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News
Street Roots • July 29-August 4, 2016
Street Roots • July 29-August 4, 2016
News
"Indigenous peoples are the frontline of the environmental movement. It is imperative that we start recognizing this
JOHN A H N I SCHERTOW, EptTOR
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TE RCO NTIN ENTAL C R Y M A G A Z IN E
A spotlight on indigenous resistance
BY STEPHEN QUIRKE
STAFF W R ITER
n June 30, Carol Linnitt of the online
news magazine DeSmog Canada
reported that a controversial crude oil
pipeline had just been defeated in
British Columbia,
writing “Enbridge
Northern Gateway:
‘First Nations Save Us
Again.’”
Linnitt’s
observations on First
Nations apply with
equal force south of
the border:
“That these unique
traditional cultures
and ways of life have
survived the onslaught
of Western, industrial,
imperial and racist
governments and
policies in this province is extraordinary.
“That these communities, these
individuals, have preserved a cherished,
land-based way of life that seems in part the
antidote to the poisonous, destructive and
extractive impulse of modernity — all while
fighting precedent-setting court cases to
maintain their right to that life — is
extraordinary.”
And the victories of these land-based
communities do not end with the Northern
Gateway pipeline.
A proposal for the largest coal export
terminal in the U.S. was soundly defeated by
the Lummi Nation in May. The Columbia
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission stopped
another proposed coal export terminal in
Boardman, Ore., in 2014. In 2013, the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla stopped
massive tar sands “megaload” trucks from
crossing their territory en route to mine the
Alberta tar sands - the most destructive
industrial project on Earth. And since June,
the Yakama Nation has led a local response
to the fiery oil train derailment in Mosier,
Ore.; in a June 9 news conference, Chairman
JoDe Goudy called for a moratorium on all
fossil fuel shipments in the Columbia River
Gorge.
Combine all that with their decades-long
fight to protect and restore salmon habitat,
and it quickly becomes clear that the
original peoples of the Northwest have
always fought hard to protect it. This same
dynamic holds true across the globe:
indigenous nations everywhere are on the
front lines of struggles to protect the
environment, constantly facing down threats
to their food and water, even when their
lives are being threatened.
Many of these struggles go unseen by
urban populations in the First World. But
some are working tirelessly to change th at
John Ahni Schertow is a Two-Spirit of
Haudenosáunee and European descent Two
O
Spirit is the term used to describe mix-
gender members of indigenous North
American communities. Twelve years ago,
Schertow founded Intercontinental Cry, or
IC, as a website to share information on
indigenous struggles across the globe.
Today, the independent
investigative news
magazine boasts almost
30,000 regular online
followers, a print
magazine edition, and a
sponsorship from the
Center for World
Indigenous Studies.
In 2012, IC published a
piece by Kahnawake-
based Mohawk writer
Russell Diabo that helped
launch the Idle No More
movement Its recent
coverage has included
logging blockades in
southern Oregon’s Klamath territory and
environmental stewards than states and
corporations, a point that’s made evident by
the fact that indigenous peoples are
currently protecting 95 percent of the
world’s most threatened biodiversity. She
also argued - and rightly so - that
indigenous rights are more
effective at protecting the
environment than any
environmental policies and laws
that states push forward. On top
of that, indigenous peoples are
much stronger politically than
non-governmental organizations.
They can protect their rights far
better than any NGO, even if that
nation’s land rights aren’t
officially recognized.
in d ig e n o u s w o m e n fig h tin g fra c k in g in
J.S.t WitKont cvuestioTY. And tViat’s whey
the concept of bio-cultural rights is finally
starting to get some serious attention. Right
now we tend to look at indigenous rights as
lesser-human rights. They’re individual
objects in a controlled political landscape
that, like human rights, states can push,
pull, erase, ignore, and turn inside out to
suit their agendas. However, bio-cultural
rights are an ecosystem of rights that ties
indigenous cultures, identities, languages
and subsistence economies—indigenous
rights - to the very lands that all indigenous
nations depend on. In this framework, you
can’t remove or erase any one right because
it would have a cascade effect that could
even cause that ecosystem to collapse. This
is why so many indigenous nations oppose
resource extraction. As the old saying goes,
without the land there is no people; when
the people suffer, that land also suffers; and
when the people-thrive, the land thrives
with them. Incidentally, this is also why so
many mining companies are forced to call
off their government-sanctioned resource
raids. The ecosystem collapse we’re talking
about here is tantamount to genocide.
Indigenous peoples'
struggles go unseen
by much of the
world. I C Magazine
editor John A hni
Schertow is working
to change that.
S.Q.: Walsh also mentions the
concept of bio-cultural rights, which
IC covered last September. Do you
think this framework can help civil society to
appreciate and safeguard indigenous rights?
Argentina. Altogether, the network covers
the frontline struggles of more than 630
indigenous nations worldwide.
Street Roots contacted chief editor
Schertow to learn about the future of IC,
what stories need to be covered, and how
news organizations can better serve
indigenous nations - now numbering more
than 5,000.
S te p h e n Q uirke: Your journalists often
seem to cover conflict situations. Is this
dangerous work?
J o h n S ch ertow : It’s life and death. When
a journalist enters a conflict zone, they
instantly become a target, and so they have
to be extremely careful on the ground and
on the internet It’s even more risky for our
contributors because we don’t have the
funds to support them. Earlier this year, one
of our writers was raped while out in the
field, and we couldn’t do a thing to support
her.
S.Q.: P om re currently collaborating with the
Indigenous Environmental Network on a
project called Keep It in the Ground. What’s
the goal of this project? How do you approach
this kind o f collaboration?
J.S.: Keep It in the Ground is a pretty
decentralized movement that’s open to
anyone who supports the idea that when the
cost of extraction outweighs the supposed
benefits, the resources need to be left alone.
Our collaboration with IEN focuses on
making sure that the needs, rights and
voices of indigenous peoples who are taking
a stand against extraction aren’t being
completely drowned out by narratives that
non-indigenous groups are pushing forward.
Neither of us have collaborated on a project
like this before, so we’re pretty much
making it up as we go along, telling stories'
C O U R T E S Y P H O T O BY A G U S T ÍN A B A D
A Ngabe woman overlooks the Barro Blanco Dam on the Tabasara River in Panama. The hydropower project will submerge the indigenous Ngabe-Bugle Peoples’ land under a reservoir.
that need to be told, filling in holes that
other media outlets don’t notice, and making
videos so we can to ensure that the public
gets the full picture.
S.Q.: How would you evaluate global efforts
to address climate change? Are we making
headway?
J.S.: It really depends on what you mean
by “we.” REDD, (Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Degradation) the carbon
market mechanism that the U.N. is pushing
forward, is completely useless. In point of
fact, it’s a Ponzi scheme that states,
corporations, investment banks and U.N.-
recognized nonprofits are using to make
some serious coin at the expense of
indigenous rights and the environment In
Panama, for example, the Honduran
company Genisa is being awarded a bunch
of “carbon credits” for constructing a new
hydro-dam on the Tabasara River, within the
traditional territory of the Ngabe-Bugle
Peoples. The Ngabe are literally being
drowned out of their land; they’re losing
everything so that some other company can
“spend” those carbon credits. And for what?
It’s well known that hydro-dams drive , .<.:
climate change and cause excessive levels of
methylmercury to collect in the flood area,
which is a huge threat to the entire region.
In other words, they’re making climate
change worse. There’s a good documentary
called “The Carbon Rush” that looks closer
at this.
Global civil society is doing what it can to
mitigate this abusive exploitation of climate
change - and locally, there are a lot of
fantastic projects led by eco-villages and by
indigenous communities that aim to be
carbon neutral and carbon negative. Some
states like Germany are also making great
strides to get away from the fossil fuel
industry, the single greatest climate change
driver, but it’s one step forward, five steps
back at this point, especially now that so
many big NGOs are compromising
themselves to collaborate with states and
corporations.
S.Q.: How do you see the role o f indigenous
nations in stabilizing the climate and winding
down resource extraction?
J.S.: Indigenous nations are primary
stakeholders in every sense. Even though
they contribute the least to climate change,
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they are being hit the hardest by it. Many
coastal communities are already being
displaced because of rising ocean levels.
More inland rivers and lakes'are
disappearing, fish populations are dying off,
and weather patterns are gradually
becoming more extreme. It’s the same thing
with resource extraction. Indigenous lands,
cultures and economies are being
obliterated. And what do they get out of it?
A few short-term jobs, a new sportsplex, and
10,000 years of pollution.
But beyond these impacts lies the fact
that indigenous peoples are a political
powerhouse that states and corporations
can’t conquer, even at the point of a gun.
Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia
learned that the hard way in 2009 when he
tried to push through legislation that wotild
open up legally protected indigenous lands
to industry. More than 2,000 indigenous
communities organized a “minga,” a
permanent collective mobilization for the
greater good. When all was said and done,
the offending laws were tossed out and
Garcia retired in disgrace. That’s just one
among thousands of other environmental
wins that were only possible because ,, ,
indigenous peoples were front and center.
Indigenous peoples are the frontline of the
environmental movement. It is imperative
that we start recognizing this.
S.Q.: Have states been willing to take
leadership from indigenous nations? Are there
any success stories here?
J.S.: Not on the international level.
Indigenous nations are being completely
ignored, unless, like many NGOs, they’re
willing to go along with the interests of
states and corporations. But on the state
level, there are some positive moves. The
U.S. government, for example, worked with
the Lower Elwha Klallam Nation to remove
hydro-dams on their ancestral territory, and
there are a lot of new tribal parks popping
up in Canada and Australia. It’s a good start,
but we really need more moves like this.
S.Q.: This past fune, you published a story
from Elizabeth Walsh titled “To Combat
Climate Change, Restore Land Ownership to
Indigenous Peoples. ” Can you briefly
summarize her argument for our readers?
J.S.: Elizabeth’s central point was that
indigenous peoples are, by and large, better
S.Q.: K> m W recently called on media outlets
to use “triage” in choosing stories so that our
most vulnerable populations are not ignored
while editors pursue entertainment stories.
Why is this important? How does IC engage in
this process?
J.S.: Great question. When we get right
down to it, a lot of us take journalism for
granted. For many journalists, for example,
it’s just a job or a weekend hobby. And we
don’t really have any guidelines or any
regard for priorities when it comes to the
stories we choose to take on. We’re driven
by passions and paychecks. And for a variety
of different reasons, that driving force never
seems to include indigenous peoples like
the Ngabe, who are struggling for their
lives. Editors don’t usually care either. They
would rather cover Trump or anything else
that’s trending so they can build their
readership or generate more ad revenue.
It’s embarrassing and shameful to me.
Hobby or no, journalists are
public servants who have a
direct impact on the places,
the events and the people
they cover in their stories.
For that reason, I believe we
have an ethical responsibility
to tell the stories that need to
be told, regardless of our
opinions and preferences. IC
operates on this principle.
Before we take something on,
we consider how many times
the story has been covered
and what the quality of that
coverage is. We investigate
whether or not there is a threat - and if
there is, we explore the depth of that threat
a n d h o w we might be able to support the
best possible outcome. We break it all down,
and if in the end we find a space to
contribute something meaningful and
authentic, we get to work.
S.Q.: Are indigenous peoples harmed by a
lack o f fa ir media coverage?
J.S.: To be blunt, yes. As the old saying
goes, “Silence equals consent.” By failing to
cover the abuses that indigenous peoples
face, the media is lending support to the
perpetrators behind those abuses. They’re
also preventing indigenous peoples from
developing a capacity to effectively organize
around threats, and they’re obstructing our
right to know about those threats. If that’s
not bad enough, the media’s negligence
perpetuates prevailing stereotypes
surrounding indigenous peoples, especially
given the amount of racism that editors
push out online and in print.
S.Q.: What can be done to resolve this?
J.S.: There’s no easy solution to this
unfortunately. I mean, we could physically
occupy the media - including alternative
media - until they agree to a set of terms
that could include, for example, a “minimum
coverage standard,” but beyond that, we
really just have to start demanding better of
our favorite news outlets. We also need to
start leading by example, which is exactly
what we’re trying to do through IC
Magazine.
S.Q.: According to Global Witness, 2015
was the deadliest year on record for
environmental defenders. How does IC bring
attention to this violence? What is driving it?
J.S.: You might say that we’re in the
middle of a psychotic fire sale. Everything
See INDIGENOUS, page 11