Summary 2012 Important Changes

IndigeNews      Indigenous News about / by / for Indigenous peoples of North America
Dec 20, 12:16 pm
From: IndigeNews
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:16:20 -0800 (PST) Local: Thurs, Dec 20 2012 12:16 pm
Subject: Summary 2012 - Important Changes

Kwe

There have been a number of changes in 2012 that will probably cause our group at googlegroups to lapse.

Our site at multiply http://indigenews.multiply.com will soon be no more as multiply is no longer offering a service we can use.

The twitter feed http://www.twitter.com/indigenews is discontinued as there no longer is anyone to maintain the service.

All our archives and two forums hosted by http://www.kisikew.org/ have entirely disappeared from the web. Although there was a committment made by Simon L'nu now known as Eric Cote, the admin of Kisikew.Org, to host IndigeNews and as well the Reclamation archive from the Six Nations Land Reclamation until 2014, on 8 Dec 2012 he removed the server and the harddrive containing all the archives (2006 - 2012) from the place it was formerly located, and leaving no contact or forwarding address nor explanation as to why this was done, took them to an undisclosed location, thus breaking a committment made in 2008 to continue the "reclam" forum and archives.

There are some scattered back-up archives here and there on the web, most are not currently available to the public, and it would take about two years work to rearchive them in a coherent fashion. Ironically, that is a task which did take about two years to complete that had just been completed by Archivist on the http://reclamation.kisikew.org/forum/ when the archives completely disappeared from the web.

Also ironic is that one of the supporters of Six Nations Land Reclamation, formerly known as ~Simon Raven~ (Eric Cote) is the one responsible for the disappearance of the archive.

The back-up forum for the ReclamationInfo forum at aceboard is no more.

The back-up forum for the ReclamationInfo forum at proboards is still in operation:

http://reclamationinfo.proboards.com/

IndigeNews once appeared in several locations, the main location being the subdomain at http://indigenews.kisikew.org ; it is one of many subdomains that have simply disappeared.

Some archives are hosted at various places around the web. The current mailing list is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indigenous-news/

To be sure it will always be AlterNative not mainstream media that will give voice to the Indigenous people. And as always we say "Stand Up for your Rights, Don't Give Up the Fight!" Indigenous voices will not be silenced or censored anymore. By anyone.

Stay tuned to Idle No More for the Indigenous Rights Revolution!

Thank you, Wela'lin, for reading this.

Moderator (still in the canoe)
IndigeNews

Posted to IndigeNews at googlegroups.com
(edited for  this blog)

What is Abya Yala?

The OCCIDENTAL (WESTERN) HEMISPHERE

i.e. the half of the earth comprising North America, Central America, and South America, is known as

Abya Yala

Abya Yala, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abya Yala is the name chosen by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas in 1992
to replace the name of the North and South American continents.

The expression, which in the Kuna language means "land in its full maturity",
is used by the Kuna to refer to the continents.

The Aymara leader Takir Mamani argues for the use of the term "Abya Yala" in the official declarations of indigenous peoples' governing bodies, saying that "placing foreign names on our villages, our cities, and our continents
is equivalent to subjecting our identity to the will of our invaders and their heirs."

Indigenous Sovereignty Week 2009

Indigenous Sovereignty Week builds community-based resistance
By Greg Macdougall | October 26, 2009

In November of last year, Indigenous activists and allies from across Canada came together in Winnipeg to form Defenders of the Land, a network of Indigenous communities and activists in land struggle across Canada.

Out of this network came a call for a pan-Canadian event, Indigenous Sovereignty Week, which is now upon us. Close to 30 cities and communities across Canada (and even a few in the United States) will be holding public events from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1.

The purpose of this week is to build local relationships between groups and individuals, disseminate ideas and generally contribute to building a cross-Canada movement for Indigenous rights, self-determination, and justice that is led by Indigenous communities but with a broad base of informed support.

Activities throughout the week include: speakers, panels, workshops, films, community tours, feasts, and performance art, music, and spoken word. A wide range of issues will be covered, but relate to four main themes: Struggles for Indigenous rights and self-determination; Indigenous knowledge, culture and identity; Indigenous peoples and the environment; history of Indigenous-Canadian relations.

Arthur Manuel is an Indigenous activist who will be part of the ISW speakers tour, visiting different communities on different days to help educate people and spread the word.

Manuel is from the Neskonlith Indian Band of the Secwepemc Nation (in British Columbia), and is leader of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, which works with people on the community level and also internationally towards recognition of Aboriginal title and treaty rights.

Having been in the struggle his entire life and generations before (he's the son of George Manuel, one of the first presidents of the National Indian Brotherhood, which later became the Assembly of First Nations), Manuel has become involved with Defenders of the Land and Indigenous Sovereignty Week because he sees the importance of activists standing up to the government and educating the public, "I believe that establishment Indian organizations, [through] the courts and all that, we've actually pushed the system as much as we can through establishment mechanisms."

Manuel adds, "We've won the past 20 years: constitutionally, judicially, internationally [United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- UNDRIP], economically [WTO ruling on Aboriginal title and treaty rights], but we haven't been able to get recognition on the ground" on issues such as mining, the tar sands, and the development of ski resorts.

Manuel feels that community-based resistance is what is needed, "That's where the real pressure is, for pushing the government -- through action." For examples of effective action, he cites the examples of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwg (KI) protests (in Northern Ontario) against platinum drilling (which led to jail time for six KI leaders and then an overturning of their sentences) and also the resistance to the Sun Peaks Ski Resort in Secwepemc Territory, just outside of Kamloops, B.C.

He also emphasizes education and outreach, and stresses the position of the Canadian government in not signing the UNDRIP nor respecting Aboriginal rights:

"The real question is, 'do Canadians really accept what Canada is doing? They're undermining Canadians' credibility regarding human rights. You can't cherry pick: if you believe in human rights, you believe in them across the board. Accepting the UNDRIP is a question of maturity: are we a mature country of settlers and Indigenous people sitting down to deal with these issues?"

Arthur Manuel has a clear idea of where real change with respect to Indigenous rights is going to come from.

"The real people who are going to raise those questions are activists. Establishment organizations are not being taken seriously because they literally are taking too much [political] money from the government."

Greg Macdougall is active in Ottawa with IPSMO (Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa). He is also a member of Common Cause, the provincial anarchist organization and runs the EquitableEducation.ca project.

Source: rabble.ca/news/2009/10/indigenous-sovereignty-week-builds-community-based-resistance