International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples Activity Planned for Tuesday

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

SAN FRANCISCO - Tuesday, August 9, has been designated as the "International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples."

Yellow Bird Apache Dancer

AIM-WEST, a human rights-based advocacy and inter-tribal organization, is pleased to invite the general public to the 17th commemoration of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, held on Tuesday, August 9 from 9 am until 12:30 pm. The historic occasion will be held at the San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St. in the Koret Auditorium, located on the Library's lower level.

August 9 is a symbolic recognition as the first day Indigenous peoples entered the UN system with the establishment of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1983 in Geneva, Switzerland. This year's UN theme is "Indigenous designs: celebrating stories and cultures, crafting our own future."

The commemorative occasion will be honored with a blessing at 9:20 am by Ohlone Elder, Ms. Ann Marie Sayers, of Indian Canyon near Gilroy, California.

The program will include specially invited guest speakers and starting at 10 am to 11 am a panel will lead discussions regards to challenges faced at the local and national level on the implementation of the recently adopted (2007) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the World's Indigenous Peoples. The public and media are invited for questions and answers.

The panelist, moderated by Antonio Gonzales, AIM-WEST Director, include bay area notables such as Dr. Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz (Professor, author, poet), William "Jimbo" Simmons (AIM intelligentsia), Corrina Gould (sacred sites, Sogorea Te, commonly known as Glen Cove in Vallejo, California) and David Escobar (Salvadorian Indigenous, activist), with special attention given to sacred sites, environmental and global warming, and protection of Mother Earth for the coming generations, as a way of life.

A film by Saul Landau "The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas" will be shown starting at 11:05 am.

Cultural dancers, performers, drummers and singers are welcome from 9 am to 9:20 am.

Photo credit UN Jean-Marc Ferre

posted August 8, 2011 8:50 am edt