Everything Zoomer
Some of the gains in women’s rights made in Beijing in 1995 have been rolled back, says UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who adds, “I am hopeful and I can see things moving forward.” Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival/Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka
More than a quarter-century after 189 states pledged to improve the lives of women at the United Nations Beijing conference in 1995, no country can claim gender equality. And with the United Nations Generation Equality Forum kicking off today (June 30) through July 2, we revisit our 2020 story in which Gloria Galloway explains why UN Women, Beijing warriors and new feminist recruits are signing on to Generation Equality.
In a section focused on biodiversity and the climate crisis, the 2021 federal budget shared in April contained a clear line: “Support Indigenous Guardians.” It was an explicit reference to the Guardians programs caring for lands across the country. The Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI), which bolsters Indigenous nationhood and culture via land stewardship and care, helps support the growing Guardians movement.
The nature conservation budget item, which proposed $2.5 billion over five years for climate and environmental work, acknowledged what has already been plain knowledge for centuries: Indigenous communities know best how to take care of the land and water. Guardians programs train individuals to be “the eyes and ears” of the land, speaking for their traditional territories in determining land and water use. Most importantly, the programs are run by and for Indigenous nations and their lands, rather than handed down from the federal government.
For the first time, the whole Dene family was talking to each other.
That s how Mountain Dene Elder and northern broadcasting icon Paul Andrew described the inquiry into the proposed Mackenzie Valley Gas Pipeline also known by the name of its chair, The Berger Inquiry.
Thomas Berger died this week at the age of 88.
CBC North has spent much of the last few days remembering the lawyer, judge and champion of Indigenous land and treaty rights. The stories and ways that northerners are remembering Mr. Berger have created incredible meaning for me, a non-Indigenous radio host living and working in the Northwest Territories, in Denendeh.
#33 of 42 articles from the Special Report:
Conversations
Ethel Blondin-Andrew is a former Liberal MP and cabinet minister now working with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Photo submitted by Ethel Blondin-Andrew
For Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the most important solution to Canada s climate crisis is also dangerously underfunded: Indigenous-led conservation.
“We have the vision, we need the resources,” Blondin-Andrew said in this year s first Conversations event with
Canada’s National Observer founder and editor-in-chief Linda Solomon Wood on Thursday evening. “We have a head start. We have the fundamental traditional knowledge, the relationship.”
Blondin-Andrew was the first Indigenous woman elected to the House of Commons and to serve in federal cabinet. She now works with the Indigenous Leadership Initiative (ILI) to develop Indigenous governance and stewardship of the land via programs that train Guardians and educate youth on land use planning. She explained at