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COVID-19 and Indigenous Peoples' Resilience
Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash
"When we remember that we need to gather ourselves in the spirit of the moment and the spirit of our ancestors, the spirit of all living things, and in the spirit of Mother Earth—then I think we have a real foundation for change."

— Darrell Hillaire, Children of the Setting Sun Productions, Thriving Together
António Guterres,
Secretary-General of the United Nations
COVID-19 and Indigenous Peoples' Resilience
Inclusion and participation of the world’s 476 million indigenous peoples must be ensured in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and on the road ahead towards recovery, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has underscored.

Throughout history, indigenous peoples have been decimated by diseases brought from elsewhere, to which they had no immunity.

In the face of such threats, indigenous peoples have demonstrated extraordinary resilience.

The UN system remains committed to realizing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and to bolstering their resilience.

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is commemorated annually on 9 August in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, held in Geneva in 1982.
Stewards Leveraging Relationships to Help Communities Thrive 
June Poll Highlights

by Iueh Soh, Project Manager and Jane Erickson, Project Director

From city council chambers to neighborhood revitalization partnerships around the country, stewards are leveraging relationships to support their communities in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing protests against racial injustice, and economic recession.

This was one of several findings to emerge from our most recent Tracking Poll for Stewards of Well-Being, a bi-monthly survey launched in April to find out how stewards are navigating their system change efforts right now.
UN International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples: COVID-19 and indigenous peoples’ resilience

Indigenous peoples are looking for their own solutions to this pandemic. They take action and use traditional knowledge and practices such as voluntary isolation and closure of their territories, as well as other preventive measures.

Once again, they have demonstrated their high capacity to adapt in spite of the exceptionally difficult context. This is why this year's theme is COVID-19 and Indigenous Peoples' Resilience.
Native Americans Feel Devastated by the Virus Yet Overlooked in the Data

Even with significant gaps in the data that is available, there are strong indications that Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus.

The rate of known cases in the eight counties with the largest populations of Native Americans is nearly double the national average, a New York Times analysis has found. The analysis cannot determine which individuals are testing positive for the virus, but these counties are home to one in six U.S. residents who describe themselves in census surveys as non-Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native.
First Nations peoples leading the way in COVID‐19 pandemic planning, response and management 

On March 6, 2020, the Australian Government Department of Health convened the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group on COVID‐19 to provide advice on preparedness, response and recovery planning.

The Advisory Group works on principles of shared decision making, power sharing, two‐way communication, self‐determination, leadership and empowerment.
Photo by Jeffrey H. Cohen, CC BY-SA
Indigenous Mexicans turn inward to survive COVID-19, barricading villages and growing their own food 

Cooperation is a cornerstone of Zapotec life in Oaxaca. A history of social exclusion by the federal government reminds the Zapotec not to rely on politicians to save them.

People work together from a young age, joining together in “tequio,” or communal labor brigades, to complete projects that can range from painting a school to repairing the electrical grid. Individuals, their families and their friends routinely work together to make small jobs go quickly and to make big jobs seem less overwhelming.
Photo by Deseret News/AP
'We Know What Is Best for Us.' Indigenous Groups Around the World Are Taking COVID-19 Responses Into Their Own Hands

For all the challenges Indigenous communities face—from a lack of federal funding to higher rates of pre-existing comorbidities that increase vulnerability to COVID-19—these communities have taken matters into their own hands. Indigenous-led responses have already proven to be successful, and in some cases, more effective than federal responses.

“The reason the Navajo Nation has managed this crisis isn’t because of the federal government,” President Nez says. “It’s because of us.”
Indigenous protesters in Brazil demand COVID-19 protection
by Mauricio Savarese

Dozens of Indigenous people, many daubed in black paint representing their grief and fighting spirit, blocked a major highway in Brazil’s Amazon on Monday to pressure the government for help in protecting them from COVID-19.

The Kayapo Mekragnotire people blame authorities for the deaths of four of their elders and infections of dozens more on their land in southern Para state, near the city of Novo Progresso. Leaders said people from outside their territory spread the new coronavirus among them because there were no restrictions on entry to their land.
Photo by AP Photo/Andre Penner
Documentaries to Watch for International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

If every documentary tells a story, then one of the most critical issues in our community today is who gets to tell that story, and to whom.

IDA has engaged in debates surrounding self-representation and power dynamics in storytelling for a long time–from discussing the pressing need to decolonize docs to “the inequity of unchallenged filmmaker bias and motives, of the chasm between the subject and audience (and) of film as a tool of racialized colonial power and empire.”
UNDESA’s virtual commemoration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples

The virtual commemoration will feature an interactive panel discussion on the innovative ways indigenous peoples continue demonstrating resilience and strength in the face of the pandemic while confronting grave threats to their survival. The aim is to highlight how the preservation and promotion of indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge and practices can be leveraged more fully during this pandemic. Panelists will share good practices with the audience through an interactive virtual event that will focus on building back stronger.
Children of the Setting Sun Productions
Young And Indigenous Podcast

As our organization expands we continue to seek relevant avenues to involve the younger generations in our work. We started by having a youth gathering, where these adolescents expressed the concern that their voices and others in their community were not being heard, both within the Lummi community and to the larger society. Thus was born the Youth Podcast.
Remember

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

Joy Harjo, 2019 US Poet Laureate,Remember
Photo by Matika Wilbur
BRIGHT SPOTS
Photo by Hawai'i State Commission on the Status of Women
Hawai‘i’s Post-COVID Recovery Plan Puts Women First

Released in April 2020, “Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs” is a substantial plan that advocates for improving the lives of women to spur a post-pandemic economic recovery. The plan is intersectional and comprehensive, offering recommendations on everything from rectifying the gender pay gap to using federal loans to bolster critical social services, such as domestic abuse shelters and reproductive health care. 

“This is a manifestation of the women’s movement in Hawaiʻi,” said Khara Jabola-Carolus, executive director of the State Commission on the Status of Women about the plan. “I’m an anti-imperialist feminist. I am a transnational feminist, and I’m also a bureaucrat. I get to occupy this space because I had built up a sisterhood around me and that sisterhood existed before me, built by other women.”
28 Organizations Promoting Indigenous Food Sovereignty

In honor of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on August 9, Food Tank is highlighting 28 organizations from around the world protecting and cultivating Indigenous food systems.

Through what many of the following organizations call rematration, they strive to return Indigenous lands, seeds, foods, and histories to Indigenous Peoples and protect them for future generations.
Indigenous knowledge and global food systems

The Covid-19 pandemic has emerged on the eve of what is the biggest opportunity to date to reconfigure global food systems for people and planet.

Indigenous communities, as stewards of the environment, have demonstrated not only great ability to conserve land, resources and biodiversity but also water and soil. For indigenous peoples, the environment represents the future for children, something that is often lost on other parts of humankind.
Community Transformation: North Sound Accountable Community of Health’s Journey
by Community Commons

“The ACH is an attempt to move from federal and state decision-making to regional decision-making, to create the opportunity for the tribes, clinical partners, and community based organizations to work together to better the health of the people who live in this region,” Liz Baxter, North Sound ACH CEO

By learning and growing together, leading with equity and belonging, leaning on the wisdom of Tribal Nations and people with lived experience of inequities, North Sound ACH has created a foundation for collective action--and is stepping up to demand something different and better right now.
TOOLS TO BUILD WELL BEING
Thriving Together: A Springboard for Equitable Recovery & Resilience in Communities Across America

In eight weeks from May through June 2020, more than 100 people and organizations diverted their daily work to help craft this Springboard for equitable recovery and resilience in communities across America.

We drafted this document for ourselves, and for everyone who wants to help America to emerge from the compounding crises of 2020 with greater resilience, humanity, and direction.
Tracking Poll for Stewards of Well-Being

Every other month through 2020, ReThink Health is fielding a Tracking Poll for Stewards of Well-Being to learn alongside a growing network of diverse stewards about their efforts to navigate system change during this time of crisis and transition. We are sharing the findings on this page to support collective learning.
The NDN Collective
COVID-19 Response Project 

The NDN Collective’s COVID-19 Response Project is designed to provide immediate relief to some of the most underserved communities in the country. NDN’s intent is to quickly distribute resources to frontline organizations, Tribes and individuals to provide gap services during this health crisis, and to artists and entrepreneurs who have suffered the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
COVID-19 and Indigenous peoples

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has set up a webpage dedicated for reporting the impacts of COVID-19 on indigenous peoples. Included in this webpage are policy recommendations and statements given both by UN agencies as well as indigenous peoples organizations.
Native Land Digital
Territory Acknowledgement

Native Land Digital is a registered Canadian not-for-profit and a British Columbia Society. We are governed by an Indigenous Board of Directors and funding is provided by individual donors and supporters.

Territory acknowledgement is a way that people insert an awareness of Indigenous presence and land rights in everyday life. This is often done at the beginning of ceremonies, lectures, or any public event. It can be a subtle way to recognize the history of colonialism and a need for change in settler colonial societies.
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National Museum of the American Indian


8/20 at 4:00 PM ET
National Museum of the American Indian


9/17 at 4:00 PM ET

Policy and Tools Corner

  1. The Impact of COVID-19 on Indigenous Peoples, UN/Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Policy Brief #70
  2. Indigenous peoples and the COVID-19 pandemic - Considerations
  3. UN policies on indigenous peoples
  4. USAID’s Policy on Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (PRO-IP) - Guides development practitioners to strengthen the design and management of programs that affect Indigenous Peoples
WIN Cooperatives