PARIS: The voices of indigenous peoples around the world are silenced and their lives are made unsusable.
Guardians of the earth, are left out of public discourse in countries around the world. Indigenous peoples are “extinct,” exist and are building cutting-edge networks and solutions, which can be the key to many of our world’s problems.
From Chepang indigenous peoples in Nepal evicted from their ancestral lands to the killing of indigenous leaders in Colombia, indigenous communities continue to be attacked, but they also build hard movements, fighting for land, schooling and autonomy.
“There is no democracy in the world, respect and defense of indigenous peoples. The diversity of human beings and nature is our wealth,” says Iara Pietricovsky, president of Forus International, a global network of civil society organizations.
According to the World Bank, there are approximately 476 million indigenous peoples in the world, in more than 90 countries, representing more than 6% of the world’s population, but their voices in state decision-making and the media remain silent. The Covid-19 pandemic has an additional risk to indigenous communities as it spreads to their vulnerable areas and infects thousands of people.
The death on August 5 of Covid-19 of Brazilian leader Aritana Yawalapiti confirms the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to the pandemic, one of the leaders of maximum influence who contributed to the creation of the Xingu Indigenous Park, located in the south of the Amazon. Nearly 6,000 indigenous peoples from 16 other ethnic groups live in this domain of Mato Grosso state.
“In Brazil, right now, there is a planned policy of destroying the life and culture of indigenous communities, using the old genocidal strategy: invading their lands and not supplying in terms of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Pietricovsky explained.
According to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, there are now 23,000 indigenous peoples inflamed with Covid-19 and 639 have already died across the country. In particular, indigenous communities in the Amazon have already noticed their devastation from illegal deforestation, commercial agriculture, mining and oil exploration.
Now, the coronavirus pandemic has amplified its struggle, just as wildfires are endemic again and affect the livelihoods of approximately 3 million other Aboriginal people, members of 400 tribes.
Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano explains how the concepts of “race” and “herborization” are connected to the colonial relations of domination that indigenous communities still maintain today. The vanquished and ruled were placed in an herbal position of inferiority.
This social scheme placed Aboriginal communities at the back of the social ladder. The colonial era might seem to be over, but Aboriginal communities continue to seek popularity in a “horizontal society” in which relationships can be shaped on an equivalent basis.
In the context of Covid-19, indigenous communities are located with limited access to care and prevention of fitness. José Luis Caal, allocation coordinator of Congcoop, a platform of civil society organizations in Guatemala, explains how the Covid-19 pandemic has generated a crisis of aptitude, economic and cultural, where indigenous peoples are one of the greatest affected, due to the inequalities in which they live. “The crisis has only highlighted the violation of rights suffered, especially women, who have faced a huge workload as they are the main caregivers in the circle of family and community,” Array Caal said.
The lack of good enough fitness services, economic subsidies and food support, as well as the continuation of extractive activities and the expansion of the agricultural border in many places, have had a significant effect on indigenous peoples. threat of contagion, Caal says, without hearing his claims and court cases.
In reaction to the fitness crisis in Guatemala and around the world, a number of policies, projects and subsidies are being implemented to alleviate the pandemic-in-crisis economic crisis; however, the government has not reached rural and Aboriginal communities. communities have taken this factor and many others into their own hands.
They often organize face-to-face studies and use an inclusive, ethnological and participatory approach. They do not teach or import a concept of progression; exchange and inform Aboriginal communities, in this way, for more than 50 years, civil society organizations in Peru have contributed to the advancement of the social sciences and influenced government policies, making indigenous voices heard.
“The first thing that wants to be understood and valued are the concepts of indigenous communities around nature and its environment.
This is essential to respect their rights and, above all, to ensure that policies do not alter their livelihoods. We believe that the Western vision is “natural”, hence its concepts of family, property, land and its relationship with nature. are trivialized,” explains Pina Huaman of Peru’s ANC platform.
Education, the kind of wisdom that is absorbed, is a precedent for indigenous communities in Latin America. Guatemala, for example, has 22 Mayan languages, but indigenous youth locate educational resources in their local language.
Guatemala’s Congcoop platform, with Forus International’s, this year introduced a virtual educational center to be offering its members, especially indigenous youth, a “localized” experience that the country’s new leaders will make.
For indigenous peoples around the world, the way forward is to respect their existence, language and culture.
We will have to make a meaningful exchange and build bridges of solidarity instead of walls of ignorance.
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