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In a statement, webinar organizers said that Indigenous sacred values and traditional wisdom may be the key to the renewal of the planet and a sustainable future for all. They quoted studies confirming that environmental decline and degradation is happening at a slower rate on Indigenous lands, where “they are doing a better job of managing natural resources and environmental hazards like species decline and pollution.”
Today, 36 percent of the world’s remaining forests are on Indigenous People’s lands, and Indigenous communities safeguard 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.
Webinar speakers agreed that this conversation could play a pivotal role in showing the world what Indigenous traditions and viewpoints have to offer the climate conversation. Rosalia Gutierrez, Francisco Morales, and Michael Raigoza all offered unique looks into the importance of the webinar:
“The importance of the webinar will be a contribution from Indigenous Peoples, from an ancestral vision,” Gutierrez said. “Indigenous Peoples have a different way of seeing and living in the world; our ancestors taught us to live in balance and harmony with Nature. That's why the Rivers are our brothers, the Earth is our Mother. Reciprocity, Community and the complementary relationship of opposites, helped us to understand a different world, with different times and values.”
"This webinar is a more-than-important contribution to deepen a new ‘citizen mentality’ that makes possible new values for the sustainability of life on earth,” Morales said. “Indigenous peoples, over more than 5,000 years, have been able to develop our sciences and knowledge that we can share to help save the Earth. The land is more than our common home. The Earth is ourselves. And if something happens to the Earth, it happens to each of us."
“The importance of this seminar for me is the continual need to bring Indigenous stewardship and ways of thinking to the forefront of the climate crisis,” Raigoza said. “Native communities have been interacting with Earth in a reciprocal relationship for thousands of years while keeping the generations to come in their minds so as not to hinder the balance of the ecosystem too far one way or the other. When we take from one place, we don’t take more than we need or we give back to the earth through ceremony. Today’s paradigm promotes over-extraction for profit, and I hope this webinar will promote and remind us that we need to move back to interconnectedness and reciprocity with not only Earth, but each other as humans.”
Lauren Van Ham, another webinar speaker raised with traditional Western approaches to Earth and climate, emphasized the importance of what can be learned from Indigenous peoples:
“Indigenous lifeways have always respected relationships and our inherent inter-relatedness,” Van Ham said. “For those of us who have been raised in an extractive and growth-dependent model, it is essential to listen and learn from the ones who honor the roles of all beings within Earth’s natural cycles.”
Manulani Aluli Meyer, another speaker, shared an example of Indigenous wisdom in Hawaii that is making a difference in Hawaiian communities through a movement for food security and cultural rejuvenation:
“Kupu ka niu kupu ke kanaka. ‘When coconuts grow, humanity flourishes,’” Meyer said. “Here is ‘ike kupuna, ancestral wisdom, coming from the Hawaiian Islands that inspired the Niu Now movement to rejuvenate the use, knowledge, and love of the coconut tree.”
The virtual meeting covering Indigenous wisdom and the solution to climate change will take place on May 9, 2024 at 2PM EDT.
Register for the free webinar at https://bit.ly/indigenous-peoples-2024
Speakers will include:
• Rosalia Gutierrez – Leader of the United Religion Initiative (URI)’s Indigenous People of Argentina Cooperation Circle, and founding member of URI.
• Manulani Aluli Meyer – Professor and Indigenous Hawaiian activist, leader of the Niu Now movement.
• Francisco Morales – Urban Indigenous member of the Aymara community in Argentina, writer, and co-founder of the Circle of Indigenous Written and Oral Knowledge.
• Lauren Van Ham – Ordained chaplain focused on eco-ministry, grief/loss, and sacred activism.
• Michael Raigoza – Member of the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians of Northern California and Program Officer for Cultural Projects at the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples (SGF).
• Audrey E. Kitagawa – President and Founder of the International Academy for Multicultural Cooperation and President of the Light of Awareness International Spiritual Family.
About the G20 Process
The Group of Twenty, or G20, is the premier forum for international economic cooperation,
bringing together the leaders of Earth’s most prosperous economies. Collectively, G20
members represent around 80 percent of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of the
global population and three-quarters of international trade. Throughout the year,
representatives from G20 countries gather to discuss financial and socioeconomic issues as
well as broader humanitarian issues targeted by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
About the G20 Interfaith Forum
The G20 Interfaith Forum seeks global solutions by collaborating with religious thought
leaders and political representatives to help shape the overall G20 agenda. It draws on the
vital roles that religious institutions and beliefs play in world affairs, reflecting a rich
diversity of institutions, ideas, and values. Through its extensive network of networks, it
helps prioritize key global policy goals and point toward practical means of implementation
at every level of society.
For more information, please visit www.g20interfaith.org.
Marianna E. Richardson
G20 Interfaith Forum
+1 801-692-1442
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