A Blessing for a Sick World

Michael Charles [middle] with Jarette [left] and Maka [right], Generation Indigenous Movement Builders Fellows, wearing Decolonizer shirts after Edgar Villanueva’s book-launch for Decolonizing Wealth.

The UN Climate Talks are exhausting: physically and emotionally. Balancing work both inside and outside of the negotiations requires many more hours than your average workday and this only becomes more frustrating when you come from the country who is the biggest wrench in the system — and everyone knows it. Spending time observing the slow-moving bureaucracy which seems to have little-to-no ambition in demanding action from the different nations is maddening. To make matters worse, I saw something completely missing from the negotiations: indigenous voices. As a citizen of the Navajo Nation, I sat in the negotiation room and saw no representation of my people. There has never been a seat within the negotiations for an indigenous nation — even though the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples “emphasiz[es] that the United Nations has an important and continuing role to play in promoting and protecting the rights of indigenous peoples.” How are they going to protect our rights if they won’t even let us sit in the same room as those making decisions?

Michael [right] with members of the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change.

We live in a world that needs anything but lethargy and stagnant negotiations. Climate change is not a problem that can be solved by one person, one country, or one political party. Without action, we will continue to see impacts against our own people — across mankind and across the world: wildfires, hurricanes, submerged land, extreme drought in some areas and flash flooding in others. However, as the world begins to awaken to the impacts and dangers we as mankind have created, indigenous communities are raising their voices; inside and outside of the negotiations.

Michael speaking within the UN halls asking people in power to “Pass the Mic” to indigenous voices.

On a recent visit to Oglala Lakota territory, I spent time at the Crazy Horse Monument and prayed with some Lakota relatives at the site of his death. We honored his life in song and I remembered a message from Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior and chief who fought for his people in the 19th century. The message filled me with nothing but hope:

“Upon suffering, beyond suffering, the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world; a world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations; a world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become on circle again.”

There are many reasons why the world needs indigenous people to be given the proper accessibility and representation of their voices. We have a problem. We need solutions. Despite being constantly left out of the room, indigenous peoples and communities have solutions. In Diné (Navajo), our sodizin (prayer), hatáál (ceremony), and dahane (stories) provide wisdom, balance, and connection between our spirit and our relatives’. Many of us believe that we are not on this planet to dominate, but rather, to live harmoniously with all our relations around us: our Mother Earth, our Father Sky, our sacred mountains, and of course, our two-legged family across the globe. When we decolonize our worldview and think of ourselves as part of a family instead of a dominant species, we begin to understand the importance of international cooperation between mankind to restore our relationship with Mother Earth. Let me repeat, Climate change is not a problem that can be solved by one person or one country. We need each other.

SustainUS COP23 Delegates Michael Charles and Troy Robertson speak at the US Peoples’ Speakout on the intersections of climate and race.

I am going back to the UN Climate talks because I believe this Red Nation is rising, and it’s happening now. Indigenous communities have had to fight for their rights everyday since their first contact with colonizers. In 1968, we saw the beginning of the American Indian Movement, but this wasn’t the beginning of our resistance. In 2016, we saw the Oceti Sakowin camp at Standing Rock use prayer and mass-gathering to stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Further, there are tons of indigenous-led organizations today who are acting against the injustices they experience (Read more from Maka Monture here). Last year at COP, the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC) fought for indigenous voices within the UN Negotiations. There was small progress with vague results, but the Indigenous Peoples’ Platform is being developed and the fight will continue for us to be heard.

It is not the time to rest. I will continue advocating for my people with the privilege that I have being at the negotiations. I’m more than excited to work with old and new relatives, indigenous and non-indigenous, from around the world to support this revolution — a red revolution rooted in the resilience of our ancestors; a red revolution where we all gather under the Sacred Tree of Life. Whether we can count on politics and high-level decision makers to listen or not, everyone can play their role to challenge the system, love all relatives, and build community to continue to fight for a better world. See you on the front-line or in the negotiating room, we’ve got work to do.