[Music] thank you hello everyone welcome to this important panel I'm so excited to moderate T today um I think that if there is one word that describes indigenous communities is resilience and I want them to teach us um how how to embrace indigenous history and traditions and how to respect your traditions and the love that you have in respect for planet Earth and for the environment and in that matter there's some um guidance philosophy that plays a very important role and I think if I'm not wr
ong in every single indigenous community and is the Seventh Generation mindset Victor I know you have like Whitely spoke about the seven generation mindset but for the ones that are not familiar with it can you expand a little bit yeah of course uh I just introduced myself in my indigenous language uh it's really good to be with you all today and I greet all of you with a good heart this mindset that uh that was mentioned is practiced by indigenous communities around the world in my community we
often refer to it as the Seventh Generation uh uh taking into account our actions and their impacts on the generations that will come after us but not only in that not only in that respect but looking backwards as well and bringing our ancestors to light in a sense considering what our ancestors have done for us what was the vision of our ancestors their sacrifices what's our responsibility to our communities to our ancestors to the Future generations and Indigenous peoples around this around t
he world put this into practice these are not only words they put their lives on the line every single day today we've done this since colonization began in our respective countries it's really the highest form of planning and it's one of the reasons why indigenous peoples belong to the oldest societies the oldest Nations on planet Earth older than all of the empires that we learn about in school that have risen and crumbled older than the United States the United States would have to exist over
10 times to be as old as my community as my nation over and so these practices are still alive today and I think uh National Chief Bernard will talk a little bit more but I think we need to take heed of the oldest Nations we need to look at to them as examples why wouldn't we yes thank you thank you Victor chief the Seventh Generation mindset is a way of living for indigenous communities how this philosophy has influenced decision making and practices sustainable practices within your community
well welcome everybody I'm just excited to be here for this is my very first uh one uh Young World so I'm very happy to be here and so greetings to the the counselors delegates and uh ambassadors and leaders I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be on this panel today my role as National chief of for the Assembly of First Nations is to advocate for the first nations in Canada um to ensure that our rights and our and our are respected and upheld by the government and the can and Canadians as
a as a whole and um as a national advocacy or Organization for First Nations the Assembly of First Nations seeks to advance first nation's inherit and treaty rights through the development of policy public education and we applicable a C- development uh of legislation to build the first nation's capacity as a national Chief I value the emerging leaders and look to provide them with opportunities so that to share their voices and that's why I was uh I brought here to with me um uh winter Dawn lip
c uh she is the co-chair of the National Youth um Council for the Assembly of First Nations and what we do uh within our executive meetings as myself as the national Chief and all the executive from across Canada we include our youth in all our meetings every meeting executive meeting we have we have our youth councils all at all times with us in our meeting so their voices are heard they see where how we're leading and they are encouraged uh to to uh pursue the next generation of leaders so it'
s very important uh that we include their them in all our uh decision making and um so maybe uh leave a little bit time for winter so yes um winter I wanted to ask you and and thank you chief for giv giving her the space and the voice and the platform as as a a person that belongs to the new generation and winter I wanted to ask you about how the non-indigenous community can incorporate this philosophy to the respect for the environment and sustainable practices hello everybody my name is winon
lipom and I'm from wiisham or wiisham nation in treaty 3 territory and that was an introduction in my traditional language um so in terms of incorporating that Seventh Generation mindset and that thinking into non-indigenous communities I think First Nations knowledge keepers have derived or sorry have described climate change as a symptom of a greater problem and that's a set of human values based on the separation of humans from the natural world that guide a series of destructive behaviors an
d activities blatantly disrespecting natural law for them natural law or for us natural law is a set of laws that originate directly from the Creator these are our original instructions to care for the world for other Earth and they're based on our diverse languages our stories our ceremonies and their instructions on how to govern and interact with the land water and more than human relatives to ensure balance and reciprocity in our traditional practices we are taught to leave the land as we fo
und it so when we're harvesting from the land we're taught only to take what we need we're taught to think of the collective and that means caring for our elders serving them first First Nations Le Solutions are multi-dimensional interrelated interconnected and grounded in First Nations law knowledge language and governance the core of a first nation's worldview is an understanding that we have are one with the land uh this recognition lays the foundation for a set of legal principles and orders
that while unique to each individual First Nation represent natural and environmental law and it's a sacred responsibility that continues to guide how First Nations interact with protect and respect Mother Earth one of the teachings that my grandmother shared with me when I was proud was that our ancestors have guided us to this point and we stand on their shoulders in the work that they've done up until now and we leap from the work that they started yesterday and that little bit that we move
the Mark today is progress and that's healing and now is the time to build those respectful and meaningful Partnerships to facilitate this work so we cannot discuss closing those sustainability gaps without actively including empowering those who are going to inherit the future winter allow me to expand a little bit more thank you on oral tradition you said my mom taught me my grandma taught uh taught me and and oral Traditions are really important in building a connection with the environment a
nd I want you Mia to tell us about your experience with how passing down aut Traditions has helped your community respect the environment and teach others how to do it as well thank you um Mal everyone so I'm from the island of Tonga uh in the South Pacific and we are ocean people um a lot of our resources we we live and depend on the ocean and the health of the ocean very much determines our future and so storytelling the way that we are often told is our ancestors were storytellers and they we
re voyages and so storytelling plays a really important part in who we are and not just who we are but also who we will continue to be and so I am a high school teacher at an old boys boarding school kupo college and um our school is known as the Bush School cuz it's in the middle of the bush in the middle of not the jungle we say we say UTA and um my students are young boys from different parts of the island um they come some come from very well our families and others come from the outer islan
ds where they have very limited resources they don't have a lot of access access to technology um but my students are very good storytellers and I know that because they already emailing me asking me oh what's the homework again that you left behind and they're already making up excuses on why they haven't started yet and so you know that's that's just something that they're good at they're just good at telling stories and what I often say is that us people in the Pacific we like to talk and I'm
sure a lot of our indigenous communities can relate to that too and the biggest issue is getting us to stop talking right but that I feel is because within all of us we are all storytellers and um what my my parents used to say to me is that it's really important to have intergenerational conversations right and so listening to my grandmother is a really important part of our family time listening to my dad my mom and um if it wasn't for these stories I feel that myself my students the younger
generation we wouldn't be able to understand how important our relationship is with with is to oh my goodness hold on sorry I traveled a long way my brain is a fumble um how important our relationship to Nature is right and so an example I wanted to give was my mom was telling me that in Tonga we have a lot of little islands and in one of the outer Islands there was um some bangis means white people sorry some foreigners came into our outer islands and they said oh we got to build a The Jetty on
your Island and so they wanted to build it on this one side of the island that no one had built a jety on yet and everyone was wondering why haven't you built anything there yet and they were like you shouldn't build there all the locals one of my grand uncles told them don't build in that particular part of the island and of course they didn't listen they built the jetty and it didn't take it didn't last more than a week and the reason was because of the tides the tides were too high for Jetti
es to survive in that space and so that oral tradition of listening to our elders when you don't listen you see what happens right yeah and so that's something that I've I've learned as well growing up with my grandfather used to take us out to sea and um he'd wait till the tides were low enough so we could walk all the way out and we'd fish for sea cucumbers he taught us how to gut it properly so that we only take what we need and then we throw it back into the ocean so that the rest of the oth
er species can feed off it right and so these oral Traditions are so essential in keeping who we are alive because in the Pacific our ocean health is at threat which means that our identity is at threat our very existence is that threat right and so I hope that answers the question thank you thank you thank you um Victor the love and respect indigenous communities have for the environment is unique but how can non-indigenous communities engaged in sustainable practices or how can we work togethe
r respectfully um can you give us examples yeah yeah absolutely I think one of the key things that you see across every nation where there are indigenous Nations uh where there's been colonization is the erer of indigenous peoples the invisibility Within These colonizing countries and how are we supposed to work together if you don't know anything about who we are about you're not exposed to the gifts that we have to the wisdom that our people bring to this planet Earth 80% of the world's remain
ing biodiversity is situated within indigenous controlled territories 80% that's the majority of what everyone here relies on and we're 5% of the global population so I think the key thing is is we have a lot of gifts to bring we have a lot of knowledge and wisdom and it's the obligation the responsibility of the governments uh in the world at this moment to look at the past and say here's what happened to indigenous peoples to understand the impacts of colonization and how it's hurting us how i
t's hurting you how it's hurting unim Maka mother grandmother Earth and to take steps actionable steps to rectify that situation indigenous peoples all over the world have endured colonization and that is impacting our planet in a horrible way we're at extreme risk right now 80% of the world's biodiversity and Indigenous climate Defenders are at the highest risk of being assassinated or being imprisoned under false pretenses being brutalized for their climate activism in ous peoples are on the f
ront lines what can governments what can people and Leadership roles do to bring awareness to the situation to get behind indigenous peoples and say these these are the people on the front lines these are the people protecting our planet right now protecting not only humans but all of creation we strive to to to understand how we relate not only to our human family but the rest of creation the plants the animals the Stars all anything on Mother Earth and Indigenous peoples have the longest conne
ctions to these territories so we have the scientific wisdom of how these territories work of how biodiversity is protected and I think the evidence speaks for itself and so I think there is also responsibility for non-indigenous peoples to begin to recognize that in these conversations on climate change to make sure that indigenous peoples are leading these discussion discussions I mean why wouldn't indigenous peoples be leading these discussions you know we're 5% of the Earth again and yes yea
h one of the one of the the things that I think about is and I I'll say it again that the countries the governments that ex that exist today as we know them they're in their infancy compared to our Nations M and it would be as if a a a small child a baby told its mother hey I don't need you I got this i got this I'm going to do my own thing and just completely disregards the wisdom built over tens of thousands of years that has kept uh Us Alive and and we've done it sustainably as well and we're
still doing sustainably so I think bringing us more into the conversation into leadership roles into decision- making on policies would help to make that difference [Applause] definitely Chief Victor spoke about colonization and that is a word that constantly open wounds in every single indigenous Community um how can the states the government help through education the colonize that mindset that non-indigenous people have as you men mentioned through education educating the non-indigenous comm
unity is so so important if you look at the history of what we've been through since uh since the uh colon since the they thought they were coming to India but they ended up in Canada and uh so this is why we are called Indians but we are indigenous people to the land and our knowledge keepers are the ones that for us uh very highly uh respected they passed down the stories from time in Memorial so what we're hearing from our knowledge Keepers and and the climate change when you talk about clima
te change they see it they and it's been passed down so what it used to be to how devastating it is today and if we don't do something about it it it's uh we're we're in for a huge catastrophe we need to really focus on what we can do together because and as as Victor mentioned it he we know we know even something as simple as when we used to practice our medicines we were called Witch Doctors we were practicing medicines because of the herbs and the Natural Products that come from the earth we
were aware of what it did for us and today over 650 plants that are in your medicines today we already knew that they were they were productive and so uh it's all to me it's all about listening to our elders and getting the wisdom from our knowledge Keepers and we call them elders and I've changed it a little bit myself and we're F focusing more on the knowledge Keepers they are the ones who know the history they know where the change has been happening within our in our climates and Mother Eart
h is she's dying we need to do something and and Mother Earth yes Chief Mother Earth includes the ocean you said you are we are an ocean people if by 2015 we keep 2050 we keep practicing and consuming plastic we are going to have more plastic in the oceans than fish yeah what is your message for the Young Generation on how to take care of our environment I think I think we all can feel some sort of responsibility to the planet and when it comes to our traditional knowledge like National Chief sa
id that knowledge has existed in us for Generations we we've known this stuff it's a matter of other communities who have not had that luck of being raised with that important connection of making the time to actually learn about the traditional solutions that exist already we talk about all of there's all these Western conferences that we go to where they talk about blueprints they talk about policiy they talk about um all of these solutions that they have that they think will fix the problems
that they've created not knowing that we already have the solutions right our indigenous communities our Pacific island communities the solutions have been there and so to our younger generation to our young indigenous Pacific island generation the knowledge that we have been blessed with and that we've been given is the most important thing that we could have right now especially for a generation that is literally fighting for our survival and our existence we don't know if we're going to have
one Young World 2050 right and so to the I I would say that it's really important that we make an effort to recognize our responsibility and to actually make an effort to do something and to have those intergenerational conversations yeah I I want to um before we finish this conversation I want to ask you can you not IND people can you please raise your hand if you were taught indigenous studies at school so there's that's that's less than 10 hands raised definitely this is one of the I advocate
d for getting the provincial schools to include uh Native Studies uh you are the Future Leaders of this world and if you don't have that history that it's going to make it real difficult for the moving forward with the indigenous communities you you need to know what our history is I mean the loss of our language is very very essential for us right now that's where our culture brings us if you know your your language you know your culture if you don't have the culture or if you don't have the la
nguage you don't have the culture so it's so important that and that the non- indigenous Community know the history it wasn't a pretty history it's not something that you you're going to be proud of and and I don't I don't think that the the government really feels an obligation to let them let you know what really happened to our people and over the over the generations and um it's so important as Future Leaders to know the history of the past history is the key and I just want to end this um p
anel with Mia singing a beautiful song about his precisely thank you thank you um I think to finish uh in the Pacific we love music and we like to start things with music music and end things and so This song is called history um which I think wraps up very nicely what we've been trying to discuss today the importance of knowing our history and learning from it and so this is a song that I wrote and it's our message to you and I hope you take this message with you wherever you go and recognize t
he importance of why we need to be in these [Music] spaces history repeats itself if we don't tread care [Music] it opens doors to potential hypocrisy if we don't learn from our mistakes cuz you want to get to work but you're not moving you say so much but never listen you say you w to W to make a difference for [Music] you yes you you first need to change you first need to [Music] [Applause] change imperfect people differences aside we are all people and yet we manage to form unequal opportunit
ies tear down communities put a stoper to Unity if it's a threat to our own greed cuz you want to get to work but you're not moving you say so much but never listen you say you want to want to make a difference for you yes you you first need to change heyy heyy hey you first need to change hey he hey hey hey hey hey yeah if you just pause for a second look around for just a moment see the tired the Fed Up the hurt and the broken the existing lack a vision where hate becomes religion world's in c
ritical condition but we're in comp disposition privilege blurs our sight we've become blinded shut off the world and become closed-minded what direction are we heading in the world that we're living in stop open your eyes pay attention and listen the people are crying the planet is dying some leaders could be lying and it's terrifying the problems at hand won't just disappear if we just stand here in your [Music] future what do you hope to see what kind of ancestor do you want to be cuz you wan
t to get to work so get moving open up your heart so you can start seeing the difference that we need the change that we can be the future you hope to see I know I know it starts with me I know change starts with me cuz history repeats itself if we don't tread carefully it closes doors on any opportunity if we fail [Music] if we [Music] [Applause] fail if we fail to be that [Music] change than you thank you wow thank you Mia
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