New York- In celebration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People Wednesday, Q’orianka Kilcher, the young Hollywood star who played Pocahontas opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale in Terrence Malick’s ‘The New World’, joined the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to give her support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and speak about her recent visit to indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon, a trip led by the environmental and indigenous rights group Amazon Watch.
Q’orianka, who is a descendant of the Huachipaeri and Quechua people of Peru, participated in a powerful panel focused on development and human rights, which included Phrang Roy, Assistant President, International Fund for Agricultural Development; Wilton Littlechild (Cree Nation-Canada), Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; and Romy Tincopa, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the UN. Messages by Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Coordinator of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues were delivered at the event.
In her opening remarks, Q’orianka defined her view on true human development as including a strong commitment for universal dignity, compassion, and basic human rights. “There is a clear connection between economic development, pressing environmental issues and human rights abuses. While looking into the future, we have to ensure that human rights and environmental abuses are not committed in the name of economic development,” she stated.
She further shared that, “Indigenous issues have global importance for all humanity, because by protecting indigenous peoples and cultures we are protecting the cultural human heritage and biodiversity of our world. The hopes and aspirations of indigenous peoples have been ignored for far too long. Development projects that exploit their lands, natural resources and cultures are often done without their consent. Many of them are still forcibly removed from their ancestral territories, and their sustainable ways of developing natural resources are dismissed. Indigenous peoples around the world are facing all similar problems. Their languages and customs are suppressed, their wisdom and traditional knowledge overlooked, and they are constantly subjected to the worst forms of discrimination and human rights abuse.”
Q’orianka witnessed the impacts of multinational oil and gas companies on indigenous Achuar communities on a recent trip to the northern Peruvian Amazon led by Amazon Watch, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving the Amazon rainforest and supporting indigenous peoples rights. “During my recent trip to Peru, I visited several remote Amazon communities devastated and contaminated by 35 years of oil drilling operations by Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and Pluspetrol, an Argentine company. It is really sad and embarrassing. This is an American company that used practices outlawed in the U.S. They pump an average of 800,000 barrels a day of toxic waste-waters containing heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury into local rivers with devastating consequences for local communities,” she reported. Q’orianka sent a letter to OXY’s CEO, Mr. Ray Irani, on July 25 requesting a meeting and a commitment to respect indigenous peoples’ rights and an enforcement of the company’s Human Rights Policy enacted in December 2005.
Texas-based ConocoPhillips, the third largest oil company in the United States, has further plans to drill in neighboring areas of pristine Amazon rainforest, also the homeland of the Achuar. The Achuar people have declared that they do not want any oil drilling operations on their sacred land. Q’orianka’s new production company, IQ Productions, is planning to produce a feature length documentary on the impacts of oil drilling on indigenous communities and the environment, in collaboration with Amazon Watch, to highlight the crisis and bring about immediate change.
In closing Q’orianka stated, “It is up to my generation to make a difference. If we don’t act today, it will be too late. As a Hollywood actress, I think it is important to use my voice to speak for the rights of indigenous peoples.”
“We all have to work together!” Q’orianka finally said, with a smile on her face, “I think that it is through our collective conscience to end widespread human rights violations, and discrimination in all its forms, that we find our identity and what it means to be truly human. My hope is that all of our nations leaders have the wisdom to see the need to come together to adopt the Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous peoples.”
For Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, please contact:
Mirian Masaquiza, Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, tel: 917.367.6006,
e-mail: [email protected]
