Yellowknife activist speaks at United Nations conference
Tso'Tine-Gwich'in protester raises awareness of climate change, indigenous rights
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 23, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife aboriginal woman participated in a United Nations conference last week which sought to bring awareness of climate change in both the North and tropical regions of the planet.
Kiera-Dawn Kolson, an Arctic campaigner for Greenpeace, spoke at the United Nations headquarters last week in order to raise awareness about world indigenous rights and climate change. - photo courtesy of Kiera-Dawn Kolson |
Kiera-Dawn Kolson, an activist with Greenpeace Canada, took part in a panel called A Global Call Spanning the Polar Regions to the Tropics at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on July 15.
Kolson fears that extensive resource extraction such as oil and gas development on indigenous lands may contribute to global climate change and create the potential for human beings to become dispossessed in their traditional homelands.
"The main message that I was trying to convey was that there are indigenous peoples here in the Arctic and we are still surviving as per what our inherent rights entail and as per what traditional knowledge has passed down to our generation," she said. "We deserve to be more than just spectators in the discussion and development of our own traditional homes."
About 60 to 70 people were in attendance and other panelists included Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, permanent ambassador of Peru to the United Nations, Colin Beck, permanent ambassador of the Solomon Islands to the United Nations, Estebancio Castro Diaz of the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of Tropical Forests, and Jamie Henn, co-founder of 350.org.
Kolson, a Tso'Tine-Gwich'in activist who was born and raised in Yellowknife, says she has long-been interested in Northern activism and has been involved in other local groups such as the Native Women's Association of the NWT, beginning at 12-years-old. In February, Kolson organized a protest against oil and gas development during an Arctic Council meeting held at the legislative assembly,
Kolson said she got involved with the group because her First Nation is considered a lost tribe in the Akaitcho region.
"As a young person, who is piecing her culture and identity together, I think it is important that we have access to our land," she said. "A lot of that traditional knowledge is interwoven and embedded in the construct of our land and our land is of us. So it is important that we still have access."
The speech was streamed live on webtv.un.org and can be seen at the same site.
Kolson said she sees the speech as part of a larger discussion that the United Nations are promoting, especially as it comes to climate change and the rights of aboriginal peoples throughout the world.
She said her conference was a lead-in event to the upcoming World Conference on Indigenous Peoples set for Sept. 22 and 23 and the Climate Summit which will be held Sept. 23. Both events are to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York.
