Leonardo DiCaprio Pays Tribute To Indigenous People In Golden Globe Speech

Posted: 01/11/2016 12:24 am by The Huffington Post Canada

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio got political in his Golden Globe acceptance speech on Sunday night.

DiCaprio, who won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama award for his role in "The Revenant," thanked indigenous peoples around the world and asked for them to receive more respect.

"I want to share this award with all the First Nations people represented in this film and all the 

indigenous communities around the world," the actor said at the award ceremony held in Los Angeles.

"It is time that we recognized your history and that we protect your indigenous lands from corporate interests and people that are out there to exploit them," added DiCaprio. "It is time that we heard your voice and protected them for future generations."

DiCaprio has been politically active around environmental causes. He made a heavily-publicized visit to Alberta's oilsands in 2014.

"The Revenant," which was shot in Alberta, cast hundreds of First Nations people from across that province as extras and in small roles.

Indigenous Group Brings "Canoe of Life" 6,000 Miles from Amazon to Paris to Call for Climate Action

Published Dec. 11, 2015 by Democracynow.org

On Tuesday, as the sun rose in Paris, a delegation of indigenous people from Sarayaku, in the Ecuadorean Amazon, set out in a handmade, wooden canoe along the Villette Canal. The Kichwa people of Sarayaku have been fighting oil exploitation on their lands for many years; in 2012 they won a case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Ecuadorean government for permitting oil drilling on their land. Democracy Now!'s Juan Carlos Dávila and Amy Littlefield were there as the Sarayaku launched their canoe after its 6,000-mile journey from the Amazon. "Those who are actually negotiating right now, they might not have to live with the consequences of climate change, but I will," Nina Gualinga, a Kichwa activist from Sarayaku, says of the COP21 negotiations. "Who are they to decide over my future, over my sister's future, over my children’s future?"

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We wrap up our broadcast with an action earlier this week. On Tuesday, as the sun rose in Paris, a delegation of indigenous people from Sarayaku, in the Ecuadorean Amazon, set out in a handmade, wooden canoe along the Villette Canal. The Kichwa people of Sarayaku have been fighting oil exploitation on their lands for many years. In 2012, they won a case at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Ecuadorean government for letting an Argentine oil company explore for oil on their land. This is the piece.

JOSÉ GUALINGA: [translated] For the first time in history, a canoe, that we call the "Canoe of Life," named after the hummingbird fish in our territory, a canoe from Sarayaku, from the Ecuadorean Amazon, has arrived here to Paris, France.

NINA GUALINGA: My name is Nina Gualinga, and I am here with a delegation from Sarayaku. And Sarayaku is situated in the Ecuadorean Amazon. And we have brought a canoe all the way to Paris, here to the COP, with a message of peace, of hope, and a proposal called Kawsak Sacha. That means "The Living Forest." And it is a proposal to make sure that nature’s rights are being respected, indigenous peoples’ rights are being respected, and also a way to combat climate change.

The whole community has been involved, pretty much. There’s one person who shapes the canoe, and then there are others also helping to burn it and things like that. And then you make like a big party. You gather all of your friends and family and community members to drag the canoe all the way from the mountain down to the river. We had to take it all the way to the nearest port, which is in Canelos, by canoe, so that took, I think, a day or so. And then, from Puyo, we had to take it to the capital of Ecuador, Quito, and then from Quito, on a plane—or from Guayaquil, maybe, to Paris. But first, it got stuck in Ecuador because of troubles with the flight, I think. And then it got stuck in customs here in Paris. So, it’s been quite hard to get it all the way here.

AMY LITTLEFIELD: Could you talk about the negotiations here at the COP? And do you feel your voice is being heard inside the summit?

NINA GUALINGA: I think that indigenous peoples’ voices are the voices that should be heard. Indigenous people should be inside the actual negotiations, but we are not. Those who are actually negotiating right now, they might not have to live with the consequences of climate change, but I will. I will have to live with it. My sister, my little brother and my children, they’re all going to have to live with the consequences of climate change. And who are they to decide over my future, over my sister’s future, over my children’s future?

AMY GOODMAN: Nina Gualinga of the Sarayaku of the Ecuadorean Amazon, speaking to Democracy Now!'s Amy [Littlefield]. Special thanks to Mike Burke and to Carla Wills, to Nermeen Shaikh and to Deena Guzder, to Denis Moynihan. I'm Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now! I’ll be speaking tonight at 9:00 at The Place to B here in Paris.

Columbus Day Questions

On this Columbus Day, let's consider the discrepancy between how newcomers are celebrated in our history but ostracized in our society.

By Sara Joseph from Otherworlds.com

Many of us will never forget that famous elementary school rhyme: "In fourteen hundred ninety-two / Columbus sailed the ocean blue." At the time, it's not likely that we would have sensed any looming controversy behind those grade school lessons. With Columbus Day just around the corner, however, it's worth asking whether affection for the holiday is really a serious case of misguided nostalgia.

Columbus Day celebrates the "discovery" of the Americas. But it's clear that the continent had already been inhabited by well-established indigenous communities.

The people who already lived in the region welcomed the first European immigrants with curiosity and open hearts and minds. But it soon became clear that the explorers sent by European royalty had come to dominate, defeat, and destroy.

Christopher Columbus.

On October 12, 1492, Columbus wrote of the native people he encountered: "They should be good servants…they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them."

Columbus is credited with forging the first links between American and European civilizations. But whether the manner in which these cultures collided merits commemoration as a federal holiday is doubtful at best.

Throughout most of the Americas, schoolchildren don't remember Columbus Day with cutesy images of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. In fact, it's often called by an entirely different name: Dia de la Raza (Latin American Heritage Day). This is a way to recognize indigenous roots in the Americas. It also serves as a tribute to the lives and civilizations lost in the name of slavery and European expansion — beginning with Columbus' arrival in 1492.

Today, Latin American and Caribbean schoolchildren that migrate to the United States are unlikely to receive a hero's welcome. In fact, they are often forced to live in the shadows as their parents struggle to survive. Presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann recently went so far as to mock Rick Perry's statement that anyone with a "heart" would want to protect the rights of immigrant children to an education — even if they were brought to the United States "through no fault of their own."

Migration across what's now the U.S.-Mexican border has existed for centuries. The reality is that this history was marked by periodic shared interest in promoting immigration. But as economic and anti-narcotic policies initiated by Washington have increased pressure on Latin American people to migrate, immigration has become a hot-button issue for people across the political spectrum.

To many, the flow of immigration seems daunting. Bachmann recently proposed a solution: "Build a barrier, a fence, a wall…every mile, every yard, every foot, every inch will be covered on that southern border."

But spending billions on border militarization hasn't stopped undocumented migration. In fact, one of the only notable outcomes of beefing up the border has been more death, danger, and lives lost in the desert.

Ideally, every October we would celebrate the coming together of the cultures of the Americas. Sadly, the legacy of cultural domination and separation continues with border militarization as a tenet of our foreign policy.

According to President Barack Obama, it is Columbus' "intrepid character and spirit of possibility that has come to define America, and is the reason countless families still journey to our shores."

To whom is Obama referring if not the immigrants who come to the United States for a chance to support their families? On this Columbus Day, let's consider the discrepancy between how newcomers are celebrated in our history but ostracized in our society — and what we can learn from a modern analysis of Columbus' story.

Proud Taotaomo'na

Proud taotaomo’na
Thursday, 04 June 2009
Letter to the Editor
Marianas Variety

IT SEEMS amazing how many proud Chamorros there are in the Mariana Islands. But when the word “independence” or the phrase “Yankee Go Home” are mentioned, attitudes change. You see, I am used to hearing bragging rights on the word “proud” from people who come from independent nations except from America, for the white race are not from America. As a matter of fact, they all emigrated from Europe since the late 1400s. Instead of saying proud Italian, Scottish, Irish, German, etc., they used the word American. For example, proud Irish-American, African American, and just plain “proud American.” Who is the true American though? I was taught that the Indians (Apache, Sioux, Cheyenne, etc.) and Mexican, Columbian, Brazilians are the true Americans.

Now let’s return to these islands. These islands, called the Mariana Islands, are inhabited by the oldest society on earth and are known throughout our planet by the old civilization as the Mountain Range of the Crescent Moon, in which the old civilizations claim as their origins.

Today, these islands are owned by the United States of America through wars: the Spanish American War of 1898 and World War II. Not as an independent country, but a property.

Between “Chamorro” and “Chamoru,” which spelling is correct? Actually, the word Chamorro/ru is not indigenous to these islands. It is indigenous to Spain. If a person were to consult a Spanish/English dictionary, one will find out that the word “Chamorro” is defined as the hind leg of a cow. So my question is how we, the aboriginals, can call ourselves “Chamorro” when it is not indigenous to our own language.

The next question should be, “What is our true name?” The answer is taotanomo’na. Then again, a proud Chamorro/ru will say that taotaomo’na means spirit. In reality, the true word for spirit is Aniti. It was actually the Catholic Church that made us believe that taotaomo’na and Chamorro are our true names.

The reason why the indigenous succumbed to their lies in such a short time is due to the ordered punishment and abuse both mentally and physically.

To the foreigners, the Spanish, even God believed our ancestors to be savages, who needed to be civilized. So guess what happened? Since 1521, when Magellan arrived until 1696, record of the size of the native population has been estimated to be over 200,000 throughout the islands. But in 1695, when all natives were assembled on Guam, the population count was under 4,000.

I would love to say to all the indigenous of these islands: Let’s come together and reclaim being a “Proud Taotaomo’na,” and reclaim our lands back and become and independent nation.

Howard A. Hemsing
a.k.a. Maga’lahi Maga’ Aniti
Yigo

United Nations Asked to Probe Plight of Pacific's Indigenous Peoples

From the Website:
Indigenous People's Issues Today:

Five Important Indigenous People's Issues for the Week of April 22 - May 5, 2008
Indigenous Ainu People to Press Demands at G8 Summit

Japan's hosting of the G8 summit in Hokkaido in July will afford a rare opportunity for the Ainu people who live on the island to press their long-standing demand to be recognized as an indigenous people.Officially, for the Jul 7-9 summit of rich nations, Japan’s leaders have said they would like to see global health high on the agenda as also sustainable forest development, climate change and development.But the Ainu have other plans to roll out in Hokkaido at the Jul 1-4 Indigenous Peoples Summit, ahead of the G8 event. "If the government recognizes the Ainu as indigenous people everything would change," said Saki Mina, an Ainu leader, at a press conference here last week.There are about 200,000 Ainu living throughout Japan though most are concentrated in the northern island of Hokkaido. Ainu were once thought of as the remnants of a Caucasoid group but this is yet to be proved. Read the rest of the story here....

United Nations Asked to Probe Plight of Pacific's Indigenous Peoples

Representatives of various indigenous groups in the Pacific region have asked a United Nations panel to sponsor seminars and visiting missions that would look into the rights and situations of the natives of colonized territories, whose environments are said to have been exploited by "foreign superpowers."Environmental destructions through toxic waste dumping, mining and deforestation were among the top issues tackled by indigenous peoples in the Pacific region at the Seventh Session of the United Nation's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.Michael Dodson, member of the permanent forum, said indigenous lands and waters were being targeted by industrialized nations for dumping of toxic or radioactive wastes from industrial or military operations, often without informing residents of dangers. Read the rest of the story here....

Indigenous People's Hunger Strikers in Mexico Released from Prisons

After years of asserting their innocence, a group of indigenous Zapatista advocates are free, for now.The Mexican government released 149 political prisoners in the first two weeks of April, including 37 hunger strikers, almost all of whom were indigenous people from Chiapas who had been alleging they were the victims of torture, false imprisonment for political reasons, and other abuses. Another 20 prisoners are still incarcerated in Chiapas and Tabasco, but activists have not relented in their efforts, as further abuses in and outside the prisons are coming to light.The vast majority of the freed prisoners was indigenous activists, and had been imprisoned at some point between 1994 and 2006. They were involved with social change groups such as the Zapatista Other Campaign, the Independent Agricultural Worker and Campesino Center (CIOAC in Spanish) and the Pueblo Creyente (Believing People), a group of indigenous Catholics active in social justice issues. Most of the freed men were from the Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal or Chole communities in the Chiapas region. Among the leaders who first came out were Zacario Hernandez, Enrique Hernandez, Pascual Heredia Hernandez, Jose Luis Lopez Sanchez, Ramon Guardaz Cruz and Antonio Diaz Ruiz. Read the rest of the story here....

Hearings of Proposed Tipaimukh Dam Available: Indigenous Peoples Resource

Tipaimukh Dam Public Hearings from 2004 till 2008.The month of March 2008 events two public hearings for proposed Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project, one at Tipaimukh dam site, Churachandpur District on 31 March 2008 and another at Keimai village, Tamenglong District, Manipur on 26th March 2008, both organized by the Manipur Pollution Control Board. The public hearing at Keimai village registered extraordinary support from the Assam Rifles and the Border Security Forces camps nearby and slaughtering of pigs for handpicked participants by project proponents in both hearings. The first public hearing on Tipaimukh dam project at Darlawn Community Hall, Darlawn, Mizoram on 2 December 2004 was severely criticized for its lack of transparency of the project proponent, North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) and failure to provide vital documents, including Detailed Project Report, Environment Impact Assessment etc.The Tipaimukh Multipurpose Hydroelectric Project, to be constructed 500 Metres downstream from the confluence of Barak and Tuivai rivers, in South-western corner of Manipur over Barak river, with firm generation capacity of 401.25MW, has been one of the most controversial mega developmental projects in Manipur. While the project proponents, the Government of India and Manipur and NEEPCO hailed the project as bearing immense potentials and economic benefits, several issues remained unresolved, primarily the insensitive attitude of the Government and the project proponents to the legitimate concerns of the project affected villagers in the upstream and downstream portion of the Barak River. Find the resource here....

Indigenous People's Voices Demand Climate Justice

In the massive half-moon shaped United Nations conference auditorium filled with hundreds of individuals robed in colorful traditional clothing, jewerly and ceremonial items, a young female’s voice echoes from the center of the room.“We indigenous peoples are emphatic in stating that those primarily responsible for climate change are the governments and companies of the industrialized world,” said Edith Bastidas, executive director of the Centro de Cooperación al Indígena in Bolivia, during a day of testimonies April 22. “[They] are encouraging a production and consumption model that is destroying the biodiversity and natural resources of our Mother Earth.” Catch the rest of the story here....

Native Radio Building Community

Native Radio Building Community
In These Times
September 27, 2008

For many communities — especially the country’s Native American tribes — radio still promises a way to spread news, share stories and support a cultural or regional identity.
By Mike Janssen

As new technologies take hold in the marketplace — and in the minds of consumers — old media are starting to look, well, older. FM radio is no exception. The debut of new cell phones that deliver audio applications spurred predictions of radio’s demise.

But for many communities, radio still promises a way to spread news, share stories and support a cultural or regional identity. This is especially true for the country’s Native American tribes, which have seized a rare chance to start new radio stations as a way of strengthening their communities.

Last fall, many Native people joined hundreds of schools, activists, churches and nonprofit groups that applied for new noncommercial FM stations with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Most of these applications were for frequencies in smaller towns and rural areas. (Radio spectrum in larger cities is too crowded to accommodate new signals).

Because the FCC had not accepted applications for noncommercial stations in more than seven years, demand was high.

Working to help tribal applicants was Native Public Media (NPM), a spin-off of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, which advocates on behalf of community stations across the country. NPM focuses on all media, not just radio. One of its goals is to increase Native access to broadband Internet.

But even in the Internet era, radio still suits the needs of Native communities, says Loris Ann Taylor, NPM’s executive director. Cheap and ubiquitous, radio is easily accessible to the poor, the illiterate and the low-tech. Radio also covers great distances instantaneously, making it particularly valuable for tribal communities in far-flung villages.

In Alaska, Native communities use radio to exchange personal messages and keep abreast of potentially dangerous weather.

“Radio really reaches across those barriers,” Taylor says. “In Indian country, radio still works.”

For Taylor, empowering Native communities with their own stations also carries a deeper significance. Through locally controlled media, tribal communities gain the power to reflect their Native cultures back to each other — a right denied them throughout decades of persecution and genocide. Taylor still remembers the grade-school teacher who pinched her hand if she spoke her Hopi language in class.

“What I find really important about my work is that radio allows us to be who we want to be,” she says. “It’s like freedom.”

Many noncommercial stations around the country focus on community issues. This is especially true of Native stations, which cover topics such as health, education and the environment; feature locally programmed music; and broadcast in Native languages that in some places are spoken by very few people.

With help from Native Public Media, 37 Native nations applied for 51 radio stations last fall. None of the applicants currently operates a station, according to Taylor. Even if some of those applicants fail in their bid for licenses, Native radio could double its U.S. presence. (There are 33 Native stations on the air now.)

It could also branch out geographically. No tribal stations broadcast east of the Mississippi, but last fall’s applicants included the Seneca tribe of New York and the Houma of Louisiana.

So far, 12 tribes have received FCC clearance to build stations. Many are now looking for startup funds, pricing equipment costs and planning programming.

One is South Dakota’s Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribe, which once operated a radio station but lost the license when it failed to meet annual FCC requirements. Its drive to regain a station began at the urging of a few tribal members who run an Internet station, says Garryl Rousseau, chair of the new FM station’s board.

Many of the tribe’s 6,000 members want the station to promote their Dakota language, Rousseau says, which is in need of a boost. In a 2003 survey, less than 10 percent of members rated their command of Dakota as either “fluent” or “good,” and half said they couldn’t speak a word.

“It hasn’t gotten any better,” says Rousseau. He envisions a radio station that could partner with tribal schools to develop language education programs.

Other tribes face a longer wait to see whether they will receive broadcast licenses, as the FCC sorts out conflicts involving multiple applicants vying for competing frequencies. Among these applicants are the Coeur d’Alene tribe of northern Idaho, where Valerie Fast Horse, the director of information technology, learned of the opportunity to start a station through Taylor. (Both serve on the telecommunications committee of the National Congress of American Indians, an organization of tribal governments made up of 250 member tribes).

The Coeur d’Alene reservation covers 345,000 acres and is home to 2,000 tribal members who have no radio station that provides programming about their region or culture, Fast Horse says. They get their news from a station in Spokane, Wash.

Fast Horse says she envisions a radio station that covers local sports, tribal government and the Coeur d’Alene’s culture, music, language and history. The station could also deliver news about forest fires and heavy snowstorms.

And perhaps, most importantly, it could help improve the tribe’s relationship with non-Native neighbors. The Coeur d’Alene recently encountered friction with a group of nearby residents over control of resources, says Fast Horse.

“We need to tell our own stories about ourselves in a way that’s suitable to us,” she says. “Others can say what they want — it could be favorable or unfavorable. If we can tell our story, people have another voice to listen to.” 

Mike Janssen is a freelance writer and editor based in the Washington, D.C. area. His articles frequently appear in Current newspaper, the trade newspaper covering public broadcasting. His website is mikejanssen.net.

Sinangan-ta

Project aims to empower young poets
By Lacee A.C. Martinez
Pacific Daily News
October 13, 2008

As one of the organizers of the monthly Sinangån-ta poetry slams, Melvin Won Pat-Borja -- along with other members of the Sinangån-ta group -- has inspired many to breathe life into words they've penned on paper.

The poetry slams, held on the last Saturday of each month, draw youths and adults, teachers and students, and many others to perform their poems on stage.

Won Pat-Borja and crew will soon offer island teens the tools to develop their talents, with an outreach program that has the potential to grow award-winning poets.

Through a grant from the Guam Humanities Council, the group will launch "Sinangån-ta: The New Generation of Native Tongues" this month, offering teens free writing and performance workshops.

"It's really a dynamic program that has been proven in Hawaii and they've modeled it from there," said Kimberlee Kihleng, executive director of the Guam Humanities Council. "The council's most recent efforts is to reach our island youth. It's fabulous because it does that and you're teaching about language, writing and critical thinking, as well as creative arts. It's a win-win situation."

Creating a community of young critical thinkers, authors and writers is the big goal of the project, Won Pat-Borja said. He added it will also establish validity of their work in high school curriculum.

Part of the grant funding will go to publish a collection of the participants' work, which will be donated to the Guam Public School System.

"Our goal is to eventually have these young authors become part of the (literary) canon," he said. "A lot of the times, the canon consists of old, dead authors that kids don't care about. We're trying to empower these kids to know that their writing and their voice is important and it will be heard."

Now a Southern High School English teacher, Won Pat-Borja grew up writing music, gravitating toward rap and hip-hop styles.

"For me, personally, I like rhyming, I like rhythm," he said. "When I was in high school, I didn't always have access to recording equipment and it was hard for me to keep practicing my craft. But poetry -- it just seemed like it was always available. I could always write poems and you don't need music."'

Empowerment
The workshops will give teens a space to write without boundaries, drawing from their experiences first and eventually building on literary skills and learning and refining techniques.

"When (students) think of writing, they have this stereotype of what poetry is and what writing is," Won Pat-Borja says. "We're trying to say that is not necessarily 'Roses are red and violets are blue,' and Shakespeare. Whatever is going to allow you to deliver your message to a given audience, that's what we want. We try to focus on empowering the students to feel like their message is important, what they say is important. How they choose to say it, that's up to them."

While attending college in Hawaii, Won Pat-Borja became involved in the poetry slam scene, eventually competing in national competitions with his school. Before returning to Guam, he helped lay the foundation for the Hawaii chapter of the Youth Speaks outreach program, conducting poetry workshops for teens.

Youth Speaks Hawaii competed and won first place in this year's 11th annual International Poetry Slam Festival, held in Washington, D.C.

Slam event
The end of the Guam project will include a slam event, featuring at least two of the members of the award-winning Hawaii team.

On Guam, the poetry slam competitions recently were expanded to all-ages shows, luring youths to step up and compete sometimes with others twice their age, thanks to Won Pat-Borja and fellow organizers Kie Susuico and Fanai Castro.

Sinangån-ta, which means "our spoken words" in Chamorro, perpetuates the long tradition of oral history the island holds, encouraging others to speak up on cultural issues, Suscuico said.

Peter Onedera, who teaches Chamorro language at the University of Guam and is president of a literary Chamorro performance group, supports the project because it aims to continue the island's oral tradition and promote strong cultural awareness.

"On the culture aspect, there's a generation crying out saying, 'Listen, pay attention to us because we are faced with this.'" he said. "I saw that underlying message of Won Pat-Borja's presentation and it blew my mind. I support him 110 percent in his endeavors to teach self-expression to young people in poetry."

Guam at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Global Indigenous TV Network

Indigenous TV Broadcasters To Form Global Network
Wednesday, 12 March 2008, 12:13 pm
Press Release: Maori Television Service
PUBLICITY RELEASE
TUESDAY MARCH 11 2008


Indigenous TV Broadcasters To Form Global Network

A global network of indigenous television broadcasters will be launched at the World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Conference – WITBC ’08 – to be hosted by Maori Television in Auckland from March 26-28.

The World Indigenous Television Broadcasting Network (WITBN) will be aimed at promoting indigenous broadcasting at the highest levels internationally and at fostering closer relationships between broadcasters. Indigenous television leaders are encouraged to attend the conference at the Aotea Centre – part of the Auckland Convention Centre at THE EDGE® – and contribute to this important milestone in the development of indigenous broadcasting.

Maori Television chief executive Jim Mather says global indigenous broadcasters share similar organisational visions and purpose – to protect, maintain and strengthen indigenous representation in the media while preserving and developing their indigenous languages, culture, people and stories.

Indigenous broadcasters worldwide face similar challenges in the legislative and political struggle particularly in terms of meaningful participation in global broadcasting and creating space for indigenous voices, sharing of limited resource, and access to new resources including funding, technology and skilled workforce.

“The process of building relationships and connections amongst indigenous broadcasters has already begun with many trans-national and collaborative initiatives mostly in the form of film festivals and conferences, and some collaborative initiatives such as the Pac Rim documentary series,” Mr Mather says.

“However, there is no formalised worldwide indigenous broadcasting network or collaborative body. WITBC ’08 provides a space for discussions around the establishment of a global network which will open up a number of opportunities in terms of increased audiences, access to resources, international indigenous advocacy and knowledge transfer such as learning, teaching, up-skilling and training.”

Leaders, producers and planners involved in indigenous and public television can also register to attend WITBC ‘08 via the website www.witbc.org.

Stolen Generation Apology

The Despair of the Indigenous People

Letter to the Editor: The despair of the indigenous people
December 14, 2007
The Saipan Tribune


MR. John Kapileo’s recent letter to you will resonate in the minds and hearts of the indigenous people of the CNMI and I am very happy that people like him are beginning to participate in the discussion on the issue of immigration and migrants in the CNMI.

Mr. Kapileo recognized the despair of the indigenous people when their homeland is being bastardized by the most powerful nation in the world and people are flocking to these islands in search of the American Dream at the cost of the people that were here first.

If democracy is at work, Mr. Kapileo is right — Rep.-elect Tina Sablan is heading in the direction that will perpetuate more poison to the despair of the indigenous people of the CNMI.

Democracy is at work and being a trashcan after an election is a normative political behavior in the eyes of the freshman representative who is supposedly under moral obligation to give and divide equal attention of her official time to the problems of the land.

The bad news to Mr. Kapileo, however, is that you and scores of other voters like you in Precinct 1 have forfeited your votes even before the games are played to the freshman representative who is now a foreigner and careless about your need for representation in the Legislature.

You see how ironic democracy is, turning the tides against the people who voted you to office is perfectly acceptable. We asked those caring elected representatives in the new Legislature to hold the fort of the indigenous people because we are counting on your true and genuine concern in advancing the cause and aspirations for those people who have struggled and lived the lives of their ancestors and witnessed every human turmoil of war, and Godgiven hardship so that we value and give meaning to a permanent homeland for future generations of our kind.

The islands in the CNMI are not for auction to anybody — these islands are meant for the indigenous people. This is a cause that will divide people who are new to these islands and people who came to these islands first, but once you see the despair of the indigenous people, you cannot unsee it.

We all know that Saipan, in particular, is over populated. The island could not forever sustain the current level of population. Hence, elected officials like Rep. Cinta Kaipat said that overpopulation and the potential of permanent migration of people to the CNMI is a serious threat to the life and livelihood of the indigenous people. This is not a congenital defect in our particular brand of democracy! The CNMI is not the place where the American Dreams could be found as gold that lies at the end of the rainbow.

For those that have given false hope to desperate migrants in the CNMI, giving encouragement that it is moral and democratic to desecrate the indigenous people of the CNMI in launching their platforms for the American Dream — the indigenous people will view this as bad to their well-being, and consequently, a new democracy will come.

At the end of day this matter will be too overbearing and the masses will be awakened and chaos will emanate across every heart and mind of the indigenous people to fight and recover what was once their own homeland.

Scores of Pacific island people in modern times are being pushed aside by foreigners in their own homelands. Guam and Hawaii are examples where the indigenous people are being outnumbered because of U.S. immigration policy. Fiji is a prime example where migrants from India are overtaking the survival of the indigenous people in their own homeland and chaos in this region of the world is a sad story and this is imminent in the CNMI if the U.S. plants its own immigration policy here.

As indigenous people in the CNMI, are we to stop and wait for the worst? We need to act in a proactive manner and have a voice and a unified force to protect our existence as a people and let everyone know that the CNMI belongs to the Chamorrosand Carolinians wo are attached to these islands as their homeland. We welcome visitors, but you are only a visitor and one day we expect that you will leave us and these lands.

Ms. Tina Sablan’s position will ignite further division of the people that she thinks she is representing and those that she has publicly abandoned. Perhaps the people that voted and supported her in the election did so in haste, but are now regurgitating their decision.

Language was used to pacify and fool the people. The words of Ms. Tina Sablan were misunderstood. We hope that as she plays her politics of justice she would give some special attention to the indigenous people’s despair and promote their desire to be left alone and to flourish as a people in their homeland. She should search and find the balance as she is introduced and welcomed to the world of politics of immigration, migration, education, health care, resistance, morality, governance, opposition, accountability, the environment, the indigenous people, and the sickening uncertainty for future generations like my grandchildren and those that follow my foot steps.

I hope Ms. Tina Sablan would find in her heart that the indigenous people of the CNMI are a people that have only their land to have and the language and tradition to be identified with. We hope that as the church teaches us to give respect to others, those that come to our house should respect us as well. But if that is not the case, we ought to ask that you leave us.

Ms. Tina Sablan should realize that when those who are advising her have achieved their aims, they will leave the commonwealth and the world will start collapsing and she will be viewed as one who helped desecrate her own people.

Idealism is good, but people fight for idealism because it is the right thing to do in their minds. We need to connect thoughts and language in the same way that we integrate idealism to realism. We know our language and our thoughts as indigenous people of the CNMI, and once you see how we feel and value our life, you cannot unsee it.

FRANCISCO R. AGULTO

Chalan Kanoa, Saipan