Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

April 18, 2010

Bolivia: Meet Faith Gemmill from Arctic Village


Ms. Gemmill of Arctic Village, Alaska testifies at Secretary Salazar's hearing on 5-Year Offshore Leasing Plan in Anchorage, Alaska. She talks about the oil spill risks involved with drilling and oil exploration. She also discusses the importance of creating new sources of energy to get away from oil.

Faith Gemmill, Gwich'in, from Alaska

Faith Gemmill is from the Gwich'in territories in Alaska, USA. Faith is the executive director of REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), an Alaska Native grassroots alliance formed in 2002 by a group of Alaska Natives representing each region of Alaska to share knowledge, experience and strategies to address the detrimental impacts of oil and gas development. Faith and the REDOIL network addresses the disproportionate impacts of the fossil fuel industry on Alaska Native sovereignty and self-determination, subsistence, human and ecological health and climate change. Faith is an advocate for demanding a moratorium on any new fossil fuel development in and near indigenous lands. Faith Gemmill is a Pit River/ Wintu and Neets'aii Gwich'in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska. Faith previously worked on behalf of the Gwich'in Nation for over ten years as a representative, public spokesperson and Gwich'in Steering Committee staff to address the potential human health and cultural impacts of proposed oil development and production of the birthplace and nursery of the Porcupine Caribou Herd which is located within the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Faith continues as a public spokesperson, press and tribal liaison and human rights advocate. Faith has represented the Gwich'in Nation within appropriate mechanisms of the United Nations to advocate for the recognition of Gwich'in human rights as well as work for the rights and recognition of Indigenous Peoples.

Meet more Indigenous delegates from North America at the World Peoples' Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, in Bolivia:

http://www.ggjalliance.org/node/351

Sharing Bolivia World Climate Conference
Please repost from Censored News. Feel free to translate into any language. We are preparing for the live broadcast from Cochabamba, Bolivia streaming at http://www.earthcycles.net/
email brendanorrell@gmail.com

No comments: