Indigenous Peoples Forum

Theme:  “Indigenous peoples, business, autonomy and the human rights principles of due diligence including free, prior and informed consent”.

Date: 25 April – 6 May 2022

For the first time since I’ve been at the UN we actually are having people come to the Indigenous Peoples Forum. This is so exciting. It has been since February 2020 that there have been any people able to enter the UN. 

The event began on April 25, 2022. An opening theme is “Together We Achieve”. Isn’t this true for all the engagements that we are about.  It’s only when we are together do we achieve or accomplish the task before us.  

And there are miracles happening. I do not speak Portuguese, but I picked up two guests from Newark Airport to take them to their hostel, the new Thomas Berry Place at the Passionist Monastery.  They are the first guests to be housed there. I’m so happy for them.  It’s only a block and a half from the Metro stop.

There were two miracles.  One, I found the guests at the pick-up area at Newark.  I was happy about that and then we drove an hour to the guest house.  The director, Anthony greeted the guests with perfect Portuguese.  That made me feel great that there was someone who could really welcome them in their own language. Pretty good start to the forum.

I left them there and they went for a little breakfast at the TB Place and then to their beds.

They have both been here before so at least Flavio knew his way around a bit.  I left them with metro tickets. They are unlimited for seven days. This will assist them getting around.

We will be welcoming the following guests as well to our office for the next two weeks.

Cardinal Barreto, Peru; Bishop Rafael Cob, Ecuador, Peter Hughes, Peru; Sonia Olea, Caritas, Madrid, Spain; Lily Calderon, Peru.

Erileide Domingues (Kaiowá) an Indigenous woman from Brazil, Gabriel assisting with translation and Flavio Machado from CIMI arrived on Sunday, April 24th.

Here is Schedule of side events at Indigenous Peoples Forum. 

And now we begin with the Forum with an Opening Ceremony to the sound of the conch, the Assistant Secretary -General for Policy and Inter-Agency Affairs, Ms. Maria-Francesca Spatolisano will welcome them as well as a welcome by Katsenhaienton Lazare, Bear Clan, Mohawk of the Haudenosaunee in a ceremony. Later in the opening program they will adopt the agenda and program of work.

The picture at the left is with two Indigenous women from the Amazon that I took in early 2020. They came to share their story as to what is happening in the Amazon. I’m so glad I had the chance to meet them with a small group of interested citizens and NGO folks. 

And now we move forward with hopes for the peoples in the Amazon as well as all Indigenous Peoples. We hope to learn more about what to advocate for on behalf of the people in the Amazon. There is much we don’t know, and we want to do our part in advocating for the Human Rights needs as well as the mining issues in the Amazon.
Join us for the forum in the next two weeks. You can find out more about the forum at this link.