GLOBAL INDIGENOUS: Stolen children, climate, and film recognition

By Deusdedit Ruhangariyo. Special to ICT.

Around the world: Brazil, Indonesia and Congo push for a rainforest protection fund, reparations for Australia’s ‘stolen generations’ hits a snag, a group of weavers is recreating a 200-year-old Māori sail, and a film about Noongar elders wins an award in New York.

COP 27: Brazil, Indonesia, Congo call for rainforest protection

Members from the world’s three forest titans – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo – signed a cooperation agreement in Jakarta calling for more funding to assist in protecting half of the world’s rainforests, Mongabay.com reported on Nov. 18.

The United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt ended with an agreement on the fund but no agreement on reducing emissions.

According to data by the Global Forest Watch, the statement by the three forest nations followed the loss of about 5.7 million acres of primary forest in the three countries in 2021, largely because of the high deforestation rate in Brazil, which is responsible for almost half of the global deforestation last year, Mongabay.com reported.

But things have changed in Brazil. President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who pledged to protect the rainforest, defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, and came out strong at the United Nations COP 27 meeting in Egypt, calling on rich countries to pay into their 2009 promise of $100 billion for helping less-developed countries face climate change and reverse deforestation.

The declaration marked the beginning of a strategic alliance – dubbed the OPEC of Rainforests – to lobby wealthy countries. An Amazon bloc is expected to follow, according to Colombian minister Susana Muhammad, Mongabay.com reported.

AUSTRALIA: Petition for ‘Stolen Generations’ redress tabled

A petition calling for compensation in Western Australia for the “Stolen Generations” of Indigenous peoples was tabled by a member of Parliament, who called for further investigation, National Indigenous Times reported on Nov. 18.

Brad Pettitt, member of Australia’s Parliament representing the Greens area, tabled the petition calling for state redress.

“This morning I was very honored to present a petition with over 1,300 signatures actually calling for government to look at what other states and territories have done around compensation for Stolen Generations,” Pettitt said, according to National Indigenous Times.

“We’re a rich state,” he said, referring to Western Australia, “and can afford to do it. So what I’m really hoping is it does put it back on the government’s agenda … Now’s an opportunity for us to look at what the best practice is and get on and finish some of the important work in the reconciliation process.”

The Stolen Generations refer to the thousands of children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were forcibly removed from their families by federal and state governments and church missions in Australia from about 1905 to 1967, though some mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s, officials said.

Tony Hansen, co-chair of Bringing Them Home WA and a Stolen Generations survivor, said many of the survivors have already died without any redress. Queensland and Western Australia are the only two Australian jurisdictions without a compensation scheme in place.

“Sadly, many of our people have died sitting in aged care facilities,” he said. “The time is now for us as a state to compensate the Stolen Generation people and acknowledge the past histories of the atrocities that took place.”

Western Australia Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti said the government is committed to reviewing the petition, particularly regarding a redress scheme.