Be a Good Ancestor ~ Declaration & Action Plan
of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples
Keeping the Homefires Burning Gathering
at Tamaya – Santa
Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
June 2012
We are good ancestors. As the original, free and independent
peoples of our lands and territories, we reaffirm our fundamental right to
self-determination, and our spiritual and cultural relationship with all life
forms, knowledge systems, and ways of life within our traditional lands and
territories. Indigenous Peoples and Nations are the protectors and holders of
every aspect of our cultural heritage and do so as stewards of this sacred
birthright for the coming generations.
Honoring the knowledge, experience, and innovation of our
ancestors and abiding by their instructions that we have an inherent
responsibility to respect, cherish, and transmit this collective heritage to
future generations so they may seek and realize their full potential;
Recognizing Indigenous women as the mothers of our nations
who carry forward and transmit cultural knowledge and ways of life to future
generations, assuring our collective survival and continuity and that women
should have full and meaningful participation in planning and decision-making
for our Peoples;
Uplifting Indigenous children and youth as the ancestors of
coming generations and who must be included as full participants in
decision-making processes pertinent to Indigenous Peoples, our cultures and
homelands;
Expressing profound concern over the increasing negative
impact of globalization including free trade, multi-national corporations,
extractive industrial development, unsustainable tourism, militarization, and
other external forces impacting Indigenous Peoples, our cultures, lands,
territories and resources;
We advance the principles of the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples with this first statement to the world since the
Declaration’s adoption by the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2007;
Affirming our inherent and inalienable rights derived from
our political, legal, economic, and social structures and that we understand
these institutions have evolved from longstanding spiritual relationships and
cultural perspectives, especially our rights to our lands, territories and
resources;
Asserting our treaty and other rights which have been
consistently abrogated by states and others;
Recalling the fourth preambular paragraph of the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which affirms, “all
doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples
or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or
cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally
condemnable and socially unjust;”
Recognizing that the Doctrine of Discovery specifically, and
other such doctrines, lie at the root cause of violations of all natural
systems of the Earth, are racist in nature, abrogate Indigenous Peoples’
individual and collective human rights, and have been institutionalized in law
and policy on national and international levels;
Echoing the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Final
Report (11th Session - 2012) calling upon member-states to repudiate “nefarious
doctrines” such as the Doctrine of Discovery, the Doctrine of Domination, the
Regalian Doctrine, and others, that abrogate Indigenous Peoples’ rights
including dispossession of our lands, territories and resources;
Considering that the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
chose not to adopt the recommendations from the collective statements by the
Indigenous Peoples of the world at its 11th Session to conduct an international
study on the effects of the Doctrine of Discovery on Indigenous Peoples;
We announce our intention to establish an Expert Group
Meeting to conduct an international study on the far reaching and ongoing
impacts of the Doctrine of Discovery on Indigenous Peoples, our cultures, lands
and territories, that shall be submitted to the UN Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, and other
international fora and bodies. To be completed by 2014, this study will include
recommendations and action plans that reflect the voices and perspectives of
Indigenous Peoples of the world.
Alarmed that UN fora, including the World Intellectual
Property Organization, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and others, are
engaged in standard setting processes that states wish to subsume Indigenous
Peoples’ knowledge systems and cultural heritage into the intellectual property
framework of states and transnational corporations, while denying Indigenous
Peoples’ full and equal participation in these negotiations;
Witnessing with grave concern the unrelenting degradation of
Mother Earth and natural systems in light of climate change and other impacts,
and expressing the need to increase measures to restore and protect the
environment and the Earth for the survival and continuity of cultural diversity
and biodiversity;
We call upon all Indigenous Peoples to demand our right of
full and equal participation at all United Nations’ processes that affect the
rights and interests of Indigenous Peoples and Nations;
And we urge Indigenous Nations and Peoples to set our own
legal standards for the protection of our traditional knowledge, traditional
cultural expressions, and genetic resources in a manner consistent with our
traditional values and right of self-determination.
Knowing that climate change and global warming taking place
around the world negatively impacts all aspects of Indigenous Peoples’ lives,
including our traditional cultures, food systems, ways of life, economies,
collective security and ability to protect our lands, waters, biological
diversity, ecosystems, and health;
Identifying Terracide as the destruction of the natural
systems of Mother Earth that renders our planet incapable of supporting life,
threatens our ability to be ancestors, and is thus a criminal act against all
of Life. The foundations of Terracide are the perpetuation of unsustainable
economic models that exploit natural systems and promote unrestricted growth
and exponential development that drains rather than sustains Life;
Calling for the recognition of Water as a human right and
essential to all Life; that it is crucial for bio-cultural diversity and for
all aspects of the world community’s survival and well being, including
assuring our physical health, nurturing our spiritual development and central
for the continued vitality of Indigenous cultures and sustainable livelihoods;
We urge participants of all international convenings and
fora to take a stand and call for a Declaration Against Terracide &
Aquacide that affirms the Rights of Mother Earth and Indigenous Peoples’ human
rights;
Expressing that Indigenous Peoples have viable and
life-affirming paradigms for continued survival that honors and sustains life
systems and engenders Earth healing and renewal;
Joining together in solidarity at this multi-generational
gathering of 275 participants from 100 different Indigenous Nations, and
allies, reflecting tremendous linguistic, cultural, geographic, knowledge,
experiential, and historic diversity;
Upholding our responsibilities as good ancestors to consider
the impact on the seventh generation to come in each of our deliberations;
We implore all humankind to adopt and implement the
fundamental precepts of Being a Good Ancestor to preserve and nurture
foreverlasting Life, and secure the sacred birthright of the future generations
of All Our Relations.
