New day for Indigenous peoples

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Indigenous people shared a circle of their own making on the world's largest political stage for the first time ever when they opened the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on May 13.

Nearly 1,000 people attending the inauguration in New York of the first full-time UN body devoted to Indigenous issues were greeted by Sid Hill, the tadadaho or spiritual leader of the Iroquois Confederacy.

"We know your journey here has been long and arduous," he said. "We will now wipe the dust from your eyes so you can see clearly the week ahead of you."

After his unanimous election, Ole Henrik Magga, a Sammi from northern Norway, the forum's newly elected chairman, shared his vision.

"The violence in different forms must be stopped. Food must be provided for the hungry.

Many of our people die now when we meet here in New York," he said.

The forum will be based on co-operation, stressed Magga.

"Our work must be carried out with respect for the UN system and other international organizations," he said. "And we will pursue our goals with respect for governments and we will seek co-operation and invite partnership in all of our work."

Although the forum is an unprecedented accomplishment, it will have to overcome many obstacles to successfully fulfill its mandate of advising the UN on Indigenous issues, helping it co-ordinate work on those issues and publicizing the situations of Aboriginal people.

Its 16 members-eight Indigenous experts nominated by their peers and eight state-nominated members-will have to submit their annual reports to the UN economic and social council (ECOSOC), an organization of 54 countries, referred to as 'states' at the UN.

The forum will also have to lobby states and UN agencies for funding. At the moment, with no budget, no office nor staff, the new organization is being sustained by contributions from the office of the high commissioner on human rights and by some governments.

But Indigenous people remain optimistic. "Aboriginal people have been knocking on the doors of the UN for the past 30 years. We finally have something permanent," said AFN vice-president Ghislain Picard, prior to the opening.

Much of the talk in the first days of the forum's first annual 10-day meeting was devoted to co-operation among the forum, governments, non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and the UN agencies devoted to improving the lives of the world's most vulnerable people.

"We will work with the UN system by giving advice to ECOSOC, but also work with the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and other agencies. We have to learn to speak their language," said Wayne Lord, one of two forum members from Canada.

"Sometimes the role of the Indigenous forum will be simply to point out the linkages, to say to that state, those agencies, that NGO, 'why don't you work together,'" continued Lord, the nominee of the Canadian government and a director in the foreign affairs department. Canada's other member is Willie Littlechild

In his address, Assembly of First Nations leader Matthew Coon Come acknowledged Canada's support for the forum, but criticized the government's inaction on respecting court decisions in respect of Aboriginal rights.

"Sadly, away from the spotlight of international diplomacy, the government of Canada has repeatedly stated to Indigenous peoples and their leaders that it is simply not interested in pursuing or addressing what it calls a 'rights agenda' within Canada," he said.

The Metis Nation of Ontario stressed that it's the responsibility of Aboriginal people themselves to ensure the forum has adequate resources.

"We have been talking here at the United Nations as if the permanent forum can fill empty stomachs with words. The forum cannot even hire a staff member to help the responsible agencies of the United Nations find that hungry child," said its president Tony Belcourt.

The organization then announced that it would donate one staff person to work full-tie for the forum, and challenged other organizations to follow its lead.