IPA

The sessions and events on Monday evening and Tuesday continued to focus, challenge and question how Indigenous People have been treated by Government and Church authorities particularly during the time of colonization and also on the continuing impact of the Doctrine of Discovery, on their lives today. The doctrine is considered by the Indigenous People as the ‘doctrine of domination.

Some background information is worth repeating regarding the ‘doctrine of discovery’. The Indigenous People have the oldest living cultures in the world. Three hundred to five hundred million Indigenous Peoples today live in over 72 countries around the world and they comprise at least 5,000 distinct peoples. The ways of life, identities, well-being and very existence of Indigenous People are threatened by national policies, regulations and laws that attempt to force then to assimilate into the cultures of majority societies. The historical basis and legal precedent for these policies and laws is the Doctrine of Discovery.  The patterns of domination and oppression are found in historical documents such as Papal Bulls, Royal Charters  and court rulings. Collectively, these and other concepts form a paradigm or pattern of domination still being used against Indigenous Peoples.

Around the world, Indigenous Peoples are over-represented in all categories of disadvantage. In most indigenous communities, people live in poverty without clean water, the necessary infrastructures, adequate health care, education, employment and housing.  They suffer the effects of dispossession, forced removal from homelands and families, inter-generational trauma and racism, the effects of which are manifested in social welfare issues such as alcohol and drug problems, violence and social breakdown.

A panelist in the session on the extent to which Indigenous Peoples are included in National Constitutions made a significant concluding remark:  ‘Somethings, in the past cannot be undone’.  Moawa Jackson, an Indigenous person from New Zealand, in recognizing the traditional owners of the land on which the UN stands, stated that ‘Indigenous people walk in the strength of their ancestors’ in communities throughout the world. ‘Discovery’ for him means ‘to open up the eyes of others’;  land to Indigenous people means everything and taking the land is to take everything; racism is not just a doctrine, it is a crime against humanity; we live with attitudes of denial and disregard.  He called for Indigenous People to redefine themselves, to be as brave as their ancestors and to rediscover themselves, to seek the power and beauty of who they are as Indigenous Peoples and to determine their own future – then they will learn to dream.

At the UN … every now and then we are offered, ‘spiritual moments’. Being there and listening to Moawa was such a moment, a moment to carry forward on the journey.

Check out the following websites

To stay up to date with what is happening re Rio+20 and other sustainable development issues, check out the following websites:

www.earthsummit2012.org

www.globaltransition2012.org

www.csradialogue2012.org

www.volunteeractioncounts.org

www.summitwatch.org

Mary McFadden pbvm

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