STRUGGLE CONTINUES: The 15th Protecting Mother Earth Gathering a Huge Success
By Aaron Mercredi
From July 17th to 20th, the Indigenous Environmental
Network held its 15th ‘Protecting
Mother Earth’ Conference. This
year the theme was, ‘Answering Mother
Earth’s Call for Healing—Reaffirming
Our Roots.’ Hosted by the Western Shoshone
Defense Project, the conference and
gathering took place on Western Shoshone
territory in Newe Sogobe, in the Northern
part of the state of Nevada. Over 300 delegates
and participants, from Indigenous
nations across North and South America,
and groups from Europe took part in the
discussions of energy and climate change,
ecological destruction, protection of sacred
sites, and the ongoing fight for Indigenous
sovereignty.
The struggle against resource extraction
industries in Indigenous communities was
one of the main topics throughout the conference.
Many participants
drew on their experience
coming from Indigenous
communities impacted by
this threat, and their campaigns
against it. The case of
the KI First Nation in Northern
Ontario was presented.
Six community leaders from
KI were arrested and jailed
simply for defending their
people from a violation of
their inherent rights to their
land, as well as environmental
devastation to their
territory by Platinex, an
exploration company. The
ongoing fight against the destructive and
poisonous tar sands extraction in Northern
Alberta was also presented. Since the tar
sands project started, Dene, Cree, and Metis
people who normally live off the land,
are dealing with some of the rarest forms of
cancer in their communities.
Throughout the US, it is the same story.
The same companies that have created environmental
havoc and devastated Indigenous
communities with the tar sands, have
proposed to build refineries for the oil extracted
from those tar sands on Indigenous
lands in North and South Dakota. While
the conference was taking place, the Western
Shoshone were still facing the threat of
their land being further plundered by mining
companies. For many years, the Western
Shoshone Defense Project has been
struggling against companies like Barrick
and Newmont, who have been violating
their treaty rights, desecrating sacred sites,
and ruining their land. The conference
opened up a space for people leading these
struggles to share their experience.
The 15th ‘Protecting Mother Earth’ Conference
was a great success in bringing
people in struggle for Indigenous rights
and environmental justice together. This
meant sharing lessons they’ve learned, to
find common struggles and unite to build a
stronger international movement for Indigenous
rights.
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