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India backs tribe in mining ruling: India has rejected a plan by Vendata Resources to build a bauxite mine, after the company showed "shocking and "blatant disregard" for tribal people living in the area. The decision to scrap the proposed $2.7bn mining investment in eastern Orissa state has emerged as a test case in India, pitting industrial development against the interests of indigenous peoples and the environment. [Full article from Aljazeera, 24 August 2010. Related Huffington Post essay by Bianca Jagger.]

The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals, has published a review of health issues and problems among Indigenous Peoples: Where are we now with Indigenous health?. "Imposed development and loss of land have had disastrous effects on the health of Indigenous people everywhere. Paradoxically, Indigenous people endure not only the ill health associated with poverty but also the chronic diseases that come with the lifestyle in industrialised countries - a situation that is directly attributable to loss of land and traditions and the resultant move to poor urban environments." The article is available free of charge after registration at the site.

Why the Amazon rubber 'boom' can still be heard

David Hill, researcher and campaigner for Survival International, the international movement supporting tribal peoples worldwide, writes on the parallels between the rubber boom of the early 20th century and the current threat to indigenous peoples' way of life. Earlier this year, indigenous people blockaded an Amazon tributary so the boats from a London-based company (which was recently permitted by Peru to drill for oil in the Amazon) couldn't ply further upriver to the area where it is working. The company's response? To break through the blockade with an escort from Peruvian navy gunboats. One hundred years ago, Peruvian navy gunboats helped the British rubber company throw its weight around too.
See full editorial in The Guardian Weekly.

Indigenous Statement to World Parliament on Religions

An "Indigenous Peoples' Statement to the World" was delivered to the World Parliament of Religions in Melbourne, Australia, on 10 December 2009. It criticized the "Doctrine of Christian Discovery that is still interwoven into laws and policies today," and "affirmed the right to educate our children in our earth-based education systems."
Full text of statement.

Mohawk Vision of Indigenous University

Steven McFadden interviews Doug George-Kanentio "about the power of great art, about our prophetic era, and about our relations with the land and each other." Kanentio "gave voice to the emerging vision of establishing an Indigenous University in America."
Full article in Spirit of Change magazine [Winter 2009].