The Indigenous
Peoples of the Earth
SACRED TRADITIONS
PRESERVE
CULTURES
Humanity is very fortunate that more than
5,000 unique cultures of Indigenous people still exist.
AMAZINGLY,
4,000 of those groups still speak their unique ancient languages.
There are
who know their origin story as fact.
We Belong to the Land
Indigenous Peoples are populations who consider themselves descendants of the inhabitants of a given geographical area who lived there before foreign conquest, colonization, or state establishment and who have a close (emotional, economic, and spiritual) connection to their ancestral lands, and a strong ethnic-cultural identity as a community with its own socio-political and cultural traditions.
...WE BELONG to the LAND...
...It's in our BLOOD...
WAYS OF KNOWING
WAYS OF BEING
Indigenous people possess invaluable knowledge of practices for the sustainable management of natural resources.
They have a special relationship with their ancestral land as a fundamental importance for their collective physical and cultural survival.
The Good Ways
Uniting Brothers and Sisters
Not All Endangered Cultures are Considered "Indigenous"
Heiðr isn't just for Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), we're also about raising awareness of any endangered culture, species or environment. The overall mission is UNITY, through positive ways of understanding and sustaining all of Earth's amazing creatures, and their ways of being naturally in their native environment.
I’ve started acknowledging the people who lived on this land first – and you should too
Chip Colwell
Associate Research Professor of Anthropology
United Nations: The World In Faces
Diverse cultures of the world through the portraits of Indigenous Peoples
This exhibition honors Indigenous Peoples’ right to their cultures, identities and traditions, and their right to self-determination by determining their own policies and strategies with respect to their cultural heritage and traditional systems. These rights are enshrined in many of the articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
SEE UN's WORLD IN FACES INDIGENOUS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY by Alexander Khimushin
Oral Tradition
a Sacred System of Knowledge
Passed down by The Elders for generations, SACRED Oral Traditions remind the people how The Ancestors lived in harmony with nature...since the beginning of time.
The Elders
Keepers of The Collective Memory
Each Elder brought with them a piece of the knowledge puzzle. They had to reach back to the teachings of their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. These teachings were shared in the circle and these constituted a reconnaissance of collective memory and knowledge. In the end the Elders left with a knowledge that was built collectivity.”
Stephen J. Augustine
Hereditary Chief and Keptin of the Mi’kmaq Grand Council
WE ARE ALL
INDIGENOUS
...like fingers of the same hand. Brothers and Sisters, we share this Earth. We are equally accountable for how we care for it and each other."
Wandering Wolf, Grand Elder of the Living Maya
Who's Indigenous?
The definition of Indigenous varies by who is defining it and for what purpose. The UN says it's a Haplo Group that occupied a region prior to colonization. What about Ireland? People from many surrounding nations immigrated to the Emerald Isle over 3,000 years ago. How long do these original cultures need to occupy a place they consider their homeland before they qualify as 'native'. Haplo Groups are pretty cool for tracking origin. But the Celts consisted of many Haplo Groups. Wouldn't you agree that Celtic is indeed an ancient culture? Everyone descends from group(s) of people in ancient times. If you ask the Indigenous, they'll tell you that how you identify to a place or culture is deeply personal.
RAIPON
Russian
Indigenous
Peoples
RAIPON represents 40 unique groups of Indigenous Peoples (250k+) , representing 60% of the Russian Federation, including the North, Siberia and the Far East.
The Map
Arctic Circle Indigenous
The indigenous peoples of the Arctic, living north of the Arctic Circle (66.3o N) are in another world from those of who live in Glasgow, Scotland; Moscow; Copenhagen or Sweden ( 55o N). Harsh weather conditions, sparse vegetation, small and often isolated communities, ancient customs and sophisticated knowledge of the environment characterize these peoples. A culture based on seagoing transport and hunting skills has refined in these communities a deft understanding of the seasonal changes in nature and how those changes can be utilized, maintaining lives far different from our own.
Survival for these indigenous peoples: the Inuit, Dene, Aleut, Yupik, Saami, Chukchi, Nenets, Khanty, Evenk, is dependent upon their knowledge of a sparsely populated land that lies far away from the balance of the world’s population, yet the environmental changes wrought by a changing climate from activities worldwide affect them as well. In fact, the Arctic has just had its warmest winter on record and lowest level of sea ice coverage. Our understanding of the ways of indigenous peoples is important because actions taken in the temperate and tropical zones of our climate affect them as much as it changes our ways of living.
THE
ARCTIC COUNCIL
Since the formation of the Arctic Council in 1996, the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic have played an important and vital role in shaping Arctic global policy for the past 20 years. With Permanent Participant status on the Arctic Council, ensure the views of the approximate 500,000 Indigenous peoples of the Arctic are always considered and respected equally when decisions are being made.
