Cover 32-2.qxd 3/25/2009 1:08 PM Page 2 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 2 US $5/CAN $7 Cover 32-2.qxd 3/25/2009 1:07 PM Page 3 An aerial view of the damage caused by Cyclone Nargis in the Ayeyarwady Delta region of Myanmar, along the shores of the Andaman Sea. Storms like this are expected to increase in severity and frequency with global warming.And such disasters affect indigenous peoples disproportionately. Photo by: UN/Evan Schneider Cultural Survival Indigenous Empowerment Education and Outreach Before the day is over, an indigenous Cultural Survival partners with indigenous Cultural Survival’s publications raise person will be killed or displaced. Before communities to help them advocate more public understanding of and support for the month is over, an indigenous effectively for their lands, languages, and indigenous peoples and their concerns. In homeland will be clear-cut, strip-mined, cultures. Among other programs, we are addition to this magazine and our newsletter or flooded. Before the year is over, dozens leading a coalition of Native American for indigenous readers, we produce of indigenous languages will vanish forever. organizations to save critically endangered research reports on governments’ treat- Governments and powerful economic Native American languages, and are ment of indigenous peoples for the UN interests perpetuate this human and reinforcing a network of community Human Rights Council periodic review of cultural devastation. Cultural Survival radio stations in Guatemala to help each country’s human rights record. We works to reverse it. We partner with Mayans rebuild their cultures after 30 also maintain a website that includes the indigenous peoples to protect their lands, years of genocide. largest source of information on indigenous languages, and cultures and fight against peoples anywhere, and we operate a series their marginalization, discrimination, of fair-trade bazaars that give more than exploitation, and abuse. 30,000 people a year direct contact with indigenous artisans. Become a Part of Cultural Survival Cultural Survival’s work is only possible because of our members. Join us in making indigenous peoples’ rights matter. See the inside back cover for a membership form or join online at www.cs.org. UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Cultural Survival’s work is predicated on the principles set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 32-2.qxd 3/24/2009 4:00 PM Page 1 SUMMER 2008 VOLUME 32 ISSUE 2 A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 3 A TO-DO LIST FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT DEPARTMENTS 4 Food for Life: DOCKSIDE DINING IN GHANA 7 Indigenous Arts: BRIDGING URBAN AND TRADITIONAL CULTURES REVIEWS 47 EARTH UNDER FIRE By Gary Braasch This tea shop in Maitya village, Banke District, Nepal, was one of hundreds of homes and businesses disrupted by flooding in 2007.The picture makes clear just how little recourse indigenous peoples have when disaster strikes. Photo by Mukti Suvedi. FEATURES 10 Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change BY MARK CHERRINGTON An overview of how the world’s biggest problem affects the world’s most vulnerable peoples. 13 Guardians BY VICTORIA TAULI-CORPUZ AND AQQALUK LYNGE Indigenous peoples live on the front lines of climate change and so feel its impacts most severely, but they also have the most to offer in fighting the problem, if only policy makers will include them in the process. 16 Of Ice and Men BY CAMERON M. SMITH The United States has declared the polar bear a threatened species because of global warming, but the indigenous peoples of Alaska, who know the species best, say that the listing is a mistake. 21 Inundation BY AUSTIN BLAIR AND CASEY BECK Many news stories have sent up alerts about the imminent drowning of Pacific Islands. But for people on Kiribati, the real problems are happening right now. 30 Trouble Trees BY VICTORIA TAULI-CORPUZ AND PARSHURAM TAMANG Indigenous peoples don’t only suffer from the effects of climate change; in some cases they suffer from the solutions to climate change. 40 Culture in the Crosshairs A PHOTO ESSAY BY ERIC LAFFORGUE On the cover: A storm moves in on an elderly woman, displaced from her home in Abyei by heavy fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army. Climate change only compounds the conflict that many indigenous people face. UN Photo/Tim McKulka 32-2.qxd 3/24/2009 4:00 PM Page 2 STAFF Ellen L. Lutz, Executive Director Mark Camp, Director of Operations and BOARD OF DIRECTORS Guatemala Radio Project Manager Mark Cherrington, Director of Publications PRESIDENT AND CHAIRMAN Sofia Flynn, Financial Officer P.Ranganath Nayak Jamie Brown, Graphic Design Pia Maybury-Lewis, Internship and TREASURER Bazaar Advisor Sarah Fuller Agnes Portalewska, Program Officer David Michael Favreau, Event & Membership CLERK Officer Jean Jackson Jennifer Weston, Endangered Languages Campaign Coordinator Cesar Gomez Moscut, Guatemala Radio Project Elizabeth Cabot Coordinator Westy Egmont Megan Gray, Communications Officer Richard Grounds (Euchee) James Howe SENIOR EDITORIAL ADVISORS Cecilia Lenk Kristina Allen Pia Maybury-Lewis Kim Burgess Les Malezer (Gabi Gabi) Duane Champagne Sally Engle Merry Brian Ferguson Vincent Nmehielle (Ikwerre) Robert Gordon Ramona Peters (Wampanoag) Lotte Hughes Dinah Shelton Neil Jarman Stella Tamang (Tamang) Theodore Macdonald, Jr. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Kankana-ey Igorot) Fergus MacKay Martha Claire Tompkins Ian S. McIntosh Jeff Wallace Sally Engle Merry Chris Walter Chris Rainier Rosita Worl (Tlingit) Tim Sieber FOUNDERS PROGRAM ADVISORS David and Pia Maybury-Lewis Theodore Macdonald, Jr. Mirian Masaquiza (Kichwa) jessie little doe (Wampanoag) Jacob Manatowa-Bailey (Sac and Fox) INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERS Jenny Bass, Shelly Boucher, Don Butler, Adriana Campos, Evin Erdowdu, Benjamin Fenton, Allie Goldstein, Zoe Greenberg, Emma Hanson, Nicole Cultural Survival Johnson, Joseph Kloc, Amanda Lynch, Rachel Malley, 215 Prospect Street Keysha Martinez, Andrew Mellen, Kathleen O'Brien, Cambridge, MA 02139 Hannah Rhein, Emma Rosenberg, Daniel Wilkerson, t 617.441.5400 f 617.441.5417 Elias Witman, Clara Wool www.cs.org GENERAL INFORMATION Copyright 2008 by Cultural Survival, Inc. Cultural Survival Quarterly (ISSN 0740-3291) is published quarterly by Cultural Survival, Inc. at 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Periodical postage paid at Boston, MA 02205 and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Cultural Survival, 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Printed on recycled paper in the U.S.A. Please note that the views in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Cultural Survival. WRITERS’ GUIDELINES View writers’ guidelines at our website (www.cs.org) or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Cultural Survival, Writer’s Guidelines, 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. 32-2.qxd 3/24/2009 4:00 PM Page 3 A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR A To-Do List for the Next President ith the U.S. presidential election cam- negotiations. The U.S. government must become a paign now in its final phase, it is time for global leader in climate change initiatives, starting Wthe candidates to address the global in- by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. The United States digenous rights issues that will require attention in should then exert its influence to ensure that alter- the coming four years. Cultural Survival respectfully native-fuel programs and international carbon-mar- calls upon them to: ket schemes are not imposed on indigenous peoples Make Indigenous Peoples’ Rights a Global Issue: or territories. The world’s 370 million indigenous people are Prepare to Meet the Consequences of Global Cli- among the world’s poorest, most marginalized, and mate Change in a Just Manner that Respects the most exploited people on earth precisely because Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Sadly, as this issue of they are indigenous: they speak unfamiliar lan- the Cultural Survival Quarterly demonstrates, the guages, have distinct cultures, and live in remote lo- consequences of climate change are already upon us cales that are among the only remaining sources of and increasing annually. Rising sea levels have driven untapped natural resources. As a result, indigenous some indigenous communities from their home- peoples today face the same pressures that their an- lands, and changes in weather, water, and pollination cestors faced in colonial times. Governments and patterns will eventually cause others to migrate global businesses eager for the profits and benefits across borders in search of arable land. The U.S. gov- from indigenous natural resources engage in ethnic ernment should take the lead now by starting dis- cleansing, forced relocation, and forced assimilation. cussions on international agreements regarding Similar abuses create global outcry when they affect environmental refugees, and it should ensure that large populations in places like Bosnia, Rwanda, and indigenous peoples are well-represented in those Darfur, but they are no less heinous when they de- discussions. It also should encourage and support stroy small indigenous communities in friendly indigenous peoples’ efforts to adapt to the impact of countries like Panama, Guatemala, and Brazil. The climate change in their homelands. next administration not only should set the global Honor Your Promises to Native Americans:Dur- standard for respecting indigenous peoples’ land ing the next administration, America will have a rare rights, self-determination, and sovereignty in all chance to alter the course of history by demonstrat- dealings with Native Americans—which both candi- ing that America honors and respects its First Peo- dates already have pledged to do—but should insist ples. Doing so requires undoing the harms of the that all other governments and all U.S.-based corpo- past by offering Native Americans an apology (as rations do so as well. Canada and Australia have done) for the cultural Embrace the United Nations Declaration on the devastation caused by government boarding school Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Over 25 years in the programs and other past human rights crimes.