{"id":1627046,"date":"2024-04-24T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=635899"},"modified":"2024-04-24T08:15:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T08:15:00","slug":"from-australia-to-the-arctic-young-indigenous-changemakers-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/24\/from-australia-to-the-arctic-young-indigenous-changemakers-speak-out\/","title":{"rendered":"From Australia to the Arctic, young Indigenous changemakers speak out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, Native News Online, and APTN.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 20 years ago, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held its annual meeting with a focus on youth, on educating and nurturing them. This year, the forum\u2019s 24th gathering, the emphasis was again on youth \u2014 but this time on listening to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet seven of the young leaders who spoke at this year\u2019s forum:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name:<\/strong> Michael Severin Bro<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age:<\/strong> 32<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples:<\/strong> Inuit<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Ilulissat, a small town on the western coast of Greenland. His family calls him Mikaali. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he wants people to know: <\/strong>Bro believes Indigenous and LGBTQ+  communities are especially vulnerable in Greenland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been struggling within society and we need to be included in decision-making,\u201d he said. \u201cI refer to myself as Sipineq which is our word in Inuit language defining everything about queerness, or all letters of the LGBTQIA+.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocating for both issues is complicated. \u201cIt\u2019s like wearing two hats,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More: <\/strong>As climate change warms the Arctic four times faster than global temperatures, Bro said that Greenland\u2019s Inuik are facing difficulties in seal hunting.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name: <\/strong>Gervais NdIhokubwayo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: <\/strong>30<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples:<\/strong> Batwa <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Bujumbura, Burundi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he wants you to know:<\/strong> Batwa children need more support for their education, including infrastructure and school supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Batwa are one of the oldest Indigenous cultures in Africa. In Burundi, they receive little support from the government. The Batwa in Uganda experience health disparities <\/a>due to climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/strong> The focus on youth at this year\u2019s forum was exciting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompared to last year, there’s a noticeable advancement in prioritizing youth perspectives, fostering collaboration and advocating for Indigenous rights on a global scale,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name: <\/strong>Kseniia Bolshakova<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: <\/strong>24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples: <\/strong>Dolgan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home: <\/strong>Popigai in Siberia, Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What she wants people to know:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her community in Siberia has difficulties getting access to fresh drinking water because of colonization and climate change. Bolshakova would like to seek help to get a salination station near her village that converts sea water into fresh water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no funding for this,\u201d she said through a translator. \u201cThis challenge is very costly and that\u2019s why the problem has not been solved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s writing a book on language revitalization, and the effects of climate change on her homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/strong> When she was still in Russia, she participated in a protest against the war in Ukraine. Afterwards, she felt under threat and left the country and believes it would be unsafe for her to return. She currently lives in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Courtesy of Jakirah Telfer \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name:<\/strong> Jakirah Telfer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: <\/strong>21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples:<\/strong> Kaurna<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Aldelade on the coast of southern Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What she wants people to know:<\/strong> She feels responsible for fixing climate change brought on by colonialism, but also powerless if Australia won\u2019t listen to Aboriginal people. She started to cry in frustration during a panel discussion at the UNPFII, because she was reminded of her grandmother who was part of the Stolen Generation, a dark chapter in Australia\u2019s colonial history where Aboriginal children were taken from their parents to be assimilated into colonial society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI sort of had to reflect because I hated myself for crying. I think one thing the UN is missing is emotion and vulnerability,\u201d she said, \u201cI hated myself for crying but I also felt so nurtured and safe in that space with so many other Indigenous peoples. I just feel like youth brings that passion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/strong> She thinks about her relationship with the land as a language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we listen to the land, the land will listen to us. It\u2019s a language. Climate change is creating a language barrier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name: <\/strong>Nilla- Juh\u00e1n Valkeap\u00e4\u00e4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age:<\/strong>19<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples: <\/strong>S\u00e1mi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Helsinki, Finland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he wants people to know:<\/strong> Finland is forcing the S\u00e1mi Parliament to redo an election and include some 70 residents of the homeland who are not S\u00e1mi, a move that leaves Valkeap\u00e4\u00e4 concerned. The S\u00e1mi believe this is an infringement on their self-determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Sami parliament is treated with so little respect, then Valkeap\u00e4\u00e4 feels especially invisible because of his youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are like \u2018youth are the future, listen to the youth\u2019 but when it comes to actually listening to us they are like, \u2018nah let the adults do this stuff\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is proud of being S\u00e1mi in Finland so this recent infringement on the S\u00e1mi electoral process makes him nervous about the future. Especially after a recent U.N. report<\/a> outlined that Finland still needs to do more to address the historical removal of the S\u00e1mi from their lands and suppression of their language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More<\/strong>: Green energy projects have threatened the S\u00e1mi homeland over the last few years including an illegal wind farm in Norway<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name:<\/strong> Majo Andrade Cerda<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age:<\/strong> 29 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples:<\/strong> Kichwa <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Puyo, Ecuador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What she wants you to know:<\/strong> She’s an activist who wants to better protect the Amazon rainforest, a place very important to the Kichwa. While she believes there has been progress in getting more young people involved in the United Nations, she still sees barriers, especially with people for whom English is a second or third language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI recognize my privilege in being able to learn English, so if they [member states] want to help they would help with the language barrier,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/strong> Cerda is a member of Yuturi Warmi,<\/a> the first Indigenous women guard that protects the Ecuadorian rainforest and she is also a community organizer for Escuela Runa Yachay<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"A
Taylar Stagner \/ Grist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Name:<\/strong> Morgan Brings Plenty<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age:<\/strong> 29<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peoples:<\/strong> Cheyenne River Sioux <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home:<\/strong> Eagle Butte, South Dakota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What they want you to know:<\/strong> Brings Plenty is two-spirit, an umbrella term that encompasses an array of Indigenous gender identities. An activist since they were 12, they are critical of the push for electric cars as a way to stop using fossil fuels, since few people think about the burden that puts on tribal lands through mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople say \u2018go green\u2019 but there are a lot of false solutions,\u201d they said. \u201cLike there\u2019s electric cars but you have to mine lithium.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an example, they point to the lithium <\/a>mines in the Black Hills of South Dakota, a sacred space for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Omaha and many other tribes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[It] goes into the water and gets into Indigenous communities,\u201d they said. \u201cThere are health concerns there,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More:<\/strong> Brings Plenty wanted to make sure their colleagues also got credit for their work at the U.N. \u2014  Annalee Yellowhammer, 20, and Maya Runnels, 22, from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are a team. We are a group effort,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Grist<\/a> with the headline From Australia to the Arctic, young Indigenous changemakers speak out<\/a> on Apr 24, 2024.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published on Grist<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When we listen to the land, the land will listen to us. It’s a language. Climate change is creating a language barrier.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33550,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,47946,1862],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1627046"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1634986,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1627046\/revisions\/1634986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1627046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1627046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1627046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}