Idle No More Global Action Day Finds European Indigenous Rights Groups Silent

Idle No More Global Action Day, Finds European Indigenous Rights Groups Silent



Andrea Muhrrteyn | SQSwans | 28 January 2013

Today was Idle No More's Indigenous Rights Global Action Day. Supporters have spoken up on behalf of Red People's - Idle No More -- Indigenous Rights, from Norway (Sami), Sweden, Rome, Germany and Poland (Wolne Media: Idle No More in Poland and around the world).

Meanwhile -- as far as I am aware -- Breivik's 'European Indigenous Rights' supporters remain silent.

The only outspoken support for Idle No More's Indigenous Rights Revolution Campaign who openly support Indigenous Rights for Europeans, have been this blog and the Renaissance Vanguard International; both of which support Indigenous Rights, not only for Europeans, but for All People's.

Amazing. They whine endlessly about how they are always called 'racists'; but when given the opportunity to prove that they support Indigenous Rights for EVERYONE, not just whitey's; they are silent!! If you support Indigenous Rights, for only Europeans, and nobody else, thats not 'indigenous rights', that's white supremacy!

Native Sovereignty and Ecological Protection in the Face of Post-Peak Oil Energy Devolution

Jan 27, 2013 | Michael Putman, RPN Director | Renaissance Vanguard International

The Harper Government and the industrial and energy interests it serves have provoked much opposition amongst First Nations due to Bill C-45’s provisions relating to environmental protections of waterways, as well as unilateral changes to the Indian Act. As a response to these provocative actions, the Idle No More movement has arisen at the grassroots level, without being called into existence by the present Native leaders. It is important for us to understand why these developments are occurring, to see how they relate to the Renaissance Party of North America’s (RPN) Three Pillars, and to state RPN policy on this issue.

The attempt to gut environmental protection by “streamlining” regulatory review, and the legislative reduction of protected waterways, as well as the closure of the Experimental Lakes Area with its paltry $1.5M annual budget, and continued Harperite Ministry of Public Safety paranoia in the matter of non-existent “environmental terrorists” and surveillance of Native activists all point to one entropic reality: Post-Peak Oil. The controversy and unrest have their roots at the foot of the First Pillar of the RPN.

[..] Therefore, while signalling solidarity with Idle No More, the RPN is wary of promoting any such Reformist policy that would only serve to reinforce age old liberal White paternalism towards the First Nations. Instead, with a view towards our First Pillar of Post-Peak Oil energy devolution and our Second Pillar of directly related economic and political devolution of the nation-state into regional polities and economies, we call for full and true sovereignty of First Nations within their own secessionist ethno-states.

Treaties with the Crown will not be honoured by the present Canadian state if these stand in the way of hyper-exploitation of natural resources in the final desperate hour of industrial global capital. As such, Reformism would be a cruel mirage at best, and would open the gateway to increasing corruption of the present Native leadership. In view of such a corruption possibility, the RPN’s offered alliance with Canadian Native Peoples rests with the grassroots voices, as reflected by Idle No More, and not with the “old guard” pampered leadership.

In accordance with our Constitution then, and in view of the inevitable and rapid depletion of even the tar sands in light of Peak Oil and insurmountable global demand, we look forward to a secure future for independent First Nations, a robust and realistic secessionist strategy shared by both First Nations and White European bioregional secessionists, and sustainable local economies for both:

2.2.6. To encourage North American secessionist movements and parties to acknowledge and promote an unconditional return to local and regionally-based agrarian economies, with a premium on independence, self-sufficiency, merit, small-scale and diversity rather than on corporate-based control and monoculture.

» » » » [Excerpt: Renaissance Vanguard]

Pacific Sámi Searvi (Sámi Americans in the Pacific Northwest) Supports Idle No More

Pacific Sami | 28 January 2013

After a discussion, web poll, and call-out to members, some of us gathered in Tacoma today to show support for Idle No More. Soon after, the photo above was posted on Facebook with our statement:

We, the members of Pacific Sámi Searvi (Sámi Americans in the Pacific Northwest) stand together with our Sámi brothers and sisters in solidarity with the Idle No More movement.

Within three hours, the photo was “liked” over 900 times and shared over 200 times. Wow.

Among the Facebook comments was a not-unexpected question: What is a Sami?

PSS member and PLU Professor Troy Storfjell answered:

“The Sámi are the Indigenous people< of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, sometimes referred to as ‘Lapps’ or ‘Laplanders.’ There are 9 Sámi languages. Although reindeer herding is the most well-known Sámi livelihood, fishing, hunting and small-scale farming and sheep-raising are also traditional ways of life. Sámi participated in the co-founding of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in the 1970s, and participate in a number of global Indigenous forums and organizations today.”

Indigenous and non-indigenous people around the world are uniting to support the goals of Idle No More. The Sámi Parliament issued a statement of support on January 11th, as reported here earlier, joining a river of other voices. Why the surge of international support?

As environmentalist Bill McKibben says, after the hottest year on record, “the stakes couldn’t be higher, for Canada and for the world.” (Alberta’s tar sands and oil in the Arctic are two of the “world’s biggest dirty energy projects,” according to Greenpeace, and threaten to push global climate change past “the point of no return.”)

Indigenous people not only have a huge personal stake in the outcome but are uniquely capable of action:

“Corporations and governments have often discounted the power of native communities—because they were poor and scattered in distant places, they could be ignored or bought off. But in fact their lands contain much of the continent’s hydrocarbon wealth—and, happily, much of its wind, solar and geo-thermal resources, as well. The choices that Native people make over the next few years will be crucial to the planet’s future—and Idle No More is an awfully good sign that the people who have spent the longest in this place are now rising artfully and forcefully to its defense.”

With alarming losses to Arctic Sea ice (the scantest ice cap in recorded history), the Sámi are not only vulnerable to global warming (even as oil companies anticipate increased exploration), but uniquely poised to address it.

“There is a lot to learn from the Sámi, they have the traditional ecological knowledge, they really know about nature,” said Helander-Renvall, head of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples Office at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi. “They have the most precise knowledge about the weather conditions, about the plants, the diet, the resources. The Sami people have an ethical relationship with nature; a respect for nature that also has a spiritual side.”

The Arctic region is uniquely vulnerable to global warming, but if it is to weather the storm, it would do well to adopt Sami methods of land and resource management, communal co-operation and communication, local knowledge and best practice, she said.

Monday, January 28, is the World Wide Day of Action for Idle No More. Find out what is happening here.

» » » » [Pacific Sami]

Sámi Solidarity with “Idle No More”

January 11, 2013 | Pacific Sami

Today, Sámi Parliament President Egil Olli expressed solidarity with Idle No More, the ongoing protest movement originating among the Aboriginal peoples in Canada and comprising the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples, and their non-Aboriginal supporters in Canada and internationally.

“I want from Sámediggi side to express our support and sympathy to the indigenous struggle in Canada. In particular, I wish to express my concern for the health of Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat nation, which now close to a month, went on hunger strike in protest against the narrow social and economic plight of Canada’s indigenous people live. I see it as natural that this will be one of the topics I will take up when I meet Canada’s Minister of Health in the Arctic Council 20 January.”

Yesterday the Church of Norway, including the Sámi Church Council, expressed solidarity.

The movement was launched in October, 2012 by four women (Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam, Jessica Gordon, and Sheelah McLean). On December 11, 2012, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a fast, requesting a face-to-face meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Governor General Stephen Johnston (the Queen’s representative) to discuss broken treaties and protection of natural resources.

While Stephen Harper has agreed to meet with Chief Spence, Stephen Johnston has denied her request.

Meanwhile, protests, drum circles, and fasts continue around the world in support of the movement. An interactive map of Idle No More events can be found here.

Learn more about Idle No More at this informative blog by Toronto journalist and Sami-American Krystalline Kraus (who many of us had the pleasure of meeting in Minnesota last summer at the 2012 Siidastallan).

» » » » [Pacific Searvi]

Sami Parliament statement of sympathy to the indigenous peoples of Canada

January 10, 2013 | Ron Hart | Eradicating Ecocide

Indigenous non-violent demonstrations under the “Idle No More” is a grassroots movement that is supported by many others in the Canadian society. The Sami Parliament is concerned about the situation and will, among other things, take the matter up with Canada’s Health Minister, who in the spring also takes over presidency chair of the Council.

-I want from Sámediggi side to express our support and sympathy to the indigenous struggle in Canada now fighting. In particular, I wish to express my concern for the health of Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat nation, which is now close to a month, went on hunger strike in protest against the narrow social and economic plight of Canada’s indigenous people live. I see it as natural that this will be one of the topics I will take up when I meet Canada’s Minister of Health in the Arctic Council 20 January, says Sami Parliament President Egil Olli.

» » » » [Excerpt: Pacific Searvi : Sametinget.NO]