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| Michelle Cook, Dineh (Navajo) and Ofelia Rivas, O'odham, make plans for Cochabamba. Photo Brenda Norrell Sept. 2015 |
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Sept. 25, 2015
English and Dutch
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans, NAIS at:
http://www.denaisgazet.be/nieuws/o-odham-en-dineh-vrouwen-zoeken-sponsors-om-de-chochabamba-klimaat-conferentie-2015-bij-te-wonen
TUCSON -- Tohono O'odham Ofelia Rivas and Dineh Michelle Cook hope to return to Cochabamba, Bolivia, in October and continue the work that they began five years ago when President Evo Morales hosted the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
Bolivia is hosting the World Peoples Conference on Climate Change and Defense of Life, October 10--12, 2015, and the women who facilitated the Indigenous Working Group at the 2010 Conference in Cochabamba hope to be there.
Ofelia Rivas, outspoken human rights defender living on the border in her homeland, on the Tohono O'odham Nation, is founder of O'odham Voice against the Wall. Ofelia co-chaired the Indigenous Working Group in Cochabama in 2010.
"Everyone had a voice," Ofelia said, remembering the gathering in Cochabamba.
Michelle Cook, Dineh (Navajo) flew into Cochabamba from New Zealand in 2010 and assisted Ofelia with the work of the Indigenous Working Group in Cochabamba. Since then, Michelle received her masters degree as a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand, in Maori and Pacific Development, and completed law school at the University of New Mexico. Michelle is currently in the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson.