CENSORED NEWS

April 24, 2025

From the Heart of the Amazon, Women Rise Above Violence, Demand Sanctions on Mining Companies

Fany Kuiru Castro, COICA, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Censored News

From the Heart of the Amazon, Women Rise Above Violence, Demand Sanctions on Mining Companies

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 24, 2025

NEW YORK -- From the heart of the Amazon, Indigenous women demand their voices be heard, and oil and mining companies be sanctioned for crimes against humanity for the metals poisoning their rivers and women.

"I'm not here by mere coincidence, I'm here with the strength of our grandchildren, our young people, and our martyrs," Fany Kuiru Castro, coordinator of COICA, told the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

She said Indigenous women endure structural and systematic violence in the Amazon.

"We are age-old owners of the biological beating heart of the planet, but when we don't even have our rights to speak on its behalf recognized -- we can no longer remain silent."

Urging those present to speak out about the violence, and demand that the voices of Indigenous women be heard, she said, "Our territories voices ring out here."

"We don't want symbolic tokenistic invitations, we demand that we participate with a voice and a vote, this must be a binding obligation."

She said countries must carry out inquiries for the ongoing crimes against humanity and issue sanctions against businesses for the crimes of extractivism, oil and mining.

The oil and mining industries leave toxic contamination, arsenic, mercury and lead. Those medals contaminate the rivers and affect the reproductive health of the women, resulting in infertility, fetal abnormalities, miscarriages and rare illnesses, as was seen in Ecuador and other regions.

"We don't come to ask for your permission but to demand justice for our physical and cultural survival and our dignity -- because when an Indigenous woman speaks, she does not speak alone."

COICA is the largest Indigenous organization in the world and Fany Kuiru Castro is the first Indigenous woman to chair the organization after 40 years of existence.

COICA, Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin, is the Coordinadora de las Organizaciones Indígenas de la Cuenca Amazónica founded in 1984 in Lima, Peru.

Read more in Censored News series

From the heart of the Amazon, women arise about violence, demand sanctions on mining

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/from-heart-of-amazon-women-rise-above.html

The ecocide of mining in Bolivia

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-ecocide-of-mining-testimony-at-un.html

Australian Indigenous brings power of warrior women to United Nations

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/australian-indigenous-brings-power-of.html

Fighting for the People, Protecting the Water, Dine' Rally at Navajo Nation Council

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/fighting-for-people-protecting-water.html

Navajo President is a 'No Show.' Dine' Say Nygren is Selling Them out in Washington

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/dine-coalition-opposes-navajo.html

U.N. Permanent Forum Begins with Voices of Indigenous Women

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/04/un-permanent-forum-on-indigenous-issues.html

April 23, 2025

The Ecocide of Mining: Testimony at U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Bolivian Parliamentarian describes the genocide from mining in her homeland.

The Ecocide of Mining

Testimony at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 23, 2025

NEW YORK -- The extractive industries lead to extermination, to genocide, said the Indigenous Parliamentarian from Bolivia. Many of her Indigenous brothers and sisters have their blood contaminated with cyanide and mercury and others, and they have no access to hospitals. They don't have medical insurance, she said, and they have no way of alleviating this.

"The ecocide is continuing," she told the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York today.

The Sami Council representative describes the mining and violations of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Blood diamonds are the currency for weapons in the Congo.

In Europe, Sami rights are violated by mining without free, prior and informed consent. The mining of critical minerals is a global crisis for Indigenous Peoples, from Asia to Bolivia, Colombia and Guatemala, say Indigenous Peoples speaking today at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York.

The violence targeting Indigenous Peoples by mining companies continues globally during the so-called energy transition. And the majority of the mining companies are headquartered in Canada and Australia.

Australia is failing to back Indigenous leadership, said the representative from South Wales and Australia.

"Expelling invaders does not work, because they return," said Brazil's representative.

"We have been fighting and getting stronger, to reclaim the child in each of us," said an Indigenous representative from so-called Canada, speaking about surviving residential schools.

In the struggle for their land, he said, "We need the title to our land."

"We need the U.N. Declaration Rights on Indigenous Peoples and free, prior and informed consent." The rivers are being polluted, and massive landslides blocked the migration of salmon, and the salmon are the source of their food security.

Consent must be given by the people for resource extraction, he said.

The representatives said their children and women are not protected by the government of Canada, and continue to go missing.

"Our children are our greatest resource."

April 22, 2025

Australian Indigenous Brings Power of Warrior Women to U.N. Permanent Forum

Shantelle Thompson, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Censored News

Australian Indigenous Brings Power of Ngiyampaa Warrior Women to U.N. Permanent Forum

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 22, 2025

NEW YORK -- Shantelle Thompson, a proud Barkindji/Ngiyampaa, brought the power of the oldest living culture in the world, stating that Australian Aboriginal women are not victims, and do not sell out to fit the colonial narrative. Thompson, a world champion black belt, delivered this message of women rising.

Speaking to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Thompson said she descends from the oldest living culture in the world, is a dreaming-led woman, and comes as a sovereign, self-determined woman, walking with the strength of her ancestors, with the fire of the future in her bones, and planting seeds for generations.

She carries the identity of daughter, sister, mother, auntie, black belt and world champion, storyteller, founder, knowledge-keeper, guide and warrior.

She is known as the Barkindji Warrior.

"This is not the story or experience that colonial and patriarchal Australia would have me share as an Indigenous woman," Thompson told the United Nations today.

"It would have me birth my story from trauma and adversity, that of a victim."

"It is the narrative defined by deficit, of being a Ngiyampaa, less than."

"We are seen as problems to be managed, not sovereign and matriarchal leaders."

"Too often to receive support, we are expected to prostitute our trauma, we must perform our pain, but not be too strong, or the funding disappears."

'This is the violence of the current system, a model that rewards suffering and punishes resilience."

"It is ineffective, it is dangerous and it must change."

Thompson said her story is seeded in the womb of her ancestors, and this is the narrative that Indigenous women give to the world, that of the warrior heart, Indigenous culture, matriarchal power and feminine rising.

On this journey of remembrance, she speaks as a sovereign and self-determined Indigenous woman and mother.

"We are not broken, we are not helpless, we are powerful beyond measure."

"I am not here to ask for permission, I am here to remind the world that when Indigenous women rise, the world changes."

"Let us lead not as a gesture, but as a global necessity."

April 21, 2025

Navajo President a 'No-Show' -- Diné Say Nygren is Selling Them Out in Washington

Navajo President is a No-Show. Diné Say They've Been Played, Nygren is Selling Them Out in Washington.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 21, 2025
Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJE-_6wKg0

WINDOW ROCK, Navajo Nation -- Dine' rallied outside the Navajo Nation Council today, opposing Navajo President Buu Nygren's new push for coal mining in Washington. Nygren was a no-show at the Navajo Nation Council, even though the Navajo Council issued a subpoena for him to give his report to the spring session in person.

Robyn Jackson, Dine' CARE executive director, said Dine' don't have enough water for farming, and many do not have running water in their homes. Now, the Navajo Nation government wants to try experimental carbon sequestration, and helium and hydrogen development projects that require lots of water.