14-year-old Geraldo Yanomami making a necklace from porcupine quills, Demini, Brazil.
Survival has developing news from Brazil, where masked gunmen have executed an Indian religious leader in front of his community.
His last words were to his son Valmir: ‘Don’t leave this place. Take care of this land with courage. This is our land. Nobody will drag you from it. Look after my granddaughters and all the children well. I leave this land in your hands.’
Read more here.
Anonymous asked: How can I help the tribes from home?
One of the best ways to work alongside tribal peoples from home is to take action advocating their issues online. Challenge racist perceptions of tribal peoples by sharing news articles, photos and videos related to their struggle. Educate yourself, and others, by reading our Tribes page then campaign through our Act Now page.
Shrouded by the evening mist, Dolgan nomads stack their wood for the night, Siberia.
Survival’s Christmas shop is now open! Our collection of unique gifts and cards exists solely to help fund Survival’s urgent work – defending the rights of threatened tribal peoples all over the world.
WARNING: DISTURBING CONTENT
Indonesia’s brutal attack on West Papuan peaceful rally
Across the world, tribal peoples’ lands are being stolen and their communities devastated. ILO Convention 169 is the only international law designed to protect tribal peoples’ rights. Most governments refuse to ratify it.
Anonymous asked: What´s Survival´s position about infanticide in a scenario where the indigenous wants to change this practice?
Survival opposes infanticide. We condone no practices, however ‘traditional’, which are not based on consent (obviously, children do not consent to being killed!). However, infanticide is rare amongst tribal peoples and, where it exists, is growing rarer. We also note that in countries such as Brazil, for example, far more children are murdered in cities than in indigenous communities, and far more Indian children die as a result of having their land stolen, than from ‘internal’ infanticide.
There is one kind of ‘infanticide’ which it is pointless to oppose: leaving severely malformed babies to die following their birth. This is legal in many countries and practiced everywhere.
Tribal infanticide is exaggerated nowadays by some extremist missionary organizations in an attempt to dramatize the importance of their work, and for their fundraising. They are trying to revive a colonialist mentality which sees tribal people as ‘backward savages’. As this view is the bedrock underlying the theft of tribal land and resources, it will be extremely damaging if allowed to prevail. Hysterical accusations of infanticide are likely to lead to more deaths of Indian children than (increasingly rare) tribal infanticide itself. Survival is working to counter these views.
Kethe Gowda, one of the first Soliga in India’s BR Hills to receive both the land and community rights to the forests of a tiger reserve. These are the documents which grant his tribe the right to extract non-timber from the forests and to be responsible for its conservation. They had faced being evicted from their land.
©Kalyan Varma/Survival
Anonymous asked: How closely are you following/covering the issue of the mining exploration and proposals for large mines in Bristol Bay region in Alaska which would affect the Yup'ik and Dena'ina?
We are aware of the Bristol Bay campaign, but are not directly involved. If you are interested in learning more about what’s going on, you can read about it here.
For a list of all of Survival’s campaigns, please visit the Campaigns section of our website.
Have any questions? Ask us anything and we’ll do our best to respond!
