VCIV, Flemish Centre for Indigenous Peoples

 There are currently two blockades set up by Sarawak native communities inmiddle and upper Baram, where logging companies are active in ancestralterritories. These blockades have been a regular feature in thecommunities' struggle to protect their ancestral domains, in spite ofhostile reactions from timber companies and the authorities. SAM/FoEMalaysia once again calls on the federal and state government to respectthe rights of the Penan and ensure that the timber companies ceaseoperations in their native territories. 

The Achuar are celebrating another major victory over the oil industry after an agreement by Argentine company Pluspetrol to drop plans to construct 39 oil wells on an oil concession known as “ Block 1AB”, located on Achuar land in northern Peru. The announcement came from Pluspetrol’s General Manager in Peru during a meeting with FECONACO, the representative organization of Achuar communities from the Corrientes River area, and in front of government officials. It follows two recent oil spills, which together contaminated approximately 15 miles of rivers used by the Achuar for all their daily water needs. 

The Native American $1 Coin Act was signed into law by President Bush last Thursday.

The bill authorizes a new back for the Sacagawea dollar coin to honor Native Americans and their contributions to the United States. The front will still feature an image of the young Shoshone woman who helped Lewis and Clark on their journey to the West.

The designs for the back will be approved by the Department of Treasury in consultation with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the House Congressional Native American Caucus, the National Congress of American Indians, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.

I was honored to introduce this bill. I can think of no better way to pay tribute to the Native American people than to cast in gold their contribution to the development of this nation and its history, said Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Michigan). The coin will preserve the memory of Sacagawea and guide Americans through the journey and experiences of Native Americans."


Get the Bill: H.R.2358 -
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.02358: S.585 -
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.00585:

Three Comandantas, Three Comandantes and the Subcomandante, to Assist the Encounter of the Indigenous Peoples of America and Second Phase of the Other CampaignBy CCRI-CG - EZLN
Enlace Zapatista

September 17, 2007


To the People of Mexico:
To the Adherents of the Sixth Declaration and the Other Campaign:
Brothers and Sisters:
Compañeros and Compañeras:

On this new anniversary of the struggle for the first independence of Mexico, the EZLN communicates the following:


About the Encounter of the Indigenous Peoples of AmericaFirst – A delegation of the Zapatista leadership, composed of three comandantas, three comandantes, and one subcomandante, will attend the Encounter of the Indigenous Peoples of America, to be held October 11, 12, 13, and 14 of 2007.

Second – This and other delegations of the Zapatista leadership will attend, when possible, the preparatory meetings for the encounter, to be held in the following places: Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. October 4-5, 2007. San Pedro Atapulco, Mexico State. October 6-7, 2007. Nurío, Purépecha Territory, Michoacan, Mexico. October 7-8, 2007. Rancho el Peñasco, Territory of the Tohono Od’ham Nation, Magadalena de Kino, Sonora, Mexico. October 8-9, 2007.
Third – We remind all of the adherents of the Sixth Declaration, both nationally and internationally, that you are invited to the Encounter and, if you plan to attend, to register on the webpage of the EZLN’s Sixth Commission.

We ask the same of those who have been invited by the Organizing Commission.


About the Second Phase of the Other Campaign in the Central and Southern Zones of MexicoFirst – In order to carry out the work of the EZLN’s Sixth Commission in this second phase in the central and southern Zones of our country, a delegation of 24 comandantes and comandantas of the Zapatista leadership will leave from the city of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, on the 26th of September, 2007, en route to Mexico City.

There the delegation will be organized into 8 groups which will visit adherents in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan, Guerrero, Morelos, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, La Huasteca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Mexico State, and the Federal District.

The visits will be held in the months of October, November, and December of 2007 according to a detailed calendar which will be released shortly.

Second – As you will recall, the objective of this second phase is to create an initial outline of a National Program of Struggle. For this reason, the groups of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN will concentrate in particular on meetings with adherents in the distinct geographic points of the center and south of our country.

Third – If in the first phase, the objective was to get to know each other, and thus “this is what I am and here I am” were the most important words to be spoken, now the principal points are how we see the world and this country, and what are the demands (what do we want?) that we have or that we have detected at national, regional, and local levels.

Fourth – For this reason, we respectfully request of the different organizational entities of the Other in their states, regions, subregions, and localities, that the organization of the visit of the Sixth Commission to their locales be focused exclusively on the meetings necessary to listen to the demands brought by adherents and sympathizers.

Fifth – With the goal of advancing the outline of the National Plan of Struggle, a support team will accompany each delegation of the Sixth Commission and will be in charge of recording and keeping minutes of each meeting.

Sixth – We also respectfully request of adherents their support in providing food and lodging for the group and the support team that visits them, as well as help with the gasoline for the vehicles in which they will travel.

Seventh – As is public knowledge, our communities are currently suffering a new attack by the federal and state governments (by PANistas and PRDistas, respectively), for which reason it is possible we would have to cancel this trip and take other measures.Liberty and Justice for Atenco!
Liberty and Justice for Oaxaca! From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
Mexico, September, 2007.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - One of Alaska's most eroded coastal villages has begun to build a new community on higher ground - a colossal undertaking being closely watched as more storm-battered settlements face their own forced relocations.

''We're working slow but we're making progress,'' said Stanley Tom, administrator of Newtok, a Yupik Eskimo community of 315 wedged between two rivers prone to severe flooding in recent years. The village completed a federal land trade in 2004 for the new site, a hilly area called Mertarvik on Nelson Island nine miles to the south where residents are putting the final touches on three new homes.

Tom, 48, is the driving force behind mounting government support to prepare Mertarvik for development, offer technical assistance and explore funding possibilities. But officials say the effort is hampered by a glaring flaw: No single agency has been designated to lead erosion relocation projects involving Newtok, or, possibly in the future, other Alaska villages wracked by the effects of climate change.

Crucially needed is a formal strategy that defines and coordinates the roles a slew of agencies and tribal organizations will play in creating an unprecedented prototype, said Greg Magee, manager of the state's Village Safe Water program, which assists rural communities with development of water and sewer systems. Magee's office is spending $120,000 this year to explore the best water sources for Mertarvik, which in Yupik means ''getting water from the spring.''

''We've got to come up with a plan that can't fail, that other villages can follow after Newtok,'' he said. ''We need to find a plan that knocks the socks off everyone.''

It would cost an estimated $100,000 to hire an independent consultant to develop such a strategic plan, but with increasingly tight federal and state funds no one has stepped forward with the money. A special coalition of agencies and tribal entities that formed last year to closely work with Newtok in its move is actively looking for funding sources for such a plan as well as a host of other move-related projects.

Ultimately, though, it's up to individuals and participating agencies to keep the momentum going together, said Sally Russell Cox, a state planner and facilitator of the Newtok planning group.

''The community has to be in charge of any decision to move, in charge of choosing a new site,'' she said. ''That's why Newtok is so successful. They're taking a very self-directed role that, no matter what, they are the lead agency.''

Residents don't have much of a choice. Newtok has one of the shortest projected life spans among scores of Alaska Native villages affected by flooding and erosion blamed in part to rising temperatures.

The current site, 480 miles west of Anchorage, is continually squeezed by the vast, raging Ninglick River, which has eaten an average of 70 feet of bank a year just south of the village. Only a few hundred feet of swampy tundra are left and officials estimate major buildings could be lost within a decade, although residents believe it could happen sooner. While many eroding communities are built on sand or gravel, Newtok's foundation is permafrost, which is melting and sinking, further subjecting the village to flooding from intensifying storms.

The smaller Newtok River hugs the east side of the village and once flowed freely, allowing barges to make regular deliveries of fuel and other supplies. But the Ninglick has sliced into the Newtok and choked off its circulation, turning it into a slough as sediments pile up. Earlier this year, residents were close to running out of gasoline before the river level was high enough for barges to deliver more fuel this summer.

Across Baird Inlet from Newtok, Mertarvik is banked by beach grasses and the Ninglick River just east of the Bering Sea. Federal and state funds will pay for a million-dollar dock and boat ramp to be completed next summer. Until then, villagers have erected a temporary landing for limited barge deliveries of lumber, equipment and construction workers.

Multiple agencies are actively involved in the preliminary groundwork, including wind studies at potential airport grounds and drilling to gage water and sewer possibilities and collect soil samples to figure out the best foundation for buildings and roads. A formal layout design for the new village is expected to be completed by spring. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a $20 million road and evacuation center at Mertarvik in case residents are forced to flee the current site before the new village is ready.

''It could be in the middle of the new community,'' said Andrea Elconin, a corps project manager. ''The idea would be to turn it into a community center or tribal offices once the community is relocated there.''

The Corps of Engineers estimated in a report last year that moving Newtok could run as high as $130 million, or more than $412,000 per resident. That cost, which no agency is equipped to shoulder, reflects the challenge of carrying tons of construction supplies and some existing structures over undeveloped tundra - there are no roads here, no landing strip yet or large-vessel landing.

Residents are trying to accomplish as much of the work themselves as possible, a job that is expected to take several years at the least before Newtok rises again. Tom can't say exactly when the current site will be no more than a memory.

''That's an impossible question to answer,'' he said. ''It's the most frequent question everybody asks.''

In a speech to thousands of Indians in the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil, this Saturday, September 22, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told them that the whole world looks at Brazil with envy and an evil eye.

"Instead of casting an evil eye on our forest, the developed world would better start planting the trees they destroyed for so many centuries," said the president to about 8,000 Indians from São Gabriel da Cachoeira, 530 miles from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.

São Gabriel da Cachoeira is a municipality with 35,000 people, 90% of which are indigenous people.

The Brazilian government is to spend US$ 270 million in the next three years creating new reservations for indigenous groups in the Amazon. Money will also be spent taking water and electricity to isolated groups.

Making the announcement, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he wanted to redress the debt that the state owed to its Indian communities. Indians represent less than 0.5% of Brazil's population and live scattered throughout the vast Amazon rainforest.

According to the most recent census, Brazil has an indigenous population of around 730,000 Indians belonging to more than 200 different ethnic groups.

Altogether they speak around 180 languages. Many live in the hundreds of reservations which already cover more than 12% of the country.

These communities are now to benefit from a significant injection of funds. More than US$ 270 million will be spent over the next three years setting the boundaries of 127 indigenous territories. The money will also help to compensate and resettle families of 9,000 rural workers occupying those lands.

Lula said if private companies were not prepared to carry out the work, it would be done by military engineering units.

The head of Funai, the government agency charged with defending Indian rights, welcomed the investment.

The promotion of indigenous people is very important, said Márcio Meira, because they are a part of Brazilian society that has a very symbolic value.

Among the new proposals is a plan to document 20 indigenous languages threatened with extinction.

Mr Meira said researchers from the indigenous community would be used to help create a dictionary of the language, which he acknowledged was the basis of all Brazilian culture.

A group of Brazilian Indians has just kicked off a campaign called Guarani People, Great People. The self-esteem-enhancer promotion was launched in the Tey' kue village, near the municipality of Caarapó, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in the Brazilian Midwest.

Resulting from a strengthened continental articulation of the Guarani people, the campaign intends to show to society the value of this people, and to intensify the fight for their rights, especially to life and to a land of their own.

Today, 225,000 Guarani are living in South America. They live in Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. It is the people with the largest population in our country, about 50,000 people in eight states (Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Pará).

In Brazil, there are many references to the Guarani people (in the literature, music, painting, cinema). Although they are so present, the Guarani people remain virtually invisible. What is known is that their children die undernourished, their lands are invaded, they suffer with a high murder rate - that is, the State disregards their minimal rights.

But, despite this reality, the Guarani people are still resisting in some parts of their territory, including metropolises such as São Paulo and Porto Alegre. They are fighting to reoccupy the rest of their land, maintaining their beliefs, language, their solidarity-based economy and way of living.

The campaign will rely on the participation of Guarani leaders from the Guarani People's Assembly - (APG) and the Central Network of Organizations of Native Guarayos Peoples, both from Bolivia, and Teachers and chiefs coming from Argentina, Paraguay, and from the states of Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina.

Regarding other indigenous peoples in Brazil, leaders from the Irantxe and Myky (state of Mato Grosso), Kwaza and Migueleno (state of Roraima), and Terena (state of Mato Grosso do Sul) will also take part in this campaign.

The launching of the campaign is supported by the Peasantry Research and Promotion Center - Cipca (Bolivia), Guarani Masters and Leaders and the Aborigine Pastoral Team - Endepa (Argentina), Guarani Leaders and the National Coordination of the Indigenous Pastoral - Conapi (Paraguay), the Committee of Guarani Kaiowá Teachers and Leaders, the Indianist Missionary Council - Cimi, the Native Amazon Operation - PAHO, the Ecumenical Service Coordination - Cese and Norad (Brazil).

Campaign Background

In 2005, indigenous leaders and organizations and experts in indigenous affairs began to develop a dialogue on possible joint actions. In the following year, they held the "First Guarani Continental Meeting" in São Gabriel (state of Rio Grande do Sul), to celebrate the memory and resistance of the indigenous peoples of the 7 missions and the 250th anniversary of the death of their leader, Sepé Tiaraju.

About 1,500 Guarani from Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay who attended the meeting decided to restore the power of their joint organization and, throughout the year, they discussed how to carry out a large continental campaign.

Since then, the Committee of Guarani Kaiowá Teachers and Leaders to Cimi in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul took the initiative to produce materials (a folder, a magazine, a poster and a website) to show the reality faced by the Guarani people and to disseminate the "Commitment Letter: Yvy Poty. In Defense of Life, the Land and the Future."

In April of this year, the 2nd continental meeting was held in Porto Alegre, capital of the southermost state of Rio Grande do Sul, during which political links were enhanced, as well as the desire of the Guarani people to engage in a comprehensive and joint struggle. The proposal of the campaign was presented in plenary and it was embraced by all those attending the meeting.


More Information
www.campanhaguarani.org.br

Brazilian Indian Avelino Nunes Macedo, 35, from the Xakriabá tribe was brutally beaten by three boys in the wee hours of Sunday (September 16) in the Virgínio community, located in the municipality of Miravânia, Minas Gerais state, which borders on the Xakriabá area.

Costa was sleeping on a square bench after attending a party, and could not defend himself when the male youngsters - a 18-year-old and two minors (12 and 13) - began to kick him in the head.

According to the team of the Brazilian Indianist Missionary Council (Cimi) office, which follows up on activities in the region, this violent action cannot be considered as an isolated fact. It took place within the context of the fight of the Xakriabá people for reoccupying their territory.

Avelino was directly engaged in the struggle for the land. He was a member of the group that reoccupied an area in the region of Dizimeiro, located in the Peruaçu valley, in April 2007. This murder shows how the Xakriabá people are neglected and discriminated against. In the 1980s, three of their members were killed because of land conflicts.

Since they began to reoccupy their territories, the Xakriabá people are being threatened. Several police reports were filed in the police stations of São João das Missões, Manga and Itacarambi. All these police reports were also communicated to the Federal Prosecutor's Office and to FUNAI, but no action was taken.

The leaders feel threatened by the lack of protection from the State. Santo Xakriabá, from the Morro Vermelho village, agrees and stresses, "If this neglect on the part of Funai (National Indian Foundation), which abandoned us, continues, more people can die."

After Avelino's murder, three assaulters were arrested in the city of Manga (state of Minas Gerais). Edson Gonçalves is 18 years old. The assaulters told the police that they did not mean to kill Avelino. They just wanted to scare him. "We only wanted to beat him, take off his clothes and then leave," they said.

The team of the East Cimi office is following up on this case together with the indigenous community and the legal authorities. "We intend to follow up on each step taken by the courts, so that society and its institutions may know that people cannot do something like this and get away with it," stressed Wilson Mário Santana, the coordinator of the East Cimi office.

The destruction of the Brazilian Amazon has slowed dramatically, according to new figures released by the Brazilian government. In the 12 months ending in July 2006, 5,400 square miles of rainforest disappeared, a huge number but 25 percent down on the figure for the previous 12 months. Government officials attributed the drop to a crackdown on illegal loggers, including 560 arrests and the seizure of more than one million cubic meters of timber. However, environmental groups have said the root cause is a fall in world prices for soy and a rise in the Brazilian Real, together reducing the demand for arable land in the Amazon basin.

 A major new report commissioned by Amazon Watch has warned that the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank would be breaching their own environmental and social safeguards if they approve $1.1 billion in loans to the Camisea project in Peru.  A vote is expected in December 2007. The report summarizes major social and environmental impacts resulting from the first phase of the Camisea gas project. It also found that indigenous communities had been intimidated into allowing drilling on their lands. Amazon Watch is calling on the IFC and the IDB to refrain from financing Camisea II.

PASS ON THE WORD!!!
 The “Unplug America” campaign was introduced by Indigenous Peoples in 1992 in response to the 500 year anniversary of the arrival of Columbus to the Americas. October 13, 1992 was designated as a starting point to look forward to the next 500 years and work to make a sustainable and just world, starting by giving Mother Earth a rest!

Unplug Day is an invitation to all people to show our love and respect for Mother Earth by challenging unhealthy patterns of consumption and the continued production of poisons that destroy our environment. October 13th is a day to unplug – turn off the TV and radio, shut off the taps, and leave the fossil-fuel burning vehicle at home! Instead, take a walk with friends and family, tell stories, do something artistic, and say a prayer for Mother Earth and our communities. It’s only one day but also a fist step in reducing our carbon footprint, exploring consumer choices and ways of life that are more healthy and sustainable, and acting for future generations! Visit:
www.ipetitions.com/petition/unplug_day/  

One of Australia's most high-profile Aboriginal leaders has reportedly agreed to sign a 99-year lease that will hand over control of his traditional land in the Northern Territory.
Former Australian of the Year Galarrwuy Yunupingu will sign the agreement today under a landmark deal with the Australian government, The Australian newspaper reported.
The Australian said it understood Mr Yunupingu's community would receive million of dollars for the deal to allow individuals to buy their own homes.
The Commonwealth takeover of Indigenous land leases is part of the federal government's intervention to halt child abuse in Aboriginal communities.
The Tiwi Island community of Nguiu, north of Darwin, last month became the first community in the Northern Territory to sign up to a 99-year lease.
Mr Yunupingu's deal will re-cast Aboriginal politics in northern Australia, by bringing him together with prominent Aboriginal figure Noel Pearson, who is a major supporter of the Howard government's intervention plan.
Mr Yunupingu's support for the intervention threatens to split the nation's Indigenous leadership, following the creation of a new Aboriginal lobby group that urged Indigenous communities to actively resist the intervention.
Some in Mr Yunupingu's community were understood to be against the agreement and would oppose it, the report said.

After a long standoff with the government of Peru, Yale University has agreed to return a large group of artifacts that were excavated at Machu Picchu in a historic dig by a Yale explorer in 1912 and that Peru contends were merely on loan and should have been returned long ago.

For several years Yale had argued that it had returned all borrowed objects in the 1920s, retaining only those to which it had full title. Yale proposed dividing possession of the artifacts. But negotiations between the university and the administration of President Alejandro Toledo, who was in power from 2001 until July 2006, broke down, and Peru threatened last year to go to court.

On Friday night Yale officials and a Peruvian delegation that traveled to New Haven signed a preliminary agreement that would return title to Peru of more than 350 artifacts — ceramics and metal and stone objects — that are considered to be of museum quality and several thousand fragments, bones and other objects considered to be primarily of interest to researchers.

The agreement, which establishes an extensive collaborative relationship between Yale and Peru, provides for an international traveling exhibition. Admission fees will be used to help build a new museum and research center in Cuzco, the city closest to Machu Picchu. The museum, for which Yale will serve as adviser, is expected to be completed in 2010.

Some of the research-quality artifacts will remain at Yale, while others will be returned, though legal title to all the items will be held by Peru. Yale will also contribute what one university official called a “significant” amount of money to establish a program of scholarly exchanges that will continue for at least three years.

“We aim to create a new model for resolving competing interests in cultural property,” Yale’s president, Richard C. Levin, said yesterday about the agreement. “This can best be achieved by building a collaborative relationship — one which involves scholars and researchers from Yale and Peru — that serves science and human understanding.”

Peruvian officials have acknowledged that many of the objects themselves do not have great aesthetic or museum value. But their claim to them came at a time when Italy, Greece and several other countries had begun to wage impassioned public campaigns for repatriation of objects viewed as cultural patrimony that led to the return of pieces by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In a joint statement Yale and the Peruvian government called the deal “a new model of international cooperation providing for the collaborative stewardship of cultural and natural treasures.”

In comments broadcast on Peruvian radio, Hernán Garrido-Lecca, who led negotiations for Peru as housing and construction minister, said, “After 14 hours of negotiations we arrived at a happy agreement in which Peru was established as the owner of every one of the pieces.”

The agreement came after several months of negotiations. Talks that had broken down resumed after Mr. Toledo’s term ended and Peru elected a new president, Alan García.

The objects were excavated almost a century ago by Hiram Bingham III, a charismatic professor, aviator and later senator who is credited with the modern discovery of Machu Picchu, which he stumbled upon while looking for another archaeological site. Before his arrival the Inca complex had been known to only a few local farmers around Cuzco. Bingham struck deals with the government at the time to allow him to send objects back to Yale that he had excavated from about 170 tombs at the site.

Though the Machu Picchu objects were not looted, the dispute between Yale and Peru seemed fueled at least in part by the Toledo government decision to make the country’s Inca heritage a central theme of its administration.

Just three days after Survival International re-ignited its Bushman campaign, a lengthy cover article in The Times has denounced the Botswana government's continuing refusal to honour the terms of the Bushmen's court victory.

Lucia Van der Post, daughter of renowned author Laurens Van der Post, travelled to the Bushmen's resettlement camps and into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for the article.

'Why', she writes, 'when I arrive to see for myself the happy sight of Bushmen returning to their land, do I find so many of them still living in the hated, dusty settlements? Why are they being prosecuted for hunting when that is their time-honoured means of feeding themselves? Why is the Government refusing to reopen the boreholes, schools and hospitals that they forcibly closedŠ?

'We are unable to find any family in New Xade [resettlement camp] that has the means to return. Many of the young men have to appear in court in a few days' time for hunting offences, and so cannot leave. Others have no cars, no petrolŠ'

Ms Van der Post concludes, 'The Botswana High Court judgment had it absolutely right. "The case is, thus, ultimately about a people demanding dignity and respect." It is a people saying, in essence: "Our way of life may be different but it is worthy of respect."'

To read the article in full, visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article2482706.ece 

Australia will not support the landmark United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous rights because the federal government believes it is unworkable and divisive.
The UN General Assembly tomorrow is expected to finally adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples after more than 20 years in the drafting.
It addresses both individual and collective rights, cultural rights and identity, rights to education, health, employment and language.
It outlaws discrimination against Indigenous people and promotes their full participation in all matters that concern them.
Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Mal Brough said the Australian government supported the development of a declaration, but the current draft had real problems.
"The version currently in circulation is not workable and it would be divisive," Mr Brough said today.
Land provisions in the declaration would provide rights that could overrule the legitimate legal interests in land held by other people, he said.
It also placed customary law in a superior position to national law, Mr Brough said.
"There should only be one law for all Australians and we should not enshrine in law practices that are not acceptable in the modern world," he said.
New Zealand, the US, Canada, Russia and a handful of other countries are also not expected to support the declaration.
Canada initially supported the declaration, but reversed its position after being lobbied last year by Prime Minister John Howard.
The NSW Aboriginal Land Council urged the government to change its position.
Council chair Bev Manton said the UN vote may be Mr Howard's last chance to demonstrate genuine support for the rights of Indigenous people.
"If he were to decide that Australia would vote in favour of the UN declaration, it would go some way towards rehabilitating our nation's currently poor international image," Ms Manton said.
The declaration is not legally binding but sets international benchmarks on how Indigenous people should be treated by their respective governments.
--
AAP

Two companies planning to explore for oil in rainforest inhabited by uncontacted tribes have revealed plans to 'communicate' with them using megaphones if their oil crews are attacked.

The plans have been labelled 'farcical' by Peru's national Indian organisation, AIDESEP.

No one knows the languages the Indians speak, and they are likely to view oil crews as hostile intruders. In the past oil company workers in the Amazon region have been killed by isolated Indians.

Despite this critical risk to their own workers, and the equal danger of spreading fatal diseases to the Indians, the companies, Barrett Resources of the US and Repsol YPF of Spain, have refused to suspend their plans.

Amongst the phrases Barrett's workers are expected to say to their potential attackers are, 'How many days (moons or suns) have you walked for?', 'We are people just like you', 'Is something disturbing you?' and 'We haven't come here to look for women, we have our own women in our own village.'

Survival's Director, Stephen Corry, said today, 'Do Repsol and Barrett think that by shouting at the uncontacted Indians through megaphones it will be any easier for them to understand? These tribes have a well-founded fear of outsiders, and are highly likely to attack the oil crews who enter their territory. Perhaps what is most disturbing of all is how both companies, in certain situations, actually recommend entering into contact with the tribes.' 

Aboriginal remains, which date back more than 120 years, have been returned to the western Queensland town of Longreach in a moving ceremony.
More than 200 people attended the ceremony at the Longreach cemetery for the return of the remains of the five Iningai people - one woman and four men.
The remains had been held by the Queensland Museum and National Museum of Australia after being returned by the Edinburgh University where they were taken in the 19th century.
Iningai custodian David Thompson said he felt relieved that the remains were finally being returned.
Mr Thompson said the remains would be kept in a special place at the Longreach cemetery.
"This is a wonderful thing for reconciliation in Australia," he said.
Australian National Museum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander director Michael Pickering said the remains dated from 1860-1880.
"They were collected by a Dr James Lyle who took them back to Edinburgh University where they were donated in 1892," Mr Pickering said.
Mr Pickering said there was a bullet hole to the skull of one of the remains.
He said this was representative of historical records showing conflict between Aboriginals and white settlers in western Queensland during the mid to late 1800s.
The National Museum has returned 600 Aboriginal remains Australia wide.
Other museums throughout Australia are also in the process of returning remains while the Australian government is pursuing the return of remains held overseas.

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, an HBO, Wolf, Film/Traveler’s Rest Film won the Emmy Award tonight for Oustanding Made For Television Movie. After six years in development, the film premiered on HBO last May. The HBO epic is based on Dee Brown's award-winning history of American Indian life in the latter half of the 19th century. The HBO production features a star-making performance by actor Adam Beach, the charismatic Native American actor whose credits include John Woo's Windtalkers and Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. Beach performed as Charles Eastman, a Dartmouth-educated Sioux doctor torn between two cultures during events that lead to the notorious Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. Aidan Quinn (as Sen. Henry Dawes), August Schellenberg (Sitting Bull) and Fred Dalton Thompson (President Ulysses S. Grant) also figured prominently in the historical drama. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee had 17 Emmy nominations, the most of any show the 59th Emmy Awards.

The film also took home the awards for Best Cinematography, Miniseries or Movie; Best Single-Camera Picture Editing, Miniseries or a Movie; Best Makeup, Miniseries, Movie or Special (Non-Prosthetic); Best Sound Editing, Miniseries, Movie or Special; Best Sound Mixing, Miniseries or Movie.

The film powerfully explores the economic, political and social pressures pushing the conquest of the American West and the tragic impact this expansionism had on American Indian culture and life. The films is directed by Yves Simoneau ("Napoleon"), produced by Clara George ("United 93") and is written by Daniel Giat (HBO Films' Path to War), in addition to being based on the book by Brown.

Published in 1971, Brown's book is one of the foremost and in-depth works documenting the systematic genocide of the American Indian during the decades leading up to the Wounded Knee massacre. It has sold almost 4-million copies and has been translated into 17 languages.

Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee intertwines the unique perspectives of three characters: Eastman; Sitting Bull (Schellenberg), the proud Lakota chief who refuses to submit to U.S. government policies designed to strip his people of their identity, their dignity and their sacred land - the gold-laden Black Hills of the Dakotas; and Senator Henry Dawes (Quinn), who was one of the architects of the government policy on Indian affairs.

While Eastman and patrician schoolteacher Elaine Goodale (Paquin) work to improve life for the Indians on the reservation, Senator Dawes lobbies President Grant (Thompson) for more humane treatment, opposing the stand of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Feore). Hope rises for the Indians in the form of the prophet Wovoka (Studi) and the Ghost Dance - a messianic movement that promises an end to suffering under the white man. This hope is obliterated after the assassination of Sitting Bull and the massacre of hundreds of Indian men, women and children by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890.

A revered Amazon Indian leader from Brazil is coming to Europe in October with a heartfelt plea to stop disease wiping out his people. Davi Yanomami, one of the world's best known indigenous leaders, is in a race against time to stop introduced diseases decimating his tribe. The Yanomami are one of the largest and most isolated tribes in the Amazon.Press conference: 11am, Tuesday 16 October, St Ethelburga's, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG. Photo opportunity: 3pm, Tuesday 16 October, Westminster Green (opposite Houses of Parliament) Visit to 10 Downing Street to deliver a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown: 12 noon, Wednesday 17 October Davi will be launching a new report from Survival, 'Progress can kill', in the UK and Germany.

The report details for the first time how forcing Western ideas of 'development' on tribal people leads to their annihilation through the total breakdown of their physical and mental health.

Davi Yanomami is not only a leader of his people, but also a renowned shaman, and past winner of the UN Global 500 award. He plans to tell the outside world not only of the problems faced by the Yanomami and other tribes, but also how easily they can be solved. Davi will be accompanied on his trip by his son Dário.

The visit comes as the issue of rainforest destruction and its link to global warming is firmly back in the headlines.

In a prophetic warning four years ago, Davi said, 'We shamans are telling you the whites [to change your ways] so that the world doesn't get too hot. If you don't do this our world will become dry, there will be no water, and we will have dry mouths because the Earth will heat up.'

UN official document:
Article 30 is corrected in the UN Document A/61/L.67* dated 12 September 2007
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

(note: French version was sent to Group on 14 September).

The six languages can also be accessed at
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

Luis Enrique Chavez, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Mission of Peru, former Chair of the working Group on the Draft Declaration thru Feb. 2006, introduced the Resolution in the General Assembly plenary session on 13 September 2007.

He stated that, in addition to the 19 Members States listed as sponsors of the Resolution, the following Member States are also sponsors:
Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Fiji, France, Honduras, Italy, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Nauru, Panama, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland and former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Native protesters and environmental groups are taking the next round of their fight against a coal-bed methane exploration project in a remote part of central B.C. to the British media.A $20,000 advertisement decrying Royal Dutch Shell's plan to drill wells in the headwaters region of the Stikine, Nass and Skeena rivers is running in the European editions of today's Financial Times newspaper. The headwaters area, known as the Klappan to the local Tahltan people, is home to a rich, year-round run of each of B.C.'s five indigenous salmon species, as well as steelhead trout. Members of the 400-strong Tahltan community have been holding a three-season blockade of a road into the territory, 640-kilometres southwest of Terrace, for the past two years.Eight environmental groups - Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Sierra Club of Canada, Oil Change International, Forest Ethics, Earthworks, the Dogwood Initiative and Rivers Without Borders - paid $19,477 for the one-time 1/8-page newspaper advertisement. It shows a photo of three protesters, explains the importance of the territory to those who live there, and invites readers to visit a website on the subject.Lisa Matthaus of the Sierra Club said they would considered buying more space in the Financial Times and other European newspapers if the first ad succeeds in getting their message to the business readers, many of whom are Shell shareholders. "Some of the sponsors of the ad have had dealings with Shell elsewhere in the world, which is why they are concerned about what is going on here," she said. "It's an expensive tactic, if you want to put it that way, but it is an important one - to make sure the Shell executives in their headquarters in London know that we will make the resources available to make sure the world is aware of what is happening. This won't be tucked away in the wilderness, and [we want] investors [to] know that the eyes of the world are watching."Rhoda Quock, a spokeswoman for the protesters, said she hadn't seen the advertisement, but hoped it would secure international support for their blockade."The more publicity we get, the more people throughout the world that know about it, the better. We need all the help we can get," she said. "No words can explain how beautiful the sacred headwaters are, or how important. It's the place where we practise our culture. My six-year-old daughter even understands that if Shell goes in, it would be ruined."Ms. Quock said the aim of the protest and, ultimately, of the advertising campaign, is nothing less than persuading Shell to fully suspend its coal-bed methane exploration of the Klappan.Larry Lalonde, a spokesman for Shell, said the project, for which the company has government permission to drill up to 14 wells, is still at the exploratory stage. He said it is not yet known whether there is methane in "viable commercial quantities." The protests had delayed its work, he added.Mr. Lalonde said the company was aware of the ad, but was not commenting before it was published. Shell recently won a court injunction in Ireland to evict protesters against a proposed refinery at Bellanaboy in County Mayo, but backed off a similar injunction in Vancouver against the Tahltan last Friday.._,___

Signs of the last uncontacted Indians south of the Amazon basin have been spotted by other members of their tribe in Paraguay.

Footprints and a still-burning campfire were seen by members of the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode tribe last week in the western half of their territorial heartland.

The news has alarmed the Indians' supporters, as the area is the scene of rapidly increasing deforestation.

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode have been trying to protect the last substantial part of their ancestral forest since 1993. Many of their relatives still live in this area, resisting all contact with outsiders. All members of the tribe, including those who have had contact with outsiders for many years, depend on this forest for their livelihood.

Although Paraguay's government is legally obliged to title this area to the Ayoreo, only a small part has so far been handed back to the Indians, and now illegal deforestation is rampant.

Last month Survival handed to the Paraguayan authorities a 57,000-signature petition calling on the Ayoreo's land to be titled to them without delay.

Survival's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'We know that the still-uncontacted Ayoreo Indians are being forced to live on the run as their forest is cut down all around them. On the day the UN is expected finally to approve a declaration on indigenous peoples' rights, the shameful saga of the Ayoreo shows the vast gulf for many tribal people between the reality on the ground and the aspirations of the UN declaration.' 

Federal action on a permit to allow the Makah Nation to hunt gray whales is likely to be delayed, The New York Times reports.
The National Marine Fisheries Service has been preparing an environmental impact statement on the tribe's request for a permit under the Marine Mammals Protection Act. Brian Gorman, an agency spokesperson, said the document was due this fall.
But the illegal killing of a whale by five tribal members will delay action. I dont know how long this is going to take, Gorman told the Times.
Meanwhile, tribal leaders are in Washington, D.C., to talk about the rogue hunt. They are worried about the impact of the incident on their legal and treaty rights.
"I don't know what will happen; I'm worried about it," Chairman Ben Johnson told The Seattle Times. "They could look at it now, and stop it."
Like the tribe, Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) have denounced the hunt.

Relevant Link:

Makah Nation - http://www.makah.com

Maori ancestral remains - housed in an American museum since the 1800s - have been returned to New Zealand in the first international repatriation between the Field Museum in Chicago and Te Papa.
Thirteen koiwi tangata Maori (ancestral remains) and one toi moko (preserved Maori head) were accompanied home by a delegation of American Indian representatives and museum staff on Saturday and welcomed to Te Papa's marae in Wellington yesterday.
Bob Martin, a curator from the Field Museum, said the journey was overwhelming and he had been blown away by the response at the powhiri.
"There were people crying. I had no idea it meant this much to everyone.
"There is no doubt that Te Papa is the right place for these items to be," he said.
Te Papa's director of Maori, Arapata Hakiwai, said little was known about the remains, other than that they were Maori, and were acquired by the Field Museum in the late 1800s.
"We will be working with the tribes to establish the history of the remains, and then they will be handed back to the rightful people, who can lay them to rest."
The 18-month process to return the remains to New Zealand was a "hard-fought battle" by Dr Martin, who said the trustees of the Field Museum had a legal right to protect the artefacts in their collection.
"We needed to convince them that it was the right thing to do and that this was special circumstances as they were sacred objects.
"In these circumstances, we must never let legal technicalities get in the way of respect for another culture's belief system."
American Indian Centre executive director Joe Podlasek, from the Ojibwe tribe, travelled with his young sons to New Zealand.
He said it was important that indigenous cultures worked together to preserve their history. "The partnership with the Field Museum shows new beginnings and that an understanding has now occurred."
The delegation - including the Field Museum's Oceania anthropologist, John Terrell - will also meet iwi of Tokomaru Bay, which owns a meeting house on display at the Field Museum with the blessing of the iwi.
"We are working closely with the people involved and understand there is a great deal of sensitivity around the subject," Dr Martin said.
The Field Museum houses about 2500 taonga, many of which Te Papa is negotiating to have returned to New Zealand. --
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2007

 Sixty-first General Assembly Plenary    107th & 108th Meetings (AM & PM)

EXCERPTS:
13 September 2007   General Assembly GA/10612


GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS DECLARATION ON RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES;
‘MAJOR STEP FORWARD’ TOWARDS HUMAN RIGHTS FOR ALL, SAYS PRESIDENT  Vote:  143 – 4 ( Australia,  Canada,  New Zealand,   United States) -– 11;
Also Adopts Texts on South Atlantic Zone of Peace, Preventing Armed Conflict
The General Assembly today overwhelmingly backed protections for the human rights of indigenous peoples, adopting a landmark declaration that brought to an end nearly 25 years of contentious negotiations over the rights of native people to protect their lands and resources, and to maintain their unique cultures and traditions.

By a vote of 143 in favour to 4 against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States), with 11 abstentions, the Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which sets out the individual and collective rights of the world’s 370 million native peoples, calls for the maintenance and strengthening of their cultural identities, and emphasizes their right to pursue development in keeping with their own needs and aspirations.

A non-binding text, the Declaration states that native peoples have the right “to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties” concluded with States or their successors.  It also prohibits discrimination against indigenous peoples and promotes their full and effective participation in all matters that concern them.

The Human Rights Council adopted the Declaration in June 2006, over the objections of some Member States with sizeable indigenous populations.  The Assembly deferred consideration of the text late last year at the behest of African countries, which raised objections about language on self-determination and the definition of “indigenous” people.

“The importance of this document for indigenous peoples and, more broadly, for the human rights agenda, cannot be underestimated,” said General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa in a statement delivered by Assembly Vice-President, Aminu Bashir Wali of   Nigeria.

She warned that, even with the progress achieved by events such as the 1995 first United Nations International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and the beginning of the Second International Decade last year, native peoples still faced marginalisation, extreme poverty and other human rights violations.  They were often dragged into conflicts and land disputes that threatened their way of life and very survival; and, suffered from a lack of access to health care and education.

“I am acutely aware that the Declaration is the product of over two decades of negotiations,” she said, and stressed that, by adopting the Declaration, the Assembly was also taking another major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.  It was also actively demonstrating the General Assembly’s important role in setting international standards.

Countries voting against the Declaration said they could not support it because of concerns over provisions on self-determination, land and resources rights and, among others, language giving indigenous peoples a right of veto over national legislation and State management of resources.

Speaking in explanation of vote before the text was adopted,  Canada's representative said that, unfortunately, the provisions in the Declaration on lands, territories and resources were overly broad, unclear, and capable of a wide variety of interpretations, discounting the need to recognize a range of rights over land and possibly putting into question matters that have been settled by treaty.

The representative of the United States said that it was disappointing that the Human Rights Council had not responded to his country’s calls, in partnership with Council members, for States to undertake further work to generate a consensus text.  The Declaration had been adopted by the Council in a splintered vote “…and risked endless conflicting interpretations and debate about its application, as already evidenced by the numerous complex interpretive statements issued by States at its adoption at the Human Rights Council, and the United States could not lend its support to such a text”.

  Australia’s representative said his Government had long expressed its dissatisfaction with the references to self-determination in the text.  Self-determination applied to situations of decolonization and the break-up of States into smaller states with clearly defined population groups.  It also applied where a particular group with a defined territory was disenfranchised and was denied political or civil rights.    Australia supported and encouraged the full engagement of indigenous peoples in the democratic decision-making process, but did not support a concept that could be construed as encouraging action that would impair, even in part, the territorial and political integrity of a State with a system of democratic representative Government.

In an informal meeting following adoption of the text, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said:  “This day will forever be etched in our memories as a significant gain in our peoples’ long struggle for our rights as distinct peoples and cultures.”  While she respected the interpretive statements made by Member States, indigenous people believed the significance and implications of the Declaration should not be minimized in any way.  That would amount to discrimination.  “For us, the correct way to interpret the Declaration is to read it in its entirety or in a holistic manner and to relate it with existing international law,” she said.

She said that effective implementation of the Declaration would test the commitment of States and the whole international community to protect, respect and fulfil indigenous peoples’ collective and individual human rights.  “I call on Governments, the UN system, indigenous peoples and civil society at large to rise to the historic task before us and make the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a living document for the common future of humanity,” she concluded.

Les Malezer, Chairperson of the Global Indigenous Caucus, said that, with the adoption of the Declaration, the United Nations and indigenous people had found common ground.  The text did not represent the sole viewpoint of the United Nations, nor did it represent the viewpoint of all the world’s indigenous people.  It was based on mutual respect.  It contained no new provisions of human rights.  It was based on rights that had been approved by the United Nations system but which had somehow, over the years, been denied to indigenous peoples.  It was a framework for States to protect and promote the rights of indigenous people without exclusion or discrimination.
.....
The representatives of   Peru introduced the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking in explanation of vote before the vote were the representatives of  New Zealand,  Russian  Federation,  Benin and   Colombia.

Speaking in explanation of position after the vote were the representatives of  Argentina,  Japan,  Chile,  Norway,  Bangladesh,  Jordan,  Mexico,  Liechtenstein,  Republic of  Korea,  Sweden,  Thailand,  Brazil,  Guyana,  Suriname,  Iran,  India,  Myanmar,  Namibia,  Nepal,  Indonesia,  Pakistan,  Paraguay,  Slovakia,  Turkey,  Philippines,  Nigeria,  Cuba,  Montenegro and   Egypt.

Making a general statement after the vote was the Foreign Minster of Bolivia.

The representatives of  Portugal (on behalf of the European Union),  Guatemala,  Finland,  Ecuador,  Costa  Rica and   France also spoke.

Introducing the text on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/61/L.67), LUIS ENRIQUE CHAVEZ BASAGOITIA (  Peru), noting that indigenous peoples were among the most vulnerable, noted that the process had begun in 1982.  Thirteen years later, a preliminary text had been submitted to the former Human Rights Commission.  In 1995, the draft had been put to a group of the Commission.  For the first time, representatives of indigenous peoples had taken part in work on the text, giving legitimacy to the text.  During recent months, many efforts had been made to meet the concerns expressed by various Member States on the draft, which had been approved by the Human Rights Council.  As a result of such efforts, a revised version produced several changes to the text.  Those changes had been duly communicated to   Member  States and representatives of indigenous peoples.  The changes had not undermined the protection of indigenous peoples and should ensure the Declaration’s adoption. 

With the conclusion of a 25-year process, he thanked the President for her efforts in bringing the parties together.  The text would set the foundations for a new and sound relationship among indigenous peoples, States and societies, where and with whom they shared their lives.ANNEX

Vote on Indigenous Rights Declaration


The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (document A/61/L.67) was adopted by a recorded vote of 143 in favour to 4 against, with 11 abstentions, as follows:


In favour:  Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.


Against:   Australia,  Canada,  New Zealand,   United States.

Abstain:   Azerbaijan,  Bangladesh,  Bhutan,  Burundi,  Colombia,  Georgia,  Kenya,  Nigeria,  Russian Federation,   Samoa,  Ukraine.

Absent:  Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Montenegro, Morocco, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu.* *** *

San activists from across the Central Kalahari and Etosha National Park in Namibia gathered in Dkar, Botswana to learn more about the Convention on Biological Diversity. The meeting was hosted by Komku Trust, and brought together activists from |Gui, Naro, ||Gana and Hai||om San communities who have been displaced by National Parks.

The event took place over two days, 31 August and 1 September. It focussed on a review of UN instruments which protect fundamental human rights, and the special instruments dealing with indigenous peoples rights. The workshop focussed on three aspects of the CBD - the articles on traditional knowledge (8J and 10C), the principle of Access & Benefit Sharing, and the Programme of Work on Protected Areas.

Botswana is distinguished in southern Africa for its aggressive approach to indigenous peoples and the forced removals of San from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The efforts of the government were thwarted in 2007 with a landmark court decision which ruled in favour of the San and their right to return to their land in the Park.

San are looking for a new relationship with government where their culture, knowledge and rights are recognised. Delegates gave report back on the Tsumkwe workshop on the formalisation of tracker assessment and certification.

Youth from Outjo in Namibia were particularly keen to identify elders they believed to be Master Trackers who could form a foundation to educate younger semi-urban San in traditional bush knowledge. The Hai||om were expelled from the Etosha National Park which is celebrating its centenary this year. However, the Namibian government is offering them a new conservancy area and is promoting San involvement in tourism and conservation.