United Nations: Australian Aboriginal children seized, 'green energy' impacts worsen for Saami

Systematic racism in Australia means that Aboriginal children are being seized from their families, children that are later the victims of a system that results in high rates of child incarceration in Australia's prisons, a representative told the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this morning. Screenshot by Censored News.

United Nations: Australian Aboriginal children seized, 'green energy' impacts worsen for Saami 

Brenda Norrell, Censored News, July 9, 2024

GENEVA -- Australian Aboriginal children continue to be seized from their families by the government, and the situation for Saami in Norway is worsening because of 'green energy' projects, Indigenous representatives told the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples today.

Both Norway and Australia had country engagements with the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples during the past year, but Australian Aboriginal and Saami representatives said today that conditions are not improving.

Urgent Plea from Guatemala

Seven Questions: Johns Hopkins questioned about 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos. Censored News awaits response.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

Oct. 15, 2020

Update Oct. 22, 2020 by Censored News

Johns Hopkins University researchers on the Navajo Nation responded in general to our questions but has not responded to the most important questions regarding the past 40 years of vaccine experiments on Navajos and White Mountain Apache. We have asked a second time: "Have any Navajos or Apaches become sick or died as a result of Johns Hopkins experimental medicines or treatments? (2) Are blood and DNA of Navajo or Apache stored, how are they used, and who has access to these?"

WINDOW ROCK, Arizona -- Johns Hopkins University researchers have been carrying out medical research on Navajos on the Navajo Nation for 40 years. During those years, very little has been made public about the vaccine and medical research which was carried out in Indian Health Service Hospitals on the Navajo Nation.

Now, Johns Hopkins medical researchers are leading the controversial coronavirus vaccine experiments on Navajos and the Navajo government is pushing the vaccine experiments.

Borderlands: Language and songs as resistance, waiting for the wall to come down

During the Borderlands Panel, Ofelia Rivas shares a painting by Casandra Productions honoring  Jakelin Caal Maquin. Jakelin, 7 years old, died in U.S. Border Patrol custody after being arrested near Lordsburg, New Mexico. Ofelia said Jakelin's death and the separation of migrant children from their parents is a continuation of the U.S. policy of genocide of Indigenous Peoples. Photo by Brenda Norrell.

Language and songs as resistance, waiting for the wall to come down

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

SAN RAFAEL Calif. -- The United States is imprisoning migrant children and separating families. It is building a wall as a symbol of racism and separation and continuing the genocide of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. The onslaught, however, has not silenced the languages or the songs, it has not killed the spirits.

Guatemala Radio Project Keeping Hope and Language Alive

Support grassroots radio around the world: More stations raided in Guatemala
From Cultural Survival

Another popular community radio station belonging to the Guatemala Radio Project network was raided last month. Stereo Lago, broadcasting from Panajachel, was shut down by armed guards from the Public Ministry who seized their equipment. The radio stations' right to broadcast is enshrined in the Guatemalan Peace Accords that ended 36 years of civil war, the Guatemalan constitution, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but not in Guatemala's telecommunications law. We are continuing to meet with members of congress in Guatemala City and are putting community radio legislation on their agenda to finalize the reform to the law. We still need your help to send more volunteers to the capital to lobby their representatives.Guatemala Radio Project
Cesar Gomez, GRP Coordinator
“Before we started the radio station in Palin eight years ago, our language, Pocomam, was only spoken in our homes. Now Pocomam is spoken everywhere-in offices, in the streets. Without community radio, we might have lost our native tongue.”—Cesar Gomez, GRP Coordinator
Listen to a broadcast
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/grp/program
The Guatemalan army couldn't wipe out Mayan culture, but American Idol can.
The indigenous peoples of Guatemala have kept their culture through 500 years of colonization, brutal repression, and, most recently, 36 years of genocide that killed 200,000 Maya. But where brute force failed, globalization is succeeding. Mainstream Western entertainment is now flooding Guatemala‘s airwaves, hammering home the 24-hour-a-day message that Mayans should abandon their languages, their clothing, their spirituality, and their identities. And the only thing holding back this tidal wave of homogeneity is a network of tiny 500-watt radio stations.
Cultural Survival is partnering with Guatemalan nongovernmental organizations to strengthen this network of 140 community radio stations across the country, many of which broadcast in one or more of the country’s 23 indigenous languages. The stations provide news, educational programming, health information, and traditional music, all reinforcing pride in Mayan heritage. We provide the equipment and organizational expertise; they provide the people and the passion. And it’s working: languages on the brink of extinction have come back into common use; marimba music that was being replaced with top-40 songs is being played again; and people are wearing the distinctive traje that defines where they come from and who they are. But the job has only begun. A loophole in Guatemalan laws allows the police to shut down stations and confiscate equipment, and they are doing this with increasing frequency. We need your help to shore up this fragile network of protection for Mayan communities and cultures.
More:
If there's a model of hope for the world's indigenous peoples, it is the town of Todos Santos Cuchumatán in northwestern Guatemala. The Mayans who live here still wear their traditional clothing with pride and practice their traditional ceremonies and customs, and 95 percent of the population still speaks Mam. At the same time, the people of Todos Santos also participate vigorously in the larger society and have a thriving economy. The key to this indigenous success story is Radio Qman Txun, the town's community radio station.
Comment:
The Alliance for International Reforestation (AIRES) which plants trees, establishes tree nurseries, provides environmental education, digs wells, and builds fuel-efficient brick ovens, will fund environmental radio content which is dated to begin mid April. AIRES has agreed to underwrite four, 15 minute radio programs to be broadcast throughout Guatemala and translated into the four most commonly spoken languages. These programs (produced and distributed by the CGCC) will serve to educate the public about sustainable farming practices.