Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Aboriginal women in the North have more in common with their "sisters" in the balmy regions of Central America than they may think, said a Honduran activist visiting Yellowknife.

Patricia Rebolledo-Kloques, left, and Analucy Bengochea point to Honduras on a map. - Lauren McKeon/NNSL photo

Analucy Bengochea of the Garifuna people works with grassroots group Groots International and has been touring Edmonton and Yellowknife in the past weeks to cobble together a common voice and message to bring to the United Nations forum on indigenous issues in 2009.

"We have been discussing common interests (between) the North and south," Bengochea said, speaking through a translator.

"The challenge here is how to create a common voice between the indigenous here and in Honduras."

Bengochea came to Yellowknife with two activists from Horizons of Friendship, a group based in Cobourg, Ont., founded to support programs and eliminate the root causes of poverty in Central America and Mexico.

The rotary club in Cobourg sponsored the tour to Edmonton and Yellowknife.

The Horizons of Friendship group itself is organizing an exposure tour to Honduras in February for those interested in learning about the culture there and the group's work.

With the help of the Centre for Northern Families here and other groups, Horizons of Friendship is planning another trip to Honduras for aboriginal women in Canada.

The women "can go there and learn from each other," said Patricia Rebolledo-Kloques, executive director of Horizons.

"They have several issues in common, even if one lives in Yellowknife and one lives in Central America," she said.

Issues in common include discrimination, loss of cultural roots, loss of services and land rights issues, according to Bengochea and Rebolledo-Kloques.

While in Yellowknife Bengochea shared the story of how her community rebuilt itself after Hurricane Mitch devastated the area in 1998, setting infrastructure development back 50 years.

"It was another fight for us," said Bengochea, whose people were at one point in history sold into slavery on St. Vincent Island, located in the Caribbean Sea.

Finding a common message and making it heard at the forum will be another fight, but one that will allow all Bengochea to strengthen what she calls the sisterhood movement among aboriginals in Canada and abroad.

"In order to arrive at the higher level (of a common message) we have to get to know each other," she said.