The Inuit: Throat singing is a traditional Inuit game, usually played by women. The songs or sounds are made up by different women. They imitate sounds that you would hear in your environment in the North, including the wind, the river and there are some ladies that do one that's called the bumble bee and there's one we do called the saw. You have two people who play with each other and echo each other and the object of the game is to make the other person stop either by exhaustion, laughing or losing the rhythm.
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The Dongria Kondh: A tribe in India has won a stunning victory over one of the world’s biggest mining companies. In an extraordinary move, India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has blocked Vedanta Resources’ controversial plan to mine bauxite on the sacred hills of the Dongria Kondh tribe.
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The Roma: France [on August 19, 2010] began to deport the first Roma as part of a crackdown on illegal camps in France, a move that has been criticized by human-rights groups.
Seventy-nine Roma ... boarded a government-chartered flight to Romania. Paris insisted the Roma left France voluntarily in exchange for a goodbye payment of $380 for adults and $125 for children.
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Nepal: More than 1,000 protesters were ... arrested [on August 15, 2010] as agitators belonging to an indigenous group demanding timely drafting of Nepal's constitution torched vehicles in the capital, crippling normal life.
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Australia: The first Aborigine to be elected to the Australian parliament [on August 30, 2010] said he was not worried by racist taunts that followed his win, saying they were outweighed by messages of support.
Mr Ken Wyatt rose above childhood poverty to become the first indigenous person ever elected to the powerful lower House of Representatives.
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The Achuar: James Cameron, the director of Avatar, hosted a fundraiser for the indigenous Achuar in South America. The Achuar are fighting oil companies for rights to their land, and Camron thought it would be a good idea to invite tribal leaders to a screening of Avatar – because of the environmental message in the film.
But their comments after the film were not what he was expecting...
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The Inuit: With little to show for three months of meetings and letter-writing, Inuit leader Okalik Eegeesiak called a lawyer she knew: Could the courts stop scientific tests that might scare away animals her people rely on?
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Global: Six sites located in Brazil, China, Mexico, France's Reunion Island and the South Pacific nation of Kiribati won World Heritage status ... from a UNESCO panel meeting in Brazil.
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The Association for Akha Education and Culture is the oldest NGO for indigenous peoples in Asia. Founded in 1981 by Dutch anthropologists and tribal elders it campaigns for the culture and civil liberties of the Golden Triangle Hill Tribes. Its 12 humanitarian and cultural projects encompass 264 villages in 4 Thai provinces bordering Burma. It works with The United Nations and other international organizations and offers international volunteer opportunities.
