Mni Ki Wakan Summit rallies for support
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News Today Health & Environment Editor
RAPID CITY – Advocates for the U.N. declaration of a
World Indigenous Peoples Decade of Water partnered with local organizations to drum up grassroots support at the
Mni Ki Wakan (Water is Sacred) Summit here August 13-15.
The international public event took place on the heels of conveners’ presentation in Geneva to the 12th Session of the
Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, EMRIP.
Addressing the U.N. body there on July 18, Wakinyan Skye LaPointe, Sicangu Lakota, spoke on behalf of the Mni Ki Wakan delegation members to explain their cause:
“Today our waters are threatened,” he said. “The TransCanada Corp. is working to construct the KXL Pipeline in violation of the 1851 and 1868 Ft. Laramie treaties of the Oceti Sakowin, Seven Council Fires, otherwise known as the Great Sioux Nation, placing the very future of our sacred water into jeopardy.
Mni Ki Wakan - Water Is Sacred
“We urge EMRIP and relevant U.N. agencies to support indigenous peoples to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline,” he said.
“Today my delegation is here before you to call on the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to initiate a global study on indigenous peoples and water that is capable of elevating our water initiatives to unprecedented levels in decision making that may one day hold extractive industries accountable to the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent; treaties; and the Declaration on the Rights of indigenous peoples,” he appealed.
“Therefore, my delegation recommends EMRIP, U.N. Waters, UNESCO, and the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues develop an indigenous coordinating water body and declare an Indigenous Water Decade that would maximize partnerships and coordination between indigenous peoples, global actors, and initiatives,” he concluded.
The Mni Ki Wakan Summit included visits to important sites in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
His tribe, the Rosebud Sioux, endorsed the Rapid City summit. It is co-hosted by Rapid City Community Conversations, Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, regional and international partners.
The third such summit of its type, it featured collaborative workshop sessions and a bus tour to Black Hills sites threatened by proposed use of public waters for private gold prospecting and mining megaprojects.
“Mni Ki Wakan integrates the guiding language of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and enables the participation of all stakeholders from multiple levels across sectors and indigenous communities to ensure a strategic comprehensive water movement where every indigenous person’s voice is felt and heard, organizers said.”
That U.N. declaration states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinctive spiritual relationship with their traditionally owned or otherwise occupied and used lands, territories, waters and coastal seas and other resources and to uphold their responsibilities to future generations in this regard.”
Mni Ki Wakan global ambassadors provide input on human rights to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues each year.
Mni Ki Wakan participants recognize traditional knowledge as “the first line of defense and customary approach of indigenous peoples to water and environmental restoration, protection, and preservation.
“Today, traditional knowledge has translated to the rights of nature movement that involves recognizing the legal personality of water, legal protections, and other unexplored initiatives,” they note.
Traditional knowledge includes kinship and governance systems; environmental and water management systems; health, wellbeing, and community systems; educational systems and more that predate colonial systems, they say.
Contact Talli Nauman at talli.nauman@gmail.com
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