Revealed: Brazil goldminers carve illegal ‘Road to Chaos’ out of Amazon reserve

The ‘Road to Chaos’ runs through the Yanomami territory in the Amazon. 

Photograph: Valentina Ricardo

Aerial photos from reconnaissance mission reveal effort to smuggle excavators into Brazil’s largest Indigenous territory

Tom Phillips over the Yanomami Indigenous territory

Mon 12 Dec 2022 

The surveillance plane eased off the runway and banked west towards the frontline of one of Brazil’s most dramatic environmental and humanitarian crises.

Its objective: a clandestine 120km (75-mile) road that illegal mining mafias have carved out of the jungles of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territory in recent months, in an audacious attempt to smuggle excavators into those supposedly protected lands.

“I call it the Road to Chaos,” said Danicley de Aguiar, the Greenpeace environmentalist leading the reconnaissance mission over the immense Indigenous sanctuary near the Brazilian border with Venezuela.
Activists believe excavators are operating within a huge Indigenous sanctuary in northern Brazil.

Aguiar said such heavy machinery had never before been detected in the Yanomami territory – a Portugal-sized sweep of mountains, rivers and forests in the extreme north of Brazil’s Amazon.

“We believe there are at least four excavators in there – and that takes mining in Yanomami territory to the next level, to a colossal level of destruction,” the senior forest campaigner said, as his team prepared to take to the skies to confirm the road’s existence.

The plane’s cabin filled with excited chatter an hour into the flight, as the first glimpses of the clandestine artery came into view.

Picture from a reconnaissance mission over an immense Indigenous sanctuary near the Brazilian border with Venezuela. Photograph: Valentina Ricardo

“We found it, people!” the navigator celebrated, while the pilot performed a series of stomach-churning manoeuvres over the canopy to get a clearer view of the dirt track.

“That’s the Road to Chaos,” Aguiar announced through the plane’s internal communication system.

“And this is the chaos,” he added, pointing to a gaping hole in the rainforest where three yellow excavators had clawed a goldmine out of the banks of the coffee-coloured Catrimani River.


Brazil aerial photos show miners’ devastation of indigenous people’s land

In a nearby clearing, a fourth digger could be seen wrecking a territory home to about 27,000 members of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana peoples, including several communities that do not have contact with the outside world. Worryingly, one of those isolated villages is just 10 miles away from the illegal road, Aguiar said.

Sônia Guajajara, a prominent Indigenous leader who was also on the plane, suspected the criminals had benefited from Brazil’s recent presidential election to sneak their equipment deep into Yanomami lands. “Everyone was focused on other things, and they took advantage,” Guajajara said.

The arrival of excavators – witnessed for the first time by journalists from the Guardian and Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo – is the latest chapter in a half-century assault by powerful and politically connected mining gangs.

Miners are devastating Yanomami territory in the Amazon. 

Photograph: Valentina Ricardo

Wildcat prospectors known as garimpeiros began flocking to Yanomami land in search of tin ore and gold in the 1970s and 80s, after the military dictatorship urged poor Brazilians to occupy a region it called “a land without men for men without land”.

Huge fortunes were made – and often lost. But for the Yanomami it was a catastrophe. Lives and traditions were upended. Villages were decimated by influenza and measles epidemics. About 20% of the tribe died in just seven years, according to the rights group Survival International.

A global outcry saw tens of thousands of miners evicted in the early 1990s as part of a security operation called Selva Livre (Jungle Liberation). Under international pressure, Brazil’s then president, Fernando Collor de Mello, created a 9.6m-hectare reserve. “We have to guarantee the Yanomami a space so they don’t lose their cultural identity or their habitat,” Mello said.


'Like a bomb going off': why Brazil's largest reserve is facing destruction

Those efforts initially succeeded but by the next decade the garimpeiros were back due to soaring gold prices, lax enforcement and grinding poverty that ensured mining bosses a constant supply of exploitable workers.

The assault intensified after Jair Bolsonaro – a far-right populist who wants Indigenous lands opened to commercial development – was elected president in 2018, with the number of wildcat miners on Yanomami land reaching an estimated 25,000.

“It was a government of blood,” said Júnior Hekurari Yanomami, a Yanomami leader who blamed Bolsonaro for emboldening the invaders with his anti-Indigenous rhetoric and for crippling Brazil’s environmental and Indigenous protection agencies.

When Guardian journalist Dom Phillips, who was murdered in the Amazon last June, visited a mine in the Yanomami territory in late 2019, he found “a hand-operated industrial hell amid the wild tropical beauty”: mud-caked miners using wooden scaffolding and high-pressure hoses to blast their way through the earth.

“It’s astonishing. You’re in the lap of this great forest and it’s almost as if you’re in one those old films about ancient Egypt … All those monstrous machines destroying the earth to make money,” said the photographer João Laet who travelled there with the British reporter.

Three years later, the situation has deteriorated further with the arrival of hydraulic excavators and the illegal road.

Illegal goldmining picked up under Brazil’s outgoing far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. 

Photograph: Valentina Ricardo /Valentina Ricardo

Alisson Marugal, a federal prosecutor tasked with protecting Yanomami lands, said the introduction of such machinery was a troubling development for communities already facing an acute “humanitarian tragedy”.

Miners, some with suspected ties to drug factions, had brought sexual violence, malaria outbreaks and forced health posts to close, exposing children to “scandalous” levels of disease and malnutrition. Rivers were being poisoned with mercury by an illegal fleet of about 150 mining vessels.

Marugal said Brazil’s underfunded environmental agency Ibama launched sporadic crackdowns, blowing up and torching illegal airstrips, helicopters and planes used to reach the territory. But the intermittence of such missions – and the huge economic rewards involved – meant they were only a temporary inconvenience.


'We have the worst record in the world': the deadly business of Brazil's bush pilots

Bush pilots could receive up to 1,000,000 reais (£160,000) for a few, perilous months ferrying prospectors, supplies and sex workers to remote jungle camps. For their bosses, the profits were greater still.

Brazil’s incoming president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has pledged to put the garimpeiros out of business and slash deforestation, which has soared under Bolsonaro.

“Both Brazil and the planet need the Amazon alive,” Lula said in his first speech after narrowly defeating his rival in October’s election.

Marugal believed stopping illegal mining on Yanomami land was perfectly possible if there was political will, which was something entirely lacking under Bolsonaro. In fact, Ibama already had a plan involving a relentless, six-month offensive that would have cut off the miners’ supply lines and force them to flee the forest by starving them of fuel and food.

Aguiar argued a militarized crackdown would not succeed in the long term unless it was accompanied by policies attacking the hardship on which environmental crime was built.

“This isn’t going to be fixed just with rifles,” said the campaigner. “Overcoming poverty is an essential part of overcoming this economy of destruction.”

03:59 Bolsonaro's war on the Amazon: examining evidence of crimes against Indigenous people– video

Hekurari Yanomami also hopes for a large-scale federal intervention when the new government takes power in January, but warns that defeating the garimpeiros will not be easy.

“These miners don’t just carry spades and axes … They have rifles and submachine guns … They are armed and all of [their] bases have heavily armed security guards with the same kind of weapons that the army, the federal police and the military police use,” he said.

The price of inaction would be obliteration for a people who have inhabited the rainforest for thousands of years.

“If nothing is done we’ll lose this Indigenous land,” Marugal said. “For the Yanomami, the outlook is grim.”

Elon Musk’s archaic management style prioritizes profit over people

THE CONVERSATION
Published: December 12, 2022 

Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has been rocky, to say the least. Since taking over the company on Oct. 28, Musk has made a number of changes to the platform, resulting in widespread chaos and turmoil within the company.

Within days of taking over Twitter’s operations, Musk fired top executives and half of the company’s 7,500 employees, ignored advice to not disproportionately fire employees representing diversity and inclusion and has likely violated employment labour laws and breached employee contracts.

Then on Nov. 16, Musk sent an email to remaining workers with an ultimatum: commit to being “extremely hardcore” or leave the company. The letter continued: “This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.” Some workers reportedly ended up sleeping in their offices.



None of this is new for Musk. He already had a history of dismissing executives on a whim and committing mass layoffs at Tesla.


Musk’s cold, impersonal approach to management and leadership is antithetical to what we have learned about kinder, more humanistic approaches to work. Management approaches like Musk’s threaten current business management practices that advocate for healthy, happy and engaged workplaces.

Cogs in a machine

Musk adheres to a mechanistic style of management that treats employees like cogs in a machine, rather than human beings. It’s a well-meaning, but naive indulgence that sacrifices employee well-being for the sake of profit.

The idea of workers being an inert, programmable tool of production has been around for at least a century. One of the earliest proponents of management theory was American engineer Frederick Taylor, who published the landmark text The Principles of Scientific Management in 1910. In it, Taylor wrote:

“In the past man has been first. In the future the system must be first…In our scheme, we do not ask for the initiative of our men. We do not want any initiative. All we want of them is to obey the orders we give them, do what we say, and do it quick.”

To Taylor’s credit, the practical application of mechanistic management did result in significant increases in productivity and the economic performance of enterprises. The “people are just machines” approach, however, has a number of shortcomings.

The spread of mechanistic ideas led to employee exploitation, increased staff turnover, conflicts between management and workers and — contrary to supporters of the mechanistic approach — did not lead to the desired harmony and cooperation in enterprises.

This is largely due to the fact that the human factor was given a secondary role to machinery and equipment. This meant that the means of production were valued more than the emotional state of employees. As it turns out, workers are indeed emotional, sentient beings with minds of their own. They are better at their jobs when they are treated as such.

This approach didn’t go unchallenged at the time, however. The rise of mechanistic management resulted in a major backlash from the widespread North American unionization movement.

Twitter’s workforce has been cut in half since Musk’s takeover. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Human-centric work

The humanistic approach to management arose in response to the pitfalls of mechanistic management. A humanistic approach prioritizes emotionally healthy workplaces, gender equity, respect, anti-harassment, employee engagement, the benefits of intrinsic over extrinsic rewards (feeling good about your work versus making lots of money) and conflict management.

Emotional intelligence, which includes concepts like compassion, empathy, respect and active listening, is also valued in human-centred workplaces. Extensive research on emotional intelligence, including my own, shows that it increases morale, productivity and goal achievement.

Read more: Elon Musk: business leaders should be compassionate – here's the evidence to prove it

The concept of a more humanistic workplace, which is less linear, more organic and prone to evolving than a mechanistic one, has been growing exponentially since the pandemic started. Job dissatisfaction has resulted in employees demanding more human-centric workplaces and standing up for their rights in the workplace.

As business journalist Tom Gibby said in Forbes, employees “are being clear about their needs and wants. If their current employer doesn’t meet those needs, they are finding a new one that does.”

Re-writing workplace relations

It’s clear that Musk’s workplace culture is anything but healthy. The Government of Canada’s Health Human Resource Strategy defines a healthy work environment as the following:

“A work setting that takes a strategic and comprehensive approach to providing the physical, cultural, psychological and work conditions that maximize the health and well being of providers, improves the quality of care and optimizes organizational performance.”

Musk is setting a dangerous precedent for other businesses to follow. If his approach to management proves to be successful for Twitter, it could result in other business leaders following his example.

While it might be tempting to follow in Musk’s footsteps, such a decision would go against years of workplace research that shows the positive correlation between how employees feel at work, their emotional and physical wellness, and an organization’s success.

Following in his muddy and erratic footsteps would also result in resurrecting archaic lessons of Taylorism that treat employees like inanimate objects. If this happens, we will surely see an increase in worker-led organization efforts. The latest pushes for unionization at Amazon and Apple are proof that employees are willing to stand up for their rights if they are not being valued.

Author

Eli Sopow
Associate Professor, MBA Faculty of Leadership & People Management, University Canada West

Young people around the world can save democracy — but they need our help

Published: December 19, 2022 

A photograph recently circulated on social media purportedly showing two Chinese professors in Shanghai standing between a squad of police officers and students protesting the government’s zero-COVID policies.

That morning, when I met my class for the course I teach on political repression, a Chinese student remarked:

“Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Chinese students never dared to demand democracy, respect for human rights, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and freedom of the press. Something new is happening. I wish we had brave adults like the two professors supporting us to fight for democracy and for a better future.”

Where are those brave adults supporting the struggle of young people to revive democracy? How in my professorial role can I support students from repressive regimes who are risking it all to achieve democracy? What kind of support should be offered to young people fighting these battles in 2023 — and well beyond?

Democracy under threat

In every region of the world, liberal democracy is threatened. In 2018, Michael J. Abramowitz, president of the global Freedom House think tank, noted that democracy is in crisis. He wrote:

“Political rights and civil liberties around the world deteriorated to their lowest point in more than a decade in 2017, extending a period characterized by emboldened autocratic, beleaguered democracies, and the United States’ withdrawal from its leadership role in the global struggle for human freedom.”

According to the Swedish research institute V-Dem’s 2022 report, democracies are deteriorating and tilting into dictatorships at the fastest rate in 50 years.

The organization notes that only about 13 per cent of the global population live in liberal democracies, while Freedom House’s approximation is 20 per cent.

Sri Lankan youth shout anti-government slogans during a protest demanding president Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in April 2022. He was later ousted in a popular uprising. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

There are thought to be three phases of democratic decline over the last 100 years. One was in the 1920s, another in the 1960s and now we’re in what some scholars have dubbed “a third wave of autocratization,” arguing:

“Once in power, unscrupulous leaders can sometimes manipulate the political environment to their own benefit, making it more likely that they will be victorious in future contests. By winning those elections, they gain the stamp of democratic legitimacy — even for actions that ultimately undermine democratic norms.”

Authoritarian regimes are subtly entrenching their power domestically and abroad by rejecting popular demands for good governance, adherence to the rule of law, institutional independence, human rights and freedoms.

Some of the nations with veto power at the United Nations, most notably China and Russia, are turning out to be domestic and international aggressors. They violate human rights with impunity because they control global political systems that could otherwise prosecute them.

While for a long time the United States was the beacon of democracy, American democracy is now in danger.

In many countries, democracy is now limited to casting votes in elections that are often rigged. Technology has complicated the political landscape, and is used to fix votes and put civilians under surveillance.

Read more: Russia's rigged elections look nothing like the US election – they have immediate, unquestioned results there

Youth fight for democracy around the world

For centuries, politics and economics have largely been the purview of elite aging men and a few women. These elites have often assumed young people are nonpolitical and incapable of civic and political engagement.

But youth are fighting for democracy around the world, in countries that include China, Russia, Belarus, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, India, Hungary, Turkey, Uganda, Sudan, Iran, Chile, Peru, Palestine, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Tunisia, Kuwait, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States, to name just a few.

Unfortunately, they lack support. The absence is most keenly felt and conspicuous in underdeveloped countries where political regimes use resources and institutional violence via police forces and military to incarcerate, torture and even kill young protesters.

Read more: Iran executes first protester as human rights abuses come under international scrutiny

Nonetheless, by using social media to mobilize nationwide protests, as well as music and dance in some places, young people are resisting state repression and decrying human rights violations.

Young Sudanese demonstrators march in Khartoum, Sudan, in December 2022 to protest a deal signed between the country’s main pro-democracy group and its ruling generals, who seized power in an October 2021 coup. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Supporting the fight for democracy

Democracy has long been regarded as the political system that transformed the world. Today, we urgently need healthy democracies to resolve pressing domestic and global issues, including wars, poverty, food insecurity and climate change.

Nelson Mandela, in his iconic autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, noted how in African democracy, community chiefs listened to everyone until they came to a consensus, unlike some western democracies, where the winners take all.

Today, it’s important to engage in that kind of dialogue with young people around the world to determine appropriate forms of democracy. Any form of governance should be rooted in local cultures.

Young people hold up blank papers and chant slogans as they protest in Beijing in November 2022 against strict measures to contain an outbreak of COVID-19. The blank paper allows protesters to avoid arrest or censorship in state media. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Many youth lack political experience and knowledge. They need to be guided and empowered with civic and political education. But we must also listen to them.

And that’s not all. The tech giants that manipulate their platforms and violate the privacy of their users in ways that help dictators must be regulated.

Read more: Social media regulation: why we must ensure it is democratic and inclusive

Judicial and financial penalties must be imposed on any officials who take their countries backwards and into autocracy, and we must demand a commitment to the rule of law by all nations.

If we don’t support youth’s struggle for democracy, there’s little chance of a peaceful, secure, sustainably developed and environmentally friendly future.

Author

Evelyn Namakula Mayanja
Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University
Disclosure statement
Evelyn Namakula receives funding from SSHRC

How Gen Z is using social media in Iran’s Women, Life, Freedom movement

A woman cuts her hair during a protest against the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini, in Istanbul, Turkey. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

THE CONVERSATION

Published: December 19, 2022 

Iran’s attorney general recently indicated that the country’s morality police had been disbanded after protests calling for the country’s hijab mandate to be lifted. However, the government has not confirmed the attorney general’s remarks and local media have reported that he was “misinterpreted.”

The uncertainty over Iran’s morality police comes after several weeks of protests that started after the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa (Zhina) Amini. Amini died in the custody of the morality police on Sept. 16 after being arrested for allegedly breaching Iran’s mandatory hijab law.

In the first three months of the protests, demonstrations have taken place in almost all of Iran’s 31 provinces. People in 160 cities and 143 universities have taken part in demonstrations against the mandatory hijab laws. Many Iranians living abroad have also taken part in protests.

These protests are part of a long history of women’s rights movements in Iran. But what makes this movement different is how young women are tapping into social media to elevate their own agency and challenge the country’s patriarchal laws.

Women’s rights movements in Iran

Iran has witnessed multiple protests since the 1979 revolution. But the Women, Life, Freedom movement has launched a new generation of young women to the forefront of the movement.

The first wave of women’s rights movements started more than a hundred years ago with the constitutional revolution in Iran. Many clerics and religious figures were opposed to such a change at the time. Although the constitutional revolution aimed to establish legal and social reforms in Iran, conservative elements “frequently made political use of "Islam” to erect obstacles to women’s demands for equity.“

After the Islamic revolution in 1979, many women’s rights, such as the family protection law, secured before the revolution were suspended.

Since April 1983, the mandatory hijab law has been enforced on all women in the public sphere in Iran. The third wave of women’s rights movements started after the 1979 revolution and various campaigns such as "one million signatures” have demanded gender equality in Iran.

Women, Life, Freedom

The latest feminist movement in Iran has changed the equation. Those taking part in the Women, Life, Freedom movement have used social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to amplify their message.

Campaigns like the #GirlsofRevolutionStreet and #WhiteWednesdays are a few examples of hashtags that have been used to mobilize young women on and offline against compulsory hijab laws.

In an authoritarian context where women’s bodies are being policed, social media has empowered young women to express themselves online. They learn they can be influencers and agents of a movement under the slogan Women, Life, Freedom and challenge conservative religious and patriarchal values that have been enforced onto their daily lives through education, media and policing.

Social media became “an antidote to state violence and its suppression of facts.” Protesters are using social media to connect with one another, vocalize their demands, highlight their bravery and civil disobedience tactics and show the government’s brutality.

Baraye by Iranian musician Shervin Hajipour has become one of the anthems of the protest movement in Iran.

Social media has provided a new generation of young Iranians the ability to detach themselves from the patriarchal rules of the government. Generation Z, who have grown up in the social media era, are able to educate themselves on gender equality and engage with global feminist movements online.

This includes learning about the values, beliefs and challenges that women are facing all over the world and the ways these challenges can be highlighted and addressed using online platforms.

The #MeToo movement raised awareness worldwide about the sexual abuse and violence many women continue to face. In Iran, #MeToo was more focused on ending the taboo on talking about sexual assault and violence, and increasing awareness about the issue. The movement started in the country after female journalists shared their experiences of being harassed while on the job. Many other women soon went online to expose the harassment and abuse they had experienced.

Social media has made it easier for Iranians to tap into global feminist movements and enabled feminist activists to tell their own stories. Generation Z, as the progressive leaders of the Women, Life, Freedom movement, are making their demands clear both online and offline and challenging the barriers toward achieving women’s liberty in Iran.

Author

Farinaz Basmechi
Doctoral Student, Feminist and Gender Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa

Disenfranchising Indigenous women: The legacy of coverture in Canada


Legal principles of coverture written into the Indian Act continue to negatively impact the rights of Indigenous women. (Shutterstock)

THE CONVERSATION
Published: December 8, 2022 

The recent controversy surrounding Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s claims of being Indigenous has once again shone a spotlight on the issue of “pretendians” — people who have obtained privileged positions through false claims of indigeneity.

It also points to the way Indigenous women’s identities have been determined by men throughout most of Canada’s history.

In response to the CBC report that cast doubt on Turpel-Lafond’s claims, male-dominated organizations such as the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, the Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Snuneymuxw First Nation came out in support of Turpel-Lafond.

However, the response from Indigenous women has been vastly different. Many prominent Indigenous women do not support Turpel-Lafond’s claim.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is a prominent scholar and former judge. A CBC investigative report raised questions about her Cree ancestry. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Women like Cindy Blackstock, who has worked with the community claimed by Turpel-Lafond. Vice-Chief Aly Bear from the Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations retracted her support after evidence came to light. Native Studies professor Kim Tallbear said she no longer believes Turpel-Lafond is Indigenous. And the Indigenous Women’s Collective is calling for the revocation of her honorary degrees.

To understand these differing responses we need to go back to the gender discrimination of the Indian Act.

What is coverture?

Since its implementation in 1876, the act created a system where Indian men were the focal point for determining Indian status. The justification for placing Indigenous men in this role was the British doctrine of coverture.

Much has been said about the legal fictions that formed the foundation of colonialism, like the doctrine of discovery and terra nullius. However, coverture and the resulting entrenchment of patriarchy within Indigenous communities does not get as much attention.

With coverture, a married woman is not viewed as a separate legal entity from her husband. This doctrine, developed in England, was brought to Canada with colonization and was used to prevent women from being recognized as persons, holding property, testifying against her husband, voting or passing on Indian status to their spouses or children.

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Coverture was a legal doctrine in English common law which held that a married woman had no legal identity separate from her husband. (Shutterstock)

Coverture in the Indian Act

While coverture ended in England in the 19th century, and was gradually eroded in mainstream Canadian society, it remained embedded in the status provisions of the Indian Act.

When the Indian Act was first passed in 1876, people who qualified for Indian status were those who were:An Indian male.

Children of an Indian male.

A woman married to an Indian male.

This meant that a European woman who married an Indian man could gain Indian status, as would any children she bore while married to him. However, an Indian woman who married a European man lost her status and she and her children were viewed as white. This change in status meant many Indigenous women were forced off reserves and away from their communities.

The inability of Indigenous women to keep their status after marriage only ended after decades of legal struggles by women like Sandra Lovelace Nicholas, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Yvonne Bedard and Sharon McIvor.

The passing of Bill C-31 in 1985 enabled Indigenous women to regain their Indian status and keep it upon marriage to a non-Indigenous man. But they were still not able to pass full status on to their children the way that Indigenous men could.

Today, their descendants are still being discriminated against. Unlike Indigenous men, Indigenous women have never been able to pass Indian status to their spouses.

In 2017, Lynn Gehl, who is Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe, won a case before the Federal Court of Appeal after struggling for years to be registered under the Indian Act. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel

Struggle for equality

While Indigenous women were fighting for equality in status under the Indian Act, advancements towards self-governance were being made with the inclusion of Aboriginal rights in the Constitution. However, male-dominated organizations such as the National Indian Brotherhood, the precursor to the Assembly of First Nations, took the lead in constitutional amendments, to the exclusion of Indigenous women.

Discrimination continued through backlash and fear that Indian women who might want to return home would place strain on limited resources. Many First Nations established criteria that prevented the women and their descendants from becoming full members in their communities, entitled to the same benefits and privileges that Indigenous men and their descendants have always had.

This has led to disadvantage and extreme hardship, as outlined in the report of the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

People gather on Parliament Hill for the National Day of Awareness for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls on Oct. 4, 2022. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Indigenous women and their supporters have proposed changes to the Indian Act that would neutralize the legacy of coverture by making all Indians equal. These changes did not receive sufficient support to be implemented. There has been no national campaign to allow spouses of Indigenous people to gain status under the Indian Act.

These types of issues, which are central to the advancement of self-government should be decided by nations with the full participation of Indigenous women. Instead, self-governance work often progresses without addressing the history of gender discrimination.

Discussions about the source of Indigenous identity must take place with the full involvement of Indigenous women. The history of coverture and unresolved gender discrimination must be considered when considering false claims of indigeneity. In academia, those making the false claims tend to be female, and it is Indigenous women who they are displacing.

Author

Cheryl Simon
Assistant Professor in Aboriginal and Indigenous Law, Dalhousie University

Plan to protect 30% of Earth divides and inspires at Cop15

The target is dominating at the biodiversity summit, but the problem of finding a balance between Indigenous peoples’ rights and conservation remains unresolved

Members of the Indigenous community take part in a march for biodiversity for human rights at Cop15 in Montreal, Canada on 10 December. 

Photograph: Alexis Aubin/AFP/Getty Images

Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield

Mon 12 Dec 2022 

Just as the climate conference focuses on 1.5C, the UN biodiversity conference appears to have found its north star – protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030. From the moment delegates landed at Montréal-Trudeau airport, adverts at the baggage carousel were frank about Canada’s aims for Cop15: achieving 30x30, the tagline for the proposal. The perceived success of the overall conference hangs on this single target, say those who support it.


Making sense of Cop15: what to look out for in Montreal

The science is clear that humanity must better protect key parts of the planet. The destruction of forests and other vital ecosystems must stop by 2030 if the world is to meet 1.5C, according to the IPCC. But 30x30 is actually just one of more than 20 targets being agreed at the Cop15 biodiversity conference in Montreal, and it also happens to be one of the most divisive issues on the agenda. Everyone at the summit has an opinion about the most high-profile target and what it should mean: for some it is not ambitious enough, for others it is impossible to enforce, but the main criticism is that area-based conservation violates human rights.

This is because of associations of “fortress conservation”, where people who had been stewards of natural spaces for thousands of years were removed from protected areas. Since the 19th century, this has resulted in human rights abuses and millions of people being displaced from their homelands.

There are very, very painful stories of how Indigenous peoples’ rights have been violated

The language around Indigenous peoples at Cop15 is positive, with a focus on “rights-based conservation”, which means Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) are seen as protectors of land. This is supported by science – so even if someone disregarded human rights, it is the most effective way of protecting the planet. Indigenous peoples make up around 5% of the world’s population but they protect 80% of its remaining biodiversity.

In the current draft of the text, which will be completed at the end of the conference over the weekend of 17 December, the exact role of IPLCs when it comes to 30x30 is still being contested. Many are cautious – and these are the people who have the most to lose.

A sign barring entrance to the conservation area of the Masungi Georeserve in the Philippines. Photograph: Jes Aznar/Getty Images

“There are very, very painful stories of how Indigenous peoples’ rights have been violated, how they have been killed, taken out of their territory and caused to become extinct because of the expansion or the establishment of protected areas,” says Jennifer Corpuz, who is part of the Kankana-ey Igorot people in the northern part of the Philippines. She represents the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity.

Corpuz is keen to start a new chapter, and supports the 30x30 target. “We are here as Indigenous peoples to send the message that we cannot achieve ambitious conservation targets without fully reflecting and respecting and protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples … We cannot achieve 30x30 without Indigenous peoples, I cannot overstress it,” she said.

But others question the mentality of those trying to enforce it – even if it looks good on paper. Lakpa Nuri Sherpa, who is from Nepal, and represents the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, questioned whether the “top-down” approach associated with 30x30 would work unless those implementing it radically changed their approach to Indigenous peoples. “That’s where the problem lies because the solution comes from the top, and they don’t really know the realities on the ground, and the ‘solution’ doesn’t become a solution,” he says, adding that it is crucial IPLCs are treated with trust and respect, with a “spirit of true partnership”.

To the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, 30x30 is a crucial part of a successful agreement for protecting key ecosystems and propelling Indigenous-based conservation models, especially in large countries, such as Brazil, Russia and China. He said his country was starting a “story of reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples.

Representatives of Indigenous peoples from Latin American countries hold a press conference during Cop15. 

Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

In November 2021, a study contained maps of the ecosystems that humanity must not destroy in order to meet climate targets, which include the vast boreal forests and peatlands of Russia, China and the US, and the tropical forests of the Amazon, Congo basin and Indonesia. These areas hold 139bn tonnes of “irrecoverable” carbon and researchers said this is where 30x30 efforts should be concentrated.

There are a growing number of coalitions around protecting these ecosystems. At Cop27, Brazil, the DRC and Indonesia announced a big three rainforest coalition and said they would coordinate at UN climate and biodiversity talks on their conservation. The incoming Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said that he would convene a pan-Amazonian meeting on its conservation soon into his time in office. Indigenous groups proposed a protected area to cover the world’s largest rainforests, equivalent to the size of Mexico, to be created by 2025 at the last biodiversity summit in 2018, known as 80 by 25.

Campaign for Nature is pushing for conserving at least 30% of land and sea by 2030, seeing it as a milestone, with its director Brian O’Donnell describing it as a “floor not a ceiling”, saying the world should be pushing towards 50%, an important step to achieving Harvard biologist EO Wilson’s vision of protecting half the planet for the long-term survival of humanity. When talking about the areas that need to be preserved, it has to include the most biodiverse-rich areas, with connections between them to avoid island conservation, he says.

But another point of contention within the target is whether every country has to protect 30x30, or whether it is a global target (ie the Netherlands couldn’t make it, but countries like Brazil could do much more). In this case, richer countries with less biodiversity should be paying poorer, more biodiverse countries to not destroy their nature, as they are international – as well as national – assets.

Some countries are asking developed nations how they can be expected not to chop down their forests just as rich countries did in the past. In their opening statement at Cop15, the group of megadiverse countries, which includes Brazil, India and South Africa, said the 30% target would require significant financial and technical support

O’Donnell says: “They’re talking about a financial package for the whole framework, but a lot of people are discussing it in terms of the 30x30 target.”

Representatives of IPLCs say that even if this money is agreed, it could not reach the people stewarding the land. “It’s not for building theme parks,” one representative said at the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity press conference. They have reason to be worried – at Cop27, $1.7bn was pledged to Indigenous peoples in recognition of their role in protecting biodiversity, but the first year progress report found only 7% of total funding went to IPLC organisations.

Some argue that 30x30 is a distraction from the rampant overconsumption that drives biodiversity loss. Photograph: Mike Muzurakis/IISD/ENB

Another issue is whether sustainable use of resources should be allowed within these protected areas and, therefore, what it actually means for something to be protected.

In England, for example, the government says it is protecting around 28% of land for nature, but in reality it is closer to 3%, one report found. The EU – which is championing 30x30 – was accused of trying to water down the target by arguing that extractive industries, such as mining and drilling, should be allowed in protected areas, provided they do not negatively affect biodiversity.

Some argue that 30x30 is a distraction from the rampant overconsumption that drives biodiversity loss – and it is actually the endless extraction of the planet’s resources that needs to be tackled. If achieved in isolation, 30x30 would just result in more rapid destruction of the remaining 70% of the planet, not under official, state protection. This is where other targets – such as businesses taking into account their impacts on nature, rewilding subsidies, cutting down pollution and pesticides – all become important.

Achieving an agreement on 30x30 will be a milestone, but Cop15 will only have any hope of stemming biodiversity loss if all parts of the agreement work.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

Delgamuukw 25 years on: How Canada has undermined the landmark decision on Indigenous land rights

Members of the Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en First Nations hug to celebrate the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to recognize Indigenous land rights. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chuck Stoody

 THE CONVERSATION
Published: December 11, 2022 

Shiri Pasternak

Assistant Professor of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Delgamuukw case on Aboriginal title. In 1997, the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan Nations brought the watershed case before the Supreme Court, yet a countrywide battle remains over implementation of the Delgamuukw decision involving all First nations.

The Nations sought a declaration of ownership and jurisdiction over their lands. The Supreme Court agreed that Indigenous Peoples held a unique property right to their land that was held as a collective interest by a nation.

The court’s ruling addressed a number of issues including the extinguishment of Aboriginal title and the use of oral history in establishing land rights.

The case presented First Nations with new possibilities to seek legal action against the government for control over Indigenous territories.

Aboriginal title and the Crown

First Nation leaders aimed to reform the comprehensive land claims policy. The policy provides the only negotiating framework for Indigenous Peoples to resolve their outstanding territorial land claims with the Crown.

As a result of the Delgamuukw decision, Indigenous leaders argued the policy no longer aligned with Canadian law because it required Indigenous people to cede their title to the Crown.

If Delgamuukw recognized the unique proprietary rights of Indigenous Peoples to their land, why should they be forced to surrender those rights through a federal policy?

Herb George, who has served as Speaker for both the Gitxsan and the Wet’suwet’en Nations, was a key figure and strategist in the Delgamuukw case. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson

Before Delgamuukw, the concept of Aboriginal title as a property right was subject to a kind of plausible deniability.

The 1973 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Calder v. British Columbia was the first to wobble that deniability. The court found that the creation of British Columbia did not automatically extinguish “Indian title.” The decision led then-prime minister, Pierre Trudeau to reportedly observe: “Maybe you have more rights than we thought you did.”

The case led to the creation of the comprehensive claims policy. What soon became clear, though, was that the new claims policy rested on the old colonial model of sovereignty established by the British: it required Indigenous Peoples to surrender and release their title rights to the Crown. It was, in essence, a policy that extinguished Indigenous land rights.

While some nations optimistically entered negotiations, others turned to the courts, especially after the patriation of Aboriginal rights into the constitution in 1982.
Government indifference

By the time Delgamuukw reached the courts, the struggle was long underway to reform the comprehensive claims policy. When the Liberals came to power under Jean Chrétien in 1993, the party’s Red Book committed to an independent claims commission to address the government’s conflict of interest in the resolution of claims

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Jean Chrétien holds a copy of the Liberal Red Book during the 1993 election campaign. 

CP PICTURE ARCHIVE/Tom Hanson

But in 1996, Assembly of First Nations (AFN) national chief, Ovide Mercredi, publicly burned the Red Book outside a Liberal convention, disgusted with the government’s failure to fulfil its promises.

Government indifference persisted. But Delgamuukw increased pressure across the country.

One AFN resolution in 1998, for example, found in archived records created by policy researcher Peter Di Gangi, called for the “complete rejection of the concept of extinguishment, and any equivalent concept, such as ‘surrender and grant back’ as the premise for settling new treaties.”

In 1998, Canada set up discussions with the AFN to undertake a Delgamuukw national review process.

But within a couple of years, documents I received as part of a Freedom of Information request from B.C.’s Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation show that some First Nations viewed the process as a “smokescreen for the continued refusal to recognize Aboriginal title.”

The AFN created the Delgamuukw Implementation Strategic Committee (DISC) in 1998 to prepare legal briefs and recommendations for the Department of Indian Affairs to establish new mandates to review and revise the land claims policy in light of the legal decision.

The DISC made several key recommendations to Ottawa in May 2000. They included establishing a panel of experts to compare the comprehensive land claims policy to the principles contained in Delgamuukw.

However, Canadian officials instead said that “there was no Cabinet mandate to consider changes to the policy.” Others were informed that treaty negotiations are not “rights” based.

Land claims to #LandBack

The struggle over the land claims policy following Delgamuukw is a crucial chapter in the #LandBack movement. And it forecast the possibilities for land reclamation and decolonization moving forward.

Grassroots movements brought the issue back to national attention as part of the Idle No More movement. In its wake, two senior oversight committees (SOC) were established in 2013 with First Nation representation. One on treaties and one on comprehensive claims.

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An ‘Idle No More’ gathering on Parliament Hill in January 2013. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Sidelining these efforts, the then-Harper government commissioned a special report in 2015 to independently review the land claims policy. The report led to a new “results-based” approach to negotiations. But that approach maintained the same frameworks that extinguished Aboriginal title.

While First Nation leaders were pushing for fundamental reform, the government instead created off-ramps into sectoral, incremental and revenue-sharing agreements. The new generation of policies over land and resources, such as forestry and fishing specific tables, would avoid discussion of title altogether.

The Trudeau government would continue this tradition. In 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to develop a Recognition and Implementation of Indigenous Rights Framework. The new framework promised to “replace policies like the Comprehensive Land Claims Policy and the Inherent Right to Self-Government Policy.” Trudeau promised, instead, a co-development approach to negotiations and mandates.

But the proposed framework was never tabled. Instead, the federal government focused its energy on establishing Recognition of Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination discussion tables.

The mandates of these over 70 tables have never been made public. Whether and how Aboriginal title is recognized remains a mystery.

While extinguishment clauses no longer appear in the comprehensive land claim policy’s wording, it still requires the exchange of title lands for private property. The new policy off-ramps set aside any acknowledgment of title as the basis for negotiations.

Indigenous groups have made the best out of an impossible situation. But the #LandBack movement has shown both the possibilities and the dangers of working outside federal land claims frameworks.

Many nations have asserted Indigenous law on the ground by issuing declarations and exercising their jurisdiction to govern their territories and resources. They put the onus of “land claims” back on Canada to prove.

But this strategy for title recognition has also proved dangerous. For the Wet'suwet'en hereditary leadership, who brought the Delgamuukw case to court, asserting their rights in a coveted energy corridor has provoked one of the most violent colonial conflicts in Canadian history.

That violence reflects many things, but foremost among them: Canada’s refusal to align land claims policies with its own law.

OKA

Indigenous spiritual teaching in schools can foster reconciliation and inclusion


THE CONVERSATION
Published: December 4, 2022 

Indigenous education has become an area of growing concern for public schools across Canada. We are living in an era of reconciliation where Indigenous populations are growing and interest in confronting our shared histories continues to develop. Part of that involves focusing on how primary and secondary schools are addressing the Indigenous experience in Canada.

The way primary and secondary schools have engaged in Indigenous education has varied from province to province and across divisional jurisdictions. Some have focused on how history and social studies can incorporate Indigenous experiences. A smaller number of schools have ventured to develop mathematics and science curricula with Indigenous foci.

There are many different subjects that can benefit from the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives. Yet there appears to be one topic that is common across most school initiatives in Canada — that of spirituality.
Indigenous spirituality in schools

Indigenous spiritual activities have become more common in Canadian public schools in recent years. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s (TRC) final report and Calls to Action highlighted the need for improved school programming. In order to understand many aspects of the Indigenous experience, understanding the spiritual dimensions of those experiences and their associated ceremonies are necessary.

The TRC’s final report highlighted the need to improve teaching about Indigenous Peoples in Canadian schools. (Shutterstock)

The TRC’s Calls to Action on “education for reconciliation” were rightly understood as change that required collaboration with Indigenous Peoples. In this collaborative ethos, something emerged regardless of the discipline or subject being discussed — the spiritual orientations of Indigenous Peoples.

Ceremonial observances like smudging, and inclusion of Indigenous spiritual leaders and Elders, became necessary components of any educational initiative in which Indigenous perspectives are prioritized. The imperative here is clear: Indigenous perspectives in school curricula are best understood within the context of their respective Indigenous worldviews.

Say, for example, a school wanted to adjust its social studies teaching about family relationships in traditional community settings. Organizing principles espoused by Indigenous Peoples would be a necessary part of the curriculum. Students learn about kinship systems such as clans, hereditary leadership and Elders’ roles. And as they enter into these areas of experience, the spiritual elements and traditional understandings become important to consider.
School-based initiatives

One of the more publicized examples of Indigenous spirituality in public school programming comes from the Louis Riel School Division (LRSD) in Winnipeg. The LRSD aimed to develop a Minecraft world that would reflect the traditional Anishinaabe territories of Southern Manitoba for use in schools.

In the 2019-20 school year, the LRSD invited Indigenous students, staff and community members (including respected Elders) to confer on the development of the Minecraft world. The eventual product was Manito Ahbee Aki (Anishinaabemowin for “the place where the Creator sits”) which allows students to explore the traditional perspectives of the territories. The product continues to be a great resource for students

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Schools have used games like Minecraft to teach students about Indigenous culture and spirituality. (Shutterstock)

The factual aspects of the project, such as geographical and linguistic considerations, were important. In addition, the spiritual dimensions of such things as the Seven Sacred Teachings and the role of Indigenous Knowledge Keepers as in-game characters were central to this development. When the final product was unveiled, it was done at a traditional feast led by local Indigenous Elders who led pipe ceremonies.

The LRSD Minecraft example is one of many school-based initiatives across Canada incorporating Indigenous spirituality. From customs like powwows to ceremonial activities involving smudging, Indigenous spirituality has become an important part of public schooling in much of Canada. It is seen as, among other things, an important aspect of the reconciliation journey.

Although the progress achieved by schools has been welcomed by many, and even viewed as an organic part of school activities, this progress isn’t without its challenges.

Indigenous school staff and community members who have tried to initiate activities that involve Indigenous spirituality have faced push-back from school administrators, the larger community and even the laws and policies that govern school operations.

Change is not always easy. But it is the efforts of brave advocates for Indigenous education that have helped create spaces in our schools where Indigenous students may learn and grow in a way that honours their identities. Our Canadian social fabric is all the better for it.

Author

Frank Deer
Professor, Associate Dean, and Canada Research Chair, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba