We recently witnessed the desecration of a Shinnecock Indian ancestor’s grave, when a skull, bones, and 18th Century glass bottle were unearthed during the construction of a home just five minutes from our reservation…
Month: October 2018
The Amazon used to be a hedge against climate change. Those days may be over.
Easter Island people want British Museum to return Moai statue
Easter Island’s indigenous people have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London…
Indigenous peoples recognised by the world’s biggest climate fund
A “GCF Indigenous Peoples Policy” has been adopted for inclusion in the Green Climate Fund, that every year allocates billions of dollars to climate projects…
The Kogi Mamas are coming to Europe
The Kogi have asked us to save the natural world, with their help. In September 2018, Kogi Mamas are arriving in France to take part in a discussion with scientists. They have found a new way to talk to us about understanding the way they see the world, which they say is vital to our future.
This visit being arranged by our French partners ‘Tchendukua Ici et ailleurs’ and we are requesting your help to raise funds to bring the Kogi to the Drome in France to make this important ecological dialogue possible.
The Kogi leaders are called Mamas and they are from the Sierra Nevada mountains in Colombia. For the last 30 years they have been engaged in environmental and political activism – making films to educate and warn us about the impact our Western consumer driven culture is having on the natural world. The Kogi have taken it upon themselves to help us understand how we are affecting the natural world and now they’re working to educate and enlighten us so that we can come closer to nature, appreciate it and realise the harm we are causing.
As a starting point they suggest we must renew our connection with the earth:
“You don’t know how to walk! Don’t you have to walk in your country? In your cars and aeroplanes, don’t you walk? … The Kogi walk literally as well as figuratively, in the paths of their ancestors. There is a powerful sense of thousands of individual trajectories constantly crossing and re-crossing the mountains, weaving an astonishingly dense web of relations between kin and places, and all these movements following well-paved paths paved by the ancestors.”
From the Heart of the World: The Elder Brothers Warning (1990)
Their knowledge comes from this intimate observation, repeated, refined and shared over generations. From this comes their deep empathy with the world we live in.
We are asking you to help us bring the Kogi Mamas to France for this discussion and you can do this by walking, by starting to observe and appreciate nature – closely, mindfully, with friends, family and neighbours.
You can help us by raising sponsorship from your walk. This is a simple request to our friends and growing community of supporters to organise such a walk by a river, or through a wood on your own or with friends as a way of appreciating nature, spending time in the wonder and beauty of the natural world. Write about your experience or ask your kids or grandkids to write or draw something from your walk, we’d love to post these for you on Twitter and our website.
To organise your walk, download our instructions and the sponsorship forms
The funds will be spent covering the costs of the Kogi’s travel and programme in France. We believe this is an important event as it continues to build a bridge between indigenous knowledge and western understanding about how to understand and protect nature.
Read the website, confirm your walk with us on there and renew your commitment to nature. We’re trying to raise a minimum of £5,000.
Follow the latest project work and updates from the Trust.
Thank you.
The Tairona Heritage Trust
A short interview with Odilser Alexander Perez Yac
Onaway has been supporting the Chico Mendes Reforestation Project in Guatemala. Odilsar is paid 75 Q (USD 10) per day by the project. He is vital to the project, and the project is vital to him.
What is your role in the reforestation project?
I am a viverista (I work in the tree nursery), helping organise the school children volunteers and international volunteers in the vivero (the tree nursery). I also help plant trees at our reforestation sites in the mountains of Cantel, in particular this year we have been working hard to plant trees in the pajonada.
How did you become involved with the Chico Mendes organisation?
I started as a schoolboy volunteer in January 2014 through the Instituto de Educación Básica por Cooperativa Choquiac (IMEBCH) of Pachaj. In November of 2015, Armando offered me a part time position, and I now work full time.
Why is the project important to you?
As a child I was sent into the forests which surround my family home to collect firewood (mainly for cooking), but that changed when I started volunteering with the Chico Mendes project. I now spend my time working to protect and improve the forests which are vital for the local people, providing fresh water and air, and sustainable sources of firewood. It is important that we care for the forests of Cantel.
Tell us a bit about your life outside of the project?
I live locally to the project, about an hour’s walk. My home is located on the edge of the forest, things are quite basic. We grow maize in the field next to the house which my mother uses to make tortillas. I am the oldest of 7 siblings (aged from 1 to 17 years old) and became head of the household (and principal/only bread-winner) when my grandfather passed away in November 2017.
How is the Chico Mendes organisation helping you?
When I left school I started working in the fields, earning and learning very little. I am very happy working for the Chico Mendes organisation. It has given me the opportunity to learn new skills and to meet new and interesting people. I am improving my prospects for my future.
Preventing the killing of albino children for their body parts
People with albinism in Malawi, especially children are being attacked for their body parts. This horrific reality is the result of religious charlatans claiming they can make people rich through magic by using the bones of albinos, which they claim contain gold! And, with increasing poverty in the country, there is great demand.
“It is the children with albinism who are at the greatest risk. Fearing for their lives, many have ceased going to school”
Chief Clinical Officer, Matson Dezi.
Onaway is supporting the World Medical Fund for Children to help stop this barbaric practice. Teams of medical professionals have been recruited to educate rural Malawians about the facts of albinism. Working from health centres, where there is a high degree of trust based on a history of local support, the teams enlighten communities about the real problems of albinism, as well as helping albinos cope the with the harsh conditions of life in Malawi.
“The situation is worsening. Out of 82 albino children registered with one special needs school, only 8 are attending. The remainder are far too frightened to venture out.”
Michael Burt, CEO World Medical Fund for Children
Working together with our partners, we hope to start to make a difference to the plight of albinos across Malawi. Please help to raise awareness of their challenges by sharing news from trusted sources including The Independent, Human Rights Watch and Daily Monitor.
Traditional Medicine Encyclopaedia Volume II completed
Onaway are proud to be supporters of the work of Acaté amazon conservation and are delighted to learn volume II of the Traditional Medicine Encyclopaedia has been successfully completed.
The protection of traditional indigenous medicinal knowledge of Amazonian tribes ensures the livelihoods of future generations are being protected.
To learn more about the unique production of the indigenous encyclopaedia please visit Acaté’s website.
Securing the livelihoods of Dassenech families
The Ethiopian Government, in the interests of national energy security, opened the Gilgel Gibe III dam. This caused a drought upriver from the Sodo valley and had a disastrous effect on the indigenous people. Of all the ethnic groups in the area, the Dassenech were the most badly affected. They relied heavily on the seasonal cycle of the river and, as semi-nomadic pastoralists, their traditional way of life became unsustainable.
As a result, young men began to migrate to Addis Ababa and beyond. And migration resulted in permanent damage to the social fabric of this sophisticated, unique community.
In collaboration with Vita and the EU, Onaway is supporting a programme to expand and secure the livelihoods of 175 Dassenech families (approx. 875 people) by introducing new irrigation and farming techniques.
For more information please visit https://www.vita.ie
Giving thanks to the ancestors of the Afraid of Bear and American Horse family
After twenty years of holding ceremonial prayer in the Wild Horse Sanctuary south of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and the thirty-first year of sun dancing in the sacred Black Hills, the Afraid Of Bear and American Horse Tiospaye (related families) remember, give thanks and honour their ancestors who decades ago said, “Use the Black Hills, or lose it.”
Onaway is humbled to continue its support of this event. To follow are excerpts from the report written by Lead Sun Dancer, Tom Cook, who, in November 2018 will complete his 50th Sun Dance! When asked if it was time for him to retire, he responded: “I would, except for my grandsons. I want to continue for them so they can follow me into the circle. Circle of life…”
This year, 2018, marked the thirty-first year that the Tiospaye (related families) of the Afraid Of Bear and American Horse have sun danced in the Black Hills, honouring orientations received from several elders, principally Larue Afraid Of Bear, who told us decades ago: “Use the Black Hills, or lose it.”
“It is good for us to remember the elders of the Tiospaye who led us into the Black Hills; how they held inipi for several years in various places, seeking initial permission for the ceremony; how they instructed the first group of dancers, shared their songs from their elders and set the structure and sequencing of the great ceremony. In consideration of the many allies that have come into their lives over the decades, and in contemplation of the original pipe instructions on the sacred four colors of humankind, they instructed as positive the respectful inclusion of peoples originating in other cultures and races.”
Tom Cook: Staff-bearer and Sun Dance leader
Following ten years at ‘Grey Horn Butte’ (Devil’s Tower), and twenty years at the Wild Horse Sanctuary south of Hot Springs, our elders were pleased this year to petition the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and to receive their invitation to continue this ritual on their tribal land – a beautiful tract of spiritual homelands south of Cheyenne Crossing, S.D., on Highway 85.
At this year’s Sun Dance, our 68 dancers were led by Willard Fool Bull, Jr. and staff-bearer, Thomas Cook. The Dance lineup began with Fool Bull holding before him a 600 year-old buffalo skull provided graciously by Mae Inchimuk, while staff bearer Cook carried the Tiospaye’s new staff of a dozen ancient eagle feathers selected for the purpose via family tradition of natural world education, shared with the Farm and Wilderness Camps of Plymouth, Vermont. Through these feathers our prayers would carry their prayers, was the stated intent. Overseen by Intercessors David American Horse, 86, and his brother Joseph, 83, most of the dancers were of Native lineage, including twelve tribes and people from the four directions like Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Chile. 80-100 people were there in support, camped along the tree lines.
Upon completion of the ceremony there were two Hunka adoptions and one honouring, conducted by Richard Broken Nose. Loretta Afraid Of Bear Cook adopted Dr. Delphine Red Shirt as her sister. Delphine is a professor at Stanford University in California, and her book George Sword’s Warrior Narratives was published last fall. Loretta and Tom Cook then adopted Essen Alvarez Alvarado of Mexico as their grandson. Then, Cruz Collin, 14, was honoured for his steadfastness in life after participating in four Sun Dances at the Wild Horse Sanctuary.
This year’s Sun Dance had many challenges due to the weather, but it was nonetheless a wonderfully energetic experience on many levels. The days resonated with amazing prayer energy for the people.
The heartfelt thanks of all the relatives extends in gratefulness to our principal supporters, including Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Onaway Trust, Plenty International, Running Strong for American Indian Youth, Sacred Healing Circle, Mariel Foundation, Ketels Family Charitable Trust, Farm and Wilderness Camps, and each one of you.
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