8 h. ago Ecuador's Otavalo Indigenous people use anime to inspire pride in their ancient culture and language

In the Ecuadorian Andes, young Otavalo Indigenous people are using anime to inspire pride in their culture and language

Politics

3 d. ago ‘We’re true guardians of the forest’: quilombola community near Belém demand land rights and recognition

Short boat ride from Cop30 host, Afro-descendant residents of Menino Jesus say their voices are not being heardWalk through the conference centre where the recent UN climate talks were held and representations of Indigenous people and culture were everywhere, from the spear-carrying, fiery-headed Cop30 mascot Curupira to huge mural-sized photos of people navigating the Amazon in dugout canoes and the many protests demanding dialogue outside.Yet a short boat ride down the river from Belém, into the forest itself, takes you to another forest-dwelling community also fighting for further recognition within the Cop process. The quilombola community of Menino Jesus has existed for six generations. Quilombolas are the descendants of former enslaved people who fled into the forest as a site of refuge. Over hundreds of years, they established a unique way of life separate from mainstream Brazilian society, living in harmony with nature as fugitives protected by the jungle. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be

Will the bubble ravage the economy when it bursts? What will it leave of value once it pops?The California Gold Rush left an outsized imprint on America. Some 300,000 people flocked there from 1848 to 1955, from as far away as the Ottoman Empire. Prospectors massacred Indigenous people to take the gold from their lands in the Sierra Nevada mountains. And they boosted the economies of nearby states and faraway countries from whence they bought their supplies.Gold provided the motivation for California – a former Mexican territory then controlled by the US military – to become a state with laws of its own. And yet, few “49ers” as prospectors were known, struck it rich. It was the merchants selling prospectors food and shovels who made the money. One, a Bavarian immigrant named Levi Strauss who sold denim overalls to the gold bugs passing through San Francisco, may be the most remembered figure of his day. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago A Black Georgia community uprooted in 1942 still fights to go home

US descendants of Harris Neck’s Gullah Geechee families seek the return of ancestral land seized for a wartime airfieldA once thriving Black community along the Georgia coast called Harris Neck is now covered with greenery. During its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area boasted a school house, general store, firehouse and seafood processing plants, and supported 75 Black households on 2,687 acres. The inhabitants were Gullah Geechee people, the descendants of formerly enslaved west Africans, who remained on the Sea Islands along the south-east US where they retained their distinct creole language and culture following the civil war.In 1942, though, the community was leveled to the ground when the federal government kicked the families off of the land using eminent domain to build an army airfield. For nearly 50 years, the descendants of the Harris Neck community have fought to regain their ancestral land through peaceful protests and lobbying local and federal...

Politics

8 d. ago Protests, tears and a baby: five key images that tell the story of Cop30

Emotions ran high at the UN climate summit in Brazil, which was hit by its first major protest in four yearsIt was a tense moment. A group of about 50 people from the Munduruku, an Indigenous people in the Amazon basin, had blocked the entrance to the Cop30 venue in protest, causing long lines of delegates to snake down access roads, simmering in the morning heat.The Munduruku, unhappy about the ruination of their forest and rivers by industry and their lack of voice at Cop30, demanded to speak to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president. Instead, they got André Corrêa do Lago, the president of the talks. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Canadian ‘Inconvenient Indian’ author Thomas King says he is not Indigenous

King has announced a genealogist working with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds found no evidence of Cherokee ancestry in his family lineageA prominent Canadian-American author, who has long claimed Indigenous ancestry and whose work exposed “the hard truths of the injustices of the Indigenous peoples of North America”, has learned from a genealogist that he has no Cherokee ancestry.In an essay titled “A most inconvenient Indian” published on Monday for Canada’s Globe and Mail, Thomas King said he had learned of rumours circulating in recent years within both the arts and Indigenous communities that questioned his Cherokee heritage. Continue reading...

Culture

1 week ago Canada: ‘Inconvenient Indian’ author Thomas King says he is not Indigenous

King has announced a genealogist working with the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds found no evidence of Cherokee ancestry in his family lineageA prominent Canadian-American author, who has long claimed Indigenous ancestry and whose work exposed “the hard truths of the injustices of the Indigenous peoples of North America”, has learned from a genealogist that he has no Cherokee ancestry.In an essay titled “A most inconvenient Indian” published on Monday for Canada’s Globe and Mail, Thomas King said he had learned of rumours circulating in recent years within both the arts and Indigenous communities that questioned his Cherokee heritage. Continue reading...

Culture

1 week ago Indigenous people reflect on the meaning of their participation in COP30 climate talks

At United Nations climate talks billed widely as having a special focus on Indigenous people, those people themselves have mixed feelings about whether the highlight reel matches reality

Politics

1 week ago Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees

Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says its app is most popular with young people Universities are blaming a “societal shift” for the axing of dozens of foreign language degrees and even entire departments, citing a lack of demand among students – but can years of study be easily replaced by AI or online translation tools?Not so, according to Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Biafran separatist leader sentenced to life on terrorism charges by Nigerian court

Judge says Nnamdi Kanu used his Indigenous People of Biafra group to incite attacks on security officials and civiliansThe Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has been sentenced to life in prison on terrorism-related charges by a court in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors had shown that Kanu, who also holds British citizenship, had used his Indigenous People of Biafra group (Ipob) to incite attacks on security officials and civilians in south-east Nigeria and during anti-police protests in Lagos. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Nigerian court convicts Biafran separatist leader on terrorism charges

Judge says Nnamdi Kanu used his Indigenous People of Biafra group to incite attacks on security officials and civiliansA Nigerian court has convicted the Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu on terrorism-related charges.Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors had shown that Kanu, who also holds British citizenship, had used his Indigenous People of Biafra group (IPOB) to incite attacks on security officials and civilians in south-east Nigeria. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago UN to hear human rights complaint over New Zealand’s treatment of Māori

UN committee to consider claim by prominent Māori leader Tureiti Moxon that alleges government policies have harmed Indigenous people The United Nations has agreed to hear an urgent complaint against New Zealand’s coalition government alleging it is responsible for significant and persistent discrimination against Māori.Prominent Māori leader, Lady Tureiti Moxon, has filed the complaint to the UN’s committee for the convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (CERD). Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Indigenous lands must be recognised as part of climate policy, says Brazilian minister

Sonia Guajajara tells Cop30 the rights of traditional communities must be maintained in the face of exploitation by the mining industryCountries must recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as a key component of tackling the climate crisis, and civil society must help in the defence of such lands against mining interests, Brazil’s minister for Indigenous peoples has said.Sonia Guajajara, a longtime Indigenous activist before being appointed a minister by President Lula da Silva, said: “[Among the goals of the Cop30 summit is] a request that countries recognise the demarcation of Indigenous lands as climate policy.” Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Pope returns 62 artifacts to Canada's Indigenous peoples as part of reckoning with colonial past

The Vatican has returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada

Politics

2 w. ago Protesters blockade Cop30 summit over plight of Indigenous peoples

Munduruku people demand to speak to Brazil’s president, saying they are never listened toCop30: click here for full Guardian coverage of the climate talks in BrazilProtesters blockaded the main entrance to the Cop30 climate conference for several hours early on Friday morning, demanding to speak to Brazil’s president about the plight of the country’s Indigenous peoples.About 50 people from the Munduruku people in the Amazon basin blocked the entrance with some assistance from international green groups, watched by a huge phalanx of riot police, soldiers and military vehicles. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Will it change the weather? Will wildlife cope?’: Europe’s rush to build energy projects in Chile might not be as green as it seems

The country’s government is upbeat about the economic prospects of the growing number of windfarms, solar parks and industrial complexes but others warn of ‘green colonialism’For generations, Alfonso Campos’s family has raised sheep in the grasslands of San Gregorio, a tranquil area in Magallanes province, in the far south of Chile’s Patagonia region. Now, he says, his farm will be encircled by three massive containers of ammonia, a desalination plant, a hydrogen plant, gas pipelines and hundreds of wind turbines.“If the ammonia leaks, it will poison everything,” he says. “The noise of the windmills will also upset the animals, and the landscape will be turned into an industrial desert.” Continue reading...

Science

3 w. ago Photos show Indigenous participants at the People's Summit held alongside the COP30 climate meeting

While delegates at a U.N. conference discussed how to fulfill past promises on fighting climate change, a boisterous gathering focused on the same topic from a very different perspective was taking shape.

Culture

3 w. ago A flotilla kicks off the People's Summit for activists at UN climate talks

As United Nation climate talks get underway in Belem, a different kind of conference is kicking off: the People’s Summit, a gathering of activists, organizers, environmentalists and Indigenous groups from around the world

Politics

3 w. ago Tussles break out between protesters and security at Cop30 in Brazil

Dozens storm venue at climate conference that has encouraged NGOs and Indigenous groups to play unprecedented role in talksThere were tussles between protesters and security guards at the Cop30 climate talks late on Tuesday night, when a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people stormed the conference centre in Belém.Several dozen men and women, some in brightly coloured feather headdress, ran through the entrance, pushing at least one door off its hinges, before striding through the metal detectors and entering the Blue Zone. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Prince William makes heartfelt pledge to brave activists facing death threats from gangs

On his final day in Brazil today, Prince William spoke to indigenous people in Belem who told him about the pight to save their land in the Amazon from deforestation

Events