MOTHER EARTH DAY 2022
International Mother Earth Day
April 22, 2022 | Native Children’s Survival
Indigenous Nations have lived in harmony and balance with the Natural World for thousands of years. We evolved highly intelligent and ecologically sophisticated ways of life based on a profound appreciation of Natural Law and the well-being of all living things.
In the Natural World, our ancestors were free and interwoven in the delicate Web of Life within our traditional territories. There was a spiritual intelligence and respect without which we could not exist. Through song and ceremonial practices, this sacred inter-relationship was celebrated and honored.
Suddenly, that all changed. When Europeans arrived with their papal bulls and Doctrines of Discovery, life out of balance began. They worked to eradicate what they could not comprehend or understand and treated Indigenous Peoples as less than human. Our homelands and traditional territories were relentlessly ravaged. Ecocide and genocide resulted in the extinction of hundreds of Native Nations - tens of millions perished.
Today, Mother Earth is in peril. Centuries of disregard for natural law and despoliation of the natural world's resources have led to unprecedented and accelerating Climate Crises. Ecosystems are dying, more than 1 million species face extinction, and more than 610 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty. Our world is literally spinning out of balance.
“Nature, the first people, and the spirit of our ancestors are giving great warnings… If we, the human beings, do not wake up to the warnings, the great purification will come to destroy this world — just as the previous worlds were destroyed.”
On behalf of more than 500 million Indigenous Peoples in every region, the Bolivian-led resolution A/RES/63/278 introduced by Bolivia's first Indigenous President, Evo Morales, was adopted.
On 22 April 2009, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 22 April as International Mother Earth Day. This observance through the Harmony with Nature initiative is a platform for an interactive dialogue and holistic approach to global sustainable development in harmony with nature.
“Sixty years after adopting the [Universal Declaration of Human Rights], Mother Earth is now, finally, having her rights recognized.”
In the Spirit of our Ancestors, join us in resisting the forces that threaten Indigenous Peoples, Mother Earth, and All Our Relations.
Join the global movement for the restoration of life in balance!