Rangatahi attending COP30 in Brazil are standing in solidarity with Indigenous land protectors who clashed with security after forcing their way through the main entrance of the international climate conference.
Te Kahu Pōkere, the group of Māori representing the National Iwi Chairs Forum at the summit, have expressed support for the protesters, who are demanding greater recognition of Indigenous rights and protection of their ancestral lands.
Indigenous Brazilian leader Gilmar told reporters their movement is driven by survival.
“We want our lands free from agribusiness, oil exploration, illegal miners and illegal loggers,” he said.
Speaking from Brazil, former Government Minister Kiri Allan, who is part of the delegation as an advisor to the Iwi Chairs Forum Pou Take Āhuarangi said the protest action taken by locals is an expression of mana motuhake.
“The Amazon forest has been deforested. The Indigenous populations here are gutted. They’re gutted because their homes have been gutted.”
“So for us, it’s a no-brainer. We stand in solidarity with those people who are reclaiming their voices in a place and in a space that is as powerful as COP30, where decisions are being made over the climate and how everything in our taiao works and operates. This is the place for them to do it.”
Tū kotahi ki ngā iwi taketake
Hei tā Taane Aruka Te Aho, he āhuatanga e kaha kite ana ki te wā kāinga. Ko te iwi Māori ka tū ki te whakaputa i ō rātou whakaaro mō ngā take o te tāmitanga.
Hei tana, ka tautoko rātou i ngā mahi.
“Ko te tino pūtake o tā rātou mahi porotēhi ko te tuatua ngāhere. Engari ki a mātou he tū tahi ngā mahi porotēhi. E mōhio ana tātou ki ngā āhuatanga o te tāmitanga ki roto o Aotearoa.
“No reira, mēnā ka pā mai ēnā tāmitanga ki ngā iwi taketake o konei, ko tā mātou o te iwi Māori, o ngā rangatahi Māori he tautoko.”
Te Kahu Pōkere released a statement in support of the Indigenous people of Brazil, reassuring that their delegation is safe, given the intensity of the protest action at COP30.
“As Māori activators and manuhiri on the whenua of the Indigenous people of Belém, we tautoko their right to activate, to protect and to stand for their whenua and kaupapa in their own way.”
