I got this from the information services down in RIO & thought it
might be interesting to the subscribers of Native-l
Greg Dunkel
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE MANIFESTATION
Maisa Lacerda Nazario
Rio de Janeiro - 09/06/92 (AE)
Eight indian representatives announced yesterday an
alternative version of the Earth Letter, prepared by 92
organizations during the Kari-Oca Conference. The document
was presented by indians from Colombia, Panama, Equador,
Phillipines, New Zealand, Finland and the United States. The
president of the intertribal commitee, Marcos Terena,
represented Brazil. One of the main rights revindicated,
between the 109 points of the Indigenous People Earth
Letter, is the recognition of their self-determination.
But the world's indians want much more than that. Mainly,
they want that the national and international laws recognize
their propriety rights over their territories. They also
claim that their territories no longer shall serve as
deposit for toxic and nuclear residues, or as fields for
nuclear tests. " These residues were not discussed by the
official delegation, and nevertheless they are bringing to
death many indian women on the Pacific, due to radiation
exposure", explained the neo-zealander leadre Pauline
Tangiora.
Another point on the letter concerns the biodiversity. The
indians revindicate that they shall be recognized as the
true owners of the natural resources extracted from their
territories. Marcos Terena even considers that they should
receive the intelectual propriety rights over the
technological applications of resources based on studies
over the indigenous traditional knowledge.
Valerio Grefa, an equatorian indigenous leader said: "We
are not against development, but we are favourable to an
harmonious development, coherent for all. Development shall
not kill some so that others survive".
Marcos Terena remarked that the indigenous people
participation on the Earth Summit, through Kari-Oca
Conference, represents the break of the 500 years of imposed
silence. " We were able to establish a Earth Letter that the
whitemen couldn't", he commemorated. "we didn't come here to
play indian game, but to open the congressists mind, to
fight for life and dignity", he completed.