Indigenous Peoples' Scissor-Sharp Words Slice Through Failures at the United Nations

 Indigenous Peoples' Scissor-Sharp Words Slice Through Failures at the United Nations

Indigenous representatives from Mexico, Hawai'i, New Zealand, and Vietnam deliver the fire of their words, in defense of their people, at the U.N. Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues in New York. Images by Censored News

The Smokescreens are Exposed, as Indigenous Peoples Call out the Systematic Racism and Violence, and the Terrorism of Extractive  Industries

By Brenda Norrell, (c)Censored News, April 24, 2026

NEW YORK -- Cristina Bautista was murdered after she testified at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. A young Native Hawaiian family ran for their lives from the fires in Hawai'i as their ancestral homeland burned to the ground. In the MeKong Delta of Vietnam, Buddhist Monks and women rights defenders are imprisoned, and the government of New Zealand is imprisoning Maori women and stealing the future of Maaori children.

With the fire of their words, Indigenous People peeled back the hypocrisy of the governments of the world at the United Nations -- revealing the false guarantees of governments who claim to be upholding Indigenous rights.

For the Indigenous youths in Mexico, Colombia and all across the South, testimony at the United Nations Permanent Forum has meant imprisonment or death.

"Our sister Cristina Bautista participated in this forum shortly before being murdered and for defending autonomy, and is present," an Indigenous rights defender from Tijuana, Mexico, told the U.N. Permanent Forum.

"Before being murdered recently, our brother Marcus Aguilar Rojos, who is an Indigenous authority, helped build an autonomous health clinic for the community."

Speaking during the first week of the two week session, she described how in Chiapas, the Mayan Zapatistas have developed their own autonomous health system over the past 30 years.

When Indigenous communities build their own autonomous health systems, she said they are attacked with violence.

"Who protects us but not if not ourselves."

"The State is silent, where do we turn?" She said the killings are driven by extractive interests and lithium mining. These acts of violence carried out without free, prior and informed consent -- and systematic racism.

"I speak today with grief -- but conviction."

Em-Haley Kukutai Walker (Waikato, Ngaati Tiipaa) Image Censored News

In the heart of the Pacific, the New Zealand government ignores the violence perpetuated on Maaori women and girls.

The government of New Zealand is not progressing with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They are carrying out a race-based agenda and under-reporting abuse, Em-Haley Kukutai Walker (Waikato, Ngaati Tiipaa) told the Forum .

"The incumbent right-wing is disempowering my people."

The plague and rage of colonization since the 1800's continues to sicken her people.

Maaori women comprise 63 percent of the prison population, despite representing only 8 percent of the population. The government has abandoned prison reduction targets. Generations of babies are disconnected from their lineage in state care by the government.

The lack of trust in police, and the fact that Maaori women are disbelieved indicate the severe under-reporting of abuse.

"Hear the cry of my people."

 Independent Nation of Hawai‘i Representative De Andre Makakoa. Image Censored News

Speaking for the independent Nation of Hawai‘i, De Andre Makakoa's powerful words described how he ran with his pregnant wife and son to escape the fires, fires enabled by the theft of sovereign land and precious water.

Makakoa described the illegal overthrow of the sovereign nation of Hawai'i by the United States, and the theft of land and water that now imperils his people with fires and floods. If there was free, prior and informed consent, his homeland would be flourishing right now.

Makakoa said his people do not need A.I., artificial intelligence -- they need ancestral knowledge.

Paele Kiakona of the delegation said in his statement, "I stand before you as a native representative of an occupied sovereign nation whose overthrow in 1893 remains un-remedied under international law. Many know our homeland as the 50th state of the United States. We know it as the Nation of Hawaiʻi." 

"I am here today representing my hometown of Lahaina, which in August 2023 was devastated by wildfire."

"Lahaina was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom but now has the reputation as the place where the deadliest wildfire in recent U.S. history took place."

"More than 13,000 people were displaced and scattered overnight including Native Hawaiian families, immigrants, and multi-generational households."

On that day, over 100 people lost their lives and many are still not home.

"Now we are not here to represent just a single town, but Lahaina's tragedy is an opportunity for the world to see what happens when the fate of our home is out of our hands. Despite our efforts the pattern continues."

In this fragile landscape, there are now floods and fires.

"In both cases of flood and fire, we were left to fend for ourselves by the occupant that has created the conditions we are forced to live in."

Drought in South Sudan. AFP photo

Central African cattle herders told of their hungry and lean cattle killed and their cattle herders kidnapped and tortured for ransom.

The Central African Network told the U.N. Permanent Forum, "The loss of 1,300 cattle not only represents economic devastation -- but a direct threat to cultural survival."

Cattle herders are killed, their animals poisoned and there is no effective response.

In Ecuador, the rivers are filled with metals from oil and gas drilling.

Indigenous Quechua in the Amazon said the government of Ecuador is using the United Nations Permanent Forum as a "Smokescreen" while it mutilates Mother Earth.

"The government is promoting oil projects on Indigenous territories." Ecuador must stop the explosives that are used to clear the land," Quechua elders told the Forum.

The delegation of the Khmer-Krom peoples in Vietnam. Image Censored News

From the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, Emily Hang pointed out, "Health is not just the physical and mental well-being of Indigenous Peoples; It is the inter-connectedness of our culture, spirituality, our land, and our environment with our physical bodies and mental state."

The delegation of the Khmer-Krom peoples in Vietnam said Buddhist Monks are imprisoned, and one of the women human rights defenders is now imprisoned for organizing a women's day celebration.

The most vulnerable Indigenous Peoples from around the world made it apparent that they are not naive. They know their testimony each year at the U.N. Permanent Forum is not resulting in protection for their people.

"On behalf of the Khmer-Krom peoples in Kampuchea Krom of the Southern Mekong Delta in Vietnam, I come to you today to highlight how the health of the Khmer-Krom people is being undermined by economic pressure, environmental degradation, state repression, and extreme exclusion from decision-making," Hang told the Forum.

"Being a community of indigenous farmers means that our livelihoods are dependent on the well-being of our land."

"However, our agricultural practices built on our ancestral knowledge are forcibly erased due to exhaustive, export-driven rice production that pollutes our water and soil with chemicals and fertilizers."

"Physically, our bodies are overworked and abused and the food and water we consume to replenish our spirit is poisoned."

Quechua leaders spoke to the U.N. Permanent Forum on the International Day of Mother Earth, resounding how the health of the people is affected in places of conflict.

"Our lands are being encroached by large-scale mining and oil exploration without prior consent. They are polluting our water and contaminating our food, perpetuating the health problems," Quechua elders told the Forum.

"They are permanently encroaching on our way of life."

Hundreds of Quechua leaders are being interfered with.

"Our leaders bank accounts are being frozen just because they are defending life on our land."

"We need to foster the health of Mother Earth if we want to foster the health of the people."

Quechua leaders said the government of Ecuador is not telling the United Nations how it is undermining the rights of the people.

"In reality they are using this as a Smokescreen to coverup their lack of efforts to fight climate change."

While Ecuador is accelerating its illegal mining, Quechua elders said, "More than 100 leaders have been tried for unjustified embezzlement and accounts have been closed."

Quechua urged unity and persistence and said the ongoing fight for Mother Earth will prevail.

U.N. Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples Dr Albert K. Barume. Image Censored News

U.N. Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples Dr Albert K. Barume, of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, responded.

"Indigenous peoples are being killed, and are under arrest. Many live in hiding."

It is because their land is not protected.

"They are vulnerable -- and this is Latin America, this is in Africa, this is in Asia, this is across the world."

"Those lands are often occupied by drug traffickers, terrorist groups and criminal activities," Dr. Barume told the Forum.

Governments are making conditions worse and increasingly volatile.

"The action of the states is to send in more military, more security, more police."

Calling on governments to shift this paradigm, he pointed out that Indigenous Peoples are being considered accomplices and terrorists.

Copyright Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 24, 2026