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            At UN, Indigenous Forest Peoples Express 'Green' Values

   by Adam Phillips

   The forests that many native peoples call home are more than a means of
   food, raw materials and other necessities for survival. They are also
   their source of spiritual connection to the Earth, their ancestors and
   a meaningful way of life.  The leaders of many of the world's
   indigenous forest peoples were in New York this week in connection with
   the first United Nations Climate Summit and the World Conference on
   Indigenous Peoples.

   The vividly colored patterns of the native dress of Agnes Leina,
   founder of Il'laramatak Community Concerns, a grassroots group in a
   remote region of Kenya dedicated to equality for girls and women in her
   forest community, contrast with the arid forests on which her people
   and their animals depend.

   "There is a spiritual connection between animals, ourselves and the
   forests. It's through the forest that young men are initiated into men.
   And all the sacred trees, the sacred leaves, the sacred gums are
   actually found in that forest.  We naturally use gourds made out of
   dried wood. That's how we depend on the forest for everything," said
   Leina.

   One of countless traditional songs Leina knows is about a familiar
   forest bird.

   "It produces a sound: 'coo doo loo.' It's a poem. It says `before it
   gets dark, please allow me to go home before the cows are brought
   home.' It connects us to the forest, and it connects with the animals
   with the birds, the flora and fauna and human beings all interconnected
   and living at peace with each other," said Leina.

   A tall tribal crown, big bare belly and scarlet, orange and blue garb
   signify Candido Mezua's role as president of the Embera-Wounaan General

   ''Congress.  It includes about 10,000 people living in the tropical
   rainforests of Panama.  Mezua has fought corporate logging most of his
   life. As a teenager, he was inspired by an old woman who approached his
   group's campfire one night.

   "And the grandmother spoke to us with a very calm voice, but with a
   crying voice.  And even though it was dark and we could not see her
   eyes, but only listening to her voice, we started to cry also. And the
   grandmother said, `Look at the trees they are cutting down and taking
   away.'

   And she said, `look, every tree cut down and taken away is a brother of
   us. Look how many of our brothers have been killed and taken away.  So
   we need to start thinking.  What are we going to do? Are we going to be
   disappear, our brothers, the trees and all the life they carry?  Are we
   going to disappear?'" he recalled.

   Abdon Nababan, secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of
   the Archipelago in Indonesia, offered a special prayer-song before a
   radio interview.

   ''

   He said nearly half of his community's forest land has disappeared in
   recent decades, and with it, something of himself.

   "Home is a community. It's where you feel you can talk your story. You
   can dance. You can eat the meat that you get from the forest. That's
   home. You just feel that you belong to that land. Because you depend on
   that land. Your identity is the land, forest. That's the crisis. You
   will lose yourself, because your identity, the place where you stand,
   is not there anymore. That's the situation," said Nababan.

   If attitudes at the U.N. translate into national policies, that
   situation may change.  This week, the United Nations hosted the first
   World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, a high level plenary session of
   the General Assembly where over 1,000 delegates were invited to share
   perspectives on "best practices" to ensure indigenous rights worldwide.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/at-un-indigenous-forest-peoples-expre
   ss-green-values/2463011.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/at-un-indigenous-forest-peoples-express-green-values/2463011.html