COP28 Panel Set for Saturday: Indigenous Water Protectors Defending Their Livelihoods, Lands, and Territories

Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network’s COP28 delegation that participated in the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform 10th meeting of the Facilitative Working Group in Dubai, UAE. (Photo/International Environmental Network)
Members of the Indigenous Environmental Network’s COP28 delegation that participated in the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform 10th meeting of the Facilitative Working Group in Dubai, UAE. (Photo/International Environmental Network)

The International Environmental Network (IEN) will host a panel on Saturday at the nine-day Conference of Parties (COP28) now underway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The panel discussion is named False Solutions vs Real Solutions to the Climate Crisis: Indigenous Water Protectors Defending their livelihoods, Lands and Territories.

The panel will be an inter-generational discussion with Indigenous water protectors on how the climate crisis and false solutions to climate change are impacting their livelihoods, lands, and territories. Real solutions to the climate crisis, rooted in Indigenous worldviews, values, and our relationship with water will be presented.

The details for the panel are:

When:
Saturday, December 2, 2023, 18:30-19:30 
 
NEW LINK - Watch Live HERE: https://youtube.com/live/mWzpEWtj_YQ
 
Moderator:
Kandi White (Arikara, Mandan, & Hidatsa Nations) Program Director, Indigenous Environmental Network
 
Speakers:

  • Shyrlene Oliveira da Silva Huni Kui, Representative of the Huni Kui Indigenous Peoples, Amazon

  • Jack Collard (Nyoongar Nation) Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander International Engagement Organisation

  • Jayce Chiblow (Garden River First Nation), Education and Training Manager, Indigenous Climate Action

  • Tom BK Goldtooth (Diné/ Dakota), Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network

Brief biographies for each panel speaker are listed below:

Shyrlene Oliveira Dasilva Huni Kui,
Representative of the Huni Kui Indigenous Peoples, Amazon

Indigenous activist and PhD in plant production from the Federal University of Acre; Shyrlene was recently accepted into the post doc program at the University of British Columbia - Vancouver CA

 

Jack Collard
(Nyoongar Nation), Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander International Engagement Organisation

Jack Collard is a proud citizen of the Nyoongar nation with cultural ties that span from the pristine beaches along the coast of Whadjuk country, through the wetlands of Boorloo over Kaartamoornda (Black Hills) to the granite outcrops of Ballardong boodjar which is home to the Mungart tree.

 

Jack's servitude to his nation has found him in the role as Executive Director for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander International Engagement Organisation which seeks to connect Indigenous nation-states to Indigenous nation-states across the globe. Weaving a web of interconnectedness and interdependency this network aims to leverage the networks in our respective homes to realise the necessity for Indigenous peoples to become self-determined from the colonial powers that be.

 

 

As alumni of the Indigenous Environmental Network’s False Solutions training program Jack uses his voice to warn about the dangers of green colonialism in its many shapes and forms.

 

Jayce Chiblow

(Garden River First Nation), Education & Training Manager, Indigenous Climate Action

 

Jayce (she/her) is Anishinaabe from Garden River First Nation, Ontario. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology and a Masters of Environmental Studies. Jayce’s Masters research was conducted in her community where she brought together youth, community leaders, and knowledge keepers in a workshop-style gathering focused on climate action through an Indigenous food sovereignty lens. Jayce started with ICA in 2020 and has worked as the Community Engagement Lead and Toolkit Lead where she supported the creation, dissemination and implementation of ICA’s Toolkit and Climate Leadership Program. Currently, she sits as the Education and Training Manager where she will continue to support ICA’s development of education and training programs/materials.


Tom BK Goldtooth
(Diné/ Dakota) Executive Director, Indigenous Environmental Network

Tom is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), the oldest Indigenous- based and grassroots network working on environmental, energy, climate and economic justice issues in North America including the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Tom has been the lead of the Indigenous delegation of IEN within the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since COP 04 in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1998. Tom and IEN participated in the formation of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) in 2008. Tom has been awarded with recognition of his achievements throughout the past 32 years as a change maker within the environmental, economic, energy and climate justice movement. From his participation and leadership in the First National People of Color Environmental Justice Leadership Summit in 1991 in Washington D.C., to the 2010 World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and to the recent co-formation of the US-based Green New Deal Network and the United Frontline Table and its People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy platform, he has been on the forefront of key moments fighting for systemic change.

In 2007, Tom co-founded the Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace lifting up the spiritual- cultural values and ethics of water policy. Tom initiated the first international Indigenous conference on the rights of Mother Earth in 2012 at the Haskell Indian Nations University and serves as a member of the Global Alliance of the Rights of Nature. Tom wrote the IEN Indigenous Principles of Just Transition as an organizing tool of using Indigenous Original Instructions as the foundation for building sustainable and healthy Indigenous communities. Tom is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2015 Gandhi Award and in 2016 was presented Sierra Club’s highest recognition, the John Muir award.

About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. "

Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net