigenous communities. Their practices remain an inspiration to the fashion industry today.

18 08, 2023

‘Fighting a huge monster’: mine battle in Guatemala became a playbook for polluters

2025-04-09T19:05:11-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights Patrocinia Mejía, an activist who campaigned against the mining industry in San Miguel Ixtahuacán, Guatemala, home to Maya Mam villages. The Marlin Mine, owned by the Canadian gold-mining corporation Goldcorp, began operations in the region, just after Guatemala's decades-long civil war. While the mine initially promised jobs and development, the situation quickly soured. By 2017, the mine was closed, but not without leaving behind a legacy of negative health impacts, environmental pollution, and damage to private property, including homes. The community's initial optimism soon turned to concern as reports of health issues, environmental destruction, and property damage mounted. As opposition to the mine grew, local activists, including Mejía, faced increasing repression. Tactics such as criminalizing non-violent protest and using physical violence against anti-mining demonstrators became common. One such example is the case of Diodora Hernández Cinto, who refused to sell her land to Goldcorp. She was shot by two men, resulting in the loss of one eye. Despite the attack, no arrests were made. The violent suppression of activists, coupled with the long-term environmental damage caused by the mine, has had lasting effects on the community. Many residents now struggle with mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. This is just one of many instances in which Canadian mining companies have been implicated in environmental degradation and violations of human rights.

10 08, 2023

Indigenous activists say Haw River should be a legal entity

2024-02-20T10:58:26-05:00Tags: |

Crystal Cavalier-Keck and her husband Jason Campos-Keck are leading an educational movement in North Carolina to give rights to the Haw River, which flows for over 110 miles and sustains a 1700-mile watershed basin critical for wildlife conservation. The couple aims to pass House Bill 795, a piece of legislation that would declare the river as a legal entity, providing it with stronger protections from polluting industries. Current environmental laws fall short of adequately protecting Haw River. In Indigenous culture, humans see nature as a living relative. Bringing Rights of Nature into government law would allow local Indigenous peoples to care for the river as such and allow organizations and other entities to sue polluting entities on its behalf. The Keck’s organization, Seven Directions of Service, is wary that the government may not accept or pass such a law; however, just in raising the issue, the two hope to inspire more care and action throughout the community. Photo Credit: Celeste Gracia/WFAE

25 07, 2023

In Peru’s Amazon, Indigenous women lead the way on conservation

2025-04-24T17:10:53-04:00Tags: |

Ema Tapullima, a member of the Kukama Kukamiria community of Puerto Prado, is an Indigenous Peruvian woman and forest guardian. As a community leader, she is fighting to ensure biodiversity protection along the Marañón River in North Western Peru. Named ‘Irwato Natural Paradise,’ the 100 hectares of land constitute a private environmental conservation area under community protection and custodianship, forming part of Peru’s system of protected natural areas. The women of Puerto Prado are fighting an ongoing battle against environmental crime with their land threatened by illegal loggers, wildlife poaching, and extractive mining. Armed with ancestral knowledge and community leadership, the women and families of Puerto Prado are ensuring the active and ongoing care for the territory and ecosystem that their children will inherit. This frontline work against extraction, prejudice, and exploitation is filled with ongoing challenges, but it will not stop Indigenous communities like Puerto Prado who are taking conservation into their own hands.

25 07, 2023

In Peru’s Amazon, Indigenous women lead the way on conservation

2024-02-20T10:52:09-05:00Tags: |

Currently in Peru, more than 394,000 hectares of land are protected under 139 PCAs, or private conservation areas, that aim to not only conserve nature, but to value and encourage its protection. However, due to a lack of government support, such initiatives are under threat. Despite women’s vulnerability and connection to the land, more PCA owners are male than female. These gaps have left women out of important decision-making despite research that shows that women’s leadership in natural resource management has better environmental outcomes. Peru has also been named the third most dangerous country in South America for land defenders, leaving women with an increased risk of harm while speaking out or protecting the land.  Indigenous women leaders throughout Peru continue to educate on the importance of women defenders, protecting women's voices, and passing critical policies, such as the Escazú agreement. Photo Credit: Sally Jabiel/Dialogo Chino

13 07, 2023

Indonesian Women Lead Protests Against Sand-Mining, Calling Men ‘Too Emotional’

2025-04-18T11:52:09-04:00Tags: |

In 2021, women in Pasar Seluma, a coastal village in Indonesia, took the lead in protesting against a new iron-sand mining project by PT Faminglevto Bakti Abadi. Previous protests led by men resulted in arrests, prompting women to take charge this time to avoid similar consequences. The village, reliant on saltwater mussels for income, fears that mining will harm the environment and worsen climate impacts like flooding and coastal erosion. Despite facing harassment, police summons, and legal threats, the women continue to oppose the mining, emphasizing that it threatens their livelihoods and local traditions. Their protest symbolizes their fight for environmental justice and the protection of future generations.

15 06, 2023

Indigenous Land Return as Climate Justice

2025-02-21T17:35:27-05:00Tags: |

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Oakland-based, urban Indigenous women-led land rematriation effort, demonstrates the importance of the land back movement in fostering intersectional climate justice. Land back is the push for the return and re-Indigenization of land that was forcefully taken through colonization. Sogorea Te’ is guided by the native Lisjan people’s concept of himmetka, a central gathering place. The first piece of land in the trust was returned by a non-profit working with formerly incarcerated and recently migrated people and later became the central gathering site of the trust. This concept has evolved to encompass new intentions for the space, with Sogorea Te’ focusing on sustaining culturally based climate resilience hubs for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. Expanding on Indigenous epistemology of care, the hubs include water, aid, food, and other resources for historically underserved communities who have been left out of aid efforts in climate crises. The trust is working through the bureaucratic process surrounding land rematriation, but the stewards of Sogorea Te’ have nearly full access to caretake and exist on the land as they see fit, including educational, environmental, medicinal, and cultural purposes. Land back is a powerful and necessary part of holistic climate justice.

15 06, 2023

How Environmental Conflicts Hurt — and Motivate — Women Activists

2024-09-16T10:50:06-04:00Tags: |

Sandra Liliana Pena, a Colombian human rights defender from the Nasa and Paez Indigenous groups, rose to prominence as the governor of a reserve in the Cauca community. She vehemently protested against illegal crops encroaching on Nasa land. In April 2021, Pena was brutally assassinated, adding to the alarming tally of violence against women environmental defenders (WEDs). Research unveils a grim reality: in a study among 523 documented cases, 81 WEDs were assassinated, often by state actors, criminal groups, or vested interests. These women defy societal norms, challenging patriarchal expectations, and face violence due to their activism. Yet, their plight extends beyond murder to displacement, repression, and criminalization. Despite underreporting, these cases demand urgent attention. Families struggle for justice, underscoring the need for better protection, contingent upon meaningful participation from vulnerable groups. While Indigenous and low-income women, disproportionately affected by environmental conflicts, confront paramilitaries, traffickers, and corporations, they are sidelined in negotiations despite bearing the brunt of ecocide. Colombia's high femicide rate exacerbates this crisis, with Indigenous and Black women particularly vulnerable. Engaging human rights defenders, especially Indigenous women and children, is paramount. World leaders must commit to implementing safeguards to ensure their safety and uphold environmental justice.

25 05, 2023

Flying drones and chasing data, Indigenous women in Guyana join fight against climate change

2025-02-14T13:00:33-05:00Tags: |

In efforts to monitor and mitigate climate change, a group of Indigenous women in Northern Guyana are merging traditional knowledge and scientific research. Equipped with drones, they are scanning remote mangrove forests for illegal cutting and will soon begin collecting soil samples for carbon storage measurements. Trained by 22-year old marine biologist Sarah Singh, the women are furthering the protection of natural buffers crucial to safeguarding the Guyanese coastline and livelihoods. The data provided will help create better policies and protect coastal agricultural and urban areas that are expected to suffer harshly from climate change impacts, including sea level rise and storm surge that already threaten Guyana’s low-lying territories. As Guyana experiences a concerning oil boom, this monitoring work can boost environmental protection and lead to programs such as the low-carbon development strategy, launched in 2009, to protect Guyana’s forests.

7 05, 2023

A New Series, “Tokala,” Spotlights BIPOC Youth Climate Activists

2025-05-24T22:04:05-04:00Tags: |

In the spotlight are two women activists making a difference in climate action on the West Coast of the United States. Danielle Rey Frank, a Hoopa activist, fights to restore water levels and protect rivers in Northern California. Meanwhile, Atlakatl Ce Tochtli Orozco, a 23-year-old activist in Los Angeles, advocates for housing rights amid the city's homelessness crisis. These inspiring women leaders showcase the work of individual women and women-led organizations, emphasizing climate justice, Indigenous rights, and the need for diverse voices in decision-making. They tackle environmental and social challenges with resilience, offering concrete solutions like dam removal and affordable housing initiatives, making positive impacts on their communities and the planet.

25 04, 2023

From Farm Workers To Land Healers

2023-07-30T13:28:25-04:00Tags: |

  Former immigrant and Indigenous farmworkers have been using their cultural knowledge of sustainable fire practices to control wildfires and reclaim work in natural spaces. The workers previously faced hazardous and unhealthy conditions while being employed on vineyards, including exposure to toxic fumes and smoke, especially when harvesting through active fires. There was little financial compensation or support for their safety. Now, the workers are spearheading ecological restoration programs in wildfire prone areas. They are positioning themselves as leaders and educators in order to gain self-determination over their relationship to the land, reclaim former cultural practices, and have an active role in healing. The programs are offered in Spanish and local Indigenous languages and ensure that land workers are well-paid, safe, respected, and have autonomy in their work. These efforts mark an ongoing transition in climate mitigation efforts, centered on the intention to heal and grow both the environment and frontline communities. Photo credit: Brooke Anderson/YES! Magazine

24 04, 2023

Goldman Prize Honors Indigenous Woman Who Stopped Mining Giant

2025-02-20T18:16:32-05:00Tags: |

Alessandra Korap Munduruku's unwavering dedication to protecting the Amazon rainforest from mining operations has earned her the prestigious Goldman Prize for South and Central America in 2023. As a prominent leader of Brazil's Indigenous Munduruku community, Alessandra spearheaded a powerful campaign against mining giants like Anglo American, resulting in the withdrawal of 27 research applications to mine within Indigenous territories. Her efforts, backed by the Coalition of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) and Amazon Watch, underscored the necessity of informed consent from Indigenous communities, as mandated by Brazil's constitution. Alessandra's journey began in 2014 when she witnessed the devastating effects of gold mining on her community's way of life, particularly on their reliance on fishing. Motivated by the urging of fellow Munduruku woman, Maria Leusa Kaba Munduruku, Alessandra challenged traditional gender roles within her community and encouraged more women to join the fight for land rights. She emphasizes the importance of unity within the community, highlighting that victories like the one against Anglo American, are built upon collective action and decision-making.

24 04, 2023

“Green Nobel” winner is reclaiming Indonesian forest land

2024-09-13T14:50:07-04:00Tags: |

Indonesia’s deforestation and peatland clearing has made the nation one of the leading greenhouse gas emitters. In an effort to protect forests, the Indonesian government granted over 17,000 acres of forest land rights to Indigenous Indonesian communities. Delima Silalahi, a Batak woman from North Sumatra, is a leading figure in this movement. As the executive director of Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (the Community Initiative Study and Development Group), Silalahi has been working to protect these carbon-rich, biodiverse lands from industrial exploitation since 1999. Her work and dedication won her a Goldman Environmental Prize, or “Green Nobel,” in 2023. As a woman in the public eye, however, Silalahi faces stigma and gender-based discrimination from her community– a result of longstanding gender-based issues. Silalahi hopes not only to restore her land, but also to create more space for women to share their opinions.

20 04, 2023

Indigenous women in Colombia protect rich Amazonian wetland from overfishing

2024-09-16T10:05:48-04:00Tags: |

In the Lake Tarapoto wetlands, in southern Colombia, Indigenous women led by Lilia Isolina Java, are at the forefront of protecting the rich Amazonian ecosystem from overfishing. Partnering with Conservation International's Amazonía Verde program, they have established fishing agreements to address the detrimental impact of overfishing on fish populations, food sovereignty, and the broader ecosystem's effect on aquatic animals like dolphins and manatees. The program actively monitors and manages fisheries while preserving ancestral knowledge. Resilient and determined, these women safeguard their cultural heritage while advocating for Indigenous and environmental rights. They acknowledge the disproportionate impact of climate change on women and emphasize the need for inclusive decision-making. Through community-driven efforts, they prioritize sustainable practices, rejecting false solutions, and unsustainable techno-fixes. Their work stands as a testament to decentralized, safe, affordable, and accessible solutions, fostering a future where the environment and diverse communities thrive harmoniously.

7 04, 2023

Seeds of hope: Uplifting Vietnam’s Hmong People

2025-07-21T15:03:05-04:00Tags: |

The Hmong are an ethnic group native to several countries, including Vietnam. Many Hmong live in the northern areas of the country, where a combination of climate change and detrimental farming methods have contributed to a substantial deforestation of the region. In 2019, Khang A Tua and Mua Thi Mua launched a project called Ná Nả in order to reduce the impact of droughts, floods and landslides. Through the use of local traditions and knowledge, the project aims to provide effective solutions for these communities while generating sustainable sources of income, especially for younger generations and women. At the same time, Mua and Tua have also started a series of workshops on traditional practices and helped farmers to learn and employ more sustainable farming methods. 

6 04, 2023

Where Indigenous land rights prevail in Brazil, so does nature, study finds

2025-07-13T20:20:21-04:00Tags: |

Following two decades of struggle to reclaim a territory of nearly 7,000 acres, an official process of demarcation for Brazil’s Indigenous territories has commenced. Catarina Delfina, 73 years old, is one of the Indigenous leaders behind the reclamation of the territory and stresses that the so-called marco temporal must be declared unconstitutional, as it only entitles Indigenous populations to claim lands they occupied when the current constitution came into effect in 1988. While there are many obstacles to the demarcation process, including gas pipelines and a sand mining company, local populations are hopeful that this change will allow for independent work on the territory, including the opening of schools and reforestation projects. A recent study found that full homologation and demarcation lead to less deforestation in the Atlantic Forest, with some territories experiencing an increase in forest cover of more than 20% of the total area. The Atlantic Forest is the most degraded biome in Brazil, having been reduced to just 12% of its original area. While demarcation was not possible under former president Bolsonaro, Indigenous peoples such as the Pataxó have placed their hopes in current president Lula. Parts of their territory fall within the Monte Pascoal National Park, designated in 1961, though only certain areas are reserved for the Indigenous community. As of June 2023, twelve territories located in the Atlantic Forest are ready to be demarcated, with eight still awaiting a declaratory decree. In the meantime, many communities have begun restoring degraded areas and emphasize the importance of demarcation for their physical, dietary, cultural, and spiritual safety.

17 03, 2023

Nature’s Stewards Under Attack

2025-02-21T18:05:54-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous peoples, renowned for their stewardship of nature, inhabit lands holding 80% of the world's biodiversity, offering significant potential in combating the climate crisis—provided their rights are upheld. The Green Climate Fund (GCF), tasked with this responsibility, faces a critical juncture as Indigenous complaints in Nicaragua highlight the risks of unchecked projects that trigger violence and land invasions. Despite escalating tensions and fatalities, the GCF's response remains unresolved, underscoring the urgency of enforcing safeguards. Meanwhile, Mafalda Duarte's appointment as the new GCF chief offers hope, given her track record of supporting Indigenous communities' environmental initiatives.

9 03, 2023

A Surfer Dives Into Her Heritage and Love for the Ocean

2025-12-10T01:14:41-05:00Tags: , |

Kimiko Russell-Halterman is an environmental educator with Brown Girl Surf, an organization that teaches young girls and non-binary youth to connect with the ocean and nature. Surfing is overwhelmingly white and male-dominated in the United States, a dynamic that has deepened historical patterns of exclusion toward Black people. Through her work, Russell-Halterman seeks to decolonize and promote the accessibility of the sport by conducting a storytelling project on cultural outdoor activities among members of the organization. Her connection to the water is tied to her matrilineal heritage and history. Her moment of inspiration came when she visited ama divers on the coast of the Mie Prefecture in Toba, Japan. There, she witnessed a millennia-old tradition of Japanese women divers who harvest from the sea floor without oxygen tanks, relying only on their breath. This experience deepened her desire for such knowledge, advancing her relationship with the ocean and renewing her appreciation for the simplicity of subsisting from the sea floor. As a marine science instructor, she has learned to harvest from the ocean floor herself, diving with a spear gun, Hawaiian sling, or even with her bare hands. However, ama culture is threatened by dwindling shellfish and a decreasing number of women entering the profession. Russell-Halterman seeks to deconstruct traditional perceptions of humans as destroyers of nature by teaching children how to reconnect with and live harmoniously within the natural world

8 03, 2023

Syilx women share knowledge about protecting kɬúsx̌nítk (Okanagan Lake) for future generations

2025-04-20T21:12:20-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Canadian Syilx women are using their ancestral roles of care and connection to siwɬk (water) to safeguard cultural lake-sites for future generations. Meeting in the En’owkin Centre in late July, they developed the Okanagan Lake Water Responsibility Plan for “our culture, our way of life, and our ancestral connections.” Meeting facilitator Tessa Terbasket highlights that to protect the kɬúsx̌nítk (Okanagan Lake), the alliance must garner input and cultural leadership from Syilx women across their ancestral lands. This push for a protective framework for the lake comes at a time of pressing concerns about environment deterioration, escalating development, pollution, and temperature change. Sarah Williams of the Penticton Indian Band also attended the meeting and shared her observations on changing water levels. Proactive measures are essential to protect the biodiversity and health of the landscape, as well as the many non-human species that rely on it. The women are embracing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology in combination with traditional mapping to document and protect these waterways. Janice Tom of the Upper Nicola Indian Band is a drone pilot who is using her skills to help map the lake using GIS cartography. Together, these Indigenous women leaders are ensuring that proper knowledge of priority conservation and watershed issues are incorporated into the responsibility plan.

6 03, 2023

Indigenous Youths Keep Ancient Forestry Traditions Alive In The Philippines

2023-07-30T12:53:40-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights Michellejean Pinuhan, an Indigenous Higaonon woman from the Mount Sumagaya Region of the Southern Philippines. Pinuhan makes up part of a group of Indigenous youth called basbasonon, volunteers who help keep the ancient forestry monitoring practice of panlaoy -- a process requiring forest immersion where observers take note of the condition of the surrounding environment -- alive. Elders are an integral part, as they lead the basbasonon on forest immersion trips. For the Higaonon youth, panlaoy is an opportunity to learn about traditional forest resource management and to better understand their people’s difficulties with self-determination and land tenure. In 2001, four Higaonon villages from the Misamis Oriental Province formed MAMACILA to stand up for their rights and fight for land tenure. In 2009 the Philippine’s Indigenous Peoples’ commission issued MAMACILA an ancestral domain title including 17,553 hectares of land. Later, in 2016, Mindanao State University conducted a plant study revealing about 52 floral species belonging to 19 families, many of which are under threat. Yet, the study found that the plants grow abundantly within the area, attesting to the many effective contributions of panlaoy. Due to this, the local government created bantay kalasan, a program which subsidizes panlaoy and involves the help of about 80 Higaonon to patrol the forests and monitor biodiversity twice a month. As the territory continues to be under constant threat from land clearing and land grabbing, the Higaonon remain hopeful for the passage of a proposed bill which would recognize customary and traditional governance as conservation measures. Photo Credit: Archie Tulin/NTFP-EP Philippines

4 03, 2023

Northern Express Fascinating People Of 2023

2023-07-30T12:46:21-04:00Tags: |

This article highlights twenty of the most fascinating individuals from Northern Michigan, two of which are Indigenous women. The first of these women, Jannan Cornstalk -- who is the founder of the Water is Life Festival of Mackinaw City, a member of the Indigenous Women’s Treaty Alliance, and a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians -- devotes herself to water rights activism. In 2018, she brought back the aforementioned festival, which engages local communities and centers the celebration of and connections with water. Cornstalk seeks to inspire the community to protect the Great Lakes and other waters through daily choices and lifestyle decisions. The second highlighted Indigenous woman is Joanne Cook, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB). Cook is presently the GTB’s chief appellate and has also served on Tribal Council and as a tribal court judge. Today, much of her work involves working with victims of crime and on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) project. She has also served on various local nonprofit boards. 

15 02, 2023

Ecuador: Indigenous villages fight ‘devastating’ mining activity

2023-11-28T16:09:46-05:00Tags: |

In Napo, Ecuador, an expansion in mining activity has been polluting surrounding rivers and Indigenous lands, with concentrations of toxic metals up to 352 times the limit established by environmental guidelines. Eli Virkina, an Indigenous Kichwa community member, says she can no longer drink from the river and is beginning to question the safety of swimming in it. Virkina has witnessed increasing numbers of large machinery, black smoke, and noise pollution along the river in the last few years. Along with physical impacts on her body, she has also discovered lumps in her breasts and changes to her skin. Indigenous communities have been mobilizing across Napo to resist mining through the formation of alliances, including the first women-led Indigenous guard in the Amazon. Positive milestones have been reached, with the Ecuadorian Constitutional Court recognition of Indigenous communities to give the final say on extractive projects which impact their territories in February of 2022. Unfortunately, this ruling was not upheld during the approval of a mining project in Las Naves. The article closes with Virkina emphasizing the importance of Indigenous resistance to the region’s future, saying how it is much easier for mining operations to gain access to the rivers without the presence of Indigenous communities. Photo Credit: Top Image - Napo Resiste

8 02, 2023

‘If Brazil starts with us, why did we arrive last?’: Q&A with Indigenous lawmaker Célia Xakriabá

2025-04-09T20:37:50-04:00Tags: |

Celia Xakriabá, who had won the seat of the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, was interviewed about her campaign and her aims for the next years. She describes the importance children and youth played in her campaign and how, for many parents, their future was the tipping point that motivated them to vote for Xakriabá. Being both the youngest Indigenous deputy in the world and the first Indigenous woman to receive a PhD in her state, Xakriabá and Sonia Gujajara, Brazil’s first Minister of Indigenous Peoples, share a feeling of loneliness that Xakriabá sees as part of what she calls “the racism of absence.” Far too often, the demarcation of territories only happened after the death of an Indigenous leader, but Xakriabá says no one should have to wait for that moment. She pushes for the implementation of quotas across the country as a form of reparation and the creation of a secretariat for Indigenous education within the Ministry of Education via new legislation. The country’s statute on Indigenous peoples needs to be updated, leaving behind its racist terminology and views, something that has already begun under the Presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and is continuing with her guidance.

8 02, 2023

Indigenous women record age-old knowledge of bees in Colombia’s Amazon

2025-07-21T14:58:01-04:00Tags: |

Bees have always been extremely important for the Yucuna Indigenous peoples of Colombia because of their contribution to nature and humanity. However, deforestation and the widespread use of pesticides, such as glyphosate, have largely affected the region’s biodiversity. Since 2020, a team of 36 Indigenous Yucuna women from 12 reserve communities has engaged with elders from various areas to document and preserve the remaining oral knowledge on bees and their roles in the ecosystem, along with the traditional classification system of diverse bee species. The information collected will be compared with a team of biologists and printed in Spanish and Yucuna languages to share it with broader communities. The project highlights the role of local action in the protection of the environment, while showing how Indigenous traditional knowledge is a powerful instrument for environmental protection and restoration. 

6 02, 2023

‘A different perspective’: the journalist reporting the Amazon through fresh eyes

2025-12-11T14:01:10-05:00Tags: |

Elaíze Farias is the editor at Amazônia Real, a media outlet that reports the ongoing violation of Indigenous rights in the Brazilian Amazon. Having grown up on the banks of the Amazon and being of Indigenous origin, she recalls listening to stories about her ancestry passed down from her grandparents in her childhood. As an adult, she pursued a university degree in journalism and later spent time documenting stories of people in Manaus struggling with access to clean water and electricity. From the start of her career, she began to notice how traditional journalism on environmental politics in the Amazon tended to stigmatize or fetishize Indigenous people. “Outsiders like to make the Amazon exotic, like a theatre,” she says. “They want to wow people. They want something they can sell.” It was her observation of this type of coverage that prompted her to spearhead Amazônia Real over a decade ago. Today, she remains dedicated to centering underreported stories from marginalized communities through a decolonized lens. The methodology behind her investigative journalism is very intentional in how it prioritizes the perspective of people often excluded from mainstream media. She openly stands against the oppression of Indigenous peoples and emphasizes the importance of extending journalism beyond publishing a story. When discussing this, she specified how the same communities who trust journalists with their stories and their lives frequently get used as material for news reports only to be discarded after publication. Remaining in touch with communities and individuals who have worked with her and remaining present to offer her support when needed is foundational to building the trust and solidarity that prevents such abandonment. Further beyond her journalism, Farias has also been a part of several lectures and panels alongside various domestic and international organizations to speak about her work and the stories she’s told.

3 02, 2023

Palestinian Tatreez: Embroidering Resistance and Remembrance

2025-04-18T11:24:45-04:00Tags: |

Ayah and Wafa Ghnaim, as guardians of Palestinian Tatreez, embody the enduring symbol of resistance against the ongoing Israeli occupation. This artful embroidery tradition, passed from mother to daughter for centuries, encapsulates a profound narrative of resistance and resilience against the backdrop of subjugation and displacement. Originating as a communal practice, Tatreez adorned garments with symbols reflecting regional identity and societal roles. Through periods of conflict, such as the first intifada, Palestinian women ingeniously wove forbidden symbols into their Tatreez, amplifying their protest against erasure. However, in the modern era, commercialization threatens to dilute its radical origins. Yet, advocates like Ayah and Wafa Ghnaim champion its preservation, emphasizing its role not just as a craft, but as a conduit for heritage, protest, and, ensuring that Tatreez remains a testament to Palestinian resilience, one stitch at a time, even amidst the atrocities of ongoing genocide.

1 02, 2023

Joenia Wapichana: ‘I Want To See The Yanomami And Raposa Serra Do Sol Territories Free Of Invasions’

2023-07-02T00:01:56-04:00Tags: |

Karla Mendes interviews Joenia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman lawyer and President of Brazil’s national Indigenous affairs agency, Funai. Wapichana discusses the thousands of illegal gold mines that have caused a public health emergency in Yanomami Territory, resulting in the deaths of 570 children who suffered from malnutrition and other serious illnesses. Wapichana contends that ensuring public health will require not only the removal of illegal mining, but also a lasting security presence within the area. She explains the need for studies that can identify the lasting impact of mining industries once they have been removed. When asked about ways to decrease prejudice towards Indigenous communities, Wapichana noted the importance of proper terminology and affirming the rights of Indigenous peoples. In the future, Wapichana hopes to be reelected to Congress and to see increased Indigenous representation in government. Photo Credit: Katie Mähler via Apib Comunicação

15 12, 2022

These Indigenous Women are Fighting Big Oil―And Winning

2025-02-21T17:12:44-05:00Tags: , |

Indigenous leaders Nemonte Nenquimo and Nonhle Mbuthuma discuss their successes in stopping Big Oil initiatives that would harm their communities, and share their formula for how others can triumph through community involvement, education, and legal pressure. Nenquimo, a Waorani leader, organized a resistance to stop government plans to drill in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador in 2019. Just a few years later, Mbuthuma, a leader of the amaMpondo people, led her community to court to prevent Shell from gaining a permit that would enable them to pillage Indigenous farming and fishing communities on the coast of South Africa. These efforts are rooted in Indigenous rights, knowledge, and spirituality. Nenquimo and Mbuthuma believe that if Indigenous stories and knowledge are spotlighted and supported―legally, financially, and otherwise―effective and successful change can be made.

2 12, 2022

Watch ‘We Are the Water’: How the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Is Protecting Ancestral Land

2025-04-24T18:26:15-04:00Tags: , |

The communities within Tsleil-Waututh, a matriarchal First Nation occupied by Canada, are deeply connected to their lands. In their creation story, their first grandfather transformed from a wolf into a two-legged human, who then collected sediment from the bottom of a fjord and cedar needles—materials that became the first grandmother. In this cosmology, humans are placed on the land to learn from it and to protect it. However, since the occupation of Tsleil-Waututh territory, many have died due to disease and colonial violence—whether directly or in the form of environmental degradation and pollution. Since the 1950s, the area has seen intense industrial development through oil refineries and has suffered coastal erosion and oil spills as a result. A decade ago, a new pipeline was proposed to expand upon an already existing one from the 1950s, a time when Indigenous opposition to such projects was heavily criminalized. Although compensation was offered, the Tsleil-Waututh opposed the new pipeline after consulting First Nation experts on the Alberta tar sands. While construction was halted, it was not entirely stopped. Particular concern centers around the potential impact this pipeline could have on the local ecosystem, especially orcas—creatures that already face increased noise pollution and food scarcity. Many Tsleil-Waututh people feel a deep connection to orcas, who are matriarchal and rely on their female elders to pass down traditional songs to the young. The women interviewed for this story express that passing on their traditions is now a moral obligation, especially considering the toll colonization has taken on their beliefs and communities. Together, they have replanted riverbanks and reintroduced species. They aim to shift common narratives about the incompatibility of humanity and nature, advocating for a healthy, reciprocal relationship with the planet.

2 12, 2022

Queensland’s Indigenous women rangers given Earthshot prize for protecting Great Barrier Reef

2023-11-28T16:51:52-05:00Tags: |

The Queensland Indigenous Women Rangers Network (QIWRN) was awarded a $1.8 million Earthshot prize for the work it has done in protecting the Great Barrier Reef. In Queensland, only about 20% of Indigenous rangers are women. Founded in 2018, the QIWRN has been able to train more than sixty women, many of whom go on to work as rangers or within conservation. Earthshot has described the work of QIWRN as ‘vital’ and explains how 60,000 years of First Nations knowledge and digital technology has given insight into one of the most critical ecosystems in the world and how to protect ecosystems like it. Photo Credit: Jeremy Tomlinson

28 11, 2022

Vancouver Island Land Back activism by Indigenous Ma’amtagila Matriarch

2025-07-29T23:02:57-04:00Tags: |

The Indigenous-led Land Back movement on Vancouver Island is enabling the original stewards to reclaim and protect their ancestral lands from logging and deforestation. This frontline effort is led by Ma’amtagila First Nation matriarch Tsastilqualus Ambers Umbas, a lifelong activist for environmental justice, land stewardship, and Indigenous rights. On unceded Ma’amtagila territory, Umbas has been living and building a reoccupation camp to assert her people’s right to return to their Hiladi lands, translated from Kwak’wala as "The Place to Make Things Right." "This is where I am supposed to be. This is my home," she says. At 69, Umbas organizes peaceful direct actions from the Matriarch Camp, including locking herself to the federal fisheries office to protest industrial fish farming and protect wild salmon. A newly built bunkhouse will host queer, trans, Black, and Indigenous youth seeking refuge from urban life and space to reconnect with land and ancestors. With less than 3% of British Columbia’s productive forests remaining after 150 years of commercial logging, Umbas’ resistance confronts ongoing colonial extraction and environmental violence. Her personal story as a survivor of assimilationist policies and struggles with addiction speaks to the resilience at the heart of Indigenous resurgence.

28 11, 2022

On Vancouver Island, Land Back Looks Like Going Home | Atmos

2024-08-26T11:32:41-04:00Tags: |

Tsastilqualus Ambers Umbas is reclaiming her people’s land. Umbas belongs to the Ma’amtagila First Nation and has taken up residence in Hiladi, located in British Vancouver, Canada, a region within her ancestral lands which has never been ceded to the Canadian government. The home which she currently resides in was built in 2019 and is known as Little Big House and is meant to emulate the style of a Kwakwaka’wakw house. While Umbas resided in Matriarch Camp, as it is known, alone at first, a recently finished bunkhouse will allow for other residents to live in Hiladi. This reclamation contributes to the global Land Back movement which seeks to return lands to Indigenous communities. In this case, living in Hiladi is the beginning of the Ma’amtagila obtaining their rights to their lands. By going to court with the Canadian government, the Ma’amtagila hope to gain independence from the Tlowitsis First Nation. These Nations were joined together when most of the Ma’amtagila left their territory to go to Turnour Island, where the Tlowitsis traditionally inhabited. Umbas has big dreams for Matriarch Camp and envisions more residents, a garden, and celebration existing on these lands.

22 11, 2022

Indigenous and Black Communities Find Common Cause for Land Justice

2025-07-29T17:54:12-04:00Tags: , |

Black and Indigenous communities in the United States are coming together in solidarity, drawing on parallel histories of dispossession to reclaim stolen land. They are engaging with land in ways that aim to build community economies and decouple economic development from exploitative and unsustainable systems of extraction, exploitation, and trade. Reclaiming land and securing reparations that heal and strengthen communities oppressed under colonialism, capitalism, and slavery are key pillars of climate justice. By extending Indigenous land care, stewardship, and governance over ancestral territories, the Indigenous-led land rights movement is creating sustainable systems rooted in cultural values. This movement is shifting land from market-driven ownership into models of collective care. Examples include the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Humboldt Community Land Trust and the Native Land Conservancy. In Northern California, the Yurok Tribe is restoring timberlands that are both culturally and ecologically significant. Integrated land management systems, such as the Cultural Fire Management Council and the Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, are also transforming the way land is cared for. For Black communities, the land rights movement is grounded in the reclamation of farmlands and the fight against racist policies that have long blocked land ownership, such as redlining and restrictive lending practices. In this collaborative fight for land rights, both communities must continue to embrace their parallels and act in solidarity.

12 10, 2022

Standing Up For Water, Land And Climate: Meet 10 Indigenous Women Fighting The Line 5 Pipeline

2023-04-16T15:34:43-04:00Tags: |

Authors Osprey Orielle Lake and Katherine Quaid highlight the Indigenous women who are leading the fight against Enridge’s Line 5 pipeline expansion. Indigenous women like Jannan J. Cornstalk, Carrie Huff Chesnik, Philomena Kebec, Sandy Gokee, Rene Ann Goodrich, Jennifer Boulley, Carolyn Gougé, Gina Peltier, Lisa Ronnquist, and Debra Topping express how the Line 5 pipeline threatens non-human relatives, the culture, health and well-being of their communities and how this violence contributes to climate change. Indigenous women leaders will continue to resist fossil fuel pipelines and to defend their land, water, and communities. Photo credit: Devon Young Cupery and Cheryl Barnds/WECAN

9 10, 2022

‘The US Dammed Us Up’: How Drought Is Threatening Navajo Ties To Ancestral Lands 

2023-04-16T16:15:56-04:00Tags: |

Annette McGivney highlights the story of Candice Mendez, a Navajo woman who runs her family’s farm on the Navajo reservation in northeast Arizona. During her childhood, Mendez and her family were self-sufficient; however, by the early 1990s, nearby waterways began to dry up due to climate change. These changes in water accessibility now force Mendez to drive more than one hundred miles each week to haul water back to the farm for her animals, which have been tended by women in Mendez’s family for no less than five generations. Since the Navajo People were not considered US citizens at the time decision-making surrounding Colorado River agreements occurred, their communities remain excluded from water-use and continue to lack sufficient water infrastructure. The disproportionate impacts of climate change on the Navajo Nation make these conditions increasingly more difficult, especially as they experience even greater temperature increases than the 1.5 C increase that much of the southwestern United States has already seen. Mendez’s attempts to receive funding from the USDA to support her farm have been unsuccessful; loans like this require land ownership as collateral, and there is no private property on the reservation. Due to these significant hardships, Mendez continues to have serious concerns about her ability to maintain her family’s ranch. Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images 

28 09, 2022

Women fighting fire with fire

2023-03-29T13:30:11-04:00Tags: |

The scale and intensity of wildfires has dramatically increased due to drier conditions from climate change and the suppression of natural fires. Women like Lenya Quinn-Davidson, fire advisor to the University of California, Margo Robbins, executive director of the Cultural Fire Management Council, and Katie Sauerbrey, fire programmer for the Nature Conservancy, are part of a larger movement of women and gender non-conforming people working in the field of prescribed burning, the intentional practice of setting fires to maintain the health of forests. Prescribing burning comes from the traditional knowledge and practice of Indigenous Peoples in North America. This practice was disrupted by colonialism when settlers suppressed natural fire. The return to prescribed burning comes at a time when people are desperate for a solution to the catastrophic wildfires raging across the continent. For prescribed burning to be successfully practiced and integrated in fire management plans, Indigenous Peoples, women, and gender non-conforming people must be included and become leaders in the fire industry. Photo credit: Jennifer Osborne/Atmos

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

16 08, 2022

The Benefits of Berries

2025-02-21T18:21:20-05:00Tags: |

This article, written by Valerie Segrest, celebrates the timeless tradition of harvesting berries during the summer season, reflecting on its meditative qualities and the deep connection it fosters with nature. It highlights the historical significance of berry cultivation across cultures, emphasizing their nutritional value and medicinal properties. The article introduces various berries native to Turtle Island/North America, including blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and elderberries. We are reintroduced to these everyday berries, understanding the details of culinary versatility and health benefits. Additionally, we are given a recipe for making summer berry fruit leather, encapsulating the essence of summer berry gathering. Overall, the passage emphasized the profound cultural, nutritional, and sensory importance of berries in human history. Berries and planting, gathering, cooking and eating are ways for us to connect to the seasons, nature, and each other.

9 08, 2022

Meet 3 Indigenous Women Fighting For The Future Of The Amazon

2023-04-16T16:12:25-04:00Tags: |

Kiley Price highlights the work of three Indigenous women -- Evelin Garcia, Katty Guatatoca, and Carmenza Yucuna -- whose work has been supported by the Amazonia Indigenous Women’s Fellowship Program, a program that provides funding and resources to Indigenous women for conservation projects in their respective regions/countries. Garcia, a member of the Monkox Indigenous community located in the Chiquitania region of eastern Bolivia, noted the importance of recovering ancestral knowledge and practices of endemic plants to the feeding and healing of her community during the pandemic. In particular, kutuki is an important herb which has traditionally been used to treat illnesses ranging from colds and fevers to respiratory issues; this became an important resource for COVID-19 symptom alleviation. With the help of the fellowship, Garcia, along with other women in her community, created a curriculum for schools and community centers in the area to pass on medicinal plant knowledge. Guatatoca, a Kichwa woman from the Amazon forest in central Ecuador, founded the Awana Collective, a group of Indigenous women who use inorganic materials (like plastics) and organic materials to make handmade items. Guatatoca highlights how this work helps Kichwa women obtain financial independence while also caring for the lands which they rely upon by recycling inorganic materials. The items and designs are created using traditional Kichwa culture. Yucuna, a member of the Yucuna community from Mirití-Paraná in southern Colombia, focuses her efforts on preserving the traditional knowledge of the Melipona bee, a stingless bee whose honey has important medicinal properties, both antimicrobial and antifungal. The honey has been traditionally used for centuries for wound and infection treatment. Through the fellowship, Yucuna has completed research on the bees, which is now being used for their conservation and management, along with the ancestral knowledge of her community. Yucuna is also working alongside older women in the community to sell excess honey to help fund conservation efforts. 

9 08, 2022

The Way Back

2023-05-26T15:24:36-04:00Tags: |

Georgina Johnson retraces lineages of connection between the Earth and the human body through sharing personal and historical narratives. Recalling bell hooks’ writing and lessons from her family, Johnson shares that a garden is a symbol of love, as it helps feed families, safeguard dignity, and learn how to appreciate the planet as well as give back to it. This mindset relies on a great respect for nature and the interconnection between its different components, including human beings. Johnson notes the abundant history of agricultural traditions in India to plant vegetation and flowers next to each other in order to protect their food and preserve biodiversity. However, the colonial development and spread of monoculture instigated loss of power of several communities due to its inherent exploitation of nature and native people for capital gain. This form of agriculture relies on the dispossession of wealth, the misuse of mass landscapes, and the degradation of delicate ecosystems. Therefore, Johnson highlights how it is crucial to rediscover and adopt practices that include the voices and stories of native land owners, who have been repeatedly ignored and erased as a result of colonialism and imperial ambition. Photo Credit: N/A

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.

13 07, 2022

First climate agreement to center Indigenous Voices gains international support

2025-03-24T18:28:50-04:00Tags: |

The United Nations pushed for widespread adoption of the Escazú Agreement, the first climate agreement focused on Indigenous perspectives. It upholds the notion that protecting the environment requires uplifting, engaging, and centering Indigenous communities. Multiple activists, such as Patricia Gualinga, an Amazonian women spokesperson, and Osprey Orielle Lake, WECAN’s executive director, spoke up during the conference to advocate for Indigenous knowledge and protection. Indigenous environmental protectors are often hurt or killed during their work. During both illegal and permitted logging and mining, Indigenous communities are frequently displaced or disproportionately affected by resulting health issues. The Escazú Agreement aims to prevent these injustices, calling for stricter protections for Indigenous communities and environmental activists.

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. 

3 06, 2022

An Indigenous Basket-Weaving Traditions Keeps a Philippine Forest Alive

2024-01-23T18:34:21-05:00Tags: |

Upland one of the Philippines key biodiversity areas, the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, sits the village of Kamantian, home to 65 traditional basketry cultural bearers. This article highlights the Pala'wan people who create traditional Indigenous baskets, or tingkep, using non-timber forest products. One basket weaver, Labin Tiblak, began basket weaving at eight years old and once taught young girls the practice on a weekly basis, before the pandemic. Not only does Tingkep serve functional, artistic, and cultural purposes, but this practice supports the conservation of the Pala'wan peoples ancestral Mantalingham forests. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, however, disproportionately affect the Pala'wan people by degrading Pala’wan land and resources, and disrupting traditional Pala'wan practices, like the ability to gather for basket weaving, putting the culture and the craft of Tingkep at risk. The article provides perspectives for the future, including insight from Minnie Degawan, an Indigenous Kankanaey-Igorot and the director of the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, who advocates for the government to fully recognize the right of the Pal’awan people to their territories and self-determination. Photo credit: Keith Anthony Fabro

1 06, 2022

The Hidden Costs Of “Green” Wind Energy On The Sámi

2023-04-16T16:08:25-04:00Tags: |

Maja Kristine Jåma, a reindeer herder and politician, discusses the negative impacts of wind turbine farms that have been built on the traditional lands of her people, the Sámi. The Sámi have fought against these state-owned wind companies since before their construction (about twenty years ago) because they violate their traditional rights and interrupt their livelihoods. The wind turbines, which are about 200 meters tall, also significantly impact the grazing patterns of reindeer, an important animal for the Sámi. After Sámi concerns were largely ignored, the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the wind farms violate Sámi lands and cultures, and they breach the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Despite this, Jåma explains that it is an ongoing issue, as the wind farms have already been built. She emphasizes how a just transition cannot take place with human and Indigenous rights being violated. Photo Credit: Sámediggi

31 05, 2022

A look at violence and conflict over Indigenous lands in nine Latin American countries

2023-11-30T14:33:37-05:00Tags: |

This article interviews twelve Indigenous leaders from nine Latin American countries to discuss the violence and conflict experienced in the region due to land disputes. One leader interviewed, Ruth Alipaz (leader of the San José de Uchupiamonas community of Bolivia), has been pushing against the Chepete-El Bala hydro project. The proposed project would create two reservoirs which would flood around 66,000 hectares of territory, and displace 5,000 or more people, the majority being Indigenous. Ruth shares how she has received threats for her vocal opposition to the project, emphasizing this common shared experience between female Indigenous leaders. About 363 Indigenous activists in Latin America were murdered between 2012 and 2020. Marina Comandulli, who is a campaign officer for Global Witness, shares how Indigenous People make up one third of the global number of murdered environmental activists despite comprising only 4% of the global population. In the face of violence and discrimination from male peers, Indigenous women continue to lead the forefront of land protection, creating organizations like Amazonian Women, a group made up of over one hundred Ecuadorian women who work on land protection and cultural preservation.  Photo Credit: Flor Ruíz

25 05, 2022

An Indigenous patrol in the Amazon won a ‘Green Nobel’ after they took gold miners operating on their land to court — and won

2023-11-28T16:18:15-05:00Tags: |

In 2022, Alexandra Narváez, the first female land patrol member of the Cofán Indigenous patrol, and Alex Lucitante, a founding patrol member and human rights defender, won the Goldman Environmental Prize for their work in protecting the Amazon and legal success against the mining industry. The Cofán community comprises about 200 people who reside in Sinangoe and rely upon the forest and rivers within their territories. In 2018, the Cofán established an Indigenous Patrol, called La Guardia, which used technology like GPS devices and drones from the Ceibo Alliance, an Indigenous operated Ecuadorian non-profit, to capture evidence of environmental damage from machines that were mining the Aguarico River. La Guardia discovered that the government permitted mining activity on their lands with no prior consultation or consent from the Cofán community. Some mining machinery contributed to pollutants like mercury and cyanide leaking into the water and soil. La Guardia brought the case to court and with the help of Amazon Frontlines, an NGO that specializes in Indigenous legal defense, were able to successfully win their court case. The case ruling now requires that the Ecuadorian government consults with the Indigenous community before any mining project can take place on or close to their territory. The ruling also halted 52 gold-mining projects and protects about 32,000 hectares of land. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court reinforced this decision in 2022, affirming that Indigenous communities must give consent to oil drilling, mining, or any other extractive projects that impact their lands. With this success, Lucitante and Narváez hope to inspire other Indigenous communities to confront the mining industry. Photo Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

6 05, 2022

“Indigenous People Are Fighting To Protect A Natural Equilibrium”: Q&A With Patricia Gualinga

2023-04-16T16:49:32-04:00Tags: |

Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa leader in Ecuador and member of Amazonian Women (Mujeres Amazónicas), shares her experiences of fighting back against extractive forces that threaten the Amazon rainforest and its surrounding Indigenous communities. Alongside oil drilling, logging, and hydroelectric projects, both formal and illegal mining have become an increasing threat over recent years. Under the guise of “for the good of the country,” the Ecuadorian government continues to prioritize the economy in lieu of the rights of Indigenous peoples. Gualinga clarifies that there is no such thing as a “middle ground” or opportunity for compromise with the extractive industries that Ecuador has become so dependent upon. She points to the history of social neglect and continued marginalization of Indigenous groups that have severed the relationship between peoples and the state. Although there has been an international acknowledgment of the fact that Indigenous people are the best protectors and defenders of the natural world, racist rhetoric persists in framing them as “helpless” or without resolve for solutions that are not inherently economically based. Gualinga challenges these colonial bureaucratic frameworks and the emergence of the carbon credit system by illuminating the global scale of the catastrophe that awaits all people. To be an Indigenous leader, especially an Indigenous woman leader, bears many threats in the name of speaking the truth. However, Gualinga and so many alongside her persist as this work is vital and central to protecting territory as all-encompassing of the ancestry and future of Indigenous peoples. Photo Credit: Jonathan Rosas  

2 05, 2022

The Umbilicus

2025-02-21T17:04:12-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous land defender Tara Houska reflects on the legacies of colonialism and the need to revitalize our experiences in being a part of nature. Houska has been defending the land against the Line 3 pipeline for years, joining the Indigenous and frontline communities who have been carrying out nonviolent protection measures against the construction of the pipeline. Colonialism and its compounding impacts have led to environmental degradation and the separation of Indigenous communities from their culture and connection to their environment. The loss of land rights, language, community, autonomy, and traditional knowledge are detaching the umbilical connections that were once present between humans and the environment. However, leaders such as Houska and other Indigenous women, two-spirit, and others are restrengthening this bond through land protection and rediscovering lost connections for new generations.

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.

23 03, 2022

The Keeper of Sacred Bees Who Took on a Giant

2023-03-29T13:42:15-04:00Tags: |

In Mexico’s Yucatàn Peninsula, traditional Mayan beekeepers still care for Melipon beecheii, a bee species important to Mayan culture and tradition. In 2012, the Mexican government approved the Monsanto program to plant genetically modified soybeans without consulting local communities and shortly, the bees started dying in large numbers. Leydy Pech, a traditional Mayan beekeeper who has long advocated for sustainable agricultural practices and the integration of Indigenous knowledge into practice, led the campaign against the Monsanto program on multiple fronts: legally, academically and publicly. The court case resulted in the government revoking the Monsanto program and has inspired Indigenous communities facing similar challenges to use Pech’s playbook. Lech explains the fight against the use of the soybeans is not just to protect the sacred bee, but to protect ecosystems, communities and a way of life threatened by industrial agriculture, climate change and deforestation. Photo credit: Natasha Donovan/Atlas Obscura

22 03, 2022

The Wildlife Scientist Finding Innovation in Ancient Ideas

2024-08-26T10:53:59-04:00Tags: |

A wildlife biologist and member of Laguna Pueblo, a west-central New Mexican tribe, Serra Hoagland, is bridging her experiences to help manage forest fires and threatened species. As the first Native American woman with a Ph.D. to work for U.S Forest and Wildlife services, she sees herself connecting tribal knowledge and management practices with scientific research. Her field site, located in a forest belonging to the Mescalero Apache Tribe in New Mexico, has no phone service and is difficult to access. Hoagland and a research team use sound to monitor the Mexican spotted owl, a species whose habitat has been affected by wildfires and climate change. Her studies focus on Mescalero Apache tribal management of forests, including the controlled use of fire, which has not shown negative effects on the animal. Her work highlights the holistic approach many tribes utilize to manage their forests, through consideration of species, watershed health, and forest resiliency.

25 02, 2022

Indigenous knowledge ‘gives us a much richer picture’: Q&A with Māori researcher Ocean Mercier

2024-02-20T10:40:26-05:00Tags: |

In Aotearoa, commonly referred to as New Zealand, the Māori, native to the region, possess a wealth of oceanic knowledge that has historically been undervalued. Māori researcher, Ocean Mercier, is working to elevate Māori traditional knowledge, known as mātauranga, regarding oceans in both academic and community settings, with a focus on marine conservation. Despite a vast maritime environment, the ocean is a unifying force for Indigenous communities. British colonization marginalized Māori traditional knowledge, but recent efforts have been made to integrate it into scientific communities to improve conservation practices, particularly in marine ecosystems. Mercier promotes the connection between Māori language and mātauranga, demonstrating how it complements Western science and how it provides a more detailed picture of knowledge and history. She advocates for equitable recognition of diverse knowledge systems. Photo Credit: Project Matauranga

3 02, 2022

Rematriating The Land With Corrina Gould — The Native Seed Pod

2023-04-16T16:05:15-04:00Tags: |

This episode of the Native Seed Pod highlights Corrina Gould, co-founder (along with Johnella LaRose) of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, Tribal Chair for the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, and co-founder of Indian People Organizing for Change. In this episode, Gould discusses the importance of reinstating Indigenous women as stewards of the land and highlights one of the successful initiatives The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust has launched -- the Shuumi Tax. This tax allows people who live and work within the traditional territories of Lisjan to pay an honorary tax for using the lands, which supports the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. Gould also elaborates on the Himmetka program, an initiative that seeks to establish resources and community centers for gathering in times of crisis in multiple locations throughout the territory. These are based in areas that are vulnerable to crises due to lack of resources and protection from the city. Gould also underscores the importance of land to food security; it must remain accessible to those in the community who do not have fresh food available. The episode ends with Gould discussing some of her planned next steps which include founding a land fund which anyone globally can donate to in order to support the purchase of traditional lands. Photo Credit: Maisie Richards and Inés Ixierda

2 02, 2022

Tukupu: The women of the Kariña community, guardians of Venezuela’s forests

2023-03-29T13:40:05-04:00Tags: |

Cecilia Rivas is an Indigenous woman from the Kariña community and leader of the Tukupu, Venezuela’s first Indigenous Forest business. The Kariña people proposed the creation of the Tukupu project in 2016 to protect the Imataca Forest Reserve from destruction and to use its resources sustainably to benefit local Indigenous communities. Tukupu is composed mainly of women who work to restore and manage the forest and commercialize resources sustainably to benefit local industries. The work of Tukupu has resulted in the prevention of more than 23 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Rivas explains that the co-management agreement incorporated an Indigenous worldview to the benefit of the forest, local communities and the world. The children of Kariña are involved in Tukupu so they may learn and become the future guardians of the Imataca Forest Reserve. Photo credit: FAO Venezuela

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 01, 2022

An Amazon Defender Stands Up for Her Land and Her People

2023-04-16T15:40:20-04:00Tags: |

Juma Xipaia, an Amazon Indigenous leader, fights to protect her community and their way of life against illegal extractive activities and development projects, such as the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River. At the age of 13, Xipaia began fighting to protect her community when she saw the destruction and illness caused by similar projects in neighboring communities. Xiapaia is the Chief of her community; she faces corruption among fellow Indigenous leaders and death threats as a result of her work, all while studying to become a physician. Xiapaia stresses the importance and need for greater involvement of Indigenous Peoples at conferences such as the UN Climate Talks, where international climate negotiations occur. Photo credit: Instituto Juma

7 01, 2022

My People Have Lived In The Amazon For 6,000 Years: You Need To Listen To Us

2023-04-16T15:42:51-04:00Tags: |

Since President Jair Bolsonaro introduced policies that increased violence against Indigenous Peoples and the Amazon, Txai Suruí and her family, friends, and community have faced threats, harassment, bullying and death for protecting their territories. Suruí’s father, Chief Almir Suruí, together with Chief Raoni Metuktire of the Kayapo people, formally requested the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate events in the Brazilian Amazon, demanding perpetrators be held accountable for their crimes against humanity. Suruí is also calling on the international community and the ICC to recognize the crime of ecocide. Suruí stresses she was raised to listen to the Earth and to live in harmony with the planet. She urges others to do the same — there is no time to waste. Photo credit: Gabriel Uchida

5 01, 2022

Josefina Tunki: ‘If We Have To Die In Defense Of The Land, We Have To Die’

2023-04-16T15:37:15-04:00Tags: |

Josefina Tunki is the first woman president of the Shuar Arutam people (PSHA), an organization uniting 12,000 Indigenous people of the Condor mountain range in southeastern Ecuador. Tunki was involved in her community as an educator and treasurer before becoming president. Tunki and other members of the PSHA have been threatened because they oppose mining on Indigenous territory. Tunki explains she is not afraid of the police or threats from mining companies; she is afraid members of her community could lose their homes. Tunki strategizes how to fight against mining companies while also being maternal and caring toward those she protects. Photo credit: Lluvia Communication

1 01, 2022

Indigenous Feminism Flows Through The Fight For Water Rights On The Rio Grande

2023-06-04T09:54:16-04:00Tags: |

Kalen Goodluck (Dine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Tsimshian) and Christine Trudeau (Prairie Band Potawatomi) highlight the Rio Grande Pueblo Nations' extremely difficult path to quantified Rio Grande water rights. The negative impacts on the Rio Grande's water quality and quantity due to the climate crisis and non-Native interventions compound this struggle. Despite challenges, the Pueblo nations have hope and are taking action. In particular, three Indigenous women are highlighted for their work in fighting for quantified water rights to protect their communities, culture, and future generations. Notably, Julia Bernal (Sandia, Taos, and Yuchi-Creek Nations of Oklahoma), the director and co-founder of the Pueblo Action Alliance, which centers youth involvement in their advocacy for water rights; Judge Verna Teller (Isleta Pueblo), the Chief Justice of Isleta Pueblo who played a major role in having Isleta become the first tribal nation to create water-quality standards through the Clean Water Act; and Phoebe Suina (San Felipe and Cochiti Pueblos), hydrologist and owner of High Water Mark, an Indigenous and women-led environmental consulting company which specializes in water-resource engineering. 

24 12, 2021

Indigenous Women Fighting For Their Land And The Survival Of The Amazon

2023-04-16T15:31:20-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women like O-é Kaiapó Paiakan, Alessandra Korap, and Tejubi Uru eu Wau Wau are taking on leadership roles in response to the escalating threats against their land, rights, and the Amazon. The Jair Bolsonaro administration has increased industrial development and intensified the exploitation of resources in Indigenous territories. In response, Indigenous women have stepped up to protect their communities. Paiakan, for instance, became chief after her father passed away from COVID-19 in 2020. Korap has raised her voice at male-dominated tribal meetings, protests, and public meetings outside her village, despite the machismo and threats she withstands for doing so. Tejubi’s uncle was a long-time environmental defender and was among the 20 defenders killed in Brazil in 2020. She and her tribe believe the extractive industry is responsible. Tejubi has joined protests against Bolsonaro’s latest attack against Indigenous rights. Indigenous women like these three face machismo and violence in their efforts, but continue to defend their land and the Amazon. Photo credit: Lynsey Addario

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

7 12, 2021

In Mexico, Rebellion Seeds Revival of a Forest — and a Community

2023-03-29T13:36:33-04:00Tags: |

Adelaida Cucué Rivera, an Indigenous woman from the Purépecha community, recounts the story of four women of Perán that planned a rebellion against cartels who were illegally logging the forests of Perán. The loggers devastated the forest to the point the climate was changing in the region. The women-led rebellion lasted more than a year, but resulted in the people of Perán re-establishing their legal autonomy of their territory. A community-led vivero (tree-nursery) and replanting effort consisting mostly of women is growing back the forest, with the climate returning almost to normal and native plants and wildlife populations thriving again. Rivera warns that although the region has experienced a peaceful decade following the rebellion, the threat of the cartels returning looms, with the fight continuing to protect the forests and community of Perán. Photo credit: Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images

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

4 11, 2021

Indigenous activists on tackling the climate crisis: ‘we have done more than any government’

2025-02-21T17:36:26-05:00Tags: |

Nina Gualina (Ecuador), Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Chad), Charitie Ropati (Alaska), Sara-Elvira Kuhmunen (Sweden), Emmanuela Shinta (Indonesia), and Amelia Telford (Australia) discuss the vital role of Indigenous women and communities in addressing climate change. They focus on what the world can learn from Indigenous people about how to protect the planet, creating a more just future, and what they hoped to see during COP26. Indigenous people make up only 6% of the global population yet protect over 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity. Living in harmony as part of nature and being stewards of the environment are central to the livelihoods of these communities. They are experiencing the impacts of climate change firsthand as the ecosystems they are linked to and have tended to for thousands of years are being destroyed. They are calling on the global community to join together in solidarity to heal the planet, emphasizing that we are all interconnected, all share this planet, and all owe the world care and respect. The world must turn away from capitalism and exploitative systems, come together, and listen to Indigenous communities as they lead us towards a more connected and protected future.

29 10, 2021

Hearing the Language of Trees

2025-04-19T17:15:27-04:00Tags: |

"Hearing the Language of Trees," explores the intelligence of plants and the author's connection with them. The author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, discusses Indigenous reverence for trees. She focuses particularly on White Pines, noting how they are seen as unique and sovereign beings in various Indigenous cultures. Kimmerer highlights the wisdom and longevity symbolized by White Pines and their role as elders in the natural world. She emphasizes that traditional cultures recognize intelligence in all living beings, not just humans, and how trees communicate and tell their stories through their bodies and growth patterns. Kimmerer challenges the human-centric view of intelligence and explores the concept of adaptively flexible behavior in plants, suggesting that their unique sensory and response systems deserve further exploration and understanding. The article ultimately encourages readers to reconnect with nature and appreciate the wisdom that trees and other beings offer to the world.

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

6 08, 2021

‘It could feed the world’: amaranth, a health trend 8,000 years old that survived colonization

2023-05-26T15:19:13-04:00Tags: |

Over the last few decades, amaranth has gained popularity globally. It is an extremely resilient 8,000-year-old pseudocereal indigenous to Mesoamerica, but also grown in China, India, south-east Asia, west Africa and the Caribbean. As a complete protein with all nine essential amino acids, amaranth is a nutritious source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron and antioxidants that may improve brain function and reduce inflammation. This ancient cultivation was extremely important for Native People, such as the Aztecs and Maya. In fact, amaranth was not only a source of proteins but was also used for ceremonial purposes due to these communities’ strong spiritual connection to the land and plants. Beata Tsosie-Peña, an Indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, is a coordinator of the environmental health and justice program at Tewa Women United. She is part of several networks of women across North and Central America working together to reclaim Indigenous food systems, reconnect ancient trade routes, exchange seeds and share traditional knowledge as a way of regaining sovereignty and freedom for Native People. By overcoming the ban and struggles to preserve these seeds - the Spanish outlawed amaranth when they arrived in Central America, Mexico and the south-western United States - indigenous farmers contributed to their own self-determination and created an alternative economic system in order to protect their independence and control over the food supply. Photo Credits: Hitendra Sinkar/Alamy Stock Photo

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

15 06, 2021

Liz Chicaje: Activist whose Fight Created a National Park

2025-04-18T11:21:47-04:00Tags: |

Liz Chicaje Churay, a member of the Indigenous Bora community in Perú, has emerged as a beacon of grassroots activism, earning global recognition for her pivotal role in establishing the Yaguas National Park. This pristine expanse of Amazon rainforest, spanning over two million acres, stands as a testament to Chicaje's unwavering dedication to protecting her ancestral lands. Alongside fellow Indigenous leaders, Chicaje spearheaded a decades-long campaign to secure official designation for the park, fending off threats from illegal loggers and miners. Their efforts culminated in a landmark victory in 2018 when the Peruvian government formally established the park, safeguarding its rich biodiversity and cultural significance. For Chicaje and her community, this achievement represents more than conservation; it symbolizes a triumph of resilience and solidarity against forces of exploitation. As a recipient of the prestigious Goldman Prize, Chicaje continues to advocate for indigenous rights and environmental stewardship, inspiring others to safeguard the natural heritage that sustains us all.

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

29 03, 2021

Finally, UN Recognizes We Need Indigenous Peoples to Save Forests

2025-07-10T09:18:51-04:00Tags: , |

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations released a report stating that Indigenous and tribal communities in Latin America and the Caribbean, the primary protectors of the forests and biodiversity in the region, need more protections and resources that have consistently been denied or taken from them. Ginny Alba and Robinson López Descanse are a married Colombian couple who have dedicated their lives to climate activism. After López Descanse died of COVID-19, leaders became more aware of the need for better health, education, and financial resources for Indigenous and tribal groups. Providing Afro-Latin and Indigenous peoples in Latin America and the Caribbean with land rights and economic support protects communities, cultures, livelihoods, while protecting biodiversity, reducing carbon emissions, and creating a more liveable environment Earth. Indigenous sovereignty is a climate solution.

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

4 02, 2021

Dr. Sherry Pictou on Indigeneity, Feminism, and Resource Extraction | School of Marine and Environmental Affairs

2025-12-04T00:26:22-05:00Tags: |

This article is the correspondence of an interview led by Chase Puentes, a PhD student in geography at the University of Washington, with Sherry Pictou, a Mi’kmaw woman, former Chief from L’sɨtkuk (known as Bear River First Nation, Nova Scotia), and former Co-Chair of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples. Sherry’s work surrounds recognition of gendered and racialized violence against Indigenous communities globally, and covers a range of topics including decolonizing treaty relations, social justice for Indigenous women, Indigenous women’s role in food and lifeways, and Indigenous knowledge and food systems. She is determined to provide a platform for land and water defenders who risk their well-being to resist settler efforts to undermine and destroy their homes. In the interview, Sherry talks about her journey from community work into academia, Indigenous Feminism, and the links between environmental, racial, and gender injustices. Puentes asks questions about the relationship between resource extraction and gender and the disproportionately high costs associated with activism faced by women. The interview ends with Sherry answering a question about something she hopes people will take to heart about her work, stating, “I hope people consider the intersections of environmental and gender injustice that transcend geographies… I hope that more people actively participate in campaigns to raise awareness of, support, and bear witness to Indigenous women’s existence and stories.”

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

24 09, 2020

Quannah Chasinghorse is fighting to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

2025-07-09T23:30:44-04:00Tags: , |

In March 2020, PhD candidate and climate justice organizer Maia Wikler traveled to Alaska to meet with Quannah Chasinghorse to report on the human rights and climate crises in the Arctic. Chasinghorse is a Han Gwich’in and Oglala Lakota youth advocate fighting alongside her mother and fellow women in her community to protect their homelands from oil drilling. Long before the designation as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an ecologically diverse swath of 20 million acres, this area has been a sacred calving ground for the porcupine caribou herd. It has been home to Indigenous communities for millennia, and their identity and wellbeing are inextricably linked to the wellbeing of the land. Exacerbated by melting permafrost and increased wildfires from climate change, the Arctic is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world, and previous drilling operations have shown that it cannot withstand the impacts of fossil fuel development. Boldly resisting this, Chasinghorse travels across the country with fellow Gwich’in youth and women to advocate for fossil fuel divestment and a halt to all proposed development. Sharing their story has already prompted five major banks to cease backing future Arctic drilling operations. This intergenerational movement to defend the refuge from the extractive industries and ongoing colonialism causing the biodiversity and climate crises is deeply intersectional. It is strongly connected to their advocacy for Indigenous rights and justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women. Chasinghorse shows us that the power of today’s youth is a driving force for change and reason for hope. This is a collective effort to fight for the protection of the Arctic, the wellbeing of Indigenous communities, and the prosperity of future generations.

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

18 04, 2020

Our Mothers’ Land Movie

2025-04-18T11:54:32-04:00Tags: |

"Our Mothers' Land" follows journalist Febriana Firdaus as she documents the struggles of Indonesian women environmental activists who are defending their communities against threats to their land and water, particularly focusing on cement factories and mining operations. Despite living in patriarchal societies, these women have become leaders in environmental movements, often placed on the front lines due to their capacity for non-violent resistance. These women face violence, imprisonment, and loss, yet persevere to protect their land and communities. Their activism strengthens community bonds, creating support networks and cooperatives to cope with resulting economic hardships. By sharing the stories of activists like the Kartini Kendeng, Aleta Baun, and Eva Bande, the film underscores the importance of protecting the environment for future generations, drawing upon traditional knowledge, and amplifying the voices of those who risk their lives to protect the environment, recognising that this struggle continues across generations. The journalist's journey concludes with a discussion in Aceh with a local activist, emphasizing the ongoing and collective nature of environmental protection.

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

14 10, 2019

Oil and Gas Pollution in Vaca Muerta

2025-03-28T12:01:02-04:00Tags: |

Through modeling, video recordings, testimonies, and other investigative methods, the research group Forensic Architecture (FA) and The Guardian investigate pollution in Vaca Muerta, Argentina. Their specific investigation focuses on an intentional fire set at a building constructed to better observe the industry's expansion on Mapuche lands. This investigation is conducted in collaboration with the local Mapuche community, the activist group O11CE, and Argentinian anthropologist Jorgelina Villarreal. Additionally, the community center allowed them to monitor breaches of environmental regulations by the companies operating in the area. Vaca Muerta, part of Mapuche territory, is rich in shale oil and gas, which has been heavily exploited by fossil fuel companies such as Chevron. The Mapuche, who claim that irreversible damage has been done to their ancestral homeland, saw their community building burned down in 2013. In their investigation, FA focused on three key areas: the burning of the community building, an oil waste treatment facility, and an extraction platform where a major oil spill occurred. While the investigation is still ongoing, FA has found that the areas closest to the river, as well as the roads connecting the platform, are increasingly barren and show signs of distressed vegetation.

5 10, 2019

Why Aren’t Fossil Fuel Companies Held Accountable for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women?

2025-02-21T17:06:14-05:00Tags: |

[Content warning: sexual violence] The struggle over the Keystone XL pipeline sparked concerns about the future for Indigenous women in construction zones. The epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a result of the multifaceted crises of extraction, climate impacts, and colonization that disproportionately affect Indigenous women. Sexual violence and murder rates are high among indigenous women, and there are direct ties to extraction movements. Angeline Cheek, a community advocate on the Fort Peck Reservation, finds large company-owned housing for oil workers to live temporarily to be a driving force. Tribal police, activists, and the Canadian government have found direct connections of increased sexual violence rates and the extractive sites. Tribal communities are already limited in what they can prosecute and how they can legally respond to crimes and local authorities are often underfunded, making it extremely difficult to obtain proper aid or justice. A suggestion is to hold companies themselves accountable for the violence of the individuals that cannot be brought to justice. The idea is that the company is responsible for public safety and their workers. Cheek and other Indigenous community leaders are working hard to ensure that Indigenous women are not left behind and that justice is brought to them.

15 06, 2019

Thelma Cabrera: Indigenous, Female and Shaking Up Guatemala’s Election

2023-03-29T11:53:22-04:00Tags: |

Thelma Cabrera Pérez, an indigenous campesino woman campaigning for Guatemala’s presidency has unexpectedly risen in polls. Among twenty candidates, she is currently claiming the fifth spot, a difficult accomplishment for any rural candidate. Cabrera is only the second indigenous person to run for president in a country that is approximately 60% indigenous. The challenges indigenous people face in Guatemala, from poverty to landlessness, has driven many to emigrate. Cabrera pledges to uplift the indigenous population and the population in general by tackling oppression, stopping illegal land-grabs, nationalizing electricity among other policies. As a Maya Mam woman from meager beginnings, she represents hope to the voiceless and oppressed. Photo credit: Luis Echeverria/Reuters 

5 06, 2019

Why we need to stand up for Earth defenders this World Environment Day

2025-03-27T17:13:45-04:00Tags: , , , , , , , |

June 5th was marked as World Environment Day by the United Nations to raise awareness of and advocate for environmental causes. On World Environment Day, we should honor those who are on the frontlines, those who struggle the most to protect their communities. Environmental human rights defenders are people who protect rights associated with the environment, land, and territory. They are often community leaders, Indigenous people, and advocates who seek to protect the rights and well-being of their homes from destruction and contamination. Their stories are often fixed in a local context, but they have global significance. Defending environmental human rights is one of the deadliest types of activism. In 2017, 4 activists were killed each week – culminating in 207 killed – with South American being the most dangerous. Here is a highlight of several environmental defenders:  -       Berta Ćaceres, the cofounder of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, was shot dead by gunmen who entered her home because she was campaigning against the implementation of a hydroelectric dam due to community concerns to the Lenca People.  -       Amada Martínez is an Ava Guarani Indigenous environment defender from the Tekoha Sauce community. In 2018, a group of men threatened to kill her due to her work defending Indigenous people and the environment.  -       Patricia Gualinga, an Indigenous leader of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku community, faced death threats and physical attacks at her home because of her work ensuring rights for Indigenous people against the Ecuadorian government.  -       Nema Grefa, the President of the Sapara nationality of Ecuador, faced death threats and her appointment was revoked due to oil interests pushing back. She was formally recognized as President 10 months later but was subject to a home invasion where sensitive information on her human rights work was stolen.  -       Salomé Aranda, an Indigenous leader from the Kichwa People and the Women and Family Leader in Moretecocha commune, Pastaza province, was attacked and threatened in her home. The authorities have yet to offer her protection measures or make significant progress into the investigation.  -       Maroth Escobar, an Environmental and Indigenous people’s rights defender, was attacked by police officers at a protest in 2015 and was held on pre-trial detention for more than a week despite being in poor health. She was released and acquitted of all charges. In September of 2018, her house was set on fire, all belongings destroyed. The Fire Brigade found that it was arson. Environmental protectors, and in particular women and Indigenous activists, are at extreme risk of violence and death due to their work. Our Earth’s protectors must be heard and protected in turn, and those who seek to harm the Earth and its protectors must be held accountable and stopped.

15 05, 2019

‘It’s my homeland’: the trailblazing Native lawmaker fighting fossil fuels

2023-03-29T11:50:38-04:00Tags: |

Deb Halaand, a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, became one of the first two Native American women to be elected to Congress when she won her campaign for representative of New Mexico’s 1stCongressional District. After her victory, Rep. Halaand focused her attentions on the controversy surrounding Utah’s Bears Ears national monument. The monument is home to many sites sacred to Native American peoples but in December 2017, the Trump Administration declared the boundaries would be reduced for the benefit of oil, gas and mining industries. In response, Halaand proposed various bills for the protection of national monuments but the future of these bills remains uncertain. Halaand’s effort are not solely concentrated on protecting native land but also combating climate change. Photo credit: Jason Andrew/The Guardian

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

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

8 03, 2019

Women, Indigeneity And Earth Protection

2023-04-16T15:26:05-04:00Tags: |

Women are fighting to make their resistant efforts against extractive industries more visible to demonstrate an alternative way of living that is desperately needed. Lynda Sullivan highlights the stories of women who are leading resistant efforts in their local communities to protect Mother Earth against extractive industries. In sharing these women’s stories, Sullivan illustrates the connection between violence against women and Mother Earth, where there is a clear intersection between suppressing feminine power and objectifying the sacred and creative core of the feminine. Through her writing, Sullivan fights against these extractive industries through the power of storytelling.

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

12 07, 2018

‘It’s going to be a hot Indian Summer’: Secwepemc Women Warriors call land defenders to B.C.

2026-05-12T15:14:30-04:00Tags: |

In 2018, members of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society called for land defenders and warriors across Turtle Island to British Columbia, Canada to assert Secwepemc titles and rights and resist the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, which threatens the land of North Thompson Provincial Park and runs more than 500 kilometres through unceded Secwepemc territory. While four of the 17 Secwepemc bands established by Canada under the Indian Act have signed agreements to allow the pipeline through their territory, the Secwepemc Women’s Warriors Society and others maintain that Kinder Morgan, the Texas oil giant that owns the pipeline, and Canada do not have free, prior, and informed consent. In protest, land defenders have reoccupied a former Secwepemc village inside the park and are using mobile tiny houses that volunteers have built as a feature of their resistance movement. Prominent land defender Kanahus Manuel said their people have never signed a treaty or otherwise collectively given Canada or the province of B.C. permission to settle or use their territory. Manuel and many others note that Canadian laws used to force unwanted development on unceded Indigenous lands do not respect the Supreme Court of Canada’s own rulings or international law as Canada has implemented such as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which include the right to self-determination and for Indigenous people to live on their own lands by their own way of life. Canada’s purchase of the pipeline and hopes of selling to private investors are untenable due to the outstanding issue of Aboriginal title on unceded Secwepemc and other First Nations’ lands.

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

27 06, 2018

Kill Patriarchy, Save The Womb 

2023-04-16T16:33:49-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women are pushing back against the feminine hygiene industry which uses shame and embarrassment marketing tactics to enforce narratives regarding menstrual bleeding to perpetuate the use of harmful disposable pads and tampons. The blog highlights that the chemicals in disposable products are toxic to people and the environment. It presents many reusable and healthy options such as menstrual cups and cloth pads, noting also Indigenous use of Cliff Rose, Cattail, and Moss in healthful relationship with the Earth and moon blood. The Indigenous Goddess Gang reports that not only do these products not contain harsh chemicals, they also allow you to track bodily changes, save money, and greatly reduce the waste and pollution associated with disposables. Image 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

5 06, 2018

Women, Land And Peace: Celebrating Women Land Defenders For World Environment Day!

2023-04-16T14:58:36-04:00Tags: |

The Nobel Women’s Initiative premiered Women, Land and Peace short films to bring awareness to World Environment Day by highlighting the work of women land defenders in Honduras and Guatemala. The first film documents Nobel peace laureates Tawakkol Karman and Shirin Ebadi’s time spent with human rights and environmental activists in Honduras. Indigenous women’s resistance is central to this film, as is the injustice and danger they face in their mission to protect their land and territories. In the second film, Karman, Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and Jody Williams speak with women land defenders in Guatemala. These women lead a peaceful and organized resistance to defend land and life from the destructive forces of extractivism in their communities. Despite the threat of violence, imprisonment, and assassination they face, these women continue their fight for Mother Earth.

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

17 05, 2018

Indigenous Mapuche Leader Acquitted on Charges of Terrorism in Chile

2025-04-09T20:53:20-04:00Tags: |

In May of 2018, Mapuche political and spiritual leader Machi Francisca Lincona was acquitted on all charges. In 2013, Lincona and eight other Mapuche land defenders had been charged with terrorism. Her struggle for the land rights of her people included fighting against the designation of their activities as terrorism, and she had previously called for protective action to prevent ecocide caused by illegal logging and to safeguard her people’s access to medicinal plants. In this effort, Lincona became the first to successfully cite the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in international law. During her arrest, Lincona was forcibly stripped of her traditional clothing, which symbolized her status within her community—a symbolic act carried out by Chilean law enforcement. Chile had previously been condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for its strategic use of anti-terrorism legislation against certain Mapuche individuals, violating the principles of equality and non-discrimination.

7 05, 2018

5 Indigenous Voices on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn and Girls | by Indigenous Rising Media | Medium

2024-02-14T11:54:16-05:00Tags: |

This article highlights five Indigenous leaders speaking out to address the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women within the United States. In 2016, there were 5,712 known incidents of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Legislation such as Washington State House Bill 2951 and the Savannah Act are aiming to provide proper resources to protect the lives of women and girls from violence. The article celebrates these pieces of legislation and shares five resources, including articles, podcasts, and videos, on how people can educate themselves further on the topic. Notably, one of the resources discusses the intersection between extractive economies that contribute to climate change and violence against Indigenous women. Five organizations with valuable statistics, resources, and facts are also shared, and include: Coalition to Stop Violence Against Women, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Database, Who Is Missing, and No More Stolen Sisters. Photo Credit:  Jonathan Canlas for Who Is Missing

3 05, 2018

She Stands Up to Power. Now, She’s Afraid to Go Home.

2023-11-30T14:44:22-05:00Tags: |

This article features the story of Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a UN special rapporteur for Indigenous rights, who has recently been targeted on a suspected terrorist list in her home country of the Philippines. Ms.Tauli-Corpuz is from the nation’s largest island, Luzon, and is part of the Kankanaey Igorot Indigenous community. She began her career in activism at a young age by protesting the Vietnam War at sixteen. Later in her life, she became a nurse but continued her activist work by organizing protests against a hydroelectric dam project proposal and campaigning against logging. During that time, however, the Philippines was under martial law, a period which has left Ms.Tauli-Corpuz worried about the present, as current events conjure memories of the past. At the time of the article's publication, Ms. Tauli-Corpuz had not been back home in two months and had not received any public support from the United States, nor from the head of the United Nations. Photo Credit: Orlando Sierra - 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

17 04, 2018

Statement of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact

2023-11-28T17:07:55-05:00Tags: , , |

In this short video from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Naw Ei Ei Min, a Karen Indigenous woman from Myanmar, speaks about the importance Indigenous women hold in the fight to end hunger and malnutrition. She describes how Indigenous women hold traditional knowledge, are protectors of Native seeds, and contribute to sustainable livelihoods, yet remain invisible, with their rights going unrecognized and unprotected. Min says if the 2030 agenda is achieved, it will only be possible through the empowerment of Indigenous women and addressing their needs through policies that are gender sensitive and culturally appropriate. 

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.

3 04, 2018

Zapatista women inspire the fight against patriarchy

2025-04-09T21:03:04-04:00Tags: |

On International Women’s Day in 2018, 7,000 women gathered in Chiapas, Mexico, attending an event organized by the women of the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), more commonly known as the Zapatistas. The women came together from 42 countries to collectively discuss and learn from the women of the EZLN. Initially organizing in secret, the Zapatistas first went public in 1994, declaring war on the Mexican government and calling for the defense of their collective land rights, which were brought under attack by the North American Free Trade Agreement. They formed the National Indigenous Council after being recognized by the state, but upon seeing the agreements disregarded by the Mexican government and sympathizers of their movement massacred, the Zapatistas decided to govern themselves autonomously. Today, they govern over 250,000 Indigenous people. The women shared their story of entering the then male-dominated movement and studying the situation of their community, concluding that they could not expect changes to be made by the government but that they had to lead this change themselves. Their role within their communities was poorly respected, and they recalled how they struggled against the intersectional discrimination they faced. Nowadays, despite still experiencing gender-based discrimination and violence, the movement has become a support network for other movements and causes, with women creating their own safe spaces.

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]

29 03, 2018

Meet the Women Protecting Vanuatu’s Resources for Future Generations

2026-03-29T17:51:34-04:00Tags: |

 Using a grant from the “Global Greengrants Fund,” women in Vanuatu created an organization called Island Reach that has been equipping people to become environmental leaders in their communities. They work in collaboration with local chiefs and relevant parties to achieve sustainable, community-managed conservation and greater resilience to natural disasters and the effects of climate change. The islands of Vanuatu are home to immense cultural and ecological diversity, but they are under threat due to their vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters, population growth, and the threat of a growing tourism industry. Island Reach works to maintain traditional knowledge and develop innovative solutions as vital practices for locals to build resilience in facing environmental challenges, “especially when women are given a seat at the table.” Island Reach previously used a Greengrant in 2017 to increase the number of women resource monitors on the islands, as well as to produce an inspiring short film shared in the article titled “Women Vanua'tai Resource Monitors of Land & Sea,” for knowledge sharing and raising awareness. The film introduces women who are at the forefront of climate action and driving change on the islands, and documents the emerging role played by women in natural resource management and environmental decision-making as part of “Wan Smolbag's Vanua'tai Resource Monitors Network,” an Indigenous group Island Reach has been collaborating with to increase women’s participation, build their capacity, and facilitate peer-to-peer exchanges.

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

21 03, 2018

13-Year-Old Advocate Autumn Peltier is Devoted to Protecting the World’s Water

2023-11-28T16:35:57-05:00Tags: |

This video clip highlights thirteen-year old indigenous water activist, Autumn Peltier, of the Anishinabek Nation. She discusses what being a water advocate means to her and what her dreams of water accessibility look like in the future. To Autumn, being an advocate for the Earth’s water means raising awareness about the topic and bringing attention to why water needs to be protected. She hopes for a world in which everyone, in every place, can drink their own water and have widespread access to clean drinking water. Through her work, she honors her Great Aunt Josephine, a water advocate as well. Autumn describes one of her most memorable moments thus far in her advocacy being her time at the Assembly of First Nations in 2016, when she met Justin Trudeau and told him about her dissatisfaction with his decisions. Autumn emphasizes how her work is not for awards or recognition, but rather her passion to protect water and Mother Earth. Photo Credit: Twitter/@ChiefsofOntario

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

8 03, 2018

“The river is a mother”: 4 indigenous women water protectors from Peru’s amazon

2025-04-09T20:30:23-04:00Tags: |

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, four Indigenous women who are part of the movement demanding justice for communities affected by the North Peruvian Pipeline near the Marañón River Basin spoke out about the injustices they have faced. They called for an independent study of the pipeline, a Truth Commission, and full remediation of oil blocks. The women emphasized the importance of the Marañón River, describing not only the consequences of its pollution on their health but also affirming its role as a mother of life. No longer able to rely on the river for sustenance, they urged the Peruvian government to supply food and water, highlighting the urgency of the situation. To them, the responsibility lies with both the state-owned Petroperú company, which operates the pipeline, and the Peruvian government. As long as the pipeline remains unsecured, there is no guarantee that Indigenous communities will not continue to suffer harm. They demand increased respect for their communities and their health. Women are particularly affected—witnessing the deterioration of their children’s health and often bearing the responsibility of collecting rainwater to ensure access to safe drinking water.

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

21 01, 2018

At Women’s Marches, A Spotlight On Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

2018-07-12T17:13:08-04:00Tags: |

At 2018 Women’s March events across the United States, Indigenous women stood in visible contrast to the bright pink pussy hats worn by the other marchers. Indigenous women donned red in remembrance of the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) in the United States and Canada. The red color shows solidarity against discriminatory practices of the state, judicial system and the increasing violence against indigenous women. Sarafina Joe, a tribal citizen of the Diné (Navajo) Nation marched holding a red banner with the name of her sister, Nicole Joe on it, Nicole Joe, who died due to domestic violence. Devastatingly, her culprit was only charged with aggravated assault rather than murder. The number of such cases has been increasing among young Indigenous women, a tragedy still left unspoken by the masses and mainstream media. Photo Credit: Jenni Monet/ PBS

21 01, 2018

At Women’s Marches, A Spotlight On Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

2018-02-15T13:05:22-05:00Tags: |

Instead of wearing pink “pussy hats” at the Women’s March in the United States, Indigenous women and their allies wore red to highlight the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and transgender people. From Phoenix, Arizona, to San Francisco and Seattle, Indigenous people led demonstrations, addressed the crowds and remembered their “stolen sisters”. 4 out of 5 Native women will encounter violence in their lifetime, more than half will experience domestic violence or sexual assault and in some areas the murder rate of Native American women is 10 times the national average. This violence which has been occurring for decades often goes unresolved, leaving loved ones feeling let down by, and sceptical of the justice system. Photo credit: Jenni Monet

17 01, 2018

Can Poetry Turn The Tide On Climate Change?

2020-10-10T19:15:39-04:00Tags: |

Marshallese poet and activist Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner uses the power of poetry to humanize the climate crisis faced by Pacific nations and demand swift global action. Her spoken word performance of Dear Matafele Peinem at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit was an impassioned call to action to ensure a safe, vibrant earth and rich cultural heritage for future generations. Her poem was met with acclaim and helped to convey the threat of rising sea levels and more frequent flooding to her home nation. She continues to advocate through her art as well as her work with Jo-Jikum, a nonprofit educating and empowering Marshallese youth on climate change. Photo Credit: The Adelaide Review

15 01, 2018

Native Houma Community Provides Local Climate Response

2020-12-15T22:00:23-05:00Tags: |

Monique Verdin is a citizen of the United Houma Nation in the St. Bernard Parish community of southern Louisiana. As a town previously devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and facing ongoing climate threats, community members are organizing around a vision for their shared future. In this short documentary directed by Katie Mathews, Verdin describes community-led efforts to educate, inspire, and envision through art, preservation of Indigenous knowledge, and creative community spaces for multigenerational engagement. She refers to one of her recent projects as a “Land Memory Bank” to share seeds, stories, and wisdom in a community archive. Despite the immense challenges facing their community, Verdin believes the answers will be found through working together. Photo credit: Screenshot from video

12 01, 2018

Protecting The Waterways Of The Navajo Nation

2018-02-06T15:13:09-05:00Tags: |

The video series ‘Breakthrough: Portraits of Women in Science’, profiles Karletta Chief, Chief Hydrologist with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Indigenous woman of the Diné (Navajo) Bitter Water Clan. For many years, Karletta has been leading out work to study the quality and properties of water on the Navajo Nation, an arid region which is home to over 250,000 resident spread across sections of Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The land has been desecrated for decades by coal and uranium mining, as well as the oil and gas industry. In August 2015, the Gold King Mine spill dumped millions of tons of toxic waste water into local river systems, contaminating the Animas River which is a vital source of life and livelihoods across the region. Karletta is working ceaselessly with the community to address the many issues faced due to this latest toxic water threat. Photo credit: Science Friday

8 01, 2018

Meet the 23-Year-Old Who’s Helping Lead the Indigenous Resistance Against Pipelines

2018-02-22T20:29:09-05:00Tags: |

In June 2017, 23 year-old indigenous activist Jackie Fielder quit her job to join Mazaska Talks, an organization that promotes community divestment from banks that fund fossil fuel projects and companies. Inspired by the Seattle City Council’s commitment to divestment, Jackie has since been at the forefront of community-based divestment efforts, traveling around the country and the world to mobilize citizens towards similar local-level, legislative action. She has continued to mobilize her own community with the creation of the San Francisco Defund DAPL Chapter, in which she actively shatters negative stereotypes placed upon indigenous women and holds fossil fuel companies accountable for their contribution to climate change and cultural genocide. She has also traveled with other Indigenous women to meet with major banks in Europe to advocate for fossil fuel divestment. Photo Credit: Jackie Fielder

27 12, 2017

Women’s Declaration Against Kinder Morgan Man Camps

2017-12-27T18:03:27-05:00Tags: |

Representatives of the Secwepemc Nation composed and delivered a Historic 'Women’s Declaration Against Kinder Morgan Man Camps' to the CEO of Kinder Morgan in Vancouver, Canada in Winter of 2017. The Declaration, which had been signed by over 2,800 international organizations and individuals, attests that the Secwepemc people never have and never will give their free, prior and informed consent to oil extraction in their territories, and specifically to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Project and the Kinder Morgan Man Camps. Speaking out as Indigenous women, the Declaration authors describe how women have borne the brunt of the impacts of colonial resource extraction. They speak to the horrors of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) - and how this intensifying attack has risen in connection with growth of oil extraction economies in Indigenous territories. In response, they present the movement for land protection being led by the women of the Tiny House Warriors. Photo credit: Secwepemcul’ecw Assembly/Linda Roy of Irevaphotography

27 12, 2017

In Rural Indonesia, Women Spearhead The Fight To Protect Nature

2018-03-02T13:11:54-05:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun, Eva Susanti Hanafi Bande, and Rusmedia Lumban Gaol are just a few of the fierce grassroots leaders fighting against Indigenous cultural and environmental destruction in Indonesia’s rural areas. In July 2017, they gathered with some 50 defenders, most of them women, to share their stories and celebrate their courageous activism in the face of a socio-ecological crisis in their homeland. Timber, mining, palm oil, and other extractive industries have exhausted the country’s natural resources and defenders like Aleta, Eva, and Rusmedia have bravely opposed their efforts in the face of violence, internal persecution, and imprisonment. Photo credit: Lusia Arumingtyas/Mongabay-Indonesia

21 12, 2017

How a Pioneering Botanist Broke Down Japan’s Gender Barriers

2021-01-27T20:38:26-05:00Tags: |

In this article, writer Leila McNeill offers a portrait of scientist Kono Yasui, a Japanese woman who broke grounds in academia, research and teaching. Aged 47, she was the first Japanese woman to earn a PhD in science (Tokyo Imperial University, 1927). This was an achievement in a cultural context in which women’s roles were restricted to being ‘good wives’ and ‘wise mothers’, rather than leaders of scientific inquiry. She was the first Japanese woman to publish in an academic journal, ‘Weber’s Organ of Carp Fish’ in Zoological Science; and the first to publish in a foreign (British) journal, Annals of Botany, ‘On the Life History of Salvinia Natans’ from her study of plant cells. Dedicating her life to research and committing to never marry, Yasui received ministerial funding to research abroad, in the US. In 1949, she contributed to the establishment of TWHNS, a national research university for women. Photo Credit: Ochanomizu University archive

21 12, 2017

Was 2017 The Year That The Tide Finally Turned Against Fossil Fuel Projects?

2018-03-02T13:47:05-05:00Tags: |

In this article, artist and activist Suzanne Dhaliwal of the UK Tar Sands Network marks a year of successful divestment efforts against the fossil fuel industry to mitigate climate impacts and defend Indigenous rights. Dhaliwal highlights the decision of Canadian-based Indigenous Climate Action and executive director Eriel Deranger, to reject a cash prize tied to tar sands projects and pipelines. This moral stand is among divestment commitments in 2017 from many financial institutions including AXA, BNP Paribas, KLP, and the World Bank. Going into 2018, Dhaliwal writes that continued action must focus on an intersectional just transition that puts everyone at the table, reinvests in the communities most impacted by climate change, and does not leave behind those previously dependent on the fossil fuel industry. Photo credit: Flickr/BeforeItStarts

2 12, 2017

30 Books By People Of Color About Plants And Healing

2018-03-02T13:55:54-05:00Tags: |

Queering Herbalism present a diverse list of 30 books by people of color on herbalism and holistic healing. Although many black, brown and Indigenous communities rely heavily on oral traditions, many barriers exist when they seek to become published, meaning most books on this topic are written by white people. Books on this list cover topics from Indigenous rites of birthing, to African American Slave Medicine, and feature prominent herbalists and healers, such as Ayo Ngozi, who teaches herbal history and medicine making.

28 11, 2017

Patricia Gualinga Of Sarayaku Ecuador Delivers High Level Intervention At COP23 Bonn

2017-12-28T14:51:29-05:00Tags: |

Patricia Gualinga of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku, Ecuador delivers a powerful high-level intervention on one of the closing evenings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany. In this video of her speech (Spanish and English language), Patricia explains how grassroots movements are continuing to implement innovative and effective solutions, while governments and corporations continue to make policies and deals meant to enhance material wealth at the expense of the climate and global communities and land-based and Indigenous peoples. She calls for a just transition to renewable energy, and respect for Mother Earth, women and youth. Photo credit: UNFCCC livestream

27 11, 2017

Women Speak: Casey Camp-Horinek Is Fighting Keystone XL In The Name Of Indigenous And Environmental Justice

2017-12-27T18:09:00-05:00Tags: |

Casey Camp Horinek, Ponca Nation Councilwoman, elder and long-time Indigenous rights and environmental protector, speaks with Ms. Magazine about her experience growing up as an Indigenous woman, and her work in the movements to stop extraction projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline - and shares her advice to young women, mothers and fellow grandmothers who are taking a stand for their communities and the Earth. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN International

27 11, 2017

What Was The Outcome Of The UN Climate Talks For Indigenous Peoples?

2017-12-27T18:05:36-05:00Tags: |

Gal-Dem, a magazine and creative collective comprised of over 70 women and non-binary people of color - interviews Jade Begay, a powerful Dine and Tewa multimedia artist, digital storyteller, media strategist, and filmmaker and producer with Indigenous Rising Media. Jade Begay attended the United Nations COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany in 2017 as a member of the #ItTakesRoots and Indigenous Environmental Network Delegations, to document and share their work, directly through the eyes of an Indigenous media-maker. Jade speaks on the importance of POC-centered media, and of Indigenous and frontline communities voices being present to stand for their rights and the climate at government negotiations. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

26 11, 2017

Buffy Sainte-Marie: “Protest Songs Spell Out Problems. Activist Songs Spell Out Solutions”

2017-12-26T16:08:40-05:00Tags: |

Buffy Sainte-Marie is a Cree singer-songwriter, activist, and First Nations Indigenous woman living in Canada. Her work as a musician, especially from her new album Medicine Songs, reflects the struggles of Indigenous peoples who have been massacred and had their lands stolen. Since the Sainte-Marie has used her music to bring the the voice and issues of Native tribes into pop culture and in the music industry. Photo credit: Matt Barnes

26 11, 2017

New Economy Trailblazer: Melina Laboucan-Massimo

2017-12-26T15:46:49-05:00Tags: |

Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and leader of Lubicon Solar grew up in Little Buffalo, Alberta, a witness to the damaging impacts of the tar sands oil industry on the land and her community, including the observation that people in her community were trapped into cycles of working for the very companies undermining their health and futures. Her experiences inspired her to begin to envision a post-oil economy for her community and Indigenous peoples across the region, founding the community-run Pîtâpan Solar site and Lubicon Solar project. Photo Credit: Melina Laboucan Massimo

26 11, 2017

Indigenous Women Lead Effort To Reclaim Ancestral Lands

2018-07-13T15:22:19-04:00Tags: |

In Oakland, California, Indigenous women have established the Sogorea Te Land Trust in order to buy back stolen Indigenous territory. Led by Corrina Gould and Johnella LaRose, the Land Trust is a chance for Indigenous groups to undo, at least in part, centuries of cultural erasure. From Spanish Missions to the Gold Rush, native Californians have endured centuries of illegal land grabs and treaties that failed to recognize tribes. The idea for the Land Trust began seven years ago when a piece of waterfront on the Carquinez Strait was slated for development. Indigenous groups occupied the land and were able to successfully block contractors, but a lack of legal mechanisms to collectively own property made it impossible for them to claim the land for themselves. They decided to establish the women-led Trust with the hope that one day they would have blocks of land on which they could pray, dance, and create shared cultural space to reconnect with the land. Photo credit: Brian Feulner, Special To The Chronical

24 11, 2017

Here’s How The All-Woman Chief And Council Of The Saik’uz First Nation Is Changing The Way Leadership Works

2020-09-03T01:21:41-04:00Tags: |

Early 2017 was marked as an auspicious year for Saik'uz First Nation which selected five women – Priscilla Mueller, Jasmine Thomas, Marlene Quaw, Allison Johnny and Chief Jackie Thomas to lead the tribe. The council of five women identified four key areas to work – governance + finance, environmental stewardship, socio-cultural issues, and education + employment. Jasmine Thomas, the youngest member of council was inspired to lead after Chief Thomas's success against the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. Her work helped lead to the Tsilhqot'in Land Ruling, which now requires the government and companies to work with First Nations in order to develop natural resources, rather than going around them. Photo Credit: Andrew Kurjata/CBC

22 11, 2017

How Alaska Native Women Are Healing From Generations Of Trauma

2023-04-16T16:18:12-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Kunaq (or Marjorie) an Iñupiaq woman from Nome, Alaska discusses her work in reviving her culture’s tradition of chin tattoos. Kunaq describes the role of these tattoos and how they traditionally acknowledged spirits and honored animals and future generations. This practice, along with many others, was banned by missionaries who attempted to “civilize” the Iñupiaq People. Today, these tattoos are making a comeback as a mode of healing and cultural reclamation. When Kunaq received her own chin tattoo in 2012, there were only a handful of other women who had them. Realizing this, Kunaq started tattooing to make traditional tattoos more accessible to other women who want them. She emphasizes the powerful ceremonial significance this practice has. The ink used in tattooing is traditionally made from seal oil lamps, or nanuk, which means light. The design that Kunaq tattoos is one that is only tattooed by women artists, and it is a signifier of strength and womanhood. Kanuq explains that these traditional tattoos are an act of defiance and an acknowledgement of her ancestors’ survival. 

17 11, 2017

These Women Nobelists Are Fighting For Grassroots Activists In Central America

2020-12-02T20:27:53-05:00Tags: |

Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú, Tawakkol Karman, and Jody Williams dedicate their lives to defending the rights of women, children, and the earth and, rather than cease this work, they have used their international acclaim to fuel and uplift local women-led movements. In October, they followed grassroots efforts in Honduras and Guatemala, even marching in solidarity with women from Casillas against the San Rafael mine. The laureates aim to bring the world lens to showcase these steadfast women leaders and their work against corrupt economic and political interests that seek to silence them and disrupt their communities. Photo credit: Mel Mencos

17 11, 2017

Nebeday Enables Senegalese Women From Rural Areas To Obtain New Forms Of Income

2020-12-02T20:07:28-05:00Tags: |

Nebeday is an association for environmental protection that supports Senegalese women from rural areas to obtain new forms of income outside of the traditional harvesting period through the cultivation and transformation of the moringa plant. The plant adapts to very arid environments and has a positive environmental impact, while also being nutritionally rich. The project also raises awareness of the need for sustainable resource management and the positive impact women can have on the development of the local economy. Photo credit: Video Capture

15 11, 2017

On Gender Day At Climate Meet, Some Progress, Many Hurdles

2018-10-29T17:00:38-04:00Tags: |

The UNFCCC’s Women and Gender Constituency (WGC) was established in 2009 by 27 non-profit organizations at the Conference of the Parties (COP), also known as the Climate Negotiations. This year at COP23, the UNFCCC accepted the Gender Action Plan (GAP), a roadmap to integrate gender equality and women's empowerment in all its discussions and actions.  For Kalyani Raj, the focal point of the WGC and other female leaders attending the COP, this is a clear indication of progress. Unfortunately, the adopted GAP omitted several of the original demands, including those related to indigenous women and women human rights defenders. Photo Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

15 11, 2017

‘Red Flag’ Raised: Study Finds Possible Fracking Risk To Pregnant BC Women

2018-02-15T12:22:14-05:00Tags: |

Researchers at the Université of Montréal have found muconic acid levels in urine samples of women within close proximity of fracking sites in Northeastern British Columbia, Canada to be 3.5 times higher than amounts found in the general population. Benzene, which has been associated with reduced birth weight and increased risk of childhood leukemia and birth defects, is a contaminant that is often emitted while extracting waste gas from oil and gas sites. Nearly half of the participants tested were Indigenous, and the study concluded that muconic acid levels found in these women were 2.3 times higher than in the non-Indigenous participants and six times higher than levels found in the general population. While more research is needed to determine the source of the benzene, results are consistent with other studies on the impacts of fracking on women.  Photo credit: Ecoflight

11 11, 2017

Training Women In Agroecology Yields Results In West Africa

2021-02-16T20:29:15-05:00Tags: |

In May 2017, the Burkinabe agricultural organization, ‘We are the solution! Celebrate African family farming’ held a farming workshop for female Burkinabe farmers. The workshop focused on agro-ecological food production methods and aimed to train women how to adapt their farming techniques to climate change. The movement’s coordinator Sibiri Dao, has since expanded the movement to include countries such as Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Senegal. Through this movement, Dao hopes to use women to empower local communities to practice food sovereignty and engage in more sustainable methods of agriculture. Photo Credit: L’Économiste du Faso 

3 11, 2017

The Story We Want: Moms Responding To Methane Pollution And Oil In New Mexico

2017-12-27T18:10:51-05:00Tags: |

As part of the five-part ‘The Story We Want’ video series, the Moms Clean Air Force and Climate Listening Project travel to New Mexico in the Southwest United States, where they hear from Diné women leaders, including Kendra Pinto and Louise Benally, who are standing up to protect their families, communities and the Earth from methane pollution, growing oil and gas operations, and a dangerous "culture of extraction". Photo credit: Mom’s Clean Air Force

2 11, 2017

WECAN Speaks With Mirian Cisneros, Woman President Of The Pueblo Of Sarayaku, Ecuador During The UN COP23 Climate Talks

2017-12-28T14:52:58-05:00Tags: |

Mirian Cisneros, woman President of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon, speaks with the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN International) while in Bonn, Germany for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP23 climate negotiations. Mirian shares thoughts on the significance of being a woman leader of her community, and about her people’s message to the world during COP23. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

23 10, 2017

Minnesota ‘Water Walker’ Hopes To Save Waterways From Contamination

2019-01-21T19:32:28-05:00Tags: |

Sharon Day, executive director of Indigenous Peoples Task Force in Minneapolis and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe, is a woman of substance: she has been walking many miles to bring people’s attention to the importance of water and how waterways have been polluted. She has walked along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, joined by a core team of five companions and anyone else who wants to join. Known as Nibi Walks (nibi is the Ojibwe word for water), the walks are prayers, not protests. She is deeply inspired by the grandmother of the Nibi Walks movement, Josephine Mandamin.  Photo Credit: Sharon Day

20 10, 2017

Women Farmers Are Leading Northern India From Subsistence To Regeneration

2020-09-02T22:54:54-04:00Tags: |

The increasing feminization of agriculture is an expanding market for women farmers in northern India. They are organizing themselves in self help groups and cooperatives such as Aarohi, Chirag and Mahila Umang (one of largest cooperatives in Uttrakhand) by helping each other to bear financial expenses. These cooperatives promote the traditional way of agriculture in nearby states like Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya along the restoring the hills by reforestation. In most of these states, men and young people have moved to urban areas. So, now the women who are left behind are creating balance between the rural economy and ecology, says Kalyan Paul, co-founder of Pan Himalayan Grassroots Development Foundation in Almora, Uttrakhand. Photo Credit: Esha Chhabra

20 10, 2017

One Woman’s Plan To Give Back: ‘The Land Needs To Be Returned To Indigenous Peoples’

2018-08-24T17:34:03-04:00Tags: |

In a CBC Radio interview, Janice Keil discusses her efforts to repatriate 100 acres of land to Alderville First Nation in Ontario, Canada. Gord Downie and Buffy Saint Marie have been a source of inspiration for Keil, particularly in light of the 2017 Canada 150 celebrations. After hearing Downie speak, she says, she felt ashamed to celebrate and has since vowed to do everything she can to help with Reconciliation efforts. The process of passing on the deed has not been easy given that this has rarely – if ever - been done. Keil hopes that her actions will set an example for fellow Canadians as well as the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and that more land will be repatriated. While some in her community have dismissed her as naïve, she maintains that at the heart of Reconciliation is the land that white settlers stole from Indigenous communities. Photo Credit: Janice Keil

20 10, 2017

Indigenous Women Take Pipeline Activism Global

2017-11-01T10:52:53-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Diné human rights lawyer, founding member of the of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and delegate to the Autumn 2017 Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegation to Europe, speaks on Rising Up With Sonali TV, providing hard hitting analysis of why financial and political institutions are morally and legally obligated to change their practices to respect Indigenous rights, human rights and the Earth - and how Indigenous women are taking action to push for this accountability and action in some of the European nations home to major investors and institutions funding fossil fuel extraction projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

6 10, 2017

Ponca Nation Of Oklahoma To Recognize The Rights Of Nature To Stop Fracking

2017-12-06T14:26:04-05:00Tags: |

In response to a history of abuses and a recent onslaught of years of intensive fracking development, the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma voted on October 20, 2017 to pass a statute recognizing the Rights of Nature, as a tool to legally block continued fracking, and resultant poisoning of land and water, health issues, earthquakes and other dangerous impacts. When enacted, the Ponca will be the first United States tribal nation to recognize the Rights of Nature in statutory law. Casey Camp Horinek, member of the Ponca Tribal Business Council, grandmother, and longtime leader and Indigenous rights and Earth protector - and her family, have been central to ensuring this forward motion. Allied climate justice organizations, such as Movement Rights, have also supported efforts. Photo credit: Movement Rights

4 10, 2017

Kandi Mossett On The Hidden Costs Of Modernity 

2023-04-30T14:25:33-04:00Tags: |

In this For the Wild podcast episode, host Ayana Young speaks with Kandi Mossett, an Indigenous (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) woman who is the current Lead Organizer on the Extreme Energy & Just Transition Campaign at Indigenous Environmental Network. Mossett’s work is centered on raising awareness about the countless negative social and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracking. Mossett has witnessed these impacts herself and describes the changes she has seen within her own community in North Dakota since the oil industry was established there. She recounts stories of friends and loved ones dying due to acts of violence, as well as increases in asthma and upper respiratory conditions because of the natural gas flares that have continued for over a decade. The influx of oil rig workers in the community has made rent prices unaffordable, resulting in many local people being displaced, including elders. Mossett emphasizes the ways in which these systems of industry and government are broken and how they must be restructured on a foundation of trust, strength, and equality for true change to occur. She calls for everyone to think about the big picture and for each individual to consider what type of impact they want to leave on this world. 

1 10, 2017

Why Native American Women Are Going After Europe’s Banks to Divest From Big Oil

2017-11-01T04:52:40-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women leaders from the United States traveled to Europe in October 2017, where they met with leaders of government and financial institutions in Norway, Switzerland, and Germany to share their experiences, and calls to action for immediate action to divest funding from the Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners, as well as other dangerous fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous lands. In this Yes! Magazine interview, delegate Jackie Fielder (Mnicoujou Lakota and Mandan-Hidatsa), campaign coordinator of Lakota People’s Law Project and organizer with Mazaska Talks, discusses the events of the Delegation, as well as ongoing global, Indigenous-led movements for fossil fuel divestment such as the Divest The Globe and Equator Banks Act campaigns. Photo credit: Teena Pugliese

29 09, 2017

Indigenous Communities Being Left Behind In Canada’s Green Revolution

2017-11-12T18:07:31-05:00Tags: |

Heather Milton-Lightening is an Indigenous woman leader from Pasqua First Nation in Saskatchewan, who is trying to raise awareness among Indigenous communities of climate change and the lack of a just transition to a green economy, through her activity with Indigenous Climate Action. She says that when communities are facing many other pressing problems, such as poverty, they are less involved in the transition to clean energy. Photo credit: Brandi Morin/CBC

26 09, 2017

It Is Time Governments Recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Contributions

2017-10-26T17:36:38-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Igorot), UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, points out that despite the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, few governments have adopted national laws that reflect their commitments. Indigenous rights to land continue to be disrespected, and the right to self-determination is violated. She calls for a serious effort to address the reasons why the UN Declaration is not effectively implemented. According to Victoria the key obstacles are: the rights of Indigenous peoples are not prioritized, the historical injustices that have been happening to Indigenous Peoples have not been redressed and governments need to recognize the contributions of Indigenous Peoples in protecting the environment and making this world a more sustainable place. Photo credit: Broddi Sigurdarson

26 09, 2017

Our Territory Is Not A Sacrifice Zone: Tsleil-Waututh Councillor Charlene Aleck

2017-10-26T17:31:04-04:00Tags: |

Charlene Alek, the granddaughter of Chief Dan George and an elected Councilor for the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, explains the disastrous consequences of the Kinder Morgan pipeline project in Canada. While Prime Minister Trudeau announces that he would approve the pipeline as he considers it safe, officials in Washington State have expressed serious concerns about Canada’s inability to respond to a potential spill. Photo credit: Pull Together

26 09, 2017

The Power of Oceti Sakowin Women

2017-11-01T05:08:11-04:00Tags: |

The Oceti Sakowin (Seven Councils Fires) is comprised of seven bands of Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Indigenous peoples, who traditionally lived across in the Northern plains of the United States. Women’s knowledge and leadership, always central to the Oceti Sakowin, has been brought again to the forefront as part of the Standing Rock, Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) resistance movement. Ihanktonwan Nakota elder, Faith Spotted Eagle, has been a key voice in opposition to the pipeline, and has also taken ceaseless action to support Oceti Sakowin women through the Brave Heart Society, which is helping resprout many traditional women’s teachings and ceremonies which were fragmented over generations of colonization, displacement and extractive violence. Photo credit: University of Nebraska-Lincoln

26 09, 2017

Faith Spotted Eagle, Indigenous Activist, Speaks Candidly About What It’s Like

2017-11-07T11:31:34-05:00Tags: |

In this interview, Faith Spotted Eagle, elder of the Yankton Sioux Nation in Lake Andes, South Dakota, shares her reflections, experiences and advice to young activists as an Indigenous woman community organizer, land defender, healer and leader - most recently active in the fight against Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL). Through the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Spotted Eagle also works to address sexual abuse, assault and PTSD amongst community members. Connecting these two issues, she speaks on the impacts of the oil industry on violence against Indigenous women. Photo credit: Louisiana Mei Gelpi

26 09, 2017

Indigenous Women’s Struggles To Oppose State-Sponsored Deforestation In Chhattisgarh, India

2017-12-26T16:23:45-05:00Tags: |

Koriya District situated in North West corner of Chhattisgarh, India is a historically densely forested area where the Indigenous population has always depended on the forest ecosystems to earn their livelihoods. Over the past decade, the natural forests have been replaced with teak plantations, and in response, AAS, an organization of local Indigenous women, has taken action to challenge the state to revoke policies of transforming natural forest into commercially cultivated forests, and to try and secure forest rights and justice for the Indigenous communities of the region. Photo Credit: Oxfam

26 09, 2017

Native Youth “Paddle to Protect” Minnesota’s Water from Another Enbridge Pipeline

2017-10-31T15:24:47-04:00Tags: |

Young women such as Rose Whipple and Valyncia Sparvier are on the forefront of action by Indigenous youth in the Great Lakes region to oppose the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline through a 250 mile “Paddle to Protect” action held over Summer 2017. The proposed project threatens water quality, Indigenous rights, and vital ancestral food producing regions - prompting the youth to take to their local waterways to draw public attention to the dangers of the project on the land, water and their future. Honor the Earth, a Minnesota-based Indigenous rights group directed by Ojibwe woman leader, Winona LaDuke, had been central to support of the youth involved in the paddle and continued advocacy. Photo credit: John Collins

26 09, 2017

Mexican Presidential Candidate Maria De Jesus Patricia Martinez On Healing For Land And People

2017-10-26T16:10:53-04:00Tags: |

María de Jesús “Marichuy” Patricio Martínez, a Nahua Indigenous woman leader born in Tuxpan, Jalisco, has made history as Mexico’s first ever Indigenous woman presidential candidate for the 2018 elections. María is a traditional healer in her community, know for her lifetime of work to protect traditional ways, culture, language and the wellbeing of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico. She was prompted to run for office after witnessing the dangerous impact of industry, particularly mining, on the health and lives of her people and the land on which they depend. Photo credit: Duncan Tucker

26 09, 2017

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger On Indigenous Rights In The Face Of Climate Change

2017-10-26T14:14:40-04:00Tags: |

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action spoke at 2017 LUSH Summit about Indigenous rights and climate change. Deranger challenges extractive models of development and their impacts on people and the planet, and postulates that we must begin to draw inspiration from Indigenous beliefs of the Earth’s sacredness for collective life to persist. Her community resides downstream from large-scale Canadian tar sands surface mining fields and collectively, the ACFN have witnessed first-hand the complex impacts extractive industry can have on Indigenous peoples and the planet. Photo credit: LUSH Player

26 09, 2017

First Nation Builds Ten Tiny Homes To Block Trans Mountain Pipeline

2017-10-26T14:10:25-04:00Tags: |

The Secwepemc First Nation constructed roughly ten micro-homes along a section of the proposed route of the Trans Mountain pipeline in British Columbia. The First Nation has declared formal opposition to the project, which would ship 900,000 barrels of crude oil (or tar sands) a day through Secwepemc territory. This article in VICE features an interview with Kanahus Manuel, the woman Indigenous leader who spearheaded the direct-action project called Tiny House Warriors to protest the tar sands pipeline proposed by Houston-based oil giant, Kinder Morgan. Photo credit: Ian Willms

26 09, 2017

10 Things You Always Wanted To Ask An Indigenous Land Defender

2017-10-26T14:08:46-04:00Tags: |

Kanahus Manuel, a determined woman Indigenous leader, is leading her First Nation’s movement to fight a dirty tar sands pipeline expansion. If built, the pipeline would bisect the Secwepemc First Nation’s territory in British Columbia and threaten their livelihood, water and the Earth’s climate. This blog, published by Greenpeace, includes testimony from Manuel about her personal and cultural motivations to fight the fossil fuel industry, the risks she faces specifically as a woman in doing so, and how she came to form the group, Tiny House Warriors (THW). THW have been constructing tiny homes in the path of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Trans Mountain pipeline to protest its expansion. Photo credit: Ian Willms/Greenpeace

11 09, 2017

Winona LaDuke: “Time To Move On” From Exploiting, Ignoring Nature

2018-02-20T18:53:16-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous rights activist, and advocate for women and the Earth, Winona LaDuke, addressed a crowd at Johns Hopkins University as part of the JHU Forums on Race in America, “Time to move on”. LaDuke is part of the Ojibwe or Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota, the founder of the Indigenous Women’s Network, White Earth Land Recovery Project, and Executive Director of Honor the Earth. Sharing stories from her life, LaDuke emphasizes the importance of Indigenous knowledge and the need for society to move from an economy based on exploitation and the rights of corporations, to one based on life and the rights of nature. Photo credit: Will Kirk/ Homewood Photography

8 09, 2017

Decolonize Justice Systems! An Interview With Dine’ Lawyer Michelle Cook

2020-09-08T21:23:05-04:00Tags: |

All over the world, Indigenous communities exist and function within two justice systems based on different worldviews: the European and the Indigenous. Human Rights Lawyer Michelle Cook (Diné), member of the Navajo Nation and born of the Honághááhnii clan, discusses the unequal relationship between these two frameworks and explains how the language of Human Rights can help challenge the colonial legal system which understates Indigenous' institutions. Photo Credit: Indigenous Rights Radio.

8 09, 2017

Amplifying The Voices Of Indigenous People Through The Lens Of Women

2017-10-12T14:07:05-04:00Tags: |

In a keynote address to commemorate International Women’s Day, journalist Monalisa Changkija explored how the environment becomes feminised in discourses of the environment. She outlined the stemming gender disparities between men and women’s obligation to the environment and how Indigenous women are the most at risk. She refers to the increasing difficulty of seed sovereignty, and the unpredictability of climate change and its impacts upon women farmers and agriculture in Northeastern and Himalayan states. She proceeds to comment on how systemic imbalance sidelines Indigenous women from important discussions in government issues.

4 09, 2017

Erica Violet Lee: The Student Who Challenges Indigenous Stereotypes And Advocates For Change

2017-09-04T21:59:46-04:00Tags: |

Lee identifies as a Nēhiyaw Philosopher Queen and Indigenous Feminist. Her interests lie with anti-poverty advocacy, Indigenous rights, sovereignty, colonialism and how this history has shaped Canadian institutions. During her interview she mentions that Canadian university classrooms are frequently hostile spaces for Indigenous students citing the pervasive racism, colonialism, and patriarchy in lectures, readings, and assignments. Lee draws inspiration from women such as Rinnelle Harper, an Indigenous Winnipeg teen who survived a vicious attack and who is now bravely speaking out on missing and murdered Indigenous women. As a feminist, Lee believes that the way Indigenous women sex workers are viewed in our society needs to be challenged. Conversations about sex work should rest on an acknowledgment of the colonial history of the places these discussions are happening and she calls for a more open dialogue. Photo credit: Jacqueline Li

3 09, 2017

In Our Bones: Afrida Ngato

2017-09-03T21:28:50-04:00Tags: |

Afrida Erna Ngato is an indigenous activist and a “Sangaji Pagu” – a leader of the Pagu, a tribe living on their land since the 11th century. Previously, all leaders of the tribe were men but, Afrida stepped forward and became the first female leader. The mining in the Gulf of Kao caused water shortages, polluted rivers and bays, damaged ecosystems, and loss of biodiversity. Since the pipe burst, people began to fear eating fish, using the river water, and having trouble finding fish in the river. Access to clean water has reached crisis levels and this situation made Afrida take action. She protested for her community's rights along with 23 community members. All of them were arrested by the police but this made them even stronger. After this incident, Afrida widened her network by collaborating with neighboring tribes and now this makes it more difficult for mining companies to exploit them.

31 08, 2017

Living On Ohlone Land — What We Learned From Indigenous Women Leaders

2017-10-31T22:52:58-04:00Tags: |

At a panel organized by SURJ Bay Area entitled "Indigenous Women Leaders Discuss Building Reciprocity With Local Indigenous Communities" in Huichin/Oakland, Corrina Gould (Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone), Ruth Orta (Him*re-n Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Plains Miwok), Ann Marie Sayers (Mutsun Ohlone), Chief Caleen Sisk (Winnemem Wintu), and moderator Desirae Harp (Mishewal Wappo, Diné) discussed how people can practice solidarity and allyship with Indigenous peoples. Each of the women panelists are formidable women leaders: Corrina Gould is working to protect the Ohlone Shellmounds, the burial sites of her ancestors, and cofounded Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC), while Ann Marie Sayers established Indian Canyon, California as a cultural haven for Indigenous peoples. At the panel, Caleen Sisk, the Spiritual Leader and Tribal Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, discussed water protection and her work restoring salmon runs on the McCloud River. Singer-songwriter Desirae Harpcontributes to Indigenous justice through the arts, and is the founder the Mishewal Ona*staTis language revitalization program. Photo credit: Christopher McLeod

26 08, 2017

Water Protector, Tara Houska, Bestowed Good Housekeeping’s Awesome Women of 2017 Award

2017-10-26T16:45:50-04:00Tags: |

Tara Houska (Ojibwe of the Couchiching First Nation), a tribal rights attorney, Campaigns Director with Honor the Earth, and former Native American advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, was awarded the Good Housekeeping Awesome Women award in 2017. The recognition comes for her ongoing work to speak up for Indigenous rights, and stand in opposition to fossil fuel pipelines including the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and Enbridge Line 3. Photo credit: Indian Country Today/Instagram

17 08, 2017

Siosinamele Lui: The Role Of Traditional Knowledge In Pacific Meterology

2017-09-22T22:50:17-04:00Tags: |

Siosinamele Lui is the Climate Traditional Knowledge Officer based at Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme.  She has spent a decade working for the Samoa Meteorological Service, in particular the Geoscience and Oceans observations before working at S.P.R.E.P. In this article she explains the role of traditional knowledge in Pacific meteorology, and how it aids a creating responses to climate change and natural disaster. Photo credit: S.P.R.E.P.

17 08, 2017

Indigenous Women On Bakken Oil Extraction Zone

2017-10-13T16:13:45-04:00Tags: |

In this video, women of the Hidatsa, Arikara and Mandan nations march in a healing walk in the heart of the Bakken Oil Formation. Indigenous activists assert that extraction zones such as the Bakken Oil Formation are where environmental racism begins, and it ends with contaminating communities of color across the country. Photo credit: Facebook/Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

16 08, 2017

Abirgal Quic On The Road To Sustainability

2017-10-12T14:16:18-04:00Tags: |

Abigail Quic, a young T’zutujil woman from Solola, Guatemala, recounts her trip to Australia to share knowledge and experience with sustainability education in Central America as well as learn and work alongside other youth sustainability leaders at the Australian organisation OzGreen. Building from her Indigenous knowledge of weaving and agriculture, Abigail was able to join in conversation with fellow Australians and bring the information back home to share. Photo credit: Seres

9 08, 2017

Indigenous Women: Defending The Environment In Latin America

2017-10-12T14:18:06-04:00Tags: |

This article describes the successes of Indigenous peoples across in Latin America. Since the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this article recognizes the strong leadership of Indigenous women who have stood at the front lines of many of these achievements and celebrate the Indigenous communities that have defended their lands from mega-dam and mining projects. However, it also highlights that despite this progress, Indigenous people must still fight to protect their rights, their lands, and their cultures. Photo credit: UNDESA-DSPD/Jimmy Kruglinski  

7 08, 2017

Indigenous Climate Action Welcomes Eriel Tchekwie Deranger As Executive Director

2017-12-07T18:44:29-05:00Tags: |

Canada’s only Indigenous-led climate justice organization, Indigenous Climate Action, has named as its Executive Director Indigenous woman leader, Eriel Tchekwie Deranger of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. Eriel has spent many years working with environmental organizations, and front-line Indigenous water protectors and land defenders across her region and around the world. She is an advocate with the United Nations Indigenous Peoples Caucus, and has proven to be a vital leader both on the streets and in the halls of international conferences and meetings. With her leadership, the organization will look forward to produce a Indigenous Knowledge Climate Change Toolkit, and deepening community engagement and movement building for Indigenous led climate action in Canada. Photo credit: Indigenous Climate Action

4 08, 2017

Running The Salmon Home: Lifeways And Waters Of The Winnemem Wintu

2017-09-03T21:03:41-04:00Tags: |

The Winnemen Wintu, also known as the Middle Water People, can be found along the McCloud River in Northern California. Winnimen Wintu legend has it that their ancestors gained the ability to speak from Salmon, in exchange for eternal protection from external threats. Chief Caleen Sisk is organizing a Run4Salmon, to generate public awareness for the need to replenish the Chinook Salmon stock, which is endangered by climate change and the construction of dams. Photo credit: Toby McLeod

3 08, 2017

Eryn Wise On Why Feminism And Fighting For The Planet Go Hand In Hand

2017-10-14T15:43:10-04:00Tags: |

In this interview we meet Eryn Wise, 26, a young two-spirit (LGBTQ) Native American leader who's been on the front lines of the Dakota Access pipeline protests since last year. She is Jicarilla Apache and Laguna Pueblo, an organizer for Honor the Earth, and the media coordinator for the International Indigenous Youth Council and Sacred Stone Camp. She grew up in Dulce, New Mexico. She explains the connection between environmental activism, being a feminist, and the Obama administration’s treatment of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Photo credit: Eryn Wise/Facebook

1 08, 2017

Kahontakwas Diane Longboat: “The Good Mind Will Transform The World”

2017-11-01T04:09:18-04:00Tags: |

Kahontakwas, Diane Longboat is from the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan at Six Nations of the Grand River Territory, Canada shares her thoughts on spiritual activism, peace building, and the importance of Indigenous women’s leadership in healing communities and the Earth. Photo credit: Diane Longboat

31 07, 2017

Snapshots From Kenya: Women Climate Defenders

2017-10-31T19:12:36-04:00Tags: |

Masaai women from the Enooretet community in Transmara, Kenya and the Naramam community of West Pokot, Kenya are combating deforestation and sustainably managing natural resources by growing tree nurseries and using energy-efficient stoves. MADRE and the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) brought the communities together to share knowledge and best practices of responding to climate change at a training with Lucy Mulenke (IIN) and Natalia Caruso (MADRE) in the summer of 2017. The women built skills in women's and human rights while building friendships and business smarts. Photo credit: MADRE

27 07, 2017

Berta Cáceres’s Daughter Speaks Out After Surviving Assassination Attempt In Honduras

2017-10-27T01:30:44-04:00Tags: |

There was an attempted attack on Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres, the daughter of renowned environmental activist Berta Cáceres, and the new leader of Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) on her way home from a community visit. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now speaks with Bertita Zúñiga Cáceres to get insight into the attack and the possible motives. She is also joined by US Representative Hank Johnson and Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle, a former COPINH member. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

26 07, 2017

Winona LaDuke On How To Be Better Ancestors

2017-10-26T17:43:03-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Winona LaDuke, an internationally renowned activist working on issues of sustainable development renewable energy and food systems, reflects on how to be a good ancestor and on intergenerational accountability. She uses Standing Rock as an example and she explains that it should not be seen only as a place but rather as a state of mind. In Standing Rock we can see this unity, hope and will to protect and free Mother Earth from exploitation. She calls us to act as responsible ancestors, protect Mother Earth and care about our children’s future. Photo credit: Center for Humans and Nature

26 07, 2017

Bay Area Women And First Nations Allies Fight Tar Sands Pipeline Expansion Project

2017-10-26T13:48:49-04:00Tags: |

This video profiles leaders Corazon Amada of Diablo Rising Tide and Isabella Zizi of Idle No More SF Bay, along with others, who participated in a protest to block the entrance to an oil storage facility in Richmond, California. The women took a strong stance against Canada’s approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, which they say could be worse than the Keystone XL pipeline in terms of environmental impact. They voiced their support and stood as allies to First Nations people. The expansion project would significantly increase the amount of crude oil shipped from Canada to the west coast of the United States. Many of the protestors at the event were arrested. Photo credit: Fusion Media Network

25 07, 2017

Helen And Sylvia: A Transformative Friendship

2020-10-06T23:38:51-04:00Tags: |

In partnership with the the Indigenous Information Network (IIN), the global feminist organization MADRE facilitated an exchange of farming knowledge between two indigeous Kenyan women, Hellen and Sylvia. Hellen is a mother of five living in Chepareria, Kenya. She is a member of the Pokot Indigenous People and sells crops from her one acre farm. Sylvia, a Maasai woman, lives 250 miles away in Ololulunga, Kenya. With her maize crops dying due to drought, Sylvia was struggling to support herself and her family. At a MADRE event, the two women met each other, and Helena showed Sylvia her small poultry farm. Inspired by Helena’s poultry farm, Sylvia started her own. She now sells chicken eggs at the local market and finds it easier to support her family. Photo Credit:madre.org

23 07, 2017

Gloria Ushigua From The Sapara Tribe Of Ecuador Speaks In Oakland

2025-01-25T11:25:26-05:00Tags: |

During an event organized in honor of Ms. Ushigua from the Sapara Nation in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Indigenous women from Ecuador and the United States gathered to make their voices heard against the destruction of Mother Earth. Ms. Ushigua presented on the problems that her tribe is facing as their territory is covered by oil blocks and the oil is extracted for export to China. She discussed how, when her tribe was informed about the drilling plans, five Sapara women protested the destruction of their land and prevented the planes from landing in their territory. Gloria points out how Indigenous women in her area are victims of violence every time they fight for their land and rights, and shares thoughts on exactly why it is so important for her and her community to be part of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty, which was written by and for Indigenous women leaders of North and South America, uniting to defend their land and lives. Photo credit: Nanette Bradley Deetz

18 07, 2017

Indigenous Groups In Brazil Occupy Power Plant For Cultural Survival

2017-09-22T18:30:31-04:00Tags: |

Roughly 200 members of the Munduruku, an Indigenous ethnic group in Brazil, occupied the construction site of Sao Manoel Hydroelectric Power Plant, with one of their main grievances being that the company hold consultations with the group before construction resumes. Maria Leusa Kabaiwun Munduruku, a community leader, explains that the company had planned to build on sacred lands, in addition to violating human and environmental rights. Photo credit: Reuters

15 07, 2017

David Suzuki Foundation Appoints First Indigenous Research Fellow

2017-10-25T22:51:08-04:00Tags: |

Cree leader Melina Laboucan-Massimo has dedicated her life to protecting Indigenous communities in Canada. Over the past ten years, she has fought against fossil fuel infrastructure and implemented renewable energy projects with Greenpeace Canada and the Indigenous Environmental Network. Now, as the David Suzuki Foundation’s first Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change fellow, she directs research on potential Indigenous-led climate solutions. Photo credit: David Suzuki Foundation

12 07, 2017

World Indigenous Women Fight Climate Change at COP21

2017-09-22T10:05:49-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from around the world united at the International Indigenous Women's Day at the COP21 climate talks to demonstrate their central role in the battle against climate change. While Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka praised the draft climate agreement for shifting from being "gender-blind" to one that includes "gender references," including a controversial section on climate finance, the women also recognized that the text required more work to strengthen Indigenous rights. Grace Balawag of the Indigenous Peoples' International Center for Policy Research and Education discussed how the draft supports respecting the knowledge and traditions of Indigenous peoples (IPs) in adaptation to climate change; however, this part is left out in terms of mitigation and loss and damage. Photo credit: Fritzie Rodriguez/Rappler  

10 07, 2017

Struggle For Water And Sovereignty

2017-09-03T20:50:39-04:00Tags: |

In this emotional video, Temryss Xeli'tia Lane of the Golden Eagle Clan, Lummi Nation, speaks about protecting her people’s waters, the main source of their livelihood, from TransCanada’s pipeline projects and other threats. She speaks about how the water is their land, and without fishing, her culture and ancestry are endangered. Photo credit: Desk Gram

4 07, 2017

Remembering Koreti Mavaega Tiumalu: 350 Pacific Climate Warrior’s Journey To The Tar Sands

2017-10-09T20:49:13-04:00Tags: |

One of the beloved core leaders of the 350 Pacific climate movement, Koreti Tiumalu, has passed away after a long battle with cancer. This 350 Pacific video pays tribute to the Samoan sister who coordinated the Pacific chapter of 350.org. As a staunch defender of Indigenous land rights, climate change and water sanctity, Tiumalu was instrumental in the recent #RAISEAPADDLE trip of a group of Pacific Islander activists to the Canadian Tar Sands. In this video, Tiumalu organised a flotilla of paddlers to protest President Trudeau’s support of the fossil fuel industry and stand in solidarity with the local Aboriginal populations. Photo credit: 350.org

2 07, 2017

Marlinja Activist Eleanor Dixon Is Against Fracking In The Northern Territory

2017-10-10T21:09:49-04:00Tags: |

Eleanor Dixon, a Marlinja woman and leader in the Stand up for Country Indigenous anti-fracking movement, discusses the impacts of fracking on her ancestral lands. Dixon criticizes the Australian government for attempting to turn this site into a gas field without consulting the Aboriginal people. She emphasizes the interconnected nature of the water system, land, people, food systems and cultural identity in her homeland, and argues for keeping all that is sacred beneath the ground. Photo credit: Eleanor Dixon/Facebook

1 07, 2017

Beata Tsosie Peña: “I Do Not Separate The Struggle From My Spirituality”

2017-11-01T01:23:13-04:00Tags: |

Beata Tsosie Peña is a Tewa Indigenous woman from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico who is fighting for environmental justice and protection of her people's ancestral land and the health and well being of the larger regional community. The region has been heavily impacted by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a United States federal laboratory producing nuclear weapons and doing biological and chemical testing, which contaminates of water, soil and air. Beata joined TEWA Women United (TWU), an inter-tribal organization that seeks to empower women, and works jointly with Las Mujeres Hablan (The Women Speak) and Communities for Clean Water (CCW) in order to fight for environmental justice, cultural preservation, reproductive rights, health, and food security. Beata has a holistic approach to her fight, and the manner in which she stands up against contamination on Mother Earth as a dual attack on bodies, rituals, spirituality and beliefs. Photo credit: International Journal on Human Rights

27 06, 2017

Gunmen Threaten Guatemalan Land And Territory Defender Aura Lolita Chávez

2017-11-01T23:26:16-04:00Tags: |

Members of the Council of Ki’che’ Peoples (CPK), including Aura Lolita Chávez Ixcaquic, identify unauthorized clear cutters in the protected forest area and take matters into their hand. They are confronted by a group of armed men who directly threaten Lolita and other members of the CPK, including children, causing them to flee in search of refuge. Photo credit: IM-Defensoras

27 06, 2017

Regional Gathering Of Defenders Of Land, Territory And Environment

2017-10-27T00:56:41-04:00Tags: |

Defenders of land, territory and environment, primarily women, from the Andean Region and the Latin American South gathered in Mexico City to scrutinize the context of violence in the region. Earth defenders in the region are a target of increasing violence, from both state and non-state actors, and imprisonment with little to no recognition of their rights. The culture of violence and discrimination against women and gender mandates reduce their authority and value of their work. A pact was made to ensure the protection of these women within their movements, to recognize and promote their work, to promote political formation for both genders and to foster their ownership of land. Photo credit: IM-Defensoras

26 06, 2017

Water Protector Red Fawn Fallis Granted Pre-Trial Release

2017-10-26T17:45:46-04:00Tags: |

Water protector Red Fawn Fallis was set to be released pre-trial to a halfway house in Fargo after spending nearly 8 months in the custody of U.S. Marshals since her arrest on October 27th, 2016. Red Fawn will be outside the walls of the Rugby, North Dakota jail and able to prepare for trial. Her fight for freedom, for all that is sacred and for Indigenous sovereignty continues. Photo credit: Free RedFawn

26 06, 2017

Defend Her Right To Ancestral Lands: Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay

2017-10-26T17:32:50-04:00Tags: |

Meet Bai Bibyaon Bigkay, leader of the SABOKAHAN Lumad Women Regional Confederation, PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations and BAI Indigenous Women Network in the Philippines. Bai Bibyaon is the first and only woman chieftain of the Manobo Tribe, and has been fighting to protect the ancestral lands of the Manobo from militarization and companies looking to take advantage of the natural resources in her homeland. Photo credit: Global Fund for Women

26 06, 2017

Rising Voices: Collaborative Science With Indigenous Knowledge For Climate Solutions

2017-10-26T16:43:46-04:00Tags: |

Suzanne Benally (Navajo/Santa Clara Tewa), Jannie Staffansson (Saami), Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Mbororo) and Berenice Sanchez (Nahuatl/Otomi) share reflections and lessons from the ‘Pathways from Science to Action’ gathering, during which over 130 Indigenous leaders from across the world united to discuss how Indigenous, place-based science and knowledge can work in collaboration with western science to build impactful solutions to the climate crisis. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

18 06, 2017

Diné Woman Kendra Pinto Testifies Before US House Natural Resources Subcommittee On Oversight And Investigations

2017-10-09T21:14:53-04:00Tags: |

Kendra Pinto from the Counselor Chapter of the Diné (Navajo) Nation in New Mexico is fighting for the US Congress and Bureau of Land Management to strengthen federal protections in the San Juan Basin of the southwestern United States. Pinto advocates for stricter regulation of methane waste and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to protect Diné tribal lands and sacred sites from current and future water and air pollution impacts that stem from local oil and natural gas industries. Photo credit: Frack Off Greater Chaco

15 06, 2017

This Is My Land: The Indigenous Women Chiefs Protecting The Amazon

2017-10-14T16:34:20-04:00Tags: |

The Kayapo tribe in Brazil is shifting traditional gender roles with the emergence of three new female chiefs across its many communities within the Amazon rainforest. Tuire, one of the first female chiefs of the Kapran-krere village, is using her position to unite the fractured communities against outside threats. Recent legislation has reassigned land rights from the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest to the Ministry of Justice, suspected to allow for private interests to use the land for logging, mining, and cattle ranching. Tuire and other female chiefs are working to regain the rights to own and conserve their ancestral land. Photo credit: Pinar Yolacan

12 06, 2017

Native American Student Proves Traditional Chokecherry Pudding Is Medicine

2017-09-22T22:39:09-04:00Tags: |

According to one Native American student, Destany “Sky” Pete, of the Shoshone and Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Idaho and Nevada, chokecherries have medicinal properties that include cancer-fighting agents. This vitamin- and mineral-rich fruit has been a staple food of North America’s Indigenous people for millennia. Photo credit: Barbara Pete    

12 06, 2017

Indigenous Women And Science: First Voices And Climate Change

2017-10-18T11:23:25-04:00Tags: |

This article details the contributions Indigenous knowledge systems have made to understanding the Earth and the changing times we are living in. For example, the Nunavut women of Canada use knowledge systems and ecological resource management systems in response to the melting Arctic. Meanwhile in the Laramate district of Peru, the organisation Centro de Culturas Indígenas del Perú (CHIRAPAQ) implemented a crop cultivation programme for Indigenous women to improve food security using Indigenous knowledge. In the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Indigenous women used traditional bee-keeping methods to sustainably produce more honey each year. Photo credit: Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

9 06, 2017

Indigenous Women Protect The Amazon Rain Forest

2017-10-14T16:08:58-04:00Tags: |

As climate change intensifies, Peru's Indigenous women are losing valuable opportunities to protect the forests due to the insufficient protection of their rights. Ketty Marcelo, a native from the Pucharini community, advocates for changing legal frameworks that discriminate against Indigenous women in Peru. Despite the fact that women play a fundamental role in the conservation of biodiversity, the national government is not doing enough to ensure women's role as the protectors of the lands that belong to Indigenous communities. In addition, a new report highlights that when women's rights are not respected within the communities, the environment can suffer. Marcelo and her peers are making their voices heard to challenge the patriarchy. Photo credit: Marco Garro/AFP/Getty Images

9 06, 2017

Alice Eather: The Slam Poet Who Forced Big Oil Out Of Arnhem Land

2017-10-09T20:26:04-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, Alice Eather, an Indigenous activist and poet from Australia’s Northern Territories, discovered that Paltar Petroleum had applied to frack the ocean of her community of Maningrida. Alice cofounded the Protect Arnhem Land campaign group, which mobilized local communities to oppose the project. In 2016 the company withdrew its permit application. Eather will be remembered for her fierce poetry, as memorialized in the documentary Stingray Sisters. Photo credit: ABC

6 06, 2017

Asia’s Indigenous Women Set Examples In Fight For Justice, Influence And Equity

2017-09-22T22:36:07-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Julie Koch, director of the Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact, writes about the crucial role of Indigenous women's leadership in international and local policymaking. Women like Rukka Sombolinggi (Torajan; Indonesia), Piy Macling Malayao (Philippines) and Jannie Lasimbang (Malaysia) are advocating for the rights of Indigenous people, highlighting Indigenous women's specialized knowledge in biodiversity preservation, forest protection and food security. Because a lack of data tends to impede advocacy efforts, the Asia Indigenous People's Pact recently launched the Indigenous Navigator, a digital tool that helps Indigenous people monitor the level of recognition and implementation of their rights. Photo credit: Asian Development Bank/Flickr

6 06, 2017

Interviews With Andrea Carmen And Kaimana Barcarse

2017-09-22T22:33:08-04:00Tags: |

Andrea Carmen (Yacqui) of the International Indian Treaty Council discusses how young Indigenous women are on the forefront of the climate struggle through instances of fossil fuel resistance like Standing Rock. Additionally, native Hawaiian Kaimana Barcarse draws the connection between language, environment and climate change. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

6 06, 2017

Blackfeet Researcher Leads Her Tribe Back To Traditional Foods

2017-09-22T22:22:13-04:00Tags: |

Researcher Abaki Beck  published a report entitled “Ahwahsiin: Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Food Sovereignty on the Blackfeet Reservation” (ahwahsiin translates to “the land where we get our food”), featuring oral history interviews with nine Blackfeet elders who discussed the nation’s traditional foods and the health issues connected to a modern American diet. Beck partnered with Saokio Heritage, a community-based and volunteer-run organization on Blackfeet. The report was funded by a $10,000 grant from the First Nations Development Institute and is available on the organization’s website. Photo credit: Yes! Magazine  

5 06, 2017

Women Ocean Leaders: Captain Fealofani

2017-08-26T15:54:48-04:00Tags: |

Fealofani Bruun is making history as captain of a Gaualofa, a traditional Samoan double-hull voyaging canoe. She trains crew members and steers the canoe, whose voyages have not been seen in Samoa for over 100 years. For Samoans, the traditional voyaging canoe holds a lot of knowledge about not only navigation, the ocean and the stars, but also traditional Samoan culture and values. For Fealofani, this cultural revival has opened her up to the ways in which equality and equity are embedded within the ‘canoe culture’, as well as how to use traditional Samoan knowledge to protect the oceans in the face of climate change. She calls for the recruitment of more young girls and women to the fight. Photo credit: Charles Netzler

3 06, 2017

Murrawah Johnson And The Indigenous Fight Against Adani Coal Mine

2017-10-09T20:42:31-04:00Tags: |

Aboriginal activist Murrawah Johnson is fighting for self-determination for the Indigenous Wangan and Jagalingou people. For the past two years, after being named spokeswoman of the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners’ Council, Johnson has been the public face of the campaign to protect her country from the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine on the Galilee Basin. She has travelled across Australia and the world, lobbying big banks and investors, and gave a keynote address at the largest Aboriginal conference on the circuit, the National Native Title Conference. Photo credit: The Saturday Paper

2 06, 2017

Indigenous Knowledge Systems Can Help Solve Climate Change

2017-09-22T22:41:26-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Murri woman Teila Watson explains how her people historically lived a life of abundance and autonomy, all the while maintaining a proper relationship with lands and people. To combat global warming, she asserts that First Nations sovereignty and governance is the best chance Australia has. Photo credit: IndigenousX

2 06, 2017

Linda Black Elk On Plant Medicine

2017-10-01T16:21:53-04:00Tags: |

Before Tylenol or Tums, Native people had a vast knowledge of plant medicine to help heal the body and spirit. Although fewer Native people have this knowledge today, it’s still an important part of Native culture, health and ceremony. In this program, Linda Black Elk (Catawba) discusses the importance of plant medicine to her people. She also explores how land and environmental issues are impacting the growth and harvest of medicinal and sacred plants. Photo credit: Linda Black Elk 

1 06, 2017

Women Out Front: Indigenous Journalists On Building A Fairer Central America

2017-10-14T15:36:06-04:00Tags: |

From March 16 to 20, 2017, sixteen Indigenous women community journalists from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama gathered in Guatemala City to strengthen their capacities in radio production and exchange experiences, all within the framework of a critical analysis of discrimination faced by women. The workshop, hosted by Cultural Survival and the Channel Foundation, facilitated discussions of privilege, discrimination, marginalization and pain from patriarchal power relations. Coming together in the end, Cultural Survival pledged to carry out two further workshops based on theoretical classes on gender and feminism alongside a practical course on radio programming. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

31 05, 2017

Inuit Mother Jailed After Protesting Dam At Muskrat Falls

2017-09-03T20:39:00-04:00Tags: |

Beatrice Hunter is many things at once: mother, grandmother and unapologetic land protector from the Indigenous Inuit community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Canada. Last fall, Hunter joined dozens of local land protectors in occupying the construction site of a highly controversial dam on Muskrat Falls, which holds immense cultural, economic and spiritual value for her people. Hunter now faces one criminal charge and two civil charges, and has defiantly refused to stay away from the Falls despite law enforcement's demands. In speaking out about the series of events, Hunter emphasizes that her people’s identities and livelihoods are deeply interconnected with the Falls, as well as the injustice of continued exploitation by settler-colonialism. Photo credit: Facebook

30 05, 2017

Lessons From Farmers And Indigenous Women: Cultivate Democracy

2017-10-30T03:29:22-04:00Tags: |

In this article, Jennifer Allsopp reports on the second day of the 2017 Nobel Women’s Initiative gathering in Dusseldorf, Germany, opening with inspiring words from Helen Knott, a human rights activist from the Prophet River First Nation in Canada. Knott and fellow activists Khadijeh Moghaddam (Iran), Julienne Lusenge (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Yanar Mohammed (Iraq), Veronica Kelly (Ireland) and Mariama Songo (Senegal) spoke about how Indigenous knowledge and intergenerational movements help communities fight climate change and live sustainably. Photo credit: USOFORAL

29 05, 2017

First Woman To Lead Indonesia’s Indigenous Peoples Alliance

2017-10-01T15:54:01-04:00Tags: |

Rukka Sombolinggi, of the Torajan tribe, became the first woman leader of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). Even though Indigenous women in Indonesia are subject to intersectional forms of  discrimination, they keep on fighting to protect their communities. When Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled that Indigenous people have the right to manage the lands where they live, President Joko Widodo committed to taking further steps for its implementation. However, his plans to boost infrastructure may lead to the displacement of more tribes and the violation of their rights. AMAN has prepared a draft law for the effective protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights, which will be a priority for 2017.

26 05, 2017

Unlocking The Power And Potential Of Indigenous And Rural Women

2017-10-26T22:39:37-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous and rural women make up more than half of the 2.5 billion people who use their lands, but they are still absent from discussions of women’s property rights. Only when women have equal rights and opportunities, their communities and Lands can benefit. This new report provides an unprecedented assessment of multiple legal frameworks regulating Indigenous and rural women’s community forest rights. Photo credit: If Not Us Then Who?

26 05, 2017

Reports Highlight Women, Indigenous Peoples’ Role In Climate Action

2017-10-26T17:28:03-04:00Tags: |

UN Women with the Green Climate Fund has published a guidebook on gender mainstreaming, a brief on the role of women in climate change adaptation based on the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Program, and a report on decent work for Indigenous peoples. These publications underline the importance of women and Indigenous peoples in addressing and fighting climate change, and connect the role of Indigenous peoples to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The reports call for Indigenous peoples as well as Indigenous women to be seen as agents of change and be able to participate in the development of climate change measures as they constitute a particularly vulnerable population. Photo credit: UN Photo/Marco Dormino

25 05, 2017

A Voice From The Forest In The Corporate Boardroom

2020-12-02T19:53:25-05:00Tags: |

Tribal attorney and Native advisor to Bernie Sanders, Tara Houska of Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe recounts her work of drawing attention to Indigenous rights issues in corporate boardrooms. She speaks specifically about the Indigenous-led resistances against large international financial corporations investing in fossil fuels. For Houska, the Paris Agreement and “sustainable action” plans do not hold corporations accountable for the environmental and social harm that they have caused. Now, Indiegnous resistance groups are rising up against these institutions, posing threats to Big Oil and its investors. Photo Credit: Tara Houska

18 05, 2017

Isabella Zizi: Each Step We Take Is A Prayer To A Just Transition

2017-09-04T22:08:51-04:00Tags: |

Isabella Zisi is a young Indigenous woman who stands up for clean air, water, soil and life on Mother Earth. She participated in the first-ever White House tribal youth gathering and took part in an environmental workshop where she was able to express the challenges her community faces to federal officials. Isabella believes that she is blessed to be surrounded by Indigenous grandmothers and according to her, our ancestors, our non-human relatives, and the next seven generations should be our focus during these movements and moments in time. Photo credit: Peg Hunter, Leon Sun

18 05, 2017

Isabella Zizi: Each Step We Take Is A Prayer To A Just Transition

2017-10-05T18:11:38-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous youth activist Isabella Zizi recounts her personal experience witnessing the explosion of a local Chevron oil refinery, which led her to organize in many different movements, such as #IdleNoMore, Black Lives Matter and immigration rights. Today she fights as an Earth Guardians Bay Area crew leader and RYSE youth council member. She draws upon the resilience of her ancestors in her activism, “disrupting business as usual and visually being noticeable through creative art.” Photo credit: Alana Conner

11 05, 2017

Second Annual Indigenous Climate Justice Symposium: Panel On Fossil Fuel Resistance

2017-10-12T17:56:31-04:00Tags: |

In a panel on Fossil Fuel Resistance at the Evergreen State College in Washington State, Faith Spotted Eagle and Rueben George, key leaders of Native-led alliances to stop oil pipelines, and Lummi youth who visited Paris for the 2015 UN Climate Summit, shared their experiences. In this panel they discuss the Quinault stand against Grays Harbor oil terminal, First Nations' stand against tar-sands pipelines sponsored by the Kinder-Morgan company, and the Puyallup stand against Tacoma LNG plant. Photo credit: The Evergreen State College Productions

4 05, 2017

Winnemen Wintu Chief: California WaterFix Fixes Nothing

2017-08-26T15:57:27-04:00Tags: |

California Governor Jerry Brown’s “Legacy Project,” the Delta Tunnels, promised to restore water security to a state plagued by drought and renew local ecosystems. However, Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual leader of the Winnemen Wintu tribe, is speaking out against this project, which she and many others in the community maintain will destroy the sensitive nursery for salmon, other fish species and all aquatic life. Chief Caleen’s resistance to this project is rooted in the traditional ecological knowledge of her people and centuries of resistance against destructive development projects. Photo credit: Dan Bacher

3 05, 2017

LL Belone Speaks About The History Or Uranium On Navajo Land

2017-10-01T16:04:31-04:00Tags: |

LL Belone created this video to explain the history of uranium mining on Navajo land. The work narrates how the over 500 uranium mines impact drinking water, cattle, human health, and environmental safety. This video clip discusses the history of colonization, environmental racism, and breaches of sovereignty that enabled this extraction. Through interviews with members of the local Environmental Protection Agency, Navajo people discuss the challenges of funding the cleanup of these sites. 

1 05, 2017

Kandi Mossett: Women Shouldn’t Die Protecting Water

2017-09-03T20:53:08-04:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett, an indigenous activist and organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network and a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations spoke out about climate justice and access to water during the 2017 People’s Climate March. She and leader Tom Goldtooth are marching not only for her brothers and sisters in the north and the south, including Berta Cáceres, but also to defend the sacred from toxic fossil fuel projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline and threats to traditional ways of life. Photo credit: Democracy Now

1 05, 2017

Standing Against The Banks: DAPL Divestment And Water Protectors’ Fight For Justice, Indigenous Rights, Water And Life

2017-11-01T05:00:19-04:00Tags: |

Michelle Cook, a Dine/Navajo human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective at Standing Rock, and Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder and Executive Director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network, share an in-depth analysis on the need for Indigenous-women led movements to push policymakers and financial institutions to divest funding from fossil fuel extraction projects across Indigenous territories and around the world, drawing on their experiences in Europe during the Spring 2017 Indigenous Women’s Divestment Delegation to Norway and Switzerland.

27 04, 2017

Rowen White Returning Native Seeds To Their Roots

2017-12-27T18:13:34-05:00Tags: |

Rowen White, a Mohawk Indigenous woman leader, has built a life for herself as a farmer, educator and guardian of traditional and Indigenous seed varieties. Through her organization, Sierra Seeds, based in Northern California, Rowen is growing indigenous-centered seed education and action, including the ‘re-matriation’, or returning of varieties of seeds which had been removed from their traditional communities, back to the hands of their original stewards in Indigenous communities across North America.  Photo credit: Civil Eats

27 04, 2017

Victoria Tauli Corpuz: “The Dominant Economic Paradigms Are At Odds With The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples”

2017-10-31T20:35:48-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Tauli Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and former Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, advocates for the engagement of Indigenous women in climate action. While speaking to UN Women, she gave numerous examples of how Indigenous women actively participate in climate action. For instance, Maasai women in Kenya, Amazonian women in Peru, and Indigenous women of Cordillera region of Philippines have adopted new strategies in both risk reduction and disaster response. Photo credit: UN Photo/JC McIlwaine

26 04, 2017

Earth Day Prophecy: Women Rising Up In Fight Against Climate Chaos

2017-10-26T17:26:08-04:00Tags: |

Nowadays, there are more women in leadership positions at environmental and non-governmental organizations than in the past. Indigenous women who are leading the global resistance against development projects throughout the Americas continue to be underrepresented in the nonprofit sector, though many grassroots women are changing the system from outside-in. Take for example Lakota teen Jasilyn Charger who started a tiny prayer camp that ignited the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance movement, or women like Saik’uz First Nation Chief Jackie Thomas and the largely female Yinca Dene Alliance leading the Northern Gateway pipeline campaign. Furthermore, Valine Crist (Hada Gwaii) and Melina Massimo-Laboucan (Lubicon Cree) have both spearheaded renewable energy projects in their communities. Photo credit: Christian Aslund/Greenpeace

26 04, 2017

Indigenous Women: The Frontline Protectors Of The Environment

2017-10-26T17:04:25-04:00Tags: |

In parallel to the 2017 session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network organized a forum with powerful Indigenous women leaders from around the world. They discussed the effects of climate change in their communities and their actions to protect their land. Lucy Mulenkei, of the Indigenous Information Network, explained how Kenyan Maasai Indigenous women are fighting against the effects of climate change after the government declared a national drought emergency, while Kandi Mossett, Indigenous Environmental Network’s Extreme Energy and Just Transition Campaign Organiser, discussed how the fossil fuel industry and development projects are also impacting Indigenous communities in the United States. Photo credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

26 04, 2017

Descendant Of Sitting Bull Speaks At UN About Fight Against Dakota Access And State Violence

2017-10-26T16:51:57-04:00Tags: |

Brenda White Bull, member of the Standing Rock Sioux nation, army veteran, and descendant of Lakota Chief Sitting Bull, presents an intervention at the 2017 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York City, exposing human and Indigenous rights violations, as well as treaty violations, perpetrated through the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). She speaks directly to the connection between ongoing violence against the Earth, and the violence against Indigenous women by police and other armed forces, which was seen and documented throughout months of action to protect the land and water. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

24 04, 2017

Asia – Indigenous Women Fight For Justice, Influence And Equity

2018-01-24T12:08:06-05:00Tags: |

Asian Indigenous women are fighting for socio-economic and climate justice, and setting an example for women around the world. The stories of Rukka Sombolinggi, Piy Macliing Malayao and Jannie Lasimbang are shared as examples of how women are using their skills and sharing their traditional knowledge to protect the environment. Julie Koch, Executive Director of International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs confirms the importance of supporting Indigenous women in their action and advocacy work, and in opposition to continued discrimination and gender-based violence.

19 04, 2017

Meet Kelly Charley, The Teen Inventor Working To Get The Navajo Nation Off Coal

2017-09-28T21:01:04-04:00Tags: |

Kelly Charley, a student at the Navajo Preparatory School, has developed a solar heater that is helping bring solar energy to Navajo households. Seeing her grandparents laboriously chop wood and use harmful coal for energy inspired her to find a way to bring renewable energy to Navajo homes. Read her story and get inspired by watching this video about her quest for a just and sustainable way of life. Photo credit: Fusion

13 04, 2017

Indigenous Women Of Standing Rock Resistance Movement Speak Out On Divestment

2017-10-19T22:35:32-04:00Tags: |

A delegation of Indigenous women from Standing Rock and their allies who observed and experienced human and Indigenous rights violations in North Dakota due to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) traveled to Norway and Switzerland in the spring of 2017 to share their stories as women leaders living and working in communities directly impacted by fossil fuel development and infrastructure. Wasté Win Young, Standing Rock Sioux leader and former tribal historic preservation officer; Tara Houska, Anishinaabe tribal attorney, national campaigns director of Honor the Earth and former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders; Dr. Sara Jumping Eagle, Oglala Lakota and Mdewakantonwan Dakota pediatrician living and working on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation; Autumn Chacon, Diné artist and water protector; and Michelle Cook, Diné human rights lawyer and founding member of the Water Protector Legal Collective all met with actors including Den Norske Bank (DNB), the Council on Ethics for the Government Pension Fund Global, and the Norwegian Parliament to advocate for divestment from fossil fuels and respect for Indigenous rights. During their time in Europe, the presence of delegation members helped tip the scale for announcements of a large divestment by DNB.

7 04, 2017

Cherri Foytlin And Her Daughters At The Peoples Climate March 2017 Press Conference

2017-12-07T19:04:08-05:00Tags: |

At the start of the People’s Climate March in Washington DC in 2017, Erin and Jayden Foytlin speak about the direct climate impacts they have faced at their home in southern Louisiana, including flooding, hurricanes, severe land loss. They are followed by their mother, renown Indigenous rights and Earth protector, Cherri Foytlin, who is State DIrector of Bold Louisiana, and a signer of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defenders of Mother Earth Treaty. She speaks about the efforts of L'eau Est La Vie Camp to stop the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would threaten Indigenous lands and vital waterways and wetlands across the region; and the power of youth, particularly Indigenous youth, in leading movements for a livable and just future. Photo credit: 350.org

6 04, 2017

Corrina Gould On The Sogorea Te’ Land Trust: An Urban Indigenous Women-Led Land Trust

2017-12-06T14:50:21-05:00Tags: |

Corrina Gould, a Chochenyo and Kerkin Ohlone woman leader, born and raised in Oakland, California, speaks about the history and work of the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, an Indigenous-woman led initiative to reclaim and protect ancestral lands in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. She also speaks about her family's history, and the history of erasure, colonization and forced removal in the Bay. The recorded presentation comes from the second annual “Religion & Ecology Summit” at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Photo credit: Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion Program.

1 04, 2017

Speaking Of Nature

2017-09-05T23:06:54-04:00Tags: |

In Potawatomi, the word “Aakibmaadiziiwin” translates into “being of the Earth.” There is no equivalent word in English. Potawatomi Indigenous woman and botany professor Robin Kimmerer explains how the nearly extinct language is a language of animacy — a semantic and grammatical concept that expresses language according to how alive the noun is. Kimmerer explains that listening to a bird occurs with a different verb than hearing a plane, however insects, berries and animals are referred to with the same grammatical value as a human. Unlike English, a language whose grammatical principals have worked to objectify, extract from, and colonize the Earth and the animal world, Potawatomi does not refer to nature, critters, and plants as “it.” Historically, these same English grammatical mechanisms aided in determining slaves as three-fifths human and women less human than men. Instead, Kimmerer provides an outstanding articulation of the revolutionary potential an Indigenous language brings to human and environmental life. Photo credit: Simen Johan, Courtesy Yossi Gallery, New York

1 04, 2017

Photographer Acacia Johnson Documents Life In The Arctic, The Inuit And The Impact Of Climate Change

2017-10-25T22:40:08-04:00Tags: |

In breathtaking photographs, Acacia Johnson takes us through the wonders of life in the Arctic by documenting Inuit women, their culture and everyday lives, as well as showing the impact of climate change in the Canadian North on the livelihoods of not just its people, but also its animals and landscape. Melting Arctic sea ice is endangering many species whose lives depend on the cold temperatures of a bygone era. Photo credit: Acacia Johnson

31 03, 2017

One Woman Against Big Oil And Patriarchy

2017-09-04T09:07:58-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, Alicia Cawiya, Vice-President of the Huaorani Nation of Ecuador, addressed the country’s Constituent Assembly in Quito denouncing the oil companies and defending her Indigenous brothers and sisters from other groups, and their culture. After her powerful speech, Alicia became an inspiration for Indigenous women and a respected national political figure and Indigenous activist. Later, she wrote to the Permanent Representative for China to the United Nations to protest the violation of Indigenous rights by the Chinese state company Andes Petroleum that resulted from the agreements signed with the Ecuadorian government in 2016. In addition, she helped to organize a Women’s March to demand that Indigenous territories be declared a petroleum-extraction-free zone. Alicia is the founder of the Huaorani Artisanal Women’s Association and she continues to fight for women’s economic empowerment. Photo credit: Elle Enander

30 03, 2017

Climate Change And Conflict: Manipuri Women Are Fighting For Survival On Two Fronts

2017-11-01T05:07:58-04:00Tags: |

The territory of Manipur has been turbulent since British colonization of India, leaving thousands of women widows and survivors of armed violence. Manipuri women have a long history of confronting injustices, sexual violence and power, despite their vulnerable situation living in a militarised and climate change affected area with multiple losses to many small farmers. Groups such as the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network and the Rural Women’s Upliftment Society fight against such vulnerability by offering counseling and support, and also by teaching Indigenous women such as Lalzamien how to use ecological and biodiverse farming methods as a way of reversing climate change. Not only that, but many Indigenous women’s groups, and activists such as Mary Beth Sanate and Shangnaidar Tontang fight for seats and female representatives in various decision-making, peacebuilding and negotiation forums. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

26 03, 2017

Indigenous Women Rising: Women’s March On Washington

2017-10-26T22:33:57-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women gathered from across the United States to lead the Women’s March on Washington. A half million people joined in solidarity to resist the Trump administration and advocate for indigenous rights and gender, racial, and environmental justice. Photo credit: Jamie Malcolm-Brown/Cultural Survival

26 03, 2017

From Coast To Coast And North To South, Indigenous Women Are On The Rise

2017-10-26T17:06:01-04:00Tags: |

This list of 13 inspirational Indigenous women from Canada celebrates International Women's Day and the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the globe. For example, Maatalii Okalik (Inuit Nunagat) is president of the National Inuit Youth Council, while Helen Oro (Nehiyaw Iskwe) is a mother and founder of her own accessories brand, Helen Oro Designs and Nikki Fraser (Secwepemc) is the youth representative for the Native Women's Association of Canada. Read on to learn about the transformative work of Kakeka Thundersky (Anishinaabe), Lianne Charlie (Tagé Cho Hudän), Nigit'stil Norbert (Gwichya Gwich'in), Eriel Deranger (Denesuline), Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Kanien'kehaka), Silpa Suarak (Inuk), Amanda LeBlanc (Wolastoq Nation), Killa Atencio (Mi'kmaq), Riley Yesno (Anishinaabekwe) and Jenna Burke (Mi'kmaq). Photo credit: Lianne Charlie

26 03, 2017

A Call To Action: Insights Into The Status Of Funding For Indigenous Women’s Groups

2017-10-26T16:21:07-04:00Tags: |

In this report the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP), International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI), and AWID discuss the need for increased attention to make funding resources available directly to frontline Indigenous women so that they may themselves shape agendas and decisions affecting their lives and territories. The report is presented with the understanding that Indigenous women’s solutions are imperative for any effective action to address climate change and other pressing global concerns. Photo credit: AWID

26 03, 2017

Making Women Proud: Rosa Palomino Chahuares And The Women Of Uma

2017-10-26T16:16:59-04:00Tags: |

Advocate for women’s and Indigenous rights, Rosa Palomino Chahuares of Peru, works as a radio-broadcaster and activist with the Network of Indigenous Communicators of Peru and UMA (Union of Aymara Women of Abya Yala) - working to protect the Aymara culture and language, and confront patriarchy in her community. Through her work with UMA’s women’s radio program, Wiñay Pankara (“always blooming”), Chahuares helps brings to light the situation and voices of Aymara women who are working for sustainability and justice in their communities. The women leaders continue to face challenges in gaining access to broadcast time and space on Peru’s national channels, but continue ceaselessly in their growing efforts. Photo credit: Rosa Palomino Chahuares

25 03, 2017

Historical Ban On Potlach Ceremony Has Lingering Effects On Indigenous Women

2017-10-01T16:24:13-04:00Tags: |

The effects of a ban on a traditional First Nations ceremony that dates back to the 19th century are still being felt today. Sylvia McAdam (Saysewahum) traces how the potlatch ban is responsible for current patriarchal culture, arguing that men would steal away to the bush to practice the ceremonies while women would be left in their homes, policed by overseers by the government. This led to the exclusion of women from ceremonies and eroded their social status. Photo credit: Barefoots World  

24 03, 2017

Aboriginal Women’s Traditional Knowledge

2017-09-06T23:01:24-04:00Tags: |

A report on Canada’s Aboriginal women discusses how Indigenous people’s close relationships and dependence on the land comes from their understanding that their lives and livelihoods are dependent upon the environment. The discussion includes resources associated with aboriginal livelihoods, health and well-being, and encourages the government to ensure proper consultation and involvement of aboriginal peoples before action. Photo credit: Native Women’s Association of Canada  

22 03, 2017

No Job Is Impossible For Women

2017-10-14T16:11:39-04:00Tags: |

Soledad Miranda is among the emerging group of women construction workers of La Paz, Bolivia. She started working at age seven and received no schooling, like many other indigenous girls in her community. She survived an abusive marriage and she migrated with her 12 children to La Paz. First, she washed clothes and sold soda and beer in the streets. After four years in La Paz, she managed to find a job as a construction worker for the municipal government. Along with over 450 other women, she received training in painting, plumbing, coatings/insulations, tiling and remodeling. Construction work is no longer a man’s job in La Paz, it is increasingly done by women who are trained and economically empowered. Today, she dreams of building her own construction company. Photo credit: UN Women/David Villegas

22 03, 2017

World Water Day: Women Water Protectors Working For Water Sustainability

2017-10-18T11:34:56-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women such as Yoryanis Isabel Bernal Varela, a member of the Wiwa Indigenous People of Sierra Nevada in South America, have sacrificed their lives promoting water sustainability. It is only appropriate that on World Water Day, the United Nations recognizes the efforts of Indigenous women in protecting water and to condemn violence against Indigenous peoples. It is important to not waste water, but it is also equally important not to discount the women contributing to water sustainability. Photo credit: Feminist Task Force

21 03, 2017

Women Saving The Planet: Kayla Devault Of The Navajo Nation On The Energy Crisis

2017-10-05T18:07:11-04:00Tags: |

Kayla Devault, a SustainUS delegate to the COP22 climate negotiations and Navajo activist, delivered a firey speech at the United Nations about the human rights violations the United States government and extractive industries have paradigmatically inflicted on Indigenous people.  She argues for an understanding of the Dakota Access Pipeline fight that centers on not only the question of water and fossil fuels but also on tribal sovereignty. She expresses frustration of the sidelining of Indigenous interests at global summits, in a detailed anecdote from COP22 where she had difficulty as a member of a sovereign tribe lobbying those from the United States delegate. Photo credit: Piotr Lesniak

14 03, 2017

Lyla June On Resistance And Forgiveness In The Final Years Of Patriarchy

2017-09-22T22:19:06-04:00Tags: |

At the 2017 Geography of Hope Conference, Diné (Navajo) woman Lyla June Johnston spoke about the history of gender- and race-based violence that enabled the genocide of Native Peoples across the world. She argues that we need to face this dark history and this logic of a sophisticated death culture to create a new way forward.  Photo credit: National Geographic

14 03, 2017

A Call To Action: Insights Into Funding For Indigenous Women’s Groups

2017-09-07T07:53:42-04:00Tags: |

This timely report by the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP), International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI), and the Association for Women in Development (AWID) shows that from 2007 to 2012, funding for Indigenous peoples skyrocketed from $41.4 million to $83.2 million. Although Indigenous women are proven agents of positive change, they continue to fight against the barriers of discrimination and marginalization, within and outside of their communities. Hence, it is critical that donors are effective in breaking down these barriers while also bolstering Indigenous women’s efforts as movement builders. Photo credit: The Association for Women in Development

10 03, 2017

Grandmother Of The Jungle: Kerala Tribal Woman Can Prepare 500 Medicines From Memory

2017-10-05T17:39:02-04:00Tags: |

Lakshmikutty, “grandmother” of the Kallar jungle from Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, is a well-known healer, poet and teacher at the Kerala Folklore Academy. She has a vast knowledge of around 500 herbal and natural treatments which is now being recorded by the Kerala Forest Department in the form of a book. She has been awarded the Nattu Vaidya Rathna, an award for naturopathy in 1995 and from the Indian Biodiversity Congress 2016. Photo credit: Sreekesh Raveendran Nair

8 03, 2017

Indigenous Rising: The Prayers Of Our Grandmothers

2017-09-22T22:26:23-04:00Tags: |

In this thinkpiece, Rita Blumenstein reflects on being brought up by two Indigenous women, her mother and grandmother, both of whom  guided her to become the woman she is today. She emphasises how Indigenous femininity understands knowledge and power to be communally held, which goes beyond a Western standard of leadership, respect and power. She calls on an intersectional solidarity and how Indigenous, black, trans and female lives must remain at the forefront of the movement. Photo credit: Associated Press

8 03, 2017

On International Women’s Day, Celebrate Indigenous Women

2017-09-04T22:05:35-04:00Tags: |

On March 8, is International Women's Day, first celebrated in 1909. While too many women all over the word suffer from violence and rights abuses, it is important to recognize the efforts of Indigenous women in claiming their rights and transforming violence into power and action. To commemorate this day, the author recommends the reader share radio programs by and about Indigenous Women and celebrate some of the amazing Indigenous women working to make change happen around the world. The perspectives and inclusion of Indigenous women is essential to gender equality worldwide. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

8 03, 2017

How Women Farmers Are Battling Climate Change In Zimbabwe

2020-10-05T16:45:16-04:00Tags: |

In Chiware, Zimbabwe, farmer Chengetai Zonke has been forced to reduce her maize crop due to the climate change induced natural disasters creating unpredictable weather patterns. Like many other women in Zimbabwe, Zonke’s household’s livelihood depends on her farming and household work. Farmers across Zimbabwe have been forced to reevaluate their crop growing methods. Zonke has begun cultivating small-grain seeds to grow crops that are easier to care for and pay more, but she is still apprehensive about the future of women farmers amidst climate change. Photo Credit: Tonderayi Mukeredzi/IRIN

8 03, 2017

These Indigenous Women Are Leading The Fight To Save The Planet

2018-02-15T12:20:27-05:00Tags: |

As part of the celebration of International Women’s Day, Indigenous women leaders Dina Júc and Yuam Pravia are interviewed on the importance of women’s leadership in struggles to protect Indigenous rights and land rights. Dina Júc is a Maya Pocomchi’ woman from Guatemala, who has acted as a leader of the Association Ut’z Che’ in the fight against forceful evictions from so-called “Protected Areas”. Yuam Pravia, a representative of the Miskitu people of Honduras, has been central to the communities efforts to defend legal titles to their lands in the face of deforestation. Photo Credit (use first photo): Stand For Trees Project

26 02, 2017

Women for Forests Democratic Republic Of Congo – Winter 2017 Update

2017-10-26T13:31:28-04:00Tags: |

The Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network and SAFECO are working with women leaders to develop tree nurseries supporting reforestation efforts in the areas of Marunde, Rushasha, and Malanda of the Democratic Republic of Congo, impacting 1,500 people. The project’s focus is on rejuvenating the natural resources, protect the traditional life and knowledge of the Indigenous Pygmy people in the Itombwe Region, and collaboration with women leaders, such as Neema Namadamu, to work on climate change mitigation and women’s empowerment. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

21 02, 2017

How Mexican Human Rights Lawyers Found A New Route To Accountability

2017-09-03T21:17:31-04:00Tags: |

On February 21 2017, Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology and History delivered an official apology to three Indigenous women for the violation of their human rights. Alberta Alcántara, Jacinta Francisco Marcial, and Teresa González, members of the Hñä-Hñú (Otomí) people, were first arrested and unlawfully detained in August 2006, after the police tried to seize goods from Indigenous vendors. They were falsely charged with the kidnapping of six federal police and despite the lack of evidence, sentenced to 21 years in prison without the Hñähñu translator they should have been provided with under the law. The case is emblematic of the failures of Mexico’s justice system to offer equitable access to justice to indigenous people. Photo credit: Open Society Foundations

15 02, 2017

Daughters of the Drum: Decolonizing health and wellness with Native American women

2025-04-23T11:20:06-04:00Tags: |

The article presents a study examining how Native American women's roles in health and wellness have changed from pre-colonial times to now, focusing on the Pacific Northwest. It involves a small group of Native American women discussing their experiences through activities like photovoice and talking circles. Their insights highlight key aspects of resilience linked to health perceptions, emphasizing the significance of land, language, and diet in shaping a decolonized view of wellness.

12 02, 2017

Indigenous Women Take To Radio To Say No More Violence In Nicaragua

2017-10-14T15:55:48-04:00Tags: |

Violence against women and girls is common in Nicaragua, particularly for Indigenous women who often live in remote areas. In June 2016, the “Voices of the Women of Wangki Tangni” project established the first radio station to focus on women’s rights in the North Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. The project targets more than 63 communities in the region. The “communicadoras” or radio hosts are providing consistent information on women’s rights, human rights and Indigenous concepts of peaceful living. The station is the region’s only one to air programmes in the local Miskito language. Photo credit: UN Trust Fund/Mildred Garcia

11 02, 2017

Reclaiming Native Ground: Can Louisiana’s Tribes Restore Their Traditional Diets As Waters Rise?

2017-11-11T10:35:57-05:00Tags: |

Theresa Dardar, of the Pointe-au-Chien tribe, remembers her grandparents subsisting off of shrimp, clams, livestock and a variety of fruits and vegetables on their lands off the Louisiana coast. Due to sea level rise, flooding and hurricanes, Indigenous people are losing their lands to the sea, having a harder time cultivating the native plants and fruits of the sea that their ancestors relied upon. However, Dardar is heading an intertribal effort to restore food security to the Pointe-au-Chien, Grand Caillou/Dulac, Isle de Jean Charles Band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, Bayou Lafourche and Grand Bayou Village tribes under the banner of the First People's Conservation Council. She and Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar, of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians, are spearheading innovative solutions like boxed gardens that can be lifted with pulleys to avoid rising tides and discussing business models to make soft-shell crab harvesting a sustainable livelihood. Photo credit: Edmund D. Fountain/Food & Environment Reporting Network

9 02, 2017

Havasupai Elders Dianna Baby Sue White Dove Uqalla And Colleen Kaska: Stand Up To Uranium Mining Company

2017-09-08T22:06:44-04:00Tags: |

Although the Obama administration banned new mining claims on the 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon, four mines were grandfathered before the 20 year moratorium and continue to function today. One of those is located five miles north of Red Butte, where miners “sink shaft," or dig an extremely deep hole, as they get ready to blast uranium out of the ground. Each year millions of visitors to the Grand Canyon drive by Red Butte without taking much notice. But for Havasupai women Dianna Baby Sue White Dove Uqualla and Colleen Kaska, this hill is central to their belief system. The tribe says a nearby uranium mine threatens this sacred place and its drinking water. Photo credit: Fronteras

6 02, 2017

Ink Woman Sheila Watt-Cloutier: Revisiting The Right To Be Cold

2017-09-22T22:28:46-04:00Tags: |

Sheila Watt-Cloutier’s The Right to Be Cold is the feminist book we need to weather the climate crisis. Speaking from her experience as an Inuk woman growing up in Nunavik, Watt-Cloutier guides the reader through the culture and wisdom of northern people. Watt-Cloutier humanizes the north. It’s not just a place of polar bears and seals, but where a complex Inuit hunter-gatherer culture thrives in close relationship with the land and ice. Photo credit: Ms. Magazine

31 01, 2017

Winona LaDuke On New Ways To Keep Pipelines Out Of The Great Lakes

2017-10-09T21:23:58-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous leaders from Michigan to Manitoba, emboldened by the resistance at Standing Rock, are asserting their right to self-determination and taking unprecedented action against the Canadian energy company Enbridge’s plans to expand a massive network of tar sands and fracked oil pipelines through treaty and tribal lands in the Great Lakes region. In this article, Winona LaDuke, Ojibwe woman leader of Honor the Earth, from the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota, shares updates and calls to action.  Photo credit: Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

29 01, 2017

Indigenous Sisters Resistance Leads Women’s March in Seattle

2018-02-20T18:50:26-05:00Tags: |

The 2017 Women’s March against the Administration of President Donald Trump was one of the largest actions in U.S. history, and Indigenous women’s resistance played an important role. At the Seattle, Washington March, American Indian, Alaskan, Native Hawaiian and other global Indigenous and frontline women leaders led the over 3.6 mile march, and raised calls for human rights, Indigenous rights, and social and environmental justice. Photo Credit: Chris Stearns

25 01, 2017

Water Is Life, Water Is Sacred: Standing Rock Activist Speaks Out Against Trump

2017-11-12T18:32:27-05:00Tags: |

Bobbi Jean Three Legs, a Standing Rock Sioux woman and founder of ReZpect Our Water, organized and participated in a 2,000-mile relay run from North Dakota to Washington DC to advocate for Indigenous rights and to protest construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Forty Oceti Sakowin youth between the ages of 13 and 30 joined Bobbi Jean in the run for water. In this interview with Amy Goodman for Democracy Now!, Bobbi Jean asks people around the world to stand up for water and life. She was among the first Indigenous people to gather at the Sacred Stone Resistence Camp. Photo credit: Democracy Now!

25 01, 2017

Black Resistance Is In Resurgence In Australia

2017-10-14T15:23:20-04:00Tags: |

Murrawah Johnson, an Indigenous woman leader and campaigner with the Wangan and Jagalingou People's Family Council, puts into historical context the Indigenous resistance to the Adani Carmichael mine and other oil and gas projects. She argues that the 229 years of Australian state history can be understood as a struggle over land and land rights, with Black Resistance as a powerful force that has always contexted the dispossession of Indigenous lands and continues to do so in resisting fossil fuel extraction. A new generation of young Indigenous activists and organizers are taking up the task of defending their natural heritage. Photo credit: Murrawah Johnson

25 01, 2017

Education Is The Key

2017-10-14T16:30:06-04:00Tags: |

The strong commitment to give back to her country pushed Fulbright-Robles García scholar T. E. Martinez to pursue a doctorate degree in Holland. Fighting against the odds in Mexico at very young age, she joined Wageningen University and continuous to pursue research to make a difference in life of Indigenous farmers. Her focus is not only to create inclusive technologies to solve everyday challenges, but also to understand and help others to understand the lives of Indigenous people and farmers. Photo credit: Remezcla

20 01, 2017

Undervaluing Women In The Workforce

2017-09-22T23:02:57-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Bina Agarwal, Professor of Economics and Environment at the University of Manchester,  brilliantly explores the biases in the definition of work, and specifically women’s work, and that lead to the erasure and invisibilization of women’s labor in farms, homes and the informal sector, and how this continues to work as a patriarchal tool to economically disenfranchise women. Agarwal does not call for token accounting of women’s labor but rather a radical transformation that adequately compensates and recognizes women’s domestic and often unpaid labor, as well as the dismantling of the economic, social-political and cultural systems and structures that work against women. Photo credit: Business Today

6 01, 2017

Tui Shotland And Sami Jannie Staffansson On Indigenous Databases And Biocultural Community Protocols

2017-09-08T21:58:21-04:00Tags: |

n the interview, Maōri leader Tui Shotland explains how she assisted her community to make a database of sacred sites, thereby enacting digital data sovereignty. This allowed her tribe to share cultural information with younger generations while simultaneously protecting it from appropriation. Saami woman Jannie Staffansson of Norway speaks of community knowledge systems and how climate change has been affecting her lands. Her work for the Arctic Council allowed her to blend Western and traditional sciences to develop fundamental principles on the use of Indigenous knowledge (samu) to help guide the work of the Saami in the Arctic Council. She reflects on her activism against mining and climate change through a bottom-up grassroots approach.

4 01, 2017

Melina Laboucan-Massimo: Violence Against The Earth Is Violence Against Women

2017-09-22T10:20:12-04:00Tags: |

At the REDx Talks, Indigenous woman Melina Laboucan-Massimo explains the gendered perception of nature as female. Any violence towards the Earth inherently is a violence against women, whom in turn become the most vulnerable people to climate change issues. She explains how Indigenous peoples must heal from trauma instilled by colonialism. She finishes the talk by reflecting on how her community adopted solar panels as a way to promote energy autonomy. Photo credit: REDx Talks  

2 01, 2017

Six Women, Three Nations

2018-03-02T20:01:15-05:00Tags: |

As part of the “Circle of Voices” digital research project, exploring cultural revitalisation, Louise Watson conducted biographical interviews in Odanak and Riviére du Loup, Quebec, with 6 young Indigenous women from Atikamekw, Abenaki and Wolastoqiyik/Maliseet Nations. The women discuss the experience of being an Indigenous woman in the 21st century, affirming themselves as strong and resilient young women who are proud of their origins. Despite challenges, such as discrimination and isolation, these women are working to keep their cultures alive. From Ivanie Aubin Malo who holds workshops in First Nations traditional dance  - to Jessica Ann Watso, who is involved with Québec Native Women Inc., coordinating projects on the inclusion of LGBTQI+/ Bi spiritual people and exploring her connection to the land through fishing, hunting and establishing a traditional community garden for students. Photo credit: Circle Of Voices

1 01, 2017

Meet The Saik’uz Women, Canada

2017-10-25T23:02:05-04:00Tags: |

Chief Jackie of the Saik’uz First Nation turned away Enbridge after a thorough research on scientific and social impacts of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline with the help of the law in 2006. However, aware of the persistence of the company on carrying out the construction of the pipeline, Jackie and her cousin Geraldine created the Yinka Dene Alliance, an alliance of First Nations in the British Columbia region. The Alliance worked on several fronts with 160 First Nations representatives to publish the first Save the Fraser Declaration that banned tar sand pipelines through Fraser River watershed. The women also lobbied to gain support from other financial institutions, interacted with UN and EU officials, and spearheaded the civil disobedience action. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

1 01, 2017

Guatemalan Indigenous Women Reclaiming Identity, Heritage And Rights

2017-09-22T18:37:46-04:00Tags: |

The Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez/Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES) coordinates a range of diverse projects aimed at the physical, economic and political autonomy of Indigenous women and their families. They promote food sovereignty, political education, and building human capacities, including training in Indigenous weaving as part of Indigenous traditional knowledge. In this framework, AFEDES is demanding that the Guatemalan government recognize their right to protect the collective ancestral intellectual property on Mayan weaving designs and clothing. Photo credit: Thousand Currents

1 01, 2017

In Our Bones: Eva Susanty Hanafi Bande

2017-09-04T09:03:15-04:00Tags: |

Eva is a defender of women’s human rights, land rights, and the environment in Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia since 1998. She founded the People’s Front for Central Sulawesi Palm Oil Advocacy when the company PT Berkat Hutan Pusaka illegally appropriated land from local Indigenous people. As a result, fields and homes were constantly swamped because of the resultant flooding and water-borne diseases increased. Eva, together with local farmers, organized peaceful demonstrations against the company but due to tensions she was arrested and sentenced to prison. Nevertheless she continued to advocate behind bars. Eva has a deep commitment to the value of education, especially for women, as she believes that land justice cannot be discussed only in the classroom, it has to be put in practice. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

1 01, 2017

Sarain Fox And Michelle Latimer On Their VICE Series, RISE, Telling Indigenous Stories

2017-11-01T03:57:41-04:00Tags: |

Host Sarain Fox (Anishinabe Canadian) and Director Michelle Latimer (Algonquin and Métis) are two Indigenous women leaders behind the Vice News series ‘RISE’, which follows Indigenous communities around the world in their quests for environmental justice and respect for their rights and lives. In this interview, both women discuss their experiences capturing these vital stories, and what it means to them to be an Indigenous woman storyteller at a moment of great conflict, change and hope. Photo credit: Sundance Institute

27 12, 2016

Intimidation And Death Threats Against Ana Mirian Romero

2017-10-27T00:08:25-04:00Tags: |

Due to her work as a human rights defender, Ana Mirian Romero, along with fellow members of the Consejo Indígena San Isidro Labrador, has been receiving death threats. Since 2010 she has been fighting the development of a project that lacks free, prior and informed consent by the affected communities, the Los Encinos hydroelectric dam. Ana Romero has been through a lot: an arson attack to her house, police raids in her home, physical assaults by the police, harassment by authorities. And yet, once again her life is endangered. Photo credit: Frontline Defenders

26 12, 2016

Indigenous Women Artisans Defend Their Livelihood And The Environment

2017-10-26T23:14:11-04:00Tags: |

Sumara and other Indigenous artisans are using traditional techniques when crafting necklaces and pottery to generate sustainable incomes for their families. The women live in an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon often greatly exploited by extractive industries. The HAKHU Project supports the women artisans so they may continue nurturing their culture’s traditions and highlight forms of non-extractive economy that ultimately empower Indigenous people. Photo credit: Ian Frank/HAKHU Project

26 12, 2016

Gwich’in Women Fight To Preserve The Arctic Refuge From Drilling

2017-10-26T17:48:46-04:00Tags: |

Bernadette Demientieff is a member of the Gwich’in community, and over the last thirty years, her people have been fighting to protect their lands, where oil companies have been trying to drill. Demientieff takes part in “The Refuge,” a documentary focusing on the struggles of her community. She explains that it is not about activism but about protecting their area as it constitutes their livelihood and identity. Photo credit: Care2

20 12, 2016

Mothers, Babies Of Navajo Nation Exposed To High Levels Of Uranium

2017-11-01T13:39:05-04:00Tags: |

Researchers with the Navajo Birth Cohort Study are taking ongoing action to expose the harms to mothers and babies posed by the brutal legacy of uranium mining on Diné lands in the Four Corners Region of the United States. Despite an end to intensive uranium mining many decades ago, insufficient clean up efforts, historical injustices, and violation of Indigenous rights have left 500+ open abandoned uranium mines which continue to threaten the lives and futures of residents every day. Photo credit: Kristy Blackhorse/Malcolm Benally

17 12, 2016

Prominent Indigenous Environmental Activist In Colombia Faces Death Threats

2017-07-16T13:23:58-04:00Tags: |

Jakeline Romero is a renowned Colombian Indigenous advocate who has been fighting against the British-owned Cerrejon open pit coal mine in her community for years. Jakeline has seen five communities razed to allow for mine expansion, disproportionately affecting local women and children. A member of the Wayuú Women's Movement, Jakeline stands strong despite a recent open threat on her life, and uses the opportunity to draw attention to strength of the movement and the women she represents. Photo credit: London Mining Network

12 12, 2016

For Indigenous Women, Land Access Essential To Eradicating Gender-Based Violence

2017-07-16T13:34:59-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Myrna Cunnigham, a Miskita feminist, Indigenous rights activist and president of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) in Nicaragua explains why the gender-based violence Indigenous women and girls experience within their communities cannot be separated from colonisation or traditional territorial governance systems. As climate change and land grabs threaten Indigenous women’s role as traditional protectors of Mother Earth, Cunningham invites people worldwide to mobilise against gender-based violence, as it is also a matter of collective rights. Photo credit: Intercontinental Cry

12 12, 2016

Water Song: Indigenous Women and Water

2025-05-24T19:34:03-04:00Tags: |

The article highlights the deep cultural, ecological, and spiritual significance of water for Indigenous communities in Canada, particularly for Indigenous women, who maintain a sacred connection to water through their role as life-givers. In the Canadian context, colonization—through forced displacement, residential schools, and the banning of native languages—has led to a rupture in the continuity of cultural practices surrounding water custodianship. This disrupted intergenerational transfer of knowledge about water has resulted in a loss of traditional practices and the diminishing role of Indigenous women in water governance. In response, Indigenous women across Canada are advocating for the restoration of their traditional roles in water governance. The article offers a framework to help Indigenous women reclaim their influence over water governance, emphasizing the integration of their cultural knowledge and responsibilities as foundational elements for developing sustainable and equitable water governance practices.

1 12, 2016

Standing Rock Youth Bobbi Jean Three Legs Calls For Divestment

2017-11-01T23:02:26-04:00Tags: |

Standing outside of Citibank, Standing Rock Youth leader Bobbi Jean Three Legs calls for allies around the world to take action to divest their personal bank accounts, and push institutions to divest their funds from destructive fossil fuel projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, which is threatening the water, land and communities of her home. Photo credit: Seeding Sovereignty

1 12, 2016

Protecting Our Precious Subsistence Resource, Walrus Ivory

2017-10-27T19:47:13-04:00Tags: |

Susie Silook, a sculptor and founding member of Sikuliiq: Alaska Native Artists’ Advocacy Group, writes about the problems that Indigenous artists face due to confusion around the Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking aimed at ending the elephant ivory trade. She explains how Indigenous peoples who are not poachers or sports hunters of elephant ivory have been banned by association, despite their rights. This constitutes a major loss for Indigenous artists, and Susie demands change, as this isn’t just about financial resources—it is about the conservation of Indigenous art. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

1 12, 2016

The Crucial Role Of Women At Standing Rock

2017-10-17T19:38:37-04:00Tags: |

This photo essay from White Wolf Pack examines the vital and sacred role Indigenous women are playing as leaders and water protectors at Standing Rock. In the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, women are stepping to the forefront and demonstrating the link between water protection, creation, and ultimately, the respect for all life. Photo credit: Celine Guiout

1 12, 2016

Kandi Mossett Is Fighting Fracking

2018-03-01T12:23:28-05:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett grew up on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota and experienced first-hand how unfairly Indigenous communities are affected by oil drilling and fracking. Since 2007, she’s been focusing on educating people about the environmental, social, and health impacts of fracking. She helped her Fort Berthold community prevent a solid waste disposal pit from being placed nearby, and also kept wastewater injection sites from being placed too close to water sources. Mossett's plan for the future is to find out if the rise in asthma in certain Indigenous communities is related to fracking’s impact on water and air quality. She is also planning to found a nonprofit that teaches food sovereignty and encourages reservations in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota to adopt renewables. Usually, Mossett’s tribal leaders are all male and she would like to see more women stepping forward to fight. Photo credit: grist 50!

1 12, 2016

“Our Forest Is Shedding Tears” — A Munduruku Woman Fights For Indigenous Rights

2017-11-01T03:32:14-04:00Tags: |

Vânia Alves is an Indigenous Munduruku leader from Brazil who is fighting the construction of mega-dams. With Greenpeace Brazil, Alves traveled from her home in the Amazon rainforest to Brasília to advocate to the Brazilian government for official recognition of the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land on the Tapajós River. The proposed dams would flood portions of the rainforest and threaten Alves' people's way of life. Photo credit: Otávio Almeda/Greenpeace

30 11, 2016

Winona LaDuke: Economics For The Seventh Generation

2017-09-24T20:29:49-04:00Tags: |

Renowned Anishinaabekwe leader, writer and activist Winona LaDuke presents a case for an economics that considers much more than economic profit and growth. Just two days after the election of President Donald Trump, LaDuke spoke to Oregon State University about the future of Standing Rock and the overlapping issues of Indigenous rights, energy, food sovereignty and climate justice. Her outstanding multidimensional presentation proposes paths forward to a post-carbon economy where mother earth is respected and gender relations balanced. Photo Credit: Oregon State University School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

27 11, 2016

Indigenous Latin American Women Craft Climate Change Solutions In Marrakech

2017-10-27T02:37:24-04:00Tags: |

A year before the COP22 climate negotiations in Marrakech, a group of Indigenous women from across Latin America united through the Caksi Warmi network, which means “women messengers” in Kichwa. Ivonne Ramos, coordinator of Acción Ecológica (Ecuador), explains how the women brought stories about climate change and natural resource extraction to the United Nations, proposing an alternative development model that respects their lives and communities. For example, Gladys Panchi, Emberá of Colombia, is resisting mineral extraction on her community’s lands, while Martha Cecilia Ventura, Maya K'iche' of Guatemala, promotes cultural resilience by preserving Indigenous medical systems. Cecilia Flores, Aymara of Chile, and Blanca Chancosa, Kichwa of Ecuador and the vice-president of Ecuarunari, join the chorus call as messengers for a just, sustainable future. Photo credit: Binod Parajuli

27 11, 2016

Women Move From Victims Of Climate Change To Climate Leaders

2017-10-27T02:27:14-04:00Tags: |

Women around the world are uniting to demand the opportunity to be part of the solution for climate justice. Coverage of a Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network event at the COP22 climate talks shares the struggles and triumphs of women fighting for climate justice, from the Navajo Nation to the camp at Standing Rock to Morocco. Women are leading work to defend food, seeds, water and land, and are driving real climate solutions. Photo credit: Rodrigo Buendia/AFP/Getty Images

26 11, 2016

Fifteen Indigenous Women On The Frontlines Of The Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance

2017-10-26T17:55:26-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from across North America stand on the frontline of the Dakota Access Pipeline to protect the Earth and Indigenous rights and communities. In this interview, 15 Indigenous women (LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, Jaslyn Charger, Champa Seyboye, Kandi Mossett, Phyllis Young, Lauren Howland, Shrise Wadsworth, Joye Braun, Michelle Cook, Tara Houska, Eryn Wise, Winona Kasto, Morning Star Gali, Leanne Guy and Deezbaa O'Hare) explain that protecting water and Mother Earth is their traditional role as women. The women interviewees speak of the need for action for Indigenous sovereignty and for a new narrative of socio-ecological balance based on respect for women and the Earth. If there is no respect for women, there is no respect for water and therefore for life. Photo credit: Women's Earth and Climate Action Network

26 11, 2016

Midwives At Dakota Access Resistance Camps: We Can Decolonize, Respect Women And Mother Earth

2017-10-26T17:52:00-04:00Tags: |

Thousands of people from the United States, Latin America and Canada have joined the resistance at Dakota Access pipeline. Most of them are Indigenous peoples  from different tribes across the Americas. Multiple kitchens, a school and medical services have been set up. The first baby was born in the camp with the help of a group of Indigenous midwives. In this interview, Melissa Rose, Carolina Reyes, and Yuwita Win discuss the significance of effective reproductive health-care at the resistance camps. Photo credit: Democracy Now

25 11, 2016

Meet Canada’s Accidental Activist

2017-07-16T13:37:15-04:00Tags: |

Helen Knott is Dane Zaa and Nehiyawak from the Prophet River First Nation in British Colombia, and a budding poet. Her piece Your Eyes They Curve Around Me draws attention to her people’s traditional relationship with the land and water, as well as experiences of colonization and violence against women. She now travels across Canada to speak in major cities about the climate justice and elimination of resource extraction, as well as Indigenous land rights. Photo credit: Nobelwomen

22 11, 2016

From Standing Rock To Morocco: Women Against Corporate Polluters

2017-07-16T13:45:48-04:00Tags: , |

Women around the world are fighting for climate justice: Indigenous Moroccan activist Moha Tawja points out the parallel efforts between her community in Amazigh and the community of Standing Rock in North Dakota. Both groups of women are advocating against extractive industries and a lack of respect for tribal sovereignty.. Though a world away geographically, their efforts point to the global nature of Indigenous resistance against the exploitation of water, and the depth and strength of the movement. Photo credit: Nadir Bouhmouch  

13 11, 2016

Asia Indigenous Women’s Recommendations For Climate Change Policy-Makers

2017-12-13T14:25:16-05:00Tags: |

On 30th November 2016, 32 Women from 8 Asian countries congregated at Yangon, Myanmar for the third Regional Exchange Visit of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP). The women shared knowledge on best practices in combating climate change in their communities. Aware of the the impacts of climate change on indigenous women and the significant role they  play in conserving natural resources and promoting sustainability, the Asia Indigenous women proposed a set of principal recommendations to climate change policy makers for actions on the Paris Agreement.

12 11, 2016

Indigenous Women Take A Vow of Empowerment And Speak Up Against Climate Destruction

2017-10-12T17:52:46-04:00Tags: |

Vanessa Farrelly, a Southern Arrernte woman and a passionate anti-fracking activist with the Seed Youth Indigenous Climate Action Network, is becoming a powerful advocate. She and 80 other women participated in the 2016 Straight Talk forum, run by Oxfam, which connected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to the political system to spark change in their communities. Indigenous women took vows to speak up against climate destruction, as many Parliamentarians in attendance left saying they were profoundly moved by the commitment they had witnessed. Photo credit: Adrienne Francis

6 11, 2016

At Standing Rock, Women Lead Fight In Face Of Mace, Arrests And Strip Searches

2017-12-06T14:47:57-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women and other allies women leaders on the forefront of the movement to protect the land and water at Standing Rock from the Dakota Access oil pipeline faced intense, and often racist and gendered abuses at the hands of policy and security forces. Women living on the ground at Standing Rock speak on strip searches, physical violence, and other traumatizing and violating experiences while detained for their defense of the Earth. Despite the challenges, Indigenous women reflect on the matriarchal tradition of their peoples as a source of strength to continue in their resistance. Photo credit: The Guardian

30 10, 2016

Dr. Rauna Kuokkanen: Indigenous Gender Justice

2017-10-30T20:17:30-04:00Tags: |

Dr. Kuokkanen is a Sámi woman and an Associate Professor of Political Science and Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto. During her talk, she presents a part of her new book and focuses on Indigenous gender justice. She points out how Indigenous feminist discourse links violence against Indigenous women to self-determination, self-government and the survival of Indigenous communities. Based on the data that she has collected, she advances a theory of Indigenous self-determination that affirms Indigenous women’s rights and gender justice. Photo credit: University of Alberta Faculty of Arts

30 10, 2016

Indigenous Women Lead The Environmental Fight In Latin America

2017-10-30T20:10:08-04:00Tags: |

This video features some of Latin America's indigenous women leaders fighting for environmental justice. Maxima Acuna of Peru, Machi Francisca Linconao of Chile, Milagro Sala of Argentina, and Berta Caceres of Honduras are among the human rights defenders who have led the resistance against extractive industries, government corruption, and attacks on indigenous people and their lands. Photo credit: TeleSUR English

27 10, 2016

Meet Kandi Mossett, A Passionate Climate Change Activist

2017-10-27T02:29:37-04:00Tags: |

Kandi Mossett is a member of Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations, and grew up feeling a deep connection to Mother Earth. She has turned that connection into a passionate career as a climate change activist. Kandi’s work is dedicated to campaigning against fracking in the United States, which means going up against the oil industry and other powerful interests. Though facing huge hurdles, she remains unfazed, and calls on young voices to join her on the global environmental stage. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

27 10, 2016

Young Women Lead Indigenous Youth To Mobilize For Climate Justice

2017-10-27T02:19:58-04:00Tags: |

Seed is Australia’s first Indigenous youth climate network, working to build a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people for climate justice. Seed identifies that although climate change is one of the greatest threats to our world, it also brings opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world. The organization is being lead by 3 young local women, including Amelia Telford, who are working directly with the people impacted by climate change. Photo credit: Seeds

27 10, 2016

Voices Of Indigenous Women Human Rights Defenders From The Philippines

2017-10-27T01:14:04-04:00Tags: |

A short film produced by the Asia Indigenous People’s Pact and shared by Yes To Life, No To Mining investigates the non-recognition of Indigenous people’s rights to ancestral lands due to large-scale mining in the Philippines. It looks at the threats and challenges encountered and actions taken by several Indigenous women human rights defenders, such as Betty Belen, Mother Petra, Bai Lita Kundag, Marevic Aguirre, Christina Lanatao and Bai Madalna Kundag in their struggle for self-determination and collective rights against transnational corporations. Photo credit: Asia Indigenous Peoples' Pact

26 10, 2016

The Link Between Oil Pipelines And Sexual Assault

2017-10-31T19:30:44-04:00Tags: |

Force: Upsetting Rape Culture, a survivor-led art and activism group, has created an infographic to demonstrate that Native women are at greater risk of sexual assault where oil pipelines are being built. The infographic details in particular the dangers for women of the Standing Rock Sioux. The state of North Dakota, which produces more oil than any other state, obtains most of this oil from tribal lands. To do so, areas known as “man camps” are set up to house oil workers in close proximity to Native communities, which facilitates an increase in sexual violence that cannot be prosecuted by Native Nations. Building the Dakota Access Pipeline has impinged on not only water safety but also women’s safety. Photo credit: Paulann Egelhoff

26 10, 2016

Maxima Acuña Under Attack For Her Resistance Against Mining In Peru – Interview With Sian Cowman

2017-10-26T18:01:33-04:00Tags: |

Environmental land defender Maxima Acuña faces physical attacks for her resistance against a mining company in Peru. In this interview with the Democracy Center, she explains why extractivism means more violence for women and what we can do to support vital efforts to stand with her and her colleagues and community members. Photo credit: The Democracy Center

26 10, 2016

In Peru, This Young Activist Is Sparking A Movement For Climate Justice

2017-10-26T17:59:32-04:00Tags: |

Majandra Rodriguez Acha is a young climate woman of Peru uniting urban and Indigenous communities across her country for vital dialogue and action around issues of resource extraction, Indigenous Rights violations, violence against women and the Earth, and much more. Photo credit: Global Greengrants

26 10, 2016

Reimagining Native America: Matika Wilburs “Project 562”

2017-10-26T16:40:35-04:00Tags: |

Matika Wilburs of the Swinomish and Tulalip Tribe is taking action as an Indigenous woman photographer and educator to help tell the stories of  Indigenous peoples from every federally recognized tribal nation in the United States. She hopes to humanize Native peoples through her diverse portraits, and through this work combat discrimination and continued rights violations. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

26 10, 2016

Indonesian Activist Pipi Supeni: “We Need To Unite To Fight For Our Rights”

2017-10-26T16:38:12-04:00Tags: |

Pipi Supeni of East Kalimantan,  Indonesia is on a mission to counter false narratives and negative assumptions and discrimination against Indigenous women. Through her work as a community organizer with AMAN Women-East Kalimantan for the Dayak Benuaq Ohokng tribe in the villages of Mamcong and Muara Tae, she seeks to help her fellow Indigenous Indonesian women to feel pride and confidence in their traditional culture , skills and knowledge - and thus assume their rightful place as leaders for the betterment of their communities and the natural world. Photo credit: JASS Just Associates

26 10, 2016

Bai Ellen Manlimbaas: Her Weapon Is Her Voice

2017-10-26T16:30:19-04:00Tags: |

In this World Pulse story, Bai Ellen Manlimbaas, Lumad Indigenous women leaders of the Matigsalog tribe living in the village of White Culaman, Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines, recounts her abduction and month-long detention by the military for to her work with other local leaders and rural women to oppose the continued ingression of destructive development, militarization and corporate farming and mining into Lumad homelands.  Photo credit: World Pulse

23 10, 2016

Reframing The Climate Narrative

2020-10-23T22:17:22-04:00Tags: |

Drawing on her experiences at the 2015 UN Climate Talks in Paris, the author and WECAN-member Karina Gonzalez stresses the importance of changing the narrative around climate change. Instead of solely focusing on technological solutions and the reduction of greenhouse gases, she calls for an approach that focuses on the systemic root causes instead. In doing so, one can value the unmeasurable and qualitative, challenge biases and power relations and remove the illusion of predictability.

11 10, 2016

From The Front Lines: Bettina Cruz And Indigenous Land Rights In Mexico

2017-09-08T22:10:46-04:00Tags: |

Bettina Cruz, an environmental and human rights defender from Oaxaca, discusses how the local construction and operation of wind farms has caused severe environmental destruction and impacted fishing practices, killed animals, and changed a way of life the local Indigenous people have maintained for generations. The energy produced by the farms doesn’t benefit the local people, but instead is sold to major global companies, including Coca-Cola, Bimbo, Wal-Mart, and Heineken. Photo credit: Global Greengrants Fund

6 10, 2016

Violence On The Land, Violence On Our Bodies: Building an Indigenous Response to Environmental Violence

2017-12-06T14:21:18-05:00Tags: |

This report by the Women’s Earth Alliance and Native Youth Sexual Health Network examines case studies from across Indigenous lands of the United States and Canada, including the Dine/Navajo Nation, Lubicon Lake Nation, Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ohkey Owingeh Pueblo, the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, and others - asking why and how Indigenous women in frontline communities are being impacted by intense environmental racism, and sexual and gendered violence due to expansion of extractive and toxic industries in their homelands. It also examines community-based strategies being implemented to resist impacts to health, safety and the land. Photo credit: WEA  

3 10, 2016

Panama’s Indigenous Women Combine Efforts To Promote Food Security

2017-07-16T14:14:11-04:00Tags: |

Women of the Naso Indigenous Community are facing challenges to their traditional way of life: unemployment, limited access to healthcare, and unpredictable agricultural seasons perpetuate high rates of poverty and malnutrition. A United Nations-backed workshop in Panama City invited local Indigenous women to build skills in food security, leadership, and climate change adaptation. Photo credit: FAO SLM Panama

29 09, 2016

Gloria Ushigua Works To Defend Indigenous Territory In The Ecuadorian Amazon

2017-10-09T21:19:09-04:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Sápara Women's Association of Ecuador (Ashiñwaka) is actively working against state and privately-run oil companies’ efforts to develop the Pastaza Province of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Despite increased harassment, intimidation, and persistent threat of violence, Ushigua has persevered in her defense of Sápara land and right to a traditional way of life in the Amazon. Photo credit: Land is Life

25 09, 2016

Jennifer Padilla Of Isleta Pueblo Discusses Seeds, Healing And Ancestral Wisdom

2017-09-25T10:02:24-04:00Tags: |

In this podcast, Jennifer Padilla of Isleta Pueblo, a community garden organizer in New Mexico, discusses seeds, community healing, ancestral wisdom and climate change. She talks about her intergenerational knowledge line (typically reserved for men) which taught her about seed saving, agriculture and gardening. The garden has been an important gathering place for her community to learn and engage with each other as a means of self-sufficiency and sovereignty. Photo credit: SeedBroadcast

22 09, 2016

Davida Herzl Creates Fitbit-Like Tools For the Planet

2017-09-22T22:54:47-04:00Tags: |

Davida Herzl is the co-founder and CEO of Aclima, a company that builds sensor networks that monitor environmental impacts - including pollutants, carbon footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions - at a hyperlocal scale. Herzl hopes the information provided by the sensors will help people understand how the burning of fossil fuels is impacting the environment in which they live, and motivate them to seek out sustainable alternatives as consumers. Photo credit: Grist

22 09, 2016

Murrawah Johnson: A Vibrant And Dynamic Climate Activist

2018-03-01T12:24:06-05:00Tags: |

When Adani Group announced plans to dig Australia’s largest coal mine ever, the open-pit Carmichael Mine, the mining consortium underestimated the power of the Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council and People who are the traditional owners of the land for 60,000 years. Murrawah Johnson and her uncle Adrian Burragubba embarked on an 18-day world tour to meet with the international banks funding the mine to convince them to back out. As a result of their efforts, fifteen of the world’s top 20 fossil fuel investors pulled support for the mine. Murrawah Johnson has been characterised as one of the most dynamic climate activists as she is always on the front line of holding back the largest proposed coal mine in the world. Photo credit: grist 50!

13 09, 2016

Battle Against The Dakota Access Pipeline Launched By Native Women

2017-07-12T19:33:29-04:00Tags: |

Ladonna Brave Bull Allard of the Standing Rock Sioux ignited a movement to protect the tribe's water source from the Dakota Access Pipeline when she began the Sacred Stone Camp in Cannonball, North Dakota. Native women have been the center of the #NODAPL movement, using non-violent civil disobedience and prayer to stand strong in the face of bulldozers, pepper spray, and dogs. In addition to standing at the front lines in North Dakota, they have organized camps and prayer vigils across the country and lobbied in Washington, D.C. Photo credit: Facebook  

13 09, 2016

In Her Bones: Female Tribal Leader Defends Land In Indonesia

2017-07-16T14:19:29-04:00Tags: |

Afrida Erna Ngato is an Indigenous activist and tribal leader in her community of Pagu, a position that women very rarely occupy. Afrida is fighting against gold and silver mining on almost 30,000 hectares of Indigenous territory. Decades of mining have led to detrimental impacts on the environment along with the health and livelihood of community members. Afrida leads protests in front of the mining company offices and collaborates with neighboring tribes to map borders, making it difficult for future mining companies to exploit the land and its people. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

12 09, 2016

Native American Activist Winona LaDuke At Standing Rock: It’s Time To Move On From Fossil Fuels

2017-10-09T21:39:35-04:00Tags: |

Winona LaDuke, longtime Native American activist and executive director of the group Honor the Earth, lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in northern Minnesota. She talks about how she spent years successfully fighting the Sandpiper pipeline, a pipeline similar to Dakota Access. Listen to LaDuke speak from near the Red Warrior Camp, one of the encampments where thousands of Native Americans representing hundreds of tribes from across the United States and Canada resist the pipeline’s construction. Photo credit: Democracy Now

6 09, 2016

Princess Daazhraii Johnson On Vimeo

2023-04-30T14:22:46-04:00Tags: |

This video highlights Princess Daazhraii Johnson -- a Gwich’in actress, activist, and writer -- discussing her connection to the land of her community, just outside of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Johnson explains how she cannot imagine oil development on the land because her culture’s survival is dependent upon the health and longevity of the wildlife refuge. In Gwich’in, the land is known as a “sacred place where life begins” as it is a birthing ground and is importantly connected to the surrounding community’s livelihood.

29 08, 2016

You Are What Your Ancestors Ate: The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook

2017-10-01T16:32:17-04:00Tags: |

In 2013, internationally renowned Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Roxanne Swentzell joined the Pueblo Food Experience project, when 14 volunteers of Pueblo descent agreed to eat, for three months, only the foods available to their ancestors before the first Native contact with the Spanish in 1540. Swentzell took that locavore goal one step further, stating that humans are not only what and where we eat, but are also what and where our ancestors ate. Photo credit: NMHM/DCA

29 08, 2016

Six Nations Woman’s “Earthship” Is Radically Sustainable

2017-10-29T01:00:21-04:00Tags: |

First Nations woman Ohwehhoh (Flower) Doxtador is challenging unsustainable city living with her very own “earthship” —an alternative, low-cost, off-the-grid solar home constructed from a combination of upcycled and natural materials. The home produces its own solar electricity, utilizes natural and recycled materials for heating and cooling, and recycles rainwater. The structure shelters Ohwehhoh, her daughter and her five grandchildren. Photo credit: Jess Tribe

9 08, 2016

Ancestral Farming Techniques Resurge In Peru

2017-07-17T17:12:40-04:00Tags: |

As President of the Indigenous Women of Laramate organization in rural Peru, Magaly Garayar teaches ancestral farming techniques to combat climate change and improve food security. Through selecting healthy seeds, rotating crops to improve soil fertility, and effective irrigation, women are now seeing better yields that they sell in local markets. Through their work, the women are taking steps to combat patriarchal norms and promote women’s leadership and gender equality. Photo credit: CHIRAPAQ

11 07, 2016

Water Song: Indigenous Women And Water

2023-04-16T15:28:48-04:00Tags: |

For Indigenous Peoples in Canada, water is a living thing and a spiritual entity with life-giving forces. Indigenous women have a strong relationship with water and traditionally have been considered its caretakers and protectors. Unsurprisingly, these women have often been referred to as “Keepers of the Water” or “Carriers of the Water.” Colonial institutions and tools have fragmented this relationship, creating disconnects between the land and Indigenous Peoples and, thus, the role of women in water governance. But Indigenous women are resilient, strong and are reasserting their role in local, regional, and national governance systems and dialogues. They are leading efforts to rebuild spiritual and cultural connections with water in their communities and are leading efforts across Canada to protect water. Indigenous women played a key role in developing a framework to support the engagement and re-empowering of Indigenous women in water governance in Canada. Already, the implementation of this framework is supporting Indigenous women to reassert their traditional roles and engaging more women in water stewardship activities. 

7 07, 2016

Mining Affects Indigenous Women Human Rights, Phil Women’s Groups Said At 64th CEDAW Session

2018-08-10T15:46:58-04:00Tags: |

On July 2016, The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) reviewed the human rights violations by the Philippine State. The CEDAW Committee was notified that the Philippines is institutionalizing gender biases, patriarchal structures and violence against women to further interests, specifically those of mining corporations. Kakay Tolentine from the Durmagat Indigenous community and BAI (National Network of Indigenous Women) representative highlighted the increases in extrajudicial killings, including 90 Indigenous land defenders between 2010 and 2016. The killing of Juvy Capion was raised to the CEDAW Committee. Capion, a B’laan woman leader who fiercely opposed the Sagittarius Mines, Inc. project on her ancestral lands was killed by military men in October 2012 along with her two young sons. Despite the laws passed to protect Indigenous women, the government fails to fulfill its obligations. Photo credit: WLB

27 06, 2016

Ana Miriam Romero Vows To Continue Her Activism In Defense of The Environment

2017-10-27T00:01:34-04:00Tags: |

Ana Mirian Romero, a Honduran human rights and environmental activist, travelled to Dublin in order to receive the 2016 Front Line Defenders Awards. Her work against the construction of a hydroelectric dam was recognized as instrumental to the defense of her community’s ancestral lands. She fights for the possibility of providing Indigenous children with a better future, one in which the air, water and soil are not devastated to benefit companies. Photo credit: Conor McCabe

26 06, 2016

The Integral Role Of Indigenous Women’s Knowledge

2017-10-26T18:03:58-04:00Tags: |

This is a book review on the new collection “Living on the Land: Indigenous Women’s Understanding of Place” where diverse global Indigenous women speak about patriarchy, gender, and colonialism. They share their experiences as both knowers and producers of knowledge and at the same time they speak about their remarkable contributions to their communities. Photo credit: rabble.ca

26 06, 2016

Suzanne Dhaliwal Leads UK Tar Sands Network

2017-11-01T05:07:43-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Rising Media profiles, Suzanne Dhaliwal an Indigenous rights and mining/extraction activist with the UK Tar Sands Network, who is leading campaigns against United Kingdom based corporations and financial institutions which invest in and support the Alberta Tar Sands, Canada - one of the largest and most destructive industrial projects on the planet. Photo credit: Indigenous Environmental Network

25 06, 2016

Impact Journalism Day: Global Indigenous Youth Taking The Planet Into Their Own Hands

2017-10-12T15:00:32-04:00Tags: |

Young activists Amelia Telford (an Aboriginal woman from Bunjalun country, Australia) and Joseph White-Eyes (a Lakota man from the United States) bring different cultures together in solidarity to fight for environmental and climate justice. After witnessing the impacts of a severe storm on her homeland in 2009, Amelia joined the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and founded Seed, a network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth fighting for climate justice. Photo credit: Penny Stephens

16 06, 2016

Oglala Sioux Activist Wins Award For Sticking Neck Out

2018-03-01T12:24:50-05:00Tags: |

Charmaine White Face, an Oglala Sioux scientist, environmentalist and activist, has been named a Giraffe Hero by the Giraffe Heroes Project, a nonprofit organization that encourages people to "stick their necks out for the common good.” She has been recognized for her battles against corruption within tribal governments, as well as her fight against uranium mining in the Black Hills. White Face says she has been threatened by uranium companies, but vows that she and the Defenders of the Black Hills will continue to educate people and push for South Dakota and Wyoming congressmen to keep the air and water clean from radioactive particles. Photo credit: Rapid City Journal  

13 06, 2016

South Sea Islander Angel Owen: We’re The Last Generation That Can Do Anything

2017-10-09T20:37:01-04:00Tags: |

As a young Aboriginal woman, Angel Owen cares about environmental destruction on more than just a physical level. When her family went through huge upheaval during Australia’s 2013 floods, she was moved to join the movement of Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Pacific Islanders in opposing offshore coal projects through the Break Free movement. Attending the National Indigenous Youth Leadership Academy, Angel continued to hone her skills as an organizer, while dreaming of pursuing climate justice one day through law school. Photo credit: Valerie Bichard

10 06, 2016

From Child Laborer To Women’s Rights Defender

2017-07-16T14:07:02-04:00Tags: |

Lucrecia Huayhua Choque, an Indigenous Aymara woman, was sent away from her community in Cocapacabana at the age of eight to the city of La Paz where she worked long hours without pay. She returned to her community at the age of 22, when she was forced into marriage. After a lifetime of difficulties, she was selected to participate in the UN-funded School for Women Leaders, where she learned about women's rights and gender equality. Now she is a passionate advocate for women, traveling to various urban and rural communities to fight against violence and exploitation with education. Photo credit: OMAK

7 06, 2016

Winona LaDuke Takes On Foreign Oil In Documentary

2017-10-14T12:44:55-04:00Tags: |

Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Ojibwe nation and leader of Honor the Earth speaks out against the construction of Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline in this short film called Food, Water, Earth. The proposed pipeline would run straight through the heart of Anishinaabe territory, threatening a sensitive wetland ecosystem that is home to Manoomin (wild rice), a sacred food of the Anishinaabe people. The short documentary is part of WOMEN, a collection of short films featuring women from around the world who are on the frontlines fighting for social change. Photo credit: Honor the Earth

2 06, 2016

Indigenous Woman Leader Threatened For Defending Environmental And Human Rights

2017-07-16T14:48:47-04:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, coordinator of the Indigenous Sápara women’s organization Ashiñwaka, faces great danger in her home in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a result of her determined work to stop the expansion of oil drilling and the displacement of her community. Since 2010, she has defended her community Llachama Cocha from the encroachment of foreign and state-sponsored fossil fuel extraction. Photo credit: Frontline Defenders

23 05, 2016

Why Land Means Hope For India’s Single Women

2017-07-20T16:56:48-04:00Tags: |

Single women like Kuni Majhi, who are often the most vulnerable and overlooked members of Indian society, are taking advantage of a local initiative in Mayurbhary in the country’s Eastern State of Odisha. The initiative is challenging gender stereotypes and granting land and shelter to women living alone. Photo credit: Thomas Reuters Foundation

18 05, 2016

First Nations Women Sing Watersong At Town Hall Event Against Energy East Project

2017-07-12T19:56:35-04:00Tags: |

Women from the Nipissing and North Bay First Nations are singing Water Songs to raise awareness about the TransCanada Corporation’s proposed Energy East pipeline project, which would dangerously convert old pipelines to transport new oil sands and threaten watersheds along its route from Alberta to New Brunswick. Photo credit: Anishinabek News

18 05, 2016

Native Houma Woman Stages Protest At Shell Shareholder Meeting

2017-07-16T14:52:14-04:00Tags: |

Monique Verdin, a member of the Mississippi River Deltas indigenous Houma nation, represented the Native American Houma National Council at Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in 2016. With the support of the Indigenous Environmental Network and the UK Tar Sands Network, she presented a pop-up exhibition of professional photos showing the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and oil and gas infrastructure in the Mississippi Delta to advocate for an end to extraction. Photo credit: Energy Voice

16 05, 2016

Women Walk To Raise Awareness About Water Project In Nova Scotia

2017-07-12T19:48:37-04:00Tags: |

For over seven years, the women of the Mi’Kmaq Nation have united annually to walk for ten days along the Shubenacadie River. With these river walks, they raise awareness about a natural gas pipeline project proposed by Alton Gas, which would threaten sacred local rivers, ecosystems and Indigenous communities. Photo credit: APTN National News

12 05, 2016

Indigenous Women Take Action To Protect Mother Earth

2017-09-04T21:57:25-04:00Tags: |

On May 12, 2016 a group of Indigenous women leaders from South and North America (Turtle Island) united to share their concerns, struggles and plans for change at “Indigenous Women of the Americas Protecting Mother Earth: Struggles and Climate Solutions,” an afternoon event presented by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International and our allies at Amazon Watch and the Indigenous Environmental Network. It was held in New York City in parallel to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to bring public visibility to the diverse stories, solutions and demands of frontline women climate leaders. The speakers shared with the audience unique experiences and all focused on several main areas: (1) respect for and implementation of Indigenous rights and knowledge as a prerequisite for climate justice and effective sustainability solutions and (2) the protection of the rights, health, lives and lands of Indigenous peoples, and nations. Photo credit: Emily Arasim, Joan Beard

11 05, 2016

Native American Teenager Petitions To Stop Dakota Access Pipeline

2017-07-16T14:55:39-04:00Tags: |

13-year-old Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer has, along with 30 friends from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, collected 80,000 signatures against the construction of a big oil pipeline close to their land on the Missouri river. Her brave stance against the Dakota Access Pipeline contributed to a months-long camp at the Sacred Stone site, which resulted in a deferral of the pipeline’s construction from the Obama Administration. Photo credit: The Independent/Youtube

27 04, 2016

The Dammed Of The Earth

2018-10-17T18:33:57-04:00Tags: |

Listen to Sian Cowman and Philippa de Boissière, researchers at The Democracy Center, discuss their article “Dammed of the Earth” in which they address the terminal environmental and human rights impacts of hydroelectric projects on indigenous territories. They also provide background to the assassination of Berta Cáceres and hint at possible means of continued resistance. Photo credit: Daniel Cima

24 04, 2016

Indigenous Movement Stops Construction Of Brazilian Mega-Dam

2017-07-16T14:57:09-04:00Tags: |

Maria Leusa Kaba, who received a United Nations Equator Prize for her work protecting Indigenous rights, territories and rivers, played a key role in the movement which fought against the construction of the São Luiz de Tapajós hydroelectric dam. Construction of the mega-dam has been suspended and the lands of the Munduruku Indigenous people are now protected under the Brazilian constitution. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

19 04, 2016

To Empower Communities Of Color, Power Our Country With Clean Energy

2017-09-29T19:00:21-04:00Tags: |

Among the many initiatives that aim at expanding the use of renewables in the United States, the work of Wahleah Johns is a remarkable example of energy democratization. She is a member of the Navajo nation and works to broaden access to renewable energy across her people’s territory. Her work as a vice-chair of the Navajo Green Economy Commission entails advancing economic opportunities related to renewable energy and her community’s traditional economic practices.

15 04, 2016

Q & A With Maatalii Okalik Of The National Inuit Youth Council

2018-02-15T13:07:32-05:00Tags: |

As the president of the National Inuit Youth Council, Maatalii Okalik is a voice for young Inuit people. She has advocated for Inuit perspectives at the United Nations COP21 climate conference in 2015, and in April 2016 she won the Outstanding Young Woman Award from Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council for her strong leadership. Here she shares her take on Inuit culture, highlights the importance of the strong female role models in her life, and some of the challenges facing Inuit women due to climate change. Photo Credit: Jessica Finn/Canadian Geographic

2 04, 2016

Guatemalan Q’eqchi’ Women Take Canadian Mining Firm To Court

2017-07-16T15:01:20-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous Guatemalan women, such as Margarita Caal Caal, spoke out against the sexual violence they experienced at the hands of Canadian mining company Hudbay Mineral, Inc. and brought their case to court in Guatemala. The Q’eqchi’ people have suffered eviction, sexual violence and exploitation due to the presence of international mining firms, but these women are seeking justice for themselves and their communities. Photo credit: Adriana Zehbrauskas, the New York Times

29 03, 2016

Six Indigenous Women Are At The Heart Of Argentina’s Anti-Fracking Resistance

2017-07-12T20:08:39-04:00Tags: |

Chela Campo is amongst the six Indigenous Mapuche women from the Checho Maripe community who are putting their bodies at risk and chaining themselves to fracking machinery to stop drilling in the Argentinian Patagonia. The Mapuche come from a long legacy of resistance, first to genocide by the Argentinian state in the late 19th century, and most recently to the alliance between multinational fossil fuel companies and the Argentinian government that permitted drilling without the Mapuche’s consent. Photo credit: Checho Maripe

28 03, 2016

Zimbabwean Women Share Indigenous Knowledge For Food, Seed Sovereignty

2017-07-17T16:03:05-04:00Tags: |

Climate change is making traditional farming more difficult in Zimbabwe. In response, Elizabeth Mpofu, General Coordinator of La Via Campesina, brought women farmers together via the Zimbabwe Organic Smallholder Farmers Forum (ZIMSOFF) to share knowledge and best practices. Drawing on indigenous wisdom passed down through generations about seed selection and storage, farming methods, nutrition and traditional medicine, women organized seed and food fairs to share the diversity of their native seeds. As a collective, they have lobbied the Zimbabwean government for agricultural policies that put women and food sovereignty first. Photo credit: La Via Campesina

26 03, 2016

Out Front: Women Speak Up At The First Central American Indigenous Community Radio Conference

2017-10-26T22:32:07-04:00Tags: |

At the First Central American Indigenous Community Radio Conference, indigenous community broadcasters gathered to share how they have amplified their voices through community radio and how they aim to fight for women’s right to freedom of expression. As rural and Indigenous women, much of the material they cover as broadcasters has naturally come to include regional land and water protection. Photo credit: Glenda Lopez

18 03, 2016

UN Envoy Warns Of Environmental Activist Murder Epidemic

2017-07-17T14:47:22-04:00Tags: |

Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has urged world governments to take urgent action to address violence against defenders of the Earth, which she sees as a growing global epidemic. Photo credit: Jorge Cabrera/Reuters  

12 03, 2016

Women On The Front Lines Fighting Fracking In The Bakken Oil Shale Formations

2018-03-01T12:25:13-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women are leading the grassroots resistance to stop fracking in North Dakota. where a rapidly growing industry has brought widespread damages to the land, as well as a sharp increase in violence against local women, girls and Indigenous communities who suffer as a result of the boom in oil extraction close to their homes. The Women's Earth and Climate Action Network reports on time spent near Fort Berthold Reservation with local Indigenous woman protectors including Kandi Mossett (Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara) of the Indigenous Environmental Network. Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

10 03, 2016

Latai Taumoepeau Uses Theater To Put Climate Change In The Spotlight

2017-10-14T15:52:02-04:00Tags: |

The best way to make people understand climate change, says performer-activist Latai Taumoepeau, is not to use maps, charts and diagrams, but rather the human body. Taumoepeau is one of three performers exploring climate change in the Pacific region in Disaffected, a multi-disciplinary theatre work premiering at the Blacktown Arts Centre in Sydney. The work explores experiences of displacement, devastation and rebuilding at the hands of natural disasters that communities in the Pacific live as a daily reality. Photo credit: Katy Green Loughrey

10 03, 2016

Indigenous Women In The Philippines Defend Their Livelihoods

2017-07-17T18:10:11-04:00Tags: |

36-year-old housewife and mother Minda Dalinan, from the Blaan Indigenous people, was amongst hundreds protesting the violence and human rights violations committed by paramilitary forces, which are terrorizing and displacing her people. Indigenous tribes in the Philippines are fighting to save their ancestral land from mining companies and government takeovers, and women are leading the fight. Photo credit: Iris Gonzales  

7 03, 2016

Suryamani Bhagat Was Supposed To Be A Teacher In India

2017-10-24T20:14:25-04:00Tags: |

Sanskrit teacher Suryamani Bhagat felt called to grassroots activism when she returned to fight for the forest near her home. She joined a group of Indigenous women to organize forest protection committees, and youth and women co-operatives, as well as launching the Jharkhand Save the Forest Movement. The women were able to persuade the government to implement a new Forest Rights Act, which allowed the Indigenous community to legally own and manage their forestlands. Now, forests in 45 villages are on the path of gradual rejuvenation. Photo credit: Global Greengrants

7 03, 2016

Women Of The Amazon Defend Their Homeland Against New Oil Contract On International Women’s Day

2017-12-15T13:25:31-05:00Tags: |

In response to January 2016 action by the government of Ecuador to sign a new contract with Chinese oil company Andes Petroleum, giving permission to explore and drill for oil in the country's pristine southeastern Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous women leaders from across the country are speaking out to denounce this latest cultural and ecologic violation. Gloria Ushigua (Sápara) and Patricia Gualinga and Ena Santi (Kichwa) share thoughts in advance of a historic gathering and march of women in Puyo, Ecuador, on International Women’s Day 2016. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN

28 02, 2016

Recognizing The Rights Of Nature And The Living Forest

2018-10-17T18:17:15-04:00Tags: |

Mirian Cisneros, Ena Santi, Patricia Gualinga and Nina Gualinga are some of the women leaders of the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, who are opposing continued oil extraction, and setting forth a vital proposal for the healthy and just future they envision for their community and the forest that they live in relationship with. The women shared their communities’ Kawsak Sacha, ‘Living Forest’ proposal at the International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Paris, France during the United Nations 2015 climate negotiations. This article shares background and analysis from Osprey Orielle Lake, Executive Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, regarding the Living Forest proposal, Rights of Nature and the importance of Indigenous women’s leadership in these movements for deep systemic change in law, policy, and ways of living with the Earth. Photo credit: Emily Arasim/WECAN International

26 02, 2016

Wikwemikong’s Josephine Mandamin Honoured For Conservation Excellence

2017-07-17T15:23:05-04:00Tags: |

Josephine Mandamin, a Canadian First Nation elder of the Wikwemikong people, has spent years taking action to protect her Native culture while building awareness about the detrimental impacts of pollution, fracking and water privatization. Since 2003, she has been a leader of the Sacred Water Walks, walking the shorelines of the Great Lakes to raise awareness about the impact of oil pollution on water. Photo credit: Edge of Change, Yes magazine

26 01, 2016

Deborah Parker Of The Tulalip Tribes Speaks At Standing Rock

2017-10-26T14:16:24-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Deborah Parker from the Tulalip Tribes of Washington State speaks directly from the Standing Rock resistance camp about her role as a water protector and about the ways in which traditional Indigenous education and values instruct children to regard the earth as sacred. Photo credit: The New American Underground

12 01, 2016

Sonia Guajajara: Reconnecting People With The Planet

2018-01-12T15:21:46-05:00Tags: |

Sonia Guajajara of the Association of Indigenous People of Brazil (AIPB) believes that to save the Earth, the rights and solutions of Indigenous peoples must be upheld. In this interview, she explains that destruction of environmental resources is having direct and devastating impacts on Indigenous culture, survival and livelihoods. She calls for Indigenous leadership at the forefront to fix these ills, drawing attention to Indigenous cultures’ prioritization of community well-being over individual well-being, and how this is a central reason why Indigenous people have emerged as the most adept environmental protectors on a global scale. Photo Credit: Alan Azevedo/Believe.Earth

8 01, 2016

These Seed-Saving Farmers In India Pass Down Land To Their Daughters

2017-08-22T09:50:11-04:00Tags: |

Bibiana Ranee is from the matrilineal Khasi Indigenous community from Meghalaya, India, where the youngest daughters inherit the largest share of the family’s traditional lands. This practice empowers women to influence decisions regarding crops and livestock, save indigenous seed varieties, protect biodiversity, build a repository of medicinal herbs, and practice regenerative and organic agriculture. Strengthened by their matrilineal system, the women are spreading awareness about the connections between indigenous culture and food sovereignty, even in the face of the spread of rice monoculture, the industrial agriculture system and the political marginalization of Indigenous women. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

6 01, 2016

South African Women Defend Biodiversity, Seeds

2017-07-17T17:16:53-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women of Dzomo La Mupo in South Africa are using traditional farming practices and ancestral knowledge to strengthen women’s leadership, fight against the destruction of their land and defend the remaining Indigenous forests from vanishing. Mphatheleini Makaulele, Director of Dzomo la Mupo and member of the African Biodiversity Network, shares vital reflections on the role of women as seed-savers and land stewards in this interview. Photo credit: Mphathe Makauele

1 01, 2016

Miriam Miranda And Garifuna Women Fight For Climate Justice

2017-07-17T15:54:14-04:00Tags: |

Miriam Miranda, director of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), is fighting numerous battles for climate and environmental justice. The land and ocean resources of the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna people of Honduras are threatened by foreign extractive industries, violent government land seizure, drug cartels, tourism, and changing ecosystems. Food scarcity, poverty, and climate disasters lead Garifuna men to seek work in the cities or migrate to the United States. As a result, women often bear the brunt of the effects of climate change and the burden of maintaining the Garifuna community’s land and traditions. In response, Garifuna women have set up camps on their ancestral land despite the increasing militarization of the area. They have also begun to replant coconut trees and mangrove forests to counter river erosion and create barriers against rising sea levels. Photo Credit: Felipe Canova, feministing.com

22 12, 2015

Arctic Ancestral Survivalism: Gunnel Heligfjell On Extreme Weather And Sami Wisdom

2017-09-22T10:09:51-04:00Tags: |

Gunnel Heligfjell is an artist and writer who teaches the Sami language to school children. While she lives in a more conventional home in Vilhelmina, Sweden most of the year, she still spends time in a goahti or lavvu during summer or hunting trips. She believes in this traditional self-reliance and knows how to build traditional shelters and still cures reindeer meat (from her husband’s herd) and makes shoes, bags and fabrics from the skins. The Sami people are one of the oldest semi-nomadic Indigenous groups in the world. Traditionally herding reindeer in the Arctic regions of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia’s Kola Peninsula (the region is known as Sapmi), they work with the rhythms of nature in order to survive the harsh climate. Photo credit: Kirsten Dirksen

14 12, 2015

Rising Sea, Rising Strength

2017-11-01T12:51:47-04:00Tags: |

Marina Parvin, a researcher using feminist participatory-action methodologies, collaborated with women including Aneema Rani Muda to investigate climate change adaptation strategies and policy responses among the Munda Indigenous people of Shyamnagar, Bangladesh. These Indigenous communities, especially women, are suffering the most due to dependence on natural resources. Bangladesh emits 44 times less carbon dioxide than the United States, yet is feeling the brunt of climate impacts such as erosion and sea level rise. To fight climate change, these women are adapting strategies such as rainwater harvesting and hanging gardens, and to generate a source of income, they have started crab farm. One of the Munda women, Rajkumari Munda, was even selected as a member of the Village Policing Committee. Photo credit: Asia Pacific Forum on Women and Development

13 12, 2015

Worldwide, Indigenous Women Are Implementing Climate Solutions

2017-07-17T16:09:46-04:00Tags: |

Edna Kaptoyo, a Pokot Indigenous woman from Kenya, has already felt the impact of climate change. Kaptoyo says the traditional ways of her people such as preserving food and building houses has become a struggle so it is harder to protect her children. Indigenous woman all over the world have a wealth of traditional knowledge which is key to finding solutions to climate change. Photo credit: Shutterstock

12 12, 2015

Vancouver Teen Ta’Kaiya Blaney’s Voice Captures The World’s Attention

2017-07-17T16:15:26-04:00Tags: |

14-year-old singer Ta’Kaiya Blaney has spoken at a United Nations panel in New York and sang at the Paris Climate Talks in 2015. Blaney, who is a Youth Ambassador for non-profit organization Native Children’s Survival and grew up in the Silammon First Nation, Vancouver, Canada, speaks out against the political silencing of her people and the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on Indigenous life. Photo credit: Daryl Dyke/The Globe and Mail

7 12, 2015

Nina Gualinga: We Were Born of the Land Lent to Us By Our Future Generations

2017-12-07T18:25:46-05:00Tags: |

Nina Gualinga, a young woman leader of the Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku, writes on her experience growing up deep within the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, and the consciousness and responsibility she has developed to take action to ensure that her ancestors are honored, and that future generation's have the opportunities to enjoy the rich, diverse Earth that has shaped her own worldview and life. She speaks directly to Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa, calling him to see and act to respect the wishes of the country's Indigenous movement, which is ceaseless in its efforts to protect the land, waters, creatures, and their communities, customs and livelihoods. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

6 12, 2015

Defending Land And Community: Women On The Frontlines Of Climate Justice

2023-04-16T14:43:00-04:00Tags: |

Nathalie Margi details the stories of three women environmental activists in Southeast Asia who have taken action at the grassroots level to defend the earth from the extractive industries that threaten the health and safety of their communities. Bai Ali Indayla, a Moro activist from the Philippines, fights back against the multinational corporations that exploit her community’s land and resources and degrade the environment. Eva Bande, an Indonesian land rights activist, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for her work with Palm Oil Advocacy, an organization that resists illegal land grabs, extraction, and other forms of environmental destruction. Another Indigenous Indonesian earth defender and human rights activist Jull Takaliuang, has also experienced various forms of violence for her work to fight back against harmful extractive industries like gold mining and illegal logging. Women like Indayla, Bande, and Takaliuang fight on the frontlines of climate change, but are silenced in international conversation to advance climate efforts and solutions. 

5 12, 2015

Fossil Fuel Extraction Dangers: Native American And Women’s Organisations Request UN Help On Sexual Violence

2017-10-06T19:29:45-04:00Tags: |

The fossil fuel industry is breeding lawless hubs of human trafficking and sexual violence against Indigenous women and girls in the Great Lakes and Great Plains region of the United States and Canada, but women are fighting to stop the violence. A coalition of Indigenous and women’s organizations, including Honor the Earth, Brave Heart Society, the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, One Billion Rising and the Indigenous Women’s Network have filed a request for intervention with the United Nations. The request focuses on the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota and eastern Montana, and the Tar Sands region of Alberta, Canada, where an influx of industry workers into temporary housing "man-camps" is causing a rapid rise in sexual violence. Members of the coalition draw attention to current violence as an extension of a legacy of colonization, genocide and systematic abuses towards Indigenous peoples, which has always had a disproportional impact on women and girls. Photo credit: John Isaiah Pepion

1 12, 2015

Teresa Almaguar Of PODER Rejects REDD

2017-11-01T11:10:55-04:00Tags: |

Teresa Almaguar of California a grassroots environmental justice organization, PODER speaks with Indigenous Rising Media during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to share her thoughts on REDD carbon schemes, which she explains contribute to the displacement of Indigenous and other frontline communities, while allowing polluters to buy their way out of their abuses instead of stopping them. Photo credit: Indigenous Rising Media

25 11, 2015

Reproductive Rights In Native America

2018-02-22T20:10:09-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous peoples around the world are experiencing dire impacts from colonization, fossil fuel, mining and other extractive industries - and Indigenous women are additionally facing major violations and challenges to their bodies and health. Indigenous women face disproportionately high levels of sexual violence, and are often restricted in their access to reproductive health care. However many Indigenous-women led groups are pushing for change. The Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Centre (NAWHERC) on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, and young leaders in the Diné (Navajo) Nation, Keioshiah Peter and Jake Skeets who have created the #RezCondomTour to promote safe sex and expression in Dinétah. By connecting the campaign to Diné culture and philosophy, as well as the decolonization and climate justice movements, they have attracted many young followers. Photo credit: Medium

20 11, 2015

Peasant Women Struggle For Land Rights In Thailand

2017-07-17T16:34:46-04:00Tags: |

Near the Thai-Cambodian border, women from the Kao Bart Village are fighting for their land rights. After Thailand's communist government encouraged farming in this remote region during its reign, their farms were sold off to corporate interests for the cultivation of eucalyptus. However, the women have refused to give up their land, protesting in Thailand’s capital and facing violent attacks for occupying their homes. Now they are working to maintain collective organic rice fields and vegetable plots, while working working with a local organization to fight for land tenure. Photo credit: La Via Campesina

18 11, 2015

Sami Woman Sofia Jannok Sings

2017-09-22T10:15:38-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Indigenous Sami woman Sofia Jannok sings a traditional folksong, or “yoik” entitled “Gulahallat Eatnamin” which translates to “We Speak Earth” and proceeds to explain her people’s ancestral connections to land in what is now known as Europe. She explains how the Sami people of the Arctic are experiencing the impact of climate change: rainy winters and reindeer starvation threaten their way of life. Filmed before the COP21 climate talks, she urges us to take to the streets as she anticipates doing with 350.org. Photo credit: Sofia Jannok

12 11, 2015

In The Land Of My Ancestors: Native Woman Stands Her Ground In Ohlone Territory

2017-09-04T22:02:59-04:00Tags: |

Ann Marie Sayers, a Costanoan Ohlone, is a rare example of a Native woman who continues to live in her ancestral land. California Indians suffered a brutal history of colonization, disease, violence and servitude during the Gold Rush and California Missions era. As the population of Indigenous people shrunk during the Gold Rush, the Canyon served as a safe haven. The canyon has a large arbor, where Indigenous Peoples from around the world are gathered every year - from the Maoris of New Zealand to the Gwich'in of Alaska. Sayers remains committed to educating and empowering youth to reconnect their sacred relationship to Earth. In her interview, she mentions that the Earth is alive and it is a reason for living. Photo credit: Rucha Chitnis

11 11, 2015

Andrea Carmen Of The Yaqui Nation On Climate Change And Knowledge Sharing

2017-10-01T15:58:41-04:00Tags: |

In this Global Sparks interview, Andrea Carmen of the Yaqui Indian Nation, the executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, advocates for the inclusion of grassroots Indigenous food producer perspectives in international discussion about climate change. Filmed at the third annual Food Sovereignty Summit held by the Oneida Nation, First Nations Development Institute, she discusses the dangers of climate change and how Indigenous people can come together and share information and traditional knowledges to find global solutions. Photo credit: Global Sparks  

11 11, 2015

Historic Indigenous Women’s Treaty Calls For Action For Earth

2017-10-12T14:08:28-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous woman leader Pennie Opal Plant, co-founder of Movement Rights and Idle No More Bay Area, reflects on the creation and signing of the historic “Indigenous Women of the Americas – Defending Mother Earth Treaty Compact 2015” that was surprising, powerful and deeply rewarding for all involved. In this article, she emphasises her deep connection to Mother Earth which her and her colleagues felt in writing this treaty allowing for Indigenous peoples across the earth to connect and assert their solidarity. Photo credit: Movement Rights Blog

6 11, 2015

Alicia Cahuiya Fights Oil Drilling In Ecuador

2017-07-17T17:33:00-04:00Tags: |

Alicia Cahuiya has fought tirelessly to protect the rights of the Tagaeri and Taromenani Indigenous people of the Amazonian region of her native Ecuador. In spite of repeated death threats, Cahuiya calls upon the government to do more to protect Indigenous people, particularly from expanding oil activity which is causing tensions among communities and threatening their livelihoods. Photo credit: Daniel Cima

1 11, 2015

Pennie Opal Plant Speaks Outside #COP21

2025-01-25T11:39:00-05:00Tags: |

Pennie Opal Plant, Indigenous leader from Richmond, California and Indigenous Environmental Network delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP21 climate negotiations, speaks out from just outside of the COP event space, after participating in a public action to oppose fracking. Pennie shares a poignant analysis on the COP process, and her hopes for overcoming continued greed and capitalist solutions in the climate policy process.

1 11, 2015

Being Idle No More: The Woman Behind The Washington Movement

2017-11-01T21:35:31-04:00Tags: |

In her work as Director of Idle No More Washington, Sweetwater Nannauck (Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian) organizes Native and Indigenous people from many different tribal nations to stand up against arctic oil drilling. In anticipation of the construction of an oil rig in the Arctic by Shell, Nannauck organized a drum andprayer circle in Seattle to united the Indigenous peoples of Canada and Alaska, and the Coast Salish peoples, in calling for environmental and Indigenous justice. Photo credit: Micheal Rios

31 10, 2015

Oppose Oil Drilling On The Gullah/Geechee Coast!

2017-10-31T22:35:14-04:00Tags: |

As the United States government moved to allow oil and gas companies to use seismic guns to test for offshore oil reserves on the coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia coast, Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, urged her community to stand up to this threat. Oil exploration and extraction would damage sea life and potentially pollute the coast, which is a critical cultural landscape and national heritage area. Photo credit: Gullah/Geechee Nation

30 10, 2015

The Challenges Of Gender Equality And Climate Change

2017-10-30T20:47:45-04:00Tags: |

Gladys Vila Pihue, a leader of the National Organization of Andean and Amazonian Indigenous Women of Peru (ONAMIAP), writes about the exclusion of rights of Indigenous Peoples in Article 2 of the Draft Agreement negotiated at the 2015 Paris climate talks. It is important to coordinate between policymakers and the Indigenous women of the Andes and the Amazon in order to articulate a common vision of justice to international community. Photo Credit: Women's Earth and Climate Action Network

30 10, 2015

From Australia To The United Nations, Young Bundjalung Woman Advocates For Climate Justice

2017-07-12T20:32:40-04:00Tags: |

Amelia Telford is the founder and director of Seed, a network of young Aboriginal people fighting for climate justice. Observing sea levels rising in the Torres Strait, bush fires and drought, she advocated for swift action on climate change for her country at the COP 21 climate talks in Paris in 2015. Photo credit: James Brickwood

30 10, 2015

Meet Felicitas Martínez Solano, Mexico

2017-10-30T02:46:53-04:00Tags: |

Nobel Women's Initiative profiles leader of the Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities - Community Police (CRAC-PC) in the Costa-Montaña region of Guerrero, Mexico, Felicitas Martínez Solano, an Indigenous Me’phaa human rights defender. She is responsible for the administration of justice and re-education in cases brought before her, practicing accountability and transparency for the Me’phaa and Na Savi indigenous people. Solano also founded the Guerrero Coordinator of Indigenous and African-descent Women to address maternal mortality and women and children’s health. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

26 10, 2015

Miriam Miranda Fights For The Rights Of Garifuna Indigenous People In Honduras

2017-10-26T23:57:14-04:00Tags: |

Miriam Miranda is a leader of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras (OFRANEH), an organizations that supports Garifuna Indigenous rights and defends natural resources. She became a women’s rights defender after witnessing the living conditions women suffered in the slums of Tegucigalpa. Since the 2009 coup in Honduras, the encroachment of oil palm interests, drug trafficking, mining, hydroelectric projects, and large-scale tourist development has intensified threatened the well-being of the Garifuna people. Miranda uses traditional song, dance and drumming to revitalize her community while spearheading resistance efforts. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women

26 10, 2015

Manobo Women Stand To Stop Logging And Mining

2017-10-26T23:49:58-04:00Tags: |

Bai Bibyaon, of the SABOKAHAN Lumad Women Regional Confederation, was raised in the Manobo tribe to become its only woman chieftain. Her understanding of peace includes the right to live and cultivate the ancestral Pantaron mountain lands, and that turned her into a fighter against the logging and mining industries. Because of actions taken by the military and paramilitary, her community was forced to leave their lands. Now she fights them from the evacuation camp she lives in, as she can’t return home due to threats to her life. Photo credit: Global Fund For Women

26 10, 2015

Jull Takaliuang, Indonesia’s Environmental Justice Campaigner

2017-10-26T23:47:08-04:00Tags: |

Mining activities contaminated the soil in Buyat Bay, Indonesia, causing adverse health impacts in Indigenous communities in the area. To tackle the problem, Jull Takaliuang started a movement in Bangka Island community and founded Yayasan Suara Nurani Minaesa (YSNM), a human rights organization. As a result of their campaigning, the company responsible for the pollution halted its activities. Having worked for over ten years in various fronts to guarantee the rights of her indigenous community, in 2015 Takaliuang was awarded the N-Peace Award from the UN Development Programme. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

26 10, 2015

Veronica Malecdan Confronts Social And Ecological Injustice In The Philippines

2017-10-26T23:36:45-04:00Tags: |

Veronica Malecdan is an activist from the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. For her, advocacy started after her experience as a migrant worker in Hong Kong, where the challenges she faced made her realize the importance of fighting injustice. After returning home, she began to fight for the rights of the Igorot Indigenous peoples of Cordillera region, who are faced with commercial mining, power plants and other hazardous development projects. As Secretary General of Innabuyog, an alliance of Indigenous women’s organizations in the region, Veronica is helping draw the connection between work to address land, food, women’s rights, militarization and violence against women. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

26 10, 2015

Josephine Pagalan, The Indigenous Manobo Leader Fighting For The Environment

2017-10-26T23:35:02-04:00Tags: |

Josephine Pagalan is a Lumad Indigenous woman leader fighting against the mining that affects her community in the Surigao del Sur province in the northeastern part of Mindanao, Philippines. Due to her advocacy, Josephine has been harassed and witnessed a friend being shot to death. In spite of all that, she continues to oppose logging and mining operations, including those of the  Lianga Bay logging company and the Semirara Coal Mining company, working to amplify her community’s voice in the media. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund  

26 10, 2015

Threats to Indigenous Land Rights: Interview with Dayamani Barla

2017-10-26T17:02:31-04:00Tags: |

In this interview, Dayamani Barla, Indigenous tribal journalist and activist from Jharkland, India, discusses how Indigenous peoples have been displaced from their traditional farming lands due to the dams, mining and other development projects. She states that Indigenous peoples do not treat Nature as a commodity but they live in harmony with Earth as their mission is to protect their natural heritage. Accordingly, the protection and guarantee of land rights is a significant part of Indigenous peoples’ lifestyle and livelihood.

26 10, 2015

Amazon Women On The Front Lines: The Waorani

2017-10-26T16:32:06-04:00Tags: |

The Waorani peoples, whose ancestral homeland encompass Ecuador’s Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, are fighting for their forests, way of life and cultural survival in the face of expanding oil extraction. Alicia Cahuilla, Vice president of the National Waorani Federation, spoke out in Lima, Peru during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP20 climate negotiations to advocate against continued exploitation, and share the story of the Asociación de Mujeres Waorani del Ecuador. In the face of deforestation and oil drilling, the Association, now comprised of over 300 women, has developed an incredible land management and just development plan which stresses zero deforestation, wildlife and biodiversity protection, and holistic food production, hunting and wild harvesting. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

21 10, 2015

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud Provides An FAQ On Being An Indigenous Ally

2017-09-08T22:25:38-04:00Tags: |

Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud provides an overview of the definition of an “ally,” explains how to start the process of becoming an ally, and reviews government policy that impacts First Nations people, cultures, and languages. She then proceeds to give a brief list of do’s and don’ts of being an ally: a healthy resource for those new to Indigenous activism and seeking to get more involved. Photo credit: Red Rising Magazine

20 10, 2015

Women Reclaim Traditional Seeds in Zimbabwe

2017-07-17T15:46:21-04:00Tags: |

Women farmers in Harare, Zimbabwe are working together to mobilize against dependence on commercial seeds while reclaiming the use of traditional seeds. Women from the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers Forum participate in educational workshops and celebrations that facilitate the exchange of traditional seeds and educate about the benefits of seed sovereignty. As the price of commercial seeds has inflated beyond the reach of most small-scale farmers, women are using traditional seeds to adapt to climate change and improve their food sovereignty. Photo credit: La Via Campesina

14 10, 2015

Rural Peruvian Women Spur Local Dairy Industry

2017-07-17T16:49:35-04:00Tags: |

Cira Huancahuari, the President of the Association of Indigenous Women of the district Lamarate, Peru, is one of the women leaders building a sustainable local economy through an all-women’s cheese and yogurt production association. Their collective of rural women continues to grow and boost economic independence and Indigenous women’s rights across the region. Photo credit: CHIRAPAQ

14 10, 2015

Sami Woman Sara Marielle Beaska On The Danger Of 1.5 Degrees

2017-09-25T09:59:34-04:00Tags: |

In the arctic where the Sámi people live, the temperature has already risen by 1,5 degrees. Sara Marielle Beaska sings a yoik, or traditional folk chant, she wrote herself. The song is entitled “Gulahallat Eatnamic” translating to “We Speak Earth.” Beaska urges people to film themselves performing this yoik and share it widely. Photo credit: 350.org

13 10, 2015

How A 14-year-old girl Is Making Quechua Cool In Peru — With Lyrics From Michael Jackson

2017-09-06T21:55:56-04:00Tags: |

14-year-old Peruvian Renata Flores Rivera is revitalizing the Inca language of Quechua, one of the oldest of 47 remaining Indigenous dialects in Peru, by remixing modern pop songs with Quechua lyrics. Although Quechua is the second most spoken language in the country, younger generations have overwhelming deserted the language calling it uncool and associating it with poverty. However, Rivera’s remixes have become an international Youtube sensation inspiring the young and old in Peru to proudly reflect on and embrace their Indigenous roots. Rivera has drastically transformed locals’ relation to the language creating a new wave of Indigenous awareness and dignity. Photo credit: PRI

12 10, 2015

Rural Women’s Assembly: What We Do And Who We Are

2021-03-03T20:08:54-05:00Tags: |

The Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA) is a self-organised network of rural women’s movements comprising eight countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The organization launches agricultural campaigns, organizes regional women’s assemblies, lobbies in local and national political settings, and more to defend the agricultural rights of poor, rural women. The RWA focuses on seed conservation and agro-ecological farming to achieve food sovereignty among the local communities they represent. Photo Credit: Video Capture

12 10, 2015

Lakota Women Lead Charge Against Uranium Mine

2017-07-17T16:51:37-04:00Tags: |

Grandmother Debra White Plume is one of the Indigenous Lakota women leading a campaign to prevent the renewal of permits for uranium mining corporations in Nebraska. The women are also working to educate their communities about the dangers of water contamination caused by mining. Photo credit WNV/Rosy Torres

1 10, 2015

Patricia Gualinga & Atossa Soltani – Indigenous Women On The Frontlines: From The South

2017-12-15T13:25:54-05:00Tags: |

Speaking at the annual Bioneers Conference, Patricia Gualinga of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku tells the story of her communities fight at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and every day on the ground - to prevent oil extractions in their homelands, the ‘lungs of the world’. Atossa Soltani of Amazon Watch provides translation and words of support. Photo credit: Bioneers

26 09, 2015

A Call To Action For Indigenous Rights From Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn

2017-10-26T16:13:07-04:00Tags: |

Activist Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn iwi of the Māori of Te Rarawa and Ngāti Kuri people in Aotearoa (New Zealand) stands as a protector of Indigenous rights and territories, and the health of coastal ecosystems and customary Indigenous fisheries. As an executive member of Te Rūnanga o Te Rarawa, the governing authority for her Te Rarawa peoples, Catherine is an outspoken voice against colonization, and for the upholding of Indigenous rights to their lands, waters and sustainable economies. During recent meeting of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, she spoke out about the impacts of deep sea oil drilling and rising seas on Pacific Indigenous peoples, amongst other vital issues. Photo credit: Shane Brown, Global Coordinating Group Media Team

23 09, 2015

Marian Naranjo Speaks: To Enter Right Relationship With Each Other On This Land

2017-10-12T14:17:23-04:00Tags: |

Marian Naranjo (Kha po Owingeh, Santa Clara Pueblo) spoke at the Campaign Nonviolence National Conference honoring the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as part of a panel called “Nuclear Weapons, Los Alamos, & Nonviolence.” Her speech explores the spiritual connection Indigenous people feel to the land and the responsibility we all have to protect the Earth from nuclear war and waste. Naranjo is the founder and director of Honor Our Pueblo Existence (HOPE), a community non-profit that works at the intersection of environmental, health and youth justice. Photo credit: PaceeBene.org

2 09, 2015

These Indigenous Women Solar Engineers Changed Their Village In Chile

2017-07-17T16:59:26-04:00Tags: |

Liliana and Luisa Terán were picked to travel to India to receive training in solar panel installation and maintenance from the Barefoot College. Despite facing barriers caused by traditional cultural views of women in their native Chile, they are bringing electricity and earning respect across communities in the Atacama desert region. Photo credit: Marinela Jarroud/IPS

27 08, 2015

Lubicon Cree Woman Advocates For Her People, Against Tar Sands

2017-07-17T17:00:09-04:00Tags: |

35-year-old Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree, one of Canada’s First Nations, was raised on the land like her parents and grandparents: hunting moose and drying the meat, using local plants as medicines, spending summers deep in the boreal forests and muskeg swamps and winters in a village with no running water. But her community’s traditional lifestyle is under threat from oil development in the nearby Alberta tar sands. Laboucan-Massimo travels around the world to speak about the threats to her of life, while raising awareness about violence against women and Indigenous people, including discussing the social problems that arise in oil extraction communities. Photo credit: Greenpeace

14 08, 2015

Black Mesa: From Coal To Solar Energy

2017-09-29T19:21:21-04:00Tags: |

Wahleah Johns believes that the adoption of solar energy is a matter of environmental justice within Navajo communities. Companies such as Peabody Coal have been extracting coal and water found in Navajo territories for their profit at the expense of the Indigenous people who lives there. As member and Solar Program Director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition, Johns argues that the sustainability of the Navajo nation depends on the adoption of clean and community-controlled energy. Photo credit: Our Power Campaign

14 08, 2015

Ecuador’s Indigenous People March Now For Their Children’s Future

2017-07-17T17:03:53-04:00Tags: |

Harkening back to the first colonization of the Americas and the Indigenous uprising of 1992, Indigenous woman leader Nina Gualinga of Ecuador wrote a beautiful letter to urge Rafael Correa, president at the time, to listen to his people's peaceful demonstration and protect their land for their children to enjoy. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

28 07, 2015

Naelyn Pike: Young Apache Warrior Speaks Against Rio Tinto Mine

2017-07-17T17:24:10-04:00Tags: |

In 2014, prior to their multi-week cross-country caravan to Washington D.C., the advocacy group Apache Stronghold and their supporters gathered in Tucson, Arizona. In this video recording, 14-year-old Naelyn Pike speaks out to raise awareness of the Arizona land exchange, which would see Oak Flat, an Apache holy land, destroyed by international mining conglomerate Rio Tinto. Photo credit: grancanyontrust.org

22 07, 2015

Four Native Women Redefine Security And Fight For Sacred Places

2017-10-14T16:36:15-04:00Tags: |

Four Native women in California are fighting to uphold the dignity of their people and their lands. Pennie Opal Plant co-founded the Refinery Corridor Healing Walks, along with other members of the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Idle No More, to highlight impacts pollution and crude-by-rail development projects in her community. At the same time, Chief Caleen Sisk, tribal and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, has been a vocal opponent of dams and water export projects in her territory. She advocates for sustainable ecological systems and respect for the Rights of Nature. Photo credit: aircrc.org  

23 06, 2015

Canada’s Tar Sands Aren’t Just Oil Fields. They’re Sacred Lands For My People 

2023-04-16T16:23:48-04:00Tags: |

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), discusses the impacts of oil sands on her community’s lands and the need for moratoriums to stop oil sands expansion. The ACFN has faced public criticism due to their opposition to oil sand expansion because of the economic benefits the industry provides to First Nations communities. Deranger notes these positive aspects, yet emphasizes the harm oil sands leave on the surrounding environment and communities, as well as the damage caused to treaty agreements and Indigenous rights within Canada. Furthermore, insufficient industry regulation has led to a failure in environmental protection and Indigenous rights while the expansion of oil sands into important ecological regions continues in Northern Alberta. Deranger also highlights the importance of including Indigenous perspectives on protecting the earth and the sacred for the preservation of the future. In 2012, the ACFN called for a moratorium on the development of the Firebag River, Alberta, knowing the potential impacts it could have on their relationships to the oil sands industry. Yet, the ACFN hopes it will create a new pathway forward for respecting lands and waterways, as well as Indigenous rights as promised through treaties within Canada and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Photo Credit: David Levene

29 05, 2015

National Geographic Emerging Explorer Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim Raising The Voice Of Indigenous Climate Knowledge

2017-09-22T18:33:34-04:00Tags: |

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is a woman working to collect Indigenous knowledge about natural resources in Chad as part of a 3-D mapping project. She also represents her community in climate discussions at the United Nations. She describes a childhood that straddled two worlds: school in the capital city of N’Djamena and tending cows among family in the Mbororo. Now she bridges the gap between the Indigenous people who intimately know their land and the governments making decisions many miles away. Photo credit: AFPAT

30 04, 2015

Watch What Happens When Tribal Women Manage India’s Forests

2017-07-11T18:01:49-04:00Tags: |

35-year-old Kama Pradham works alongside other women from India's Gunduribadi tribal village to monitor and protect their land from illegal logging. Thanks to their efforts, India’s forests are experiencing a resurgence in growth and biodiversity while local people benefit from sustainable livelihoods. Photo credit: Manipadma Jena/ IPS

29 04, 2015

Casey Cam-Horinek: What About The Rights Of Mother Earth?

2017-10-29T00:16:51-04:00Tags: |

Casey Camp-Horinek, an Indigenous activist who helps maintain the cultural identity of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, testifies on fracking and its major impacts in the lives of tribes located in Oklahoma during the International Rights of Nature Tribunal in Paris during the UN COP21 climate negotiations. She explains that there are 13,000 fracking wells in her community and because of fracking, her community has gone from having 5 earthquakes in the year of 2008 to over 5,000 in one year alone. These earthquakes are directly related to the injection process involved in fracking. She states that Mother Earth suffers and she has begun to shake as she has to live with her waters being poisoned. Photo credit: Indigenous Rising Media

29 03, 2015

South African Women Respond To Drought By Creating A Seedbank

2017-07-17T17:42:16-04:00Tags: |

When the agricultural production of the Gumbu Village was affected by climatic changes, such as extreme drought, women in the community didn’t hesitate to take action. Guided by Bioversity International, a group of 40 women now manage and operate a community seed bank, ensuring access to a variety of nutritious crops, protecting biodiversity, supporting their households’ food supply and earning extra income. Photo credit: Women For Expo

7 03, 2015

Facing Violence, Resistance Is Survival For Indigenous Women

2017-10-06T19:31:52-04:00Tags: |

Throughout North, Central and South America, Indigenous women are fighting battles against fossil fuel extraction, mining and the sexual violence that accompanies these projects. For example, women elders from the Klabona Keepers are leading non-violent blockades to protect the Sacred Headwaters in British Columbia from mining contamination, while their peers participate in the Unist’ot’en blockade against fracked gas pipelines. In Panama, the first-ever woman chief of the Ngäbe Buglé people successfully led a grassroots resistance to halt the construction of the Barro Blanco hydroelectric project. In Ecuador and Peru, women are key leaders in blocking the construction of gold, silver and copper mega-mine projects. Photo credit: 15MBcn_Int/ mtmundo.org

5 03, 2015

Women Work To Save Native Bees Of Mexico

2023-02-06T00:16:33-05:00Tags: |

Gwen Pearson centers the work of the Co’oleel Caab Collective in Yucatan, Mexico. This women’s collective, led by Anselma Euan, practices meliponiculture, the care and keeping of native stingless bees. Stingless bees produce honey, and they do not sting or have venom; however, because they produce less honey than European honeybees, many (traditionally male) beekeepers no longer keep native bees. As a result, native stingless bees could possibly be endangered. The women of the Co’oleel Caab Collective have dedicated themselves to native bee conservation, and they have been empowered as entrepreneurs in the process.

1 03, 2015

Mayan Women Resist Obstetric Violence

2017-10-31T14:52:06-04:00Tags: |

Obstetric violence is defined as violence inflicted upon women by health officials or midwives during birth. Mayan women in Mexico are often victims of obstetric violence in the Yucatan Peninsula. This research is focusing on the expressions of activism women utilized to counter obstetric violence. Through interviews, this research highlights the goals and methods of activism used by Ime, Yuritizi, Itzel, Doña Ake, Irna, Margarita and America, women who fight day by day to end gendered violence. Their activism takes on various forms, from creating services to changing policy to encouraging community based organizing. Their narratives show the constant restrictions they have over their bodies and safety. However, these women show extraordinary forms of resistance. Whether they are mothers, midwives, or activists, women are constantly resisting against all odds.

25 02, 2015

Nepal’s Women Of The Terai Arc Become Forest Conservationists

2017-07-11T17:13:49-04:00Tags: |

Women in Nepal are increasingly taking charge of the conservation of forests on which their livelihoods and communities depend. The women work in community forest user groups, where they learn how to restore overused or otherwise threatened forests, and also sustainably harvest wood to use in their homes or to sell in markets. Photo credit: James Morgan for WWF  

26 01, 2015

Alina Saba On Climate Justice

2017-10-26T17:57:22-04:00Tags: |

Alina is a young Limbu Indigenous woman with a passion for Indigenous women’s rights and climate justice. Saba works with Indigenous communities in midwestern Nepal where the impact of climate change is strong. The Mugu district is lacking fresh water, electricity and even road infrastructure. She explains that Indigenous women are protectors of the Earth and one of their main responsibilities is to provide their family with food but due to climate change their role has become more challenging. Photo credit: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development

22 01, 2015

A Lesson In Food Sovereignty: Women Lead The Way In Kuna Yala, Panama

2017-07-17T17:43:48-04:00Tags: |

Taina Hedman is an Indigenous Kuna woman and a key leader of the Kuna Youth Movement or MJK (Movimiento de La Juventud Kuna) and the Projecto de Mujeres (Women’s Project) in a remote area of Kuna Yala, Panama. She represents the rights and interests of Indigenous people throughout the country and supports local women to adopt agroecological methods of farming. Through their collective efforts, the women sustainably grow crops deep in the jungle to feed their communities. Photo credit: WhyHunger

22 01, 2015

Indigenous Australian Youth Murrawah Johnson Stands Against Mines

2017-07-17T23:36:11-04:00Tags: |

Murrawah Johnson, a young Indigenous woman from Australia’s Wangan and Jagalingou Family Council and People, has caused a myriad of legal and financial problems for one mining consortium. With the help of the Seed Youth Indigenous Climate Network, she embarked on an 18-day world tour to meet with the international banks funding the mine to personally convince them to back out of the Adani Group’s proposed open-pit Carmichael Mine, which would have been Australia’s largest-ever coal mine. Fifteen pulled their support, rendering the project dead in its tracks. The Wangan and Jagalingou are the traditional owners of the land and rivers in the area, and trace their heritage back 60,000 years. Photo credit: Grist

15 01, 2015

Limbu Indigenous Woman Alina Saba On Climate Justice

2017-10-01T16:27:27-04:00Tags: |

As a researcher with the Mugal Women’s Upliftment Institute, Saba works with an Indigenous community in midwestern Nepal already feeling the impact of a changing climate. The Mugu district is one of the least developed and most isolated in Nepal, lacking health services, fresh water, electricity and even road infrastructure. Successive crop failures have led to an acute food crisis for several years. Photo credit: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development

31 12, 2014

ASIA Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation Report On Indigenous Women And Climate Change

2017-09-22T22:52:48-04:00Tags: |

This report, commissioned by the ASIA Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation, details the relationships between on Indigenous women and climate change. Indigenous women are suffering from triple discrimination: for being women, being Indigenous, and economically marginalized. Subsequently, many Indigenous women are often obstructed from exercising their individual and collective rights. In Asian countries such as Thailand, Indigenous women are restricted from asserting their ecological knowledges in local areas.

26 12, 2014

Stories And Solutions From Climate Women In Lima During COP20

2018-03-01T12:26:45-05:00Tags: |

In Lima, Peru during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP20 - Indigenous women land defenders and community leaders from across the Americas and around the world gathered at a Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network to speak out against issues of social and ecological violation affecting their homelands, and to share their stories and calls to action for justice. Amongst many topics, presenters including Gloria Ushigua (President of the Association of Sapara Women in Ecuador); Hueiya Alicia Cahuiya Iteca (Vice President of the Huaorani nationality of Ecuador); Tantoo Cardinal (Native Canadian actress and activist); Nina and Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa Pueblo of Sarayaku); Mrinalini Rai (Indigenous advisor and gender expert from Nepal, working with the Global Forest Coalition); Casey Camp Horinek (Ponca Nation elder and Counci lWoman); Sonia Guajajara (National Coordinator of Brazil’s Association of Indigenous Peoples); and Nino Gamisonia (Rural Communities Development Agency in Abkhazia, Georgia) discussed the impacts of oil extraction, mining and mega-dams on biodiversity, global climate and Indigenous territorial integrity.  Photo credit: Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network

13 12, 2014

Indigenous Women Living On The Frontlines of Climate Change In Nicaragua

2017-12-13T13:13:18-05:00Tags: |

Natalia Caruso of MADRE, speaks with to two women, Albertina and Severina, who are part of a program which helps provide organic seeds to women small-scale farmers. They explain that even though climate change has adversely impacted farming, Indigenous women are taking action and implementing several solutions in order to fight it, such as creating seed banks which guarantee food security for the next planting season. Photo credit: Elizabeth Rappaport

12 12, 2014

Nina Gualinga: A Call To Keep Fossil Fuels In The Ground

2017-11-05T13:41:58-05:00Tags: |

In her blog, Nina Gualinga, a young woman leader from Sarayaku, a small Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, writes about her experience during the United Nations COP20 Climate Conference where she demanded that world leaders respect her people’s ancestral rights. International communities must create climate policy that leaves fossil fuels in the ground. Indigenous peoples have persistently been on the forefront of the fight against environmental disaster and climate change. It is the obligation of governments, state parties, corporations, organizations, and other such institutions to make sure indigenous peoples are included in the decision-making process at COP20 and other high-level governmental meetings. Photo credit: Amazon Watch

7 12, 2014

Sônia Guajajara: A Voice For Biodiversity And Indigenous Rights In Brazil

2017-12-07T18:23:51-05:00Tags: |

Sônia Guajajara, Coordinator of the National Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB) is helping mobilize Indigenous communities across Brazil in defense of their rights, traditional lifeways and lands. As a voice for many thousands of constituents across the country, she has gone face-to-face with Brazils most powerful politicians to expose their hypocrisy, and demand real responses to the demands of the original peoples of the land. Corporate land grabs and violation of Indigenous land rights is a core area of Sônia’s advocacy with and for her people, alongside opposition to biodiversity protection, mining, and industrial farming, amongst other concerns. Photo credit: Vinícius Borba

28 11, 2014

Indigenous Women In West Timor Fight To Defend Their Land – And Win

2017-07-11T18:14:50-04:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun, an indigenous Mollo woman from West Timor, Indonesia risked her life to oppose the destruction of local forests by mining and palm oil companies. Despite facing death threats and beatings, she led a group of women to stage four sit-ins at the mines, which forced the mining corporation to close operations and saved 130 homes and local forests. Photo credit: Goldman Prize

25 11, 2014

Alice Eather: My Story Is Your Story

2017-10-09T20:32:52-04:00Tags: |

In this poem, Alice Eather, one of the leaders of the Protect Arnhem Land Campaign, poetically recounts the need to fight against the offshore exploration, mining and drilling that is threatening the entire coastline of Australia’s Northern Territory region, her home. Arnhem Land is a sacred area in the most northern region of the Australian Northern Territory. It is home to the oldest living culture of Indigenous peoples existing on the planet today. The last remaining existence of this ancient, traditional culture and its practices is under threat. Photo credit: Luka Lesson

3 11, 2014

Guardians Of Life: The Indigenous Women Fighting Oil Exploitation In The Amazon

2017-10-12T14:29:39-04:00Tags: |

Ecuador’s Indigenous women are at the forefront of movements to resist oil and gas extraction in the Amazon. From marching to Quito to ask president Rafael Correa to protect the Kawsak Sacha, a living jungle, to being indicted for terrorism, to resisting the closure of NGO Fundación Pachamama, these women are standing up against the odds. Felipe Jacome’s photoset “Amazon: Guardians of Life” offers an intimate account of the women’s courage and strength. Photo credit: Felipe Jacome

30 10, 2014

Beata Tsosie-Peña, An Activist Artist With The Future In Mind

2017-10-30T02:24:44-04:00Tags: |

Beata Tsosie-Peña, Indigenous artist, activist, mother and community leader from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, in the Southwest U.S. - shares her thoughts on what feminism, climate justice, and self care mean to her in her work as coordinator or Tewa Women United’s Environmental Health and Justice program, and in her daily life. She reflects on the intersection of her work in many areas, including with protection of traditional Indigenous agricultural seeds; opposition to ongoing regional nuclear contamination; Indigenous language reclamation; birth and midwifery work; and in confronting violence against women and the Earth. Photo credit: Third Woman Press

28 10, 2014

Robin Wall Kimmerer: Returning The Gift

2017-10-28T22:27:31-04:00Tags: |

Doctor Robin Wall Kimmerer is an Indigenous Potawatomi Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, as well as a scientists and writer. Kimmerer writes about the many gifts that we receive daily from planet Earth and the need to give back and develop a sense of  gratitude for the Earth as part of our cultural evolution. She provides ways that we can practice reciprocity with our planet, including ensuring that the economy is aligned with ecology principles and respecting the ecosystems by not taking too much from it and understanding that growth is limited. Photo credit: Center for Humans and Nature

28 10, 2014

#Frack Off: Indigenous Women Lead Effort Against Fracking

2017-10-28T22:19:33-04:00Tags: |

During Climate Action Week, Shelley A. Young (Mi’kmaq), Kandi Mosset (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara), Elle-Maija Tailfeathers (Blood and Saami), and Ellen Gabriel (Mohawk) were among the Indigenous women headlining #FRACK OFF: Indigenous Women Leading Media Campaigns to Defend our Climate. Across First Nations in Canada and the United States, Indigenous women gathered to resist fracking and fight inaction and corruption across governments and tribal councils to prevent its severe environmental and health impacts, especially the impact on women’s wellbeing. Photo credit: Jessica Harjo/Fanny Aishaa/Ossie Michelin

28 10, 2014

Mama Aleta: One Woman’s Struggle To Save Indonesia’s Forests From Mining

2017-10-28T22:17:26-04:00Tags: |

Aleta Baun is an advocate for rights of the Earth and Indigenous peoples on Timor Island, Indonesia. Beginning in 1996 and for over a decade, Baun has assembled and helped lead hundreds of local people in peaceful resistance to the mining of marble and other minerals and resources. For a full year, Baun and over 150 women sat in non-violent protest at a mine’s entrance, opposing the growth of the mine through peaceful actions, including weaving traditional Indigenous fabrics. Baun’s grassroots activism, and work with her non-profit Pokja OAT for the protection of Timor’s forests and people’s has gained worldwide attention, including as a recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

27 10, 2014

Young Indigenous Nepalese Woman To Speak At the UN Climate Summit

2017-10-27T12:10:33-04:00Tags: |

Alina Saba, a young woman from the Indigenous Limbu community of eastern Nepal, spoke at the UN Climate Summit on 23 September, 2014. She discussed the destructive impacts  of climate change affecting Indigenous women in least developed countries like Nepal. Along with that, she explored common problems with  mainstream development paradigms and their impact on marginalized women, and suggested ways in which advocates can center women in climate solutions. Photo credit: Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development

26 10, 2014

Indigenous Women: Earth Defenders Speak Out From The Front Lines Of Climate Change

2017-11-01T00:11:21-04:00Tags: |

This event was hosted during the “Gender Day” by the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network. The panel was comprised of Indigenous women from around the world who met to share their solutions to climate change. Speakers included Indigenous women leaders on the front lines of defending the Earth from exploitation by fossil fuel companies such as Patricia Gualinga (Kichwa; Sarayaku, Ecuador), her niece, Nina Gualinga, Tantoo Cardinal (Native Canadian from the tar sands region of Canada), Sonia Guajajara (state of Maranhão, Brazil), and Casey Camp-Horinek (Ponca Nation, Turtle Island, United States). They call us to resist and act against corporations and governments that keep on destroying Mother Earth as this is not only about Nature, it is our destruction as well. Photo credit: Democracy Now

26 10, 2014

Where Is The Money For Indigenous Women’s Rights Organizing?

2017-10-26T16:22:48-04:00Tags: |

During a ‘Resource Mobilization Hub For Indigenous Women’s Rights’ event at the the International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) World Summit on Indigenous Philanthropy, members of the International Indigenous Women's Forum and AWID share findings on the need for increases in funding to Indigenous women’s organizations on the vanguard of global fights for land, water and communities.

26 09, 2014

Mugal Women On What Climate Change Means For Indigenous People

2017-07-17T17:46:37-04:00Tags: |

The impacts of climate change, from melting glaciers to changing monsoons, have damaged crops and added to the daily work burdens of the Indigenous Mugal women of Nepal. Alina Saba of the Mugal Indigenous Women Upliftment Institute has worked for several years to document the impacts of climate change on Indigenous women through participatory action research, which facilitates women’s empowerment in both local and international advocacy for climate adaptation in their communities. Photo credit: Toma Lama

1 08, 2014

Solidarity, Group Farming And Solar Panels In The Jungles Of Kerala

2017-08-26T10:41:28-04:00Tags: |

As part of ‘Kudumbashree,’ an anti-poverty and gender justice movement in the region of Kerala, India, women of the Muthavan tribe from Edamalakudi, Idduki district have installed solar panels on homes as part of the village council program and helped 240 families in the village with their energy needs. The women are farming organic crops as a group, in small plots focusing on millet, paddy, tapioca, plantains and cardamom. The women are very clear and confident of their goals, including patrolling restricted-access “jeep roads” to prevent logging, mining and poaching. Photo: Madhuraj, Mathrubhumi Weekly

30 04, 2014

Embodying Self-Determination: Resisting Violence Beyond The Gender Binary

2017-10-30T20:19:49-04:00Tags: |

In this talk, Dr. Sarah Hunt, Assistant Professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program at the University of British Columbia, argues that the erasure of trans and Two-Spirit people is a form of violence which is directly connected to colonialism. She suggests practices of decolonization to advance Indigenous gender-based narratives and make them more inclusive. Photo credit: Social Justice Institute UBC

18 01, 2014

Native Hawaiian Pua Case On Sacred Mountain Mauna Kea

2017-10-12T14:14:54-04:00Tags: |

In this video, Native Hawaiian Pua Case asks supporters to protest the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope and the excavation of over five acres of the sacred landscape of the Mauna Kea volcano. To native Hawaiians, this mountain is a sacred site which is seminal to their spirituality, health and wellbeing. She frames the construction as yet another instance of colonialism and connected to broader Indigenous environmentalist movement across the world and fossil fuel resistance. Pua Case makes a call for people across the world to stand with them to save Mauna Kea. Photo credit: Living Ocean Productions  

4 01, 2014

Women Farmers In Chile To Teach The Region Agroecology

2020-11-07T17:29:27-05:00Tags: |

The National Association of Rural and Indigenous Women is opening the Agroecology Institute for Rural Women (IALA) in Auquinco, Chile. The work of the IALA aims to support campesino family agriculture and to promote the role of women in food production. The knowledge and work of rural peasant women is key to food sovereignty initiatives and sustainable agriculture practices.  The IALA hopes to conserve the knowledge and agricultural skills of these women. Photo Credit: ANAMURI 

1 01, 2014

Leading The Way Against Illegal Mining For Indigenous Communities In The Philippines

2017-10-04T21:31:27-04:00Tags: |

Wilma Tero Mangila is a Subanen environmental activist from Midsalip, in the Zamboanga del Sur province of Philippines, who has devoted her life to fighting illegal logging and mining on Subanen ancestral lands and defending Indigenous peoples’ rights to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in order to protect their ancestral lands. She is also leading the way for women’s rights to  participate in decision making processes within her community. Photo credit: Urgent Action Fund

28 12, 2013

One Mapuche Woman’s Peaceful Fight Inspires Chile’s Environmental Movement

2017-08-26T14:32:42-04:00Tags: |

Nicolasa Quintreman and her sister, Berta, led a decade-long battle against the construction of a dam on the Bio Bio River in south-central Chile. Nicolasa inspired her neighbors to peacefully occupy mountain roads and bridges to block construction equipment from reaching the site where the Endesa electricity company had planned to construct the dam. Although the Quintreman sisters and the Mapuche Indigenous community lost the fight against Endesa and were displaced to Alto Bio Bio, their struggle led the Chilean government to strengthen national environmental protections and laid the groundwork for the creation of a network of community organizers, indigenous leaders, politicians, scientists and lawyers that have blocked more than 20 environmentally damaging energy projects. Photo credit: twitter

27 12, 2013

Winona LaDuke: Protecting Wild Harvests Through The White Earth Land Recovery Project

2017-12-27T18:15:16-05:00Tags: |

Anishinaabeg woman leader, Winona LaDuke, is a renown author, activist, and founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) and Honor The Earth. Through her work with WELRP, Winona has spearheaded efforts to  restore sustainable Indigenous land use practices, and protect traditional seed crops, particularly her peoples wild rice. Winona and WELRP have consistently challenged attempts to lower environmental and water quality standards, and taken action to oppose oil pipelines crossing the fragile wetland ecosystems that sustain traditional agriculture for Indigenous peoples of the region. Photo credit: Star Tribune

15 12, 2013

Wind And Solar Power Best For Navajo Nation

2017-09-26T14:54:18-04:00Tags: |

Wahleah Johns, a Navajo member, clarifies the reasons why wind and solar power are beneficial for Navajo communities and should be promoted as necessary alternatives to coal. Among many arguments, she points out that unlike coal, wind and solar are renewable sources of energy. Wahleah also demonstrates that these sources of renewable energy are more economically viable than coal.

7 12, 2013

Cherri Foytlin Of Louisiana On The BP Oil Spill

2017-12-07T19:02:36-05:00Tags: |

Mother of six, Cherri Foytlin of Rayne, Louisiana, describes one of the moment that impelled her into intensive work for climate justice -  when during clean up efforts following the BP oil spill, she held an oil soaked, dying pelican in her arms. For the health of her children, the climate, and the rights of Indigenous people, she began engaging in non-violent direct action and advocacy in solidarity with movements across the country, including the Keystone XL fight, Idle No More movement, and Occupy movement. Photo credit: Searching for Occupy

7 12, 2013

Patricia Gualinga: Warrior For the Amazon

2017-12-15T13:25:43-05:00Tags: |

Amazon Watch profiles Patricia Gualinga, a Kichwa woman leader of the community of Sarayaku in the Amazon Rainforests of Ecuador. Patricia was a key protagonist in the recent historic indigenous rights victory at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in which her community received support to their claims of violation by oil companies opening fossil fuel extraction sites in their traditional territories without consent. Through her vocal leadership, Patricia has helped to inspire and empower countless other Indigenous women leaders in her community, and across Ecuador and the Amazonia region, to stand up and speak out with strength to protect their homelands from fossil fuel and mining companies. Photo credit: Caroline Bennett

7 12, 2013

Roxanne Swentzell And The Pueblo Food Experience

2017-12-07T18:21:23-05:00Tags: |

Roxanne Swentzell of Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, is the Director of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, through which she works for Indigenous rights and cultural protection and revitalization, including work in education, art, farming, and seed stewardship. The project, the Pueblo Food Experience was also brought to life with her care. A group of Pueblo peoples committed to eating only Indigenous, local foods, and experienced profound and important change in their health, happiness, sustainability and connection to culture and the land. This short documentary features the work of Roxanne, and the experiences and thoughts of those who participated in this important, and ongoing project for Indigenous sovereignty, health and lifeways. Photo credit: Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute

30 10, 2013

Lee Maracle: Connection Between Violence Against the Earth And Violence Against Women

2017-10-30T20:15:03-04:00Tags: |

In this talk, writer, activist and performer Lee Maracle, from the Stó:l? Nation in what is now known as British Columbia, analyses the direct correlation between violence against the earth and violence against women. She explains that we must act against violence as it is among our responsibilities towards First Nations. Photo credit: Intercontinental Cry

30 10, 2013

Maintaining The Ways Of Our Ancestors: Indigenous Women Address Food Sovereignty

2017-08-19T12:36:28-04:00Tags: |

Indigenous women like Clemencia Herrera and Andrea Carmen gathered at the World Conference of Indigenous Women, which took place in Lima, Peru, October 28-30, 2013 to share traditional knowledge, discuss common challenges and develop solutions. Their shared initiatives included solidarity markets, schools to educate Indigenous youth about traditional foodways, community organizing, and building greenhouses in the Arctic and east Africa. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

27 10, 2013

Battle Over The Serengeti Pits Maasai Against Dubai

2017-10-27T01:05:23-04:00Tags: |

Outraged Maasai activists, led by women, are opposing government plans to appropriate 600 square miles of their grazing land for a private hunting reserve for the Ortello Business Corporation (OBC), owned by Dubai’s royal family and operating in Loliondo for over two decades. This would mean the eviction of 30,000 herders in the in the Loliondo area and the destruction of their livelihoods. Women will suffer the most from the mass removal of Maasai herders, as witnessed during the 2009 drought, when Maasai women left behind to care for the children were denied access to water by OBC security forces. Photo credit: Jason Patinkin

26 10, 2013

Our Power Film-Black Mesa Water Coalition

2017-10-26T22:24:57-04:00Tags: |

This video features Wahleah Johns and Jihan Gearon speaking about water and its significance to their communities, as they and others try to develop strategies towards a just transition in order to protect water from mining companies and find ways to generate the electricity without damaging the Earth. This is what climate justice and effective community organizing looks like. Photo credit: Our Power Campaign

26 10, 2013

Living Close To The Earth In India: Interview With Dayamani Barla, Adivasi

2017-10-26T17:00:26-04:00Tags: |

This is an interview with Dayamani Barla, winner of the 2013 Ellen Lutz award for Indigenous Leadership. Dayamani explains the current situation of Indigenous peoples in India where due to development projects, Indigenous people are displaced and become homeless. She explains that Indigenous rights are not respected anymore by the Indian government and Indigenous territories are in danger. She points out that Indigenous peoples live in harmony with Nature and they won’t give their land at any cost.

26 10, 2013

Indigenous Women Changemakers: Vicky Tauli-Corpuz

2017-10-26T16:55:27-04:00Tags: |

In this radio interview hosted by Cultural Survival, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz of the Igorot Kankanaey Indigenous community discusses her work as UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and formerly the Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. She shares her experience resisting projects of then-president Ferdinand Marcos, including stopping the construction of the Chico River Hydroelectric Dam. She encourages Indigenous activists to reach out to international community and demand Indigenous rights so they can maintain their communities and cultures.

26 10, 2013

Indigenous Women Changemakers: Dalee Sambo Dorough

2017-10-26T16:53:42-04:00Tags: |

In this radio interview, Dr. Dalee Sambo Dorough from Alaska, talks about her early engagement in the politics of Indigenous peoples’ land rights, and explains why the Indigenous defense of land and property needs extra international legal attention. She urges Indigenous peoples as well as leaders and activists to be optimistic despite the challenges, and to take “the long view” approach to making progress in the protection of Indigenous rights.

26 10, 2013

Dayamani Barla Defends Rights Of Adivasis And Forests In India

2017-10-26T16:15:14-04:00Tags: |

Dayamani Barla of the Munda tribe, of Jharkhand, India has emerged as a central leader opposing the increase in dams, mines, and industrial projects displacing India’s tribal Adivasis peoples. In 2012, Dayamani was jailed for her work to lead a people’s movement in Nagri to prevent land grabbing of key agricultural areas, yet continues forward in her outspoken work to protect tribal resources and ways of living and relating to the natural world. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

21 10, 2013

Native Hawaiian Hawane Rios On Sacred Mountain Mauna Kea

2017-10-12T14:15:36-04:00Tags: |

Native Hawai’ian Hawane Rios explores her connection with the Mauna Kea volcano in the context of the threat of the construction of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. She has humbly seen spirits and connected to the land there, and argues that it is not time to build more on Hawai’i; rather, it is time for people to harness a spiritual, traditional wisdom to remember this connection and recall our place as stewards of the earth.

21 10, 2013

Women Rising Podcast: International Council Of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

2017-10-31T14:53:54-04:00Tags: |

This podcast examines how women are gaining influence as leaders throughout the world fighting for peace, justice, civil society and the environment. In this program, several members of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers Rita Pitka Blumenstein, Flordemayo and Beatrice Long-Visitor Holy Dance converse on these issues. Bringing 900 years of collective wisdom to the table, the women come together to speak in one voice, with one urgent message: we must be careful stewards of our natural heritage.

26 09, 2013

There Is No Longer Time: Mphatheleni Makaulule On The Agency—And Urgency—Of Women’s Leadership International

2017-10-26T22:27:14-04:00Tags: |

Mphatheleni Makaulule of the South African VhaVenda people is among the indigenous women leaders foregrounding traditional knowledge in climate solutions. At the Global Leadership School for Indigenous Women, she received a Global Leadership Award for her work building the Luvhola Cultural Village and Mupo Foundation to foster food security, environmental conservation, cultural preservation, and local capacity-building. Photo credit: Cultural Survival

10 09, 2013

A Message From Indigenous Women Forest Defenders Of Cambodia

2017-10-04T21:35:30-04:00Tags: |

Women leaders of the Kouy Indigenous people in Cambodia, who depend on their forests for their livelihoods collecting and selling tree resin, are taking action to protect their land against illegal logging. In the process, they have upset traditional gender roles and expanded women’s decision-making power. Photo credit: Asia Indigenous People’s Pact

1 09, 2013

South African Trust Wins SEED Award For Pioneering Business Project

2017-07-17T18:00:25-04:00Tags: |

The Edakeni Muthi Futhi Trust is a community-based enterprise that cultivates traditional medicinal plants and sells ingredients for herbal remedies in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The main purpose of the enterprise is to create livelihood opportunities for community members in sustainable business, and to generate profits that support community development. Photo credit: SEED

1 08, 2013

Keepers Of The Water: Anishinaabe And Métis Women’s Knowledge In Kenora, Ontario

2017-10-31T13:20:11-04:00Tags: |

Natasha Szach’s Master’s thesis documents the wealth of knowledge Anishinaabe and Métis Indigenous women possess regarding water and water governance. Her work explores the ways in which their vital knowledge is a useful tool of resistance against the commodification of water in Kenora, Ontario, and reaffirms the necessity of maintaining the commons for all.

23 12, 2012

Idle No More: Maori Women In Solidarity

2019-01-21T21:24:25-05:00Tags: |

Idle No More is a movement for indigenous sovereignty and land justice started by three indigenous women and one non-native ally in Canada. The movement has received much appreciation from women around the world, including Indigenous women from New Zealand, known as Maori. A group of Maori women showed their solidarity by sending blessings and thoughts to the movement’s brave leadership and to all those who are guardians of the Earth.  Photo Credit: Te Wharepora Hou

15 12, 2012

Puspo Murmu Is Keen To Preserve Environmental Biodiversity

2017-12-15T12:39:37-05:00Tags: |

Puspo Murmu is an Indigenous Santal woman of Saltola village, Bangladesh who has transformed what was once a degraded plot into a flourishing home ecosystem. Puspo notes how many of the biodiverse local trees that she has planted have distinct medicinal, cultural, survival and livelihood uses. Her and her community members also reflect on how Puspo’s work has brought diverse communities of birds and other animals back to the area. Photo credit: Research Initiatives Bangladesh

7 12, 2012

A Message from Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women

2017-12-07T19:00:21-05:00Tags: |

Gloria Ushigua, President of the Association of Sapara Women, of the Sapara Nation in the Amazonian region of Ecuador, shares a powerful direct message from her community, about the strength of traditional medicines and associated knowledge systems, the need to protect and promote continues local use of them, especially in the face of the threats and devastation of oil extraction in their homelands. Her message was sent to members of the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (IPCCA). Photo credit: Asociación de Mujeres Saparas

7 12, 2012

Asian Indigenous Women’s Strategy on Forest/Land Tenure and Climate Change

2017-12-07T18:00:04-05:00Tags: |

Indigenous women from across Asia, such as Norairri Thoungmuengthong of the Karen community in Thailand, are leading and encouraging fellow women in efforts to manage and protect local forests, through the reclaiming of their voice in local politics, where they are pushing for policies and initiatives that support both sustainable traditional harvesting practices and economies, and regenerative forests for climate stability and generations to come. This report from Rights and Resources Initiative shares handful of case studies demonstrating how Asian Indigenous women are protecting their lands, forests and community rights through growing involvement in local and international politics. Photo credit: Rights + Resources

1 12, 2012

Sámi Women Of Norway Fight For Women’s Rights

2017-09-06T22:55:18-04:00Tags: |

This doctoral thesis analyses the efforts made by Sámi women since the 1970s and 1980s to redefine and reshape the patriarchal culture. Elsa Laula-Renberg, a Sámi activist and politician, was the first to create the atmosphere for Sámi women to begin evaluating their positions and roles in a modernized and advancing society, along with giving women the political and structural tools to address their concerns regarding increasing social and economic inequalities. During the last years, women's place in Sámi tradition has been re-evaluated through several legislative policies and women are now considered as a central part of Sámi life. However,Sámi women still fight to bring their issues to the political and social stage as new expressions of what it means to be a Sámi woman and a female reindeer herder.

31 10, 2012

Queen Quet Steps Away From The Keyboard To Become Gullah/Geechee Head Of State

2017-10-31T22:36:54-04:00

After earning her degrees in math and computer science at Columbia University and Fordham University, Queen Quet though she would spend her life in front of a computer. However, she felt pulled to preserve the culture and people of her native Gullah/Geechee Nation on St. Helena Island in South Carolina. In 1996, Quet founded the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, and she spoke at the United Nations in Geneva about Gullah/Geechee human rights and land protection issues. She was elected as head pun de bodee and official spokesperson for the newly established Gullah/Geechee Nation in 2000. These days she is a powerful woman leader in her community, speaking about the convergence of Indigenous peoples' rights and climate justice. Photo credit: Charleston City Paper

26 10, 2012

Decolonizing Together With Harsha Walla

2017-10-26T16:09:01-04:00Tags: |

Harsha Walla, a South Asian activist based in Vancouver, Coast Salish territories, writes about how allies should think of moving beyond solidarity with Indigenous communities in favor of a practice of decolonization. She stresses how using this framework can help organizers and advocates understand the root causes of social injustices and build towards a better future. Photo credit: Afuwa

11 10, 2012

This Environmental Activist Is Taking The Canadian Government To Court

2017-07-17T18:04:59-04:00Tags: |

Crystal Lameman, a member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, Canada, feels a powerful responsibility to speak out against the exploitation of oil sands on her people's land. Crystal’s advocacy efforts have succeeded in holding the Canadian federal government responsible for lands usurped by the oil and tar sands industry. The Beaver Lake Cree Nation has filed a statement of claim taking the Government of Canada to court for over 17,000 treaty violations and have been granted a trial, establishing an important precedent for First Nations communities in Canada. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

13 09, 2012

Cambodia: Detention Of Women Land Activists

2019-04-13T16:15:43-04:00Tags: |

Yorm Bopha and Tim Sakmony, are the latest targets of the Cambodian authorities’ attempt to intimidate Cambodia’s human rights defenders and social activists. Bopha and Sakmony, have protested against forced evictions in Phnom Penh and were both arrested in 2012 on false accusations. Both women have been detained before their trial, which is unwarranted under Cambodian law.  In view of the Cambodian authorities’ established record of abuse of the law and misuse of the courts to prosecute social activists and human rights defenders for their legitimate exercise of basic human rights. international organizations have stated that the legal actions against Bopha and Sakmony are motivated by their involvement in protests and campaigns on behalf of the land and housing rights of the Boeung Kak and Borei Keila communities.

18 08, 2012

Reclaiming The Honourable Harvest: Robin Kimmerer At TEDx Sitka

2017-10-01T16:17:52-04:00Tags: |

Robin Kimmerer, a botanist, writer and member for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, is the director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY-ESF. In this Ted Talk, she examines ways in which traditional Indigenous approaches to the environment, such as the harvesting of berries as practiced by the Potawatomi, can teach us valuable lessons about healing our own relationship to the living earth. Photo credit: TEDx Sitka

4 07, 2012

Para El Bien Común: Indigenous Women’s Environmental Activism And Community Care Work In Guatemala

2017-10-31T14:55:26-04:00Tags: |

A total of 33 indigenous Kaqchikel women who call themselves “Mujeres Unidas Por Amor a La Vida” (“Women United for the Love of Life”) were interviewed by sociologist Rachel Hallum-Montes between 2006 and 2009. The interviews reveal Kaqchikel women’s gender, race, and class play a significant role in their decisions to become environmental activists, and that the women view their activism as a way of caring for both their families and their indigenous community. 

29 05, 2012

Spotlight on gender and food security in Burkina Faso

2019-04-13T15:45:36-04:00Tags: |

Women play a large roll in the agricultural labor force of Burkina Faso. They are involved with sowing seeds, collecting water and wood, harvesting crops, processing grain, and preserving and processing non-timber. Despite doing so, they have limited knowledge on how to access resources and extension services such as micro-credits, land rights, access to technology and know-how. Additionally, they are also responsible for their children’s education, hygiene, and sanitation around the house. As the increasing effects of climate change loom ahead, there’s concern that women in Burkina Faso need to do more to find water and wood, with little regard for their responsibilities at home as a productive family member. Women are more likely to come in direct contact with the land as they are present from production to the processing of products. Given their relationship with agriculture, women have a more nuanced understanding of the impacts of climate change on land and community. Climate-proofed food security can only be achieved if gendered-approaches to climate adaptation are taken. In Burkina Faso, the challenge lies in lifting certain social barriers, which are rooted in tradition, religion, and culture. Photo Credit:  N. Palmer (CIAT)

16 05, 2012

Salvadoran Women Put Their Faith In Agroecology

2017-07-11T16:50:43-04:00Tags: |

Growing tired of losing their family harvests to scorching temperatures and flooding, women in Los Lagartos, El Salvador began to reforest local lands by planting an "energy forest." Over four dozen women now maintain mango, avocado, and nance (golden spoon) trees, in addition to plantains and trees that can be used for their firewood. With the help of an agroecology program run by the Association of Communities for Development, they are achieving food sovereignty and improving their energy security. These women are leading by example, exercising their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Photo credit: Claudia Ávalos/IPS

26 01, 2012

Luisah Teish: Indigenous Voices

2017-09-06T22:03:29-04:00Tags: |

Luish Teish is advocating for the unlearning of the myths that disconnect us from Mother Earth. Relearning our love for the land is central to cultivating a respectful relationship with the environment and between ourselves. Balancing relationships between man and woman, partner and partner, parent and child, and stranger and stranger is what will ease the disequilibrium that is leading to the environmental destruction of our Earth. Reconnecting with dynamic oratory practices instead of hegemonizing stagnant written methodologies is also crucial. Photo credit: Earth & Spirit Council

3 01, 2012

Walking On Country With Spirits: Indigenous Perspectives On Climate Change

2017-09-22T09:51:32-04:00Tags: |

Located on the eastern shore of Australia’s tropical North, Shiptons Flat is home to Marilyn, a Kuku Nyungkal Aboriginal woman. She has been practicing her ancestral way of life here, far removed from the services and conveniences of cities. In this video she discusses how she walks the Nyungkal bubu country like her ancestors before her, acknowledging and conversing with the Spirit beings around her. She discusses how much of her knowledge has been re-worked due to climate change within the parameters of her Indigenous learning and beliefs. Photo credit: United Nations University  

1 01, 2012

Stories From The Mines Of Struggle, Sisterhood, And Solidarity

2017-10-31T18:52:47-04:00Tags: |

Alyansa Tigil Mina, a consortium of organizations dedicated to challenging mining in the Philippines, compiled an array of stories from Filipino women struggling with mining in their communities. Women leaders including Imelda Mape and Carmen Ananayo have put their lives in danger in the struggle for human rights, environmental protection, and conservation. Imelda Mape, an elected official from Cagayan Valley, took a stance against the authorization of a new magnetite mining project. While her intransigent opposition to the project has made her the object of resentment for barangay officials, it has also helped her gain her community’s trust and support. Similarly, Carmen Ananayo of the Didipio Earth Saver’s Multi-Purpose Association refused to sell her land to Oceana Gold Philippines. The narratives in this collection provide many lessons on overcoming fear and what it takes to do the right thing for the community. Photo credit: Alyansa Tigil Mina

1 12, 2011

Climate Wise Women: Meet Ursula Rakova

2017-07-17T18:15:09-04:00Tags: |

An Indigenous member of the Carteret Islands in the Southwestern Pacific, Ursula Rakova works as the Executive Director of Tulele Peisa ("Sailing the waves on our own") in Papua New Guinea, relocating the entire island community of the Carterets to the nearby mainland of Bougainville because of the severe impacts of climate change. Following the call of her Elders, Ursula is telling the world what is happening to her island and her community because of climate change. Photo credit: Climate Wise Women

2 11, 2011

Land Security And Empowerment For Women Necessary In Rizal

2017-11-02T00:19:43-04:00Tags: |

In three villages in the Rizal province of the Philippines, the direct link between climate change and economic stress is having gendered impacts. Dumagat Indigenous women are using traditional methods that ensure soil health and protect biodiversity, while relying on traditional knowledge to predict storms and care for their community. Women’s empowerment and leadership in community development is essential to overcoming climate and economical stress. Photo Credit: Use Default

30 10, 2011

Celebrating Women Activists: South Africa’s Mphatheleni Makaulule

2017-10-31T15:00:40-04:00Tags: |

Mphatheleni Makaulule from the VhaVenda tribe of Northern South Africa, in Limpopo province, has dedicated her life to protecting the sacred natural sites and ecosystems in her community as well as reviving Indigenous knowledge and the role of the women chiefs and spiritual leaders known as the Makhadzi. Having built the Luvhola cultural village with the help of her community close to two decades ago, as well as establishing the Dzomo La Mupo committee with local Makahadzis, Mphatheleni’s work challenges the socioeconomic order that oppresses women and nature and forges ahead to build a more egalitarian world. Photo Credit: The Ecologist

26 10, 2010

Should We Turn the Tent? Inuit Women And Climate Change

2017-10-26T17:38:49-04:00Tags: |

This paper by Martha Dowsley, Shari Gearheard,  Noor Johnson and Jocelyn Inksetter focuses on Inuit women’s perspectives from Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River, Nunavut, regarding recent environmental changes. First, both primary and secondary effects of environment change are analyzed and then a preliminary discussion on women’s role in responses to climate change follows. The research concludes that gender helps shape Inuit knowledge of environmental change and that women can contribute not only to physical changes but also to the resulting social changes.

30 10, 2009

Las Mujeres Hablan (The Women Speaking) Against Nuclear Contamination

2017-10-30T02:41:35-04:00Tags: |

Las Mujeres Hablan is a network of women leaders from New Mexico who are working for global nuclear disarmament. For decades, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has manufactured plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads and weapons on occupied Pueblo Indigenous land, in the Pajarito Plateau of the Jemez Mountains. The women are speaking out by building relationships with decision-makers and drawing attention to the issue, advocating for peace and nuclear disarmament. Photo credit: Nobel Women’s Initiative

1 02, 2008

Black Ancestral Medicine in Ecuador’s Pacific Coast

2023-11-08T12:58:39-05:00Tags: |

In the North of Esmeraldas region in Ecuador, Afro-Ecuadorian women healers use their ancestral knowledge, along with other medical systems, to create a hybrid healing community. Benita Angulo, colloquially known as Venus, has been a practitioner of her traditional medicine in San Lorenzo for decades. While most places in Ecuador now have access to Western healthcare practices, San Lorenzo has been left out. Parteras (midwives), such as Venus, have been continuing their practice for women in the area. Their practices emphasize natural and local sources of healing, and center the patient in their practice. The Ecuadorian government has not adapted its public health system to meet the diverse population needs, and many parteras are outpriced and traditional knowledge is lost. Traditional practice has unique benefits and roles in Latin American populations, and must be regarded equally to Western medicine in public health matters. Photo credit: Raul Ceballos

27 10, 2007

Land Loss And Garifuna Women’s Activism On Honduras’ North Coast

2017-10-27T01:01:51-04:00Tags: |

This report looks at the impacts of gendered land loss and privatization on Afro-Indigenous Garifuna women. Land in Garifuna culture is passed through matrilineal lines and thus the expansion of coastal land markets has resulted in women’s loss of territorial control. Whilst collecting testimony to present before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Gregoria Flores, the head of Fraternal Black Honduran Organization (OFRANEH), a grassroots organization promoting political and land rights of Garifuna communities, was shot and wounded. Miriam Miranda, also a member of OFRANEH, was searched by masked men with a warrant signed by a judge. After being forced out of her house, 19-year-old Mirna Isabel Santos Thomas was found dead alongside the road. Land loss issues have rooted Garifuna women in political struggles.

1 01, 2007

Sophia Rabliauskas

2017-10-24T20:05:07-04:00Tags: |

Sophia Rabliauskas, leader of the Poplar River First Nation, led a movement with community members and elders to protect two million acres of undisturbed boreal forest (a huge carbon sink) in the territory of the Poplar River First Nation on Winnipeg Lake, Manitoba. She played a key role in gaining interim protection of the forest and developing a land management plan which acted as a blueprint for all future land use management actions. The blueprint focuses on respecting traditional knowledge, using environmental analysis, providing economic opportunities, including protection of traditional hunting, trapping and fishing activities, and creating sustainable tourism opportunities. Rabliauskas is drawing attention to the reality that First Nations territory, being public lands, legally can be granted to industries for logging, timber, and hydropower developmental activities, without prior consultation with the First Nations. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize

23 12, 2003

The Interconnectivity Of Water

2017-10-31T15:02:52-04:00Tags: |

The contamination of our Earth’s fresh water, such as the Great Lakes Basin, means pollutants and harmful chemicals like PCBs are moving up the food chain and being passed on to our children through pregnancy and breastfeeding. Katsi Cook, a traditional Mohawk midwife, explains the connection between the pollution of the Earth and degrading human health. Photo credit: Feminist Midwife 

26 10, 1993

JoAnn Tall Acts Against Nuclear Weapons And Hazardous Landfills On Indigenous Land

2017-10-26T16:25:12-04:00Tags: |

Oglala Lakota woman leader JoAnn Tall, recipient of a 1993 Goldman Environmental Prize, has spent her life working to stop uranium mining and successfully halt a proposed Honeywell nuclear weapons testing facility in North Dakota’s Black Hills. Using her own Indigenous-owned and run radio station, JoAnn brought community awareness to the dangers, and acted as a catalyst for a peaceful resistance camp built on the site of the proposed nuclear facilities, which ultimately resulted in the company abandoning their plans.  After founding the Native Resource Coalition, JoAnn also worked throughout her life to prevent the construction of hazardous landfills on Indigenous lands of the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota. Photo credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

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