A Report of the Indigenous Peoples Presentation on the Topic of:

“Spirituality and Sustainability- Water, the Common Element”

Presented to the

Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions’

2004 Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace Annual Forum

November 6-12, 2004

Taipei, Taiwan

“Our Elders have always taught us to honor and respect water as sacred and the sustainer of all life, which we must continue to protect. They also told us that traditional teachings about Water must be passed from Generation to Generation, and that we must always share with each other. As Indigenous Peoples, we recognize, water as a source of life. It is a right for all of nature, all plants and animals and it is our responsibility to protect it for seven generations to come.

Like the essence of the flower, our indigenous languages communicate our relationship to Water, our spirituality and our relationship to the universe. Some indigenous worldviews regard the ocean as the sacred mat of life, where all of life begins, ends, and begins again.”

- The collective voice of the Indigenous delegates attending the 2004 Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace, in Taipei, Taiwan -

This report is submitted by the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). IEN is a non-governmental organization of Indigenous community-based groups working on environmental and economic justice issues.

BACKGROUND

Tom Goldtooth, Executive Director of IEN was an invited guest speaker at the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions held July 7-14, 2004 in Barcelona Spain. This was sponsored by the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions in partnership with the Universal Forum of Cultures – Barcelona 2004, and in association with the UNESCO Center of Catalonia, Spain. 8,000 world religious leaders participated in this global conference.

At this conference, Mr. Goldtooth established a relationship with the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions and its many projects, for example, the Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace initiative. This is an annual forum to bring grassroots peace activists together from current and potential Partner Cities Project to consider the methodologies, tools and mutual support needed to enhance the movements for peace, justice, and sustainability in their communities.

Mr. Goldtooth was contacted by the staff of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions’ Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace to assist in the identification and coordination of Indigenous persons to attend their 2004 annual forum held November 6-12, 2004 in Taipei, Taiwan. Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace recognized that IEN has been working with other Indigenous organizations and communities throughout the world on the topic of water and sanitation issues.

Mr. Goldtooth was not able to attend the meeting, however, was able to assist in the selection of a global delegation of Indigenous peoples to attend the meeting. The staff of Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace established a basic criteria for the Indigenous persons selected to attend to be activists working on water issues within their communities.

INDIGENOUS DELEGATION IN ATTENDANCE

Ms. Omie Baldwin is Dine' (Navajo) originally from the southwest region of the United States. Ms. Baldwin has been active with the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions for a number of years and has assisted in coordinating past United States delegations to the World Religion meetings. Mrs. Baldwin, M.S.S.W., is a counselor at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She is a leading expert on physical and behavior issues facing indigenous populations, and joined the University of Wisconsin Health Services in 1979. She is familiar with the social impacts from the uranium and coal mining development on her Indigenous territory in southwest U.S. She also ties together the concerns of the vast amounts of water that is used in mining activities and the concerns with contamination of water. She was the Indigenous point person during the meeting in Taipei.

Ms. Darlene Sanderson (Cree, Manitoba, Canada, living in British Columbia). She is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University, focusing on Indigenous elderly teachings of the spiritual dimensions of water with a focus on the Indigenous connections and teachings of the Cree, the NuuChahNulth and the Maori peoples. She has developed a thirteen week curriculum on water called, ‘Traditional Perspectives on Water: How Can Elders’ Teachings Be Applied Today for Future Generations?’ As well as her work on traditional indigenous meanings of water, Ms. Sanderson has been a nurse in cardiology for sixteen years (the water of the human body), and has received her Masters in Child and Youth Care, focusing on children’s health in Vanuatu, one of the Pacific Islands. Darlene assisted in coordinating indigenous elders’ participation in: the World Council of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, June, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand; the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, Kananaskis, Canada, August, 2002; workshops given by Elders on water The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, Geneva, Switzerland, October, 2002 and the Third World Water Forum, Kyoto, Japan, March, 2003. She has made presentations on water to the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education, (2002) and to the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders.

Ms. Lucy Mulenkei (Maasai) is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network and president of the African Indigenous Women Organization, and editor of Nomadic News, a print publication covering indigenous issues in Africa. She has worked on issues of human rights, the environment, water, women's rights, and indigenous rights. She travels extensively from her home in Kenya, and is very involved at the community, national, and international level as an activist. Her journalism experience includes working with print, television, and radio throughout Africa. She participated in and provided leadership in the Indigenous Women's Water Ceremony conducted at the Civil Society parallel events at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002. She also participated in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) 12th Session, which focused on the thematic issues of water, sanitation and human settlement. She participates within the Indigenous Peoples Caucus of the CSD, as well as participates within the Un Permanent Forum on Indigenous Populations, and other UN activities.

Mr. Jebra Rabm Muchahary (Bodo), India, is President of the Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, North East Zone, based in Assam, India.  He speaks on the concepts of water and spirituality and the impact of industrialization. He is concerned with the privatization of water and the expansion surrounding the big business of water with multinational companies entering the field.  He talks about the unimaginable fact that today, despite being in a terrible economic situation, poor Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of his region of India are increasingly utilizing commercialized bottled water for drinking. The impact of industrialization resulting in pollution, disease, and commodification of water are new concepts to the Bodo indigenous and tribal peoples, although they have their own traditional beliefs that water is spirit, known as KHOINA SANTI.  He shares that, although water is still respected and worshipped, today that respect has been diminished, due to external cultural influences and modern concepts of water introduced by inappropriate education.  His Tribal peoples are concerned with the threat to the sustainability of fresh water, and the need for people of the world to recall the spiritual link to have sustainable use of water for future generations. 

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATIONS

In this presentation we have identified the problems, interventions, policies, and recommendations towards solutions for a sustainable future. We are Indigenous Peoples from different directions but with a common future. Present in this presentation are Darlene Sanderson from Canada, Jebra Ram Muchahary from India, Omie Baldwin from USA, and Lucy Mulenkei from Africa.

Each Indigenous delegate that spoke brought individual examples of local struggles their Indigenous tribes are confronting related to the protection of their common element – water. This report does not report on the specifics of each of these local struggles and issues, but attempts to report on the common elements of their shared struggle to protect and respect water.

The report concludes with recommendations for the sponsors of the 2004 Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace, its participants and a world audience to take home with them. It is with hope and prayer the readers of this report will re-evaluate their sacred relationship to Mother Earth and our common element – Water. If the readership are able to use this knowledge to impact water policy in a positive way – then our work as Indigenous activists will be have been well spent.

Please note three of the recommendations at the end of this report calling for: 1. The development of education materials about traditional indigenous laws and teachings about water; 2: Establishment of an international Working Group of Indigenous Peoples on Water; and 3. Support for a World Indigenous Forum on Water to be held. These three recommendations will take financial and support resources to be successfully achieved and implemented. IEN and the Indigenous delegation expresses a cordial request of the readers of this report to seek options that would provide assistance towards accomplishing the three recommendations listed above.

HIGHLIGHTS of the PRESENTATIONS

Conditions of the Water within Indigenous Territories and the Earth

The teaching from our elders tells us that water is spirit and must be honored and protected from abuse. Those teachings need to be upheld. As Chief Seattle said, “What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves”

The waterways of Mother Earth are being polluted. The veins of our body are full of chemicals and waste. In the past years, we have seen a continued increase of chemicals, pesticides, sewage, disease, nuclear testing, oil drilling, mining, radioactive contamination, ocean dumping of waste from ships, cities, and pulp mills. From throughout the world in Indigenous Peoples’ land, we see destruction from logging, deforestation and mining that resulted in water contamination, soil erosion and thermal contamination of our water.

Pollution is of grave concern from uncontrolled waste disposal, sewage treatment, dams, destructive forestry and mining practices, nuclear testing and nuclear wastes, pesticides leaching into groundwater, large-scale farming and agribusinesses. These practices kill the natural plants and animals and permanently damage underground aquifers. The nuclear testing on Turtle Island, in the Pacific and in the Indian ocean create serious diseases, with increasing cancers and birth malformations. Nuclear testing in the ocean can only further destabilize the earthquake fault lines. We have witnessed the devastation of the effects of a tsunami on the loss of life of thousands and upon those millions of survivors. Access to clean water is critical to life.

Heavy metals contaminate our lakes. Air pollution creates water pollution. There are irresponsible actions of cities, states and industry in knowing contamination of water in our lakes, rivers and oceans. The dumping of raw sewage into the ocean, increasing deforestation is destroying our waters. Sources of water are covered or contaminated, such as springs, rivers and rivulets.

The burning of oil, gas, and coal, known collectively as fossil fuels is the primary source of human-induced climate change. Climate change, if not halted, will result in increased frequency and severity of storms, floods, drought and water shortage. Globally, climate change is worsening desertification. It is polluting and drying up the subterranean and water sources, and is causing the extinction of precious flora and fauna. Many countries in Africa have been suffering from unprecedented droughts. The most vulnerable communities to climate change are Indigenous Peoples and impoverished local communities occupying marginal rural and urban environments. Small island communities are threatened with becoming submerged by rising oceans.

There is a lack of knowledge amongst common masses about the impact of pollution and impurities/contaminations of water due to industries and factories set up in the Indigenous Peoples territories by the companies and the concerned governments.

Need for Application of Indigenous Knowledge and Education

The increasing external cultural influence or culturally inappropriate modern education reduces the respect of water in Indigenous Peoples and tribal communities and introducing the modern concept of water as a mere substance/commodity rather than a spirit and a sacred entity. Modern education does not teach about the spiritual nature of water. Traditional education about water has been eroded by colonization, which has resulted in loss of Indigenous language and culture. The displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their traditional lands creates conflicts with a loss of identity, a loss of a spiritual connection to the landscape.

There is a need to apply traditional Indigenous laws on water that ensures Indigenous Peoples guardianship of waterways, through a return of the land and the language.

Policies Surrounding Water

“Water policy and legislation needs to protect water as a source of life by the recognition, respect and implementation of traditional indigenous and natural law. Water policies are needed to protect water for future generations and for all plants and animals. Indigenous peoples must participate in and provide guidance in the development of such a world water vision.”

(Peoples World Water Forum, Delhi, 2004)

Indigenous peoples in both developing and developed countries have critical water sanitation issues and poor access to clean drinking water. There is a need for political will in government to provide adequate infrastructure for safe drinking water and protection of water for all life forms.

Underlying many problems affecting the waters is the issue of governance, decision-making and multinational companies’ drive towards economic gain and exploitations of the environment including water.

There is exploitation and abuse of companies providing benefits to other interests at the expense of indigenous peoples.

Ever-increasing urbanization encroaches on forests and wetlands. Governments have systematically and intentionally used indigenous peoples’ land for their own purposes, so-called, ‘development’, which is unsustainable.

Underlying these practices is a misuse and abuse of power in decision-making. Indigenous peoples have a role in guiding all levels of government in water policy development. The traditional laws/customary laws on water need to be applied.

Today, water policies are created by governments, scientists, politicians, Bretton Wood Institutions and developers who do not understand our spiritual relationship to water.

For example, the World Water Vision for the year 2025 has water managers, states, and trillion dollar water companies planning the future for our sacred waters. The decision-making structures need to be changed to be inclusive of our laws concerning water.

Globalization and the privatization of water places water and all of life at risk

Western media communicates western values of consumption, individualism and economic gain, when it could be a positive force for appropriate education of the spiritual nature of water.

“Our traditional practices are dynamically regulated systems. They are based on natural and spiritual laws, ensuring sustainable use through traditional resource conservation. Long-tenured and place-based traditional knowledge of the environment is extremely valuable, and has been proven to be valid and effective. Our traditional knowledge developed over the millennia should not be compromised by an over-reliance on relatively recent and narrowly defined western reductionist scientific methods and standards. We support the implementation of strong measures to allow the full and equal participation of Indigenous Peoples to share our experiences, knowledge and concerns. The indiscriminate and narrow application of modern scientific tools and technologies has contributed to the loss and degradation of water.”

(Indigenous Peoples’ Statement, World Water Forum, 2003)

Water services must be provided by the public not the private sector. Once water services are privatized, the essence of life itself is determined by the market, which distributes water, based on the ability to pay. Those who can pay increasing water rates get access to the water they need, “those who don’t have the means are cut off”, and after that remain in poor health for lack of clean water for domestic use.

The structure of the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund enable the rich to get richer, which results in the poor getting poorer. There is a moral and ethical imperative for spiritual bodies to provide guidance to economic organizations. Participation of Indigenous Peoples, Spiritual leaders and Women are needed in decision-making, for a sustainable future, to protect our waters.

It is important to mention that over 160 countries have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It recognizes pre-existing covenants with the waterways, which include our covenant with the Creator and our responsibility to be guardians of the water. The UNCLOS makes provisions for states and industry to be responsible and accountable, when waterways are polluted. They have the responsibility to clean up the mess that they create.

Application of Indigenous Peoples Rights

International law recognizes the rights of Indigenous Peoples to ownership, control and management of our traditional territories, lands and natural resources and that we require free prior and informed consent to developments on our land. This is important to us and wish all our Governments and partners in development would respect it.

Indigenous Peoples’ relationship to water and our customary practices must be recognized at all levels, ensuring that indigenous rights and responsibilities are enshrined in national legislation and policy. This includes municipal, regional, state/provincial, national and international government bodies. Such rights cover both water quantity and quality and extend to water as part of a healthy environment.

Related to the rights if Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples of the world have called upon the governments to ratify the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Populations, which is a United Nations instruments that gives comprehensive information on the rights of indigenous Peoples. As a point of information, the Draft recognizes the relationship of Indigenous Peoples to Mother Earth and the right to land and all her resources and the right to traditional and customary laws and spirituality. Indigenous Peoples are looking forward to the ratification in order to recognize the right to exercise our customary laws and protect the waterways for future generations, all of humanity and the world’s biological diversity.

EMERGING Strategies and Interventions

In recognition of the many problems that Indigenous Peoples have faced on access and control of clean water worldwide, Indigenous Peoples are building solidarity. At the 2004 Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace, in Taipei, Taiwan, the Indigenous delegates came from the four directions of the world. The Indigenous Peoples delegation expressed this collective voice:

“Some of us are meeting for the first time, but we know we are here for a common goal: to bring to you the problem of water for our communities. The theme of the conference is “International Partnership and Peace, Spirituality and Sustainability- Water, the Common Element”. It is with this, our strength is drawn. In the past decade, we have witnessed the diminishing of our natural resources, the destruction has disappointed our Creator and more and more stress has been put upon Mother Earth. Poverty has increased, forcing Indigenous men and youth move into cities and urban centers to seek a better life and survival, leaving the mothers, children and the old languishing in poor health and poverty.

This is a worrying factor that has called us together in different forums to discuss one of the major causes of poverty and poor health - Water. During the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, Indigenous Peoples from the world went to Johannesburg with a message after the pre summit in Kimberly, so that our voice could be heard and our issues taken into action. Indigenous Women performed a water ceremony. The ceremony was to bring attention to the world on water crisis faced by Indigenous Peoples and especially Women.

In our various regions, we have undertaken different activities, social and spiritual gatherings, workshops, and seminars on water. We have continuously worked in solidarity together to give a voice to this problem. The process continues and we will not give up. We will continue to remind our governments and partners what our role is and our spiritual relationship with water. We then hope that all of you who are here will start working together with Indigenous Peoples in your own respective countries. We believe that the spiritual leaders, inter-faith partners have a role to play. The governments listen to you. We have hope that you can make a difference by letting someone know why it is important to recognize and respect Indigenous Peoples and give them access and control of their lands and the resources. Together we can make a change. We can make the millennium development goals achievable by ensuring good health and a better environment for all.”

Recommendations

• Indigenous traditional laws about water and their values are the keys to a sustainable future for Mother Earth and for all generations to come.

• Our indigenous traditional laws must be recognized by all levels of government, and all water policies must include traditional indigenous ecological knowledge.

• We support basic principles of environmental justices including the rights of all people to clean environment regardless of race, economic position, gender, or national identity. Violation of principles of environmental justice is a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention of Genocide.

• We reaffirm water as a Human Right as stated in the general comment #15 to the International Covenant of Ecological, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations. We resolve to maintain, strengthen and support Indigenous Peoples’ movements, struggles and campaigns on water and enhance the role of Indigenous elders, women and youth to protect water.

• We seek to establish a Working Group of Indigenous Peoples on Water, which will facilitate linkages between Indigenous Peoples and provide technical and legal assistance to Indigenous communities who need such support in their struggles for the right to land and water. We will encourage the creation of similar working groups at the local, national and regional levels.

• We strongly support the indigenous movement for a World Indigenous Forum on Water. We welcome partnerships to make this a reality.

• We challenge the dominant paradigm, policies, and programs on water development, which includes among others; government ownership of water, construction of large water infrastructures; corporate ownership and the reduction of water to a private commodity that is tradable; and the liberalization of trade in water services, which do not recognize Indigenous Peoples’ relationship to water.

• We strongly support the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) on water and energy development. These include the WCD report’s core values, strategic priorities, the “rights and risks framework” and the use of multi-criteria assessment tools for strategic options assessment and project selection. Its rights-based development framework, including the recognition of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in water development is a major contribution to decision-making frameworks for sustainable development.

• We recommend a stop to mining, logging, energy and tourism projects that drain and pollute our waters and territories, and exploit our sacred sites.

• We recommend all water sources be declared sacred sites and under the guardianship of indigenous peoples. This is fundamental to the protection of water. Indigenous sacred sites must be respected and treated with dignity and honor.

• We call on the national countries (States) to comply with their human rights obligations and commitments to legally binding international instruments to which they are signatories to, including but not limited to, such as the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination; as well as their obligations to conventions on the environment, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, Climate Convention, and Convention to Combat Desertification.

• We assert:

• the right for consultations with Indigenous communities and under the communities own systems and mechanisms;

• The means of Indigenous Peoples to fully participate in such consultations; and;

• Indigenous Peoples exercise of both their local and traditional decision-making processes, including the direct participation of their spiritual and ceremonial authorities, individual members and community authorities as well as traditional practitioners of subsistence and cultural ways in the consultation process and the expression of consent for the particular project or measure.

• Industry and state bodies must respect our right to say no. Communications require ethical guidelines for a transparent and specific outcome.

• We, indigenous peoples call upon countries to hold multinational companies to be accountable, ethical and responsible in their activities, when engaging in business on indigenous territories. This includes rectifying and compensating for health damages to indigenous peoples’ health when contamination has occurred. From today, we recommend that all governments establish specific laws that prevent further contamination and that those responsible for the contamination compensate those who have suffered health damages.

• We work in solidarity with indigenous organizations, and other international organizations. We welcome partnerships.

• It must be known that traditional laws about water and their values will benefit all life forms, for future generations.

• We further recommend that:
• Water pollution be stopped;
• All nuclear weapons and testing be banned;
• Indigenous governance of lands and waters be recognized and applied;
• All water sources be declared sacred sites and governed by indigenous peoples;
• Water should not be privatized;
• Education about traditional indigenous laws and teachings about water be developed and delivered that recognizes the sacred nature of water and the importance of indigenous languages and cultural practices. From this education, traditional laws will be recognized, that stop pollution and protect sacred sites; this will protect waterways, and all life forms that depend upon them;
• All states (national governments) recognize Indigenous Peoples’ laws and practices about water and that decision-making structures be restructured to include indigenous peoples, spiritual leaders and women as peacemakers;
• All states (national governments) and industry be responsible by: 1. Not polluting water and by 2. Serving justice through the proper compensation of all those who have suffered the damages of past destructive practices;
• Peace education be promoted;
• Culturally appropriate infrastructures, such as piping and water purification systems be supported to improve access to clean, safe drinking water for all communities.

This concludes this report.