First Nations Go South       
Alim Jiwa - First year student in Public Affairs and Policy Management
 Canadian Native Leaders Invite South American Presidents

The Canadian Assembly of First Nations plans to invite Latin American presidents Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales to Canada as part of an effort to pressure the Canadian government into ratifying the UN declaration of Indigenous rights. 

Previous Liberal governments had worked extensively on promoting and developing the declaration.  To the shock and dismay of both indigenous and non-indigenous leadership across the globe, the Canadian government opposed the UN vote, along with Australia, the US and New Zealand.

The Canadian government did not sign on to the agreement last September because it believes the declaration contradicts Canadian law, including the Charter of Rights.
   
In response, the AFN passed a resolution demanding Canada’s removal from the UN Human Rights Council “based on its negative vote at the UN General Assembly concerning the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

The resolution went on to direct Phil Fontaine, the AFN’s national chief, to work with Foreign Affairs to bring Chavez and Morales, the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia, to Canada for a visit.

The AFN want the proposed visit to create further international support for indigenous rights. They would also like to “establish a friendship with these visionary leaders, and establish strategic alliances with the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela,” according to the resolution.

Last summer, Chavez’s government launched the First International Congress of Anti-Imperialist Indigenous Peoples of Latin America. His government invited over a thousand aboriginal delegates from 22 countries, including Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, the United States, and Canada. Representatives from Canada’s Mohawk community attended. 

Discussion at the conference included the political empowerment of indigenous peoples, promoting indigenous languages, and strengthening cultural diversity.

Morales is Bolivia’s first president of fully-indigenous blood.  His Education Ministry has introduced indigenous language training programs in schools and government offices. Currently, only 37% of Bolivia’s aboriginal population can speak a pre-colonial language. 

Morales’ government proposed to remove mandatory classes in Roman Catholicism in Bolivian schools to make room for the language instruction, but shelved the proposal after protests from the country’s church.

Their policies have been attractive to not only the world’s aboriginals, but to the poor, underprivileged masses in countries throughout Latin America, where wealthy elites have often dominated the political and economic spheres, with little attention to the welfare of those in the lowest rungs of society.

In addition to aboriginal empowerment, their programs have included the nationalization of large corporations, and the re-direction of wealth accumulated by these corporations into social programs – a policy that has met with opposition in Bolivia.-R