Just a week before Easter, I was deeply inspired by being with His Holiness Pope Francis in the Vatican and to witness his profound commitment to protecting the climate, nature and the rights and dignity of Indigenous peoples around the world.
Pope Francis’ conference entitled: “Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledge and Sciences – Innovations for Resilience to Address Climate Change, Biodiversity Loss, Food Security, and Health” was held March 14-15 in the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences – where he personally met with and honoured the Indigenous leaders and other participants.
Pope Francis has told us “We should listen to Indigenous Peoples more and learn from their way of life… The contribution of Indigenous Peoples is fundamental in the fight against climate change… I ask governments to recognize the Indigenous Peoples of the whole world, with their cultures, languages, traditions and spirituality, and to respect their dignity and their rights.”
In his opening statement to the conference Pope Francis offered a way forward for our fractured world: “God… calls us today to live out and bear witness to our human call to universal fraternity, freedom, justice, dialogue… love and peace, and to avoid fueling hatred, resentment, division, violence and war. God has made us stewards, not masters of the planet: all of us are called to… a commitment to saving our common home.”
Pope Francis’ full statement and a news article about the conference can be found at press.vatican.va
My own statement during the workshop was entitled: “The Critical Role of Indigenous Peoples in Addressing the Twin Crises of Climate Change and Loss of Nature: How Powerful New Partnerships Between Indigenous Peoples, Faith Communities and Science to Protect Forests Can Turn the Tide”.
This conference was just one of many very significant and far-reaching actions Pope Francis has taken during his 11-year term to respect and empower Indigenous peoples.
The conclusions of my own talk were:
- Indigenous knowledge, culture, traditions and spirituality are key to avoiding cataclysmic outcomes from the climate and biodiversity crises and the evidence base for this is growing every year.
- Securing Indigenous Peoples rights to their lands and resources is essential for Indigenous ways of life to be sustained.
- This understanding, along with the allocation of substantial support and resources to Indigenous Peoples, has been growing strongly over the past three decades since the Rio Earth Summit – along with powerful new partnerships among Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, scientists, philanthropies and governments – and most recently: with Religious Communities.
- This strengthening of Indigenous peoples constitutes one of the most hopeful and “game-changing” movements today to generate effective action on climate and biodiversity.
We can all learn from, and be inspired by, the vision and courage of Pope Francis and of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world in our collective struggle to protect life on our planet.
