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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN


CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
Presented by Pauline E. Tangiora, AOTEAROA/N.Z.,
Indigenous Elder on behalf of Indigenous Representatives
attending the UNITED NATIONS 1995 FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN
in Beijing


Madam President,
Delegates,

We wish first to acknowledge and pay respect to the INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES of this land where we have come together for this Conference.
Kia Ora.

We would like to ask Governments and Delegates if they have taken
time to look deeply into the eyes of their loved ones, wives,
partners, mothers, daughters, sons or grandchildren? What did you
see?

Do you recognise the sufferings that uranium mining and nuclear
testing bombing has done to peoples just like them?

Have you felt the aftermath of the destruction of traditional
subsistence, Economics, and the Raping of Mother Earth?

Has it occurred to decisionmakers of the Governments of the world,
the far-reaching effects of legislation that allow genocide to be
effected by persons working for Multi-Transnational companies in
acquiring licenses to control or acquire the resources, either below
or above the earth? The often inept destruction of Indigenous values
through cultural genocide or ethnocide, which began with Colonialism,
still continues today.

During the past five-hundred years of colonisation, over two-thousand
Indigenous Nations and tribes have disappeared. Genocide is really
very much alive and continuing on as we sit here talking PEACE. This
is happening through aggressive militarization, deprivation of our
environment due to germ warfare, and the effects of new technologies,
such as genetic engineering, which could obliterate INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES forever. The imposition of western culture through education,
religion and the media, is leading to monoculturalization and
destruction of the diversity that makes INDIGENOUS PEOPLES unique

How many countries make a percentage of their profits from the
exposure of INDIGENOUS PEOPLE in tourism. This includes the
trafficking of women and children for man's gratification.

We say INDIGENOUS PEOPLES with the "S", for we move as communities,
and this needs to be reinforced: that “law” enacted be consistent
with the "lores" of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Basic Health, Education,
Welfare and housing have been slow to alleviate the needs of
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES because of having to reduce the foreign debt of
governments; whereby the funding for the above programmes are reduced
owing to the implementation of structural adjustment policies of the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES suffer gross violations of Human Rights. Often,
through displacement, colonisation, and forced marriages, they are
compelled to assimilate into the dominant population. Violence
against Indigenous women is incomprehensible when humankind is at
war. Military abuse of women through rape and torture is well
documented. The pain of having the male members of their households
“spirited”" away or killed is not acceptable, and all of the above
must be priority in the prosecution of war crimes.

We come now to that which gives INDIGENOUS PEOPLES the right to
appear before you today, to ask you to open your ears and hearts to
what INDIGENOUS PEOPLES have to carry forth on the winds of time -
the time of the here and now - the rights of the INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
to their LANDS. Non-recognition from this Conference, meeting here in
Beijing, without giving INDIGENOUS PEOPLES their collective rights to
self-determination and sovereignty, is a violation of Human Rights.

For many years we have come to United Nations Conferences to have
Governments endorse these rights; however, how do INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
negotiate when we are not allowed to enter the negotiations on equal
terms? Is it not time that we INDIGENOUS PEOPLES sit together and
become as partners to the decisionmaking of that which affects the
lives of over four-million INDIGENOUS PEOPLES? The notion of
collective rights is the heartbeat of the communal way of living.
Whether it be spirituality or developing an economic system, we at
this conference reject completely all references such as Indigenous
populations, people, minorities, and cultural communities, and
request all of you to take the step - the first step to respecting
INDIGENOUS  PEOPLES for what and who they are: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.

Whether or not four-million INDIGENOUS PEOPLES in the world will have
their Human Rights respected, will depend upon the placement of the
term INDIGENOUS PEOPLES within the Declaration. We request that the
Governments place the term INDIGENOUS PEOPLES with an "S" in the
Declaration, and we thank the United States for supporting us on this
issue.

After all, aren't we responsible to answer to the grandchildren, to
ensure a world of peace, harmony, and an environment that will
sustain them and their generations yet unborn.

We, the Indigenous Women wish to thank the NGO FORUM for their work
in putting the conference together.

May we leave next week knowing that Governments will commit
themselves to not just talking, but be brave enough to break away
from the yoke that holds them from looking from within and walking
the road together with INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.