International Indian Treaty Council

CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

	“WORKING FOR THE RIGHTS AND RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES"

Identity Statement

Ko Mauao te Maunga Mauao is our sacred mountain

Ko Tauranga te Moana Tauranga is the sea

Ko Taakitimu me Mataatua nga Waka Taakitimu and Mataatua are our

sacred canoes

Ko Ngati Ranginui, Ngai te Rangi me

Ngati Pukenga nga iwi Ngati Ranginui, Ngai te Rangi and Ngati Pukenga are the tribal people

Ko Wairoa te Awa Wairoa is the river

Ko Wairoa re Marae Wairoa is the Marae (village)

Ko Ngati Kahu te hapu Ngati Kahu is the sub tribe

Tena koutou/Greetings to all assembled here: Health Commission Stance

We as Indigenous Peoples from Aotearoa, U.S.A., Alaska, Canada, Panama, Guatemala

Australia and Hawaii wish to state and reaffirm to the governments of the world and

representatives of the United Nations assembly that:

We regard with utmost respect taonga (sacred gift of the creator that is our ancestral air, wetlands, land mountains, streams and seas). Our heritage, culture, language, customs, spiritual rituals/beliefs, and traditional teachings of our Peoples as a living heritage to be projected, maintained and respected by all government agencies and non indigenous groups.
Our men, women and children are the living faces of our ancestors and we carry the taonga (sacred gift) from generations past, through our present and forward to the future generations as yet unborn.
It is our inalienable right as Tangata Whenua (Peoples of the land) to be treated in accordance with the universal principles of truth, honour, equality, dignity, for every person irrespective of race, color and creed.
The Indigenous Peoples are the kaitiaki (guardians) of the Papatuanuku (Mother Earth).
The fact that World governments do not actively follow these principles forces us to take proactive measures, to ensure that our collective voice is heard loud and clear on the world stage in opposition to the continued, deliberate cultural pollution and chemical elements in the land and lakes that contaminate and erode the living pillars/trees of knowledge, that are our elders, parents and children.
We have a responsibility and obligation to expose the actions of those governments and companies that continue to exploit for their own financial

benefit by distributing to third world countries chemical pollution that threatens to destroy our very existence so that we become a shadow/shade of our former selves.

The killing and maiming practices of governments who say they care (but not enough) to change the unrelenting tide of pesticide destruction that we as Indigenous Peoples continue to breathe, swim in and absorb through our bodies.

Environmental Pollution/Pesticides

Where is the environmental justice for our indigenous communities?

Our Yaqui children and others are not given the same rights as other children born in the USA whose government has banned the use of certain pesticides. These pesticides are still being used here, and there is much illness in our community.

We had no need for doctors before, people were healed with our traditional medicines.

The transport of toxic chemicals must be banned to safeguard the future of our children, this has not been done for the Yaqui Nation.

In Ngati Kahu people have for generations been kaitiaka (guardians) of the Wairoa River. Its waters used for healing also as a food source providing staple foods for our people. The collapse of the Ruahihi Dam affected the physical level and food places of our people and the European farmers used the River as a means of getting rid of the effluents from their farms and herbicide/pesticide sprays.

This practice has contaminated and polluted the river destroying our food sources e.g. pipi’s and titiko (shellfish) gathered at the mouth of the river. The pollution of the river has impacted the health of our children as well as the cultural and physical nature of the river and therefore as well the spiritual nature of the river has not been respected.

Ngati Kahu is within a green belt area.

Spraying by orchardists has effected of families who suffer the effects of a pollution from sprays e.g. asthma, lung and chest infections, skin rashes, general feeling of un-wellness and reoccurring health conditions.

· In the appendices find attached health statistics: Nagati Kahu Health Center

· Ngati Kahu report on the Wairoa River

· Tohunga Suppression Act

In conclusion:

The commission noted that we must at all costs stop the further erosion of our Indigenous ways of life by:

· Recovering our traditions.

· Recognize the strength, knowledge and power of our own health practices and ways.

· Protect sites for healing

· Acknowledging our strengths collectively to work for the rights of our indigenous communities throughout the world.

· We recognize and support the development of Indigenous Peoples’ determinants of health which include our spiritual ways, self determination and independence and request that future international agreements regarding health include the Indigenous Peoples’ determinants.

· Recognize that genetic modification is the new contaminate and as such will be as destructive to our culture and health as chemicals.

We Resolve:

· That IITC provide contacts and sources for more information about toxic residue and effects of chemical pollution on our children and unborn/communities.

· That once a government defines a chemical as toxic, it must destroy all stocks of that chemical and not allow its transport to other countries or communities.

· That we Recognize the rights of successive generations to an environment free of man-made chemical pesticides.

Participants in our commission:

Angel Valencia, Yaqui Nation, Yoemem Tekia Foundation, Arizona

Hone and Ngaronoa Ngata – Ngati Kahu and Ngati Porou Tribe

Annie Hine Kohu – Tuhoe Tribe

Nepia Tipene – Whakatohea Tribe

Rehu Murchie – Raukawa Kai Taha Tribe

Wiripo Brown – Ngato Kahn Hapu

Hone Grace – Ngati Tribe

Ann Bidois – Ngati Ranginui Tribe

Aunty Mini Gotz – Ngati Kahu Hapu

Aunty Nellie Ormsby