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The idea of every human being’s ’right to food’ is nothing new these days, however, looking specifically at this idea in relation to Indigenous Peoples is an exciting and important movement that is gaining steam fast, and rightfully so. International conferences, under the title Indigenous Terra Madre, have been held across the globe first in Sweden in 2011 and then India to explore topics related to Indigenous food sovereignty and better spread the vast agricultural knowledge that has been passed down through Indigenous communities for generations.

Voices of Maize, by CS Radio Producer Shaldon Ferris. The importance of maize in South African culture is impossible to overstate. Listen to Shaldon Ferris describe some of the uses of this staple in his culture, and the variety cultures found throughout South Africa.

Dr. Daphne Miller from the University of California tells us that Indigenous Peoples who eat the diets of their ancestors are immune to many chronic diseases.  Indigenous diets are also suited to local environments: farmers farm in a cycle, use different kinds of seeds, conserve water, engaging practices that are not only sustainable and organic but also regenerative.

Produced by Dev Kumar Sunuwar and Jagat Dong from Nepal, for Cultural Survival after attending the Indigenous Terra Madre conference held in November, 2015 in Meghalaya, North East India.

Researcher Elizabeth Hacker describes research about how Indigenous individuals create their own frameworks to define "well-being" to counter Western ideas of well-being. She found three important concepts for Indigenous well being are, Meeting basic material needs; social harmony and sense of belonging; and cultural identity. Dev and Elizabeth discuss examples from her research in India and Kenya.

Participants discuss what food sovereignty means for Indigenous Peoples. Speakers include Native American activist, and author Dr. Winona Laduke, and Dr. Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend, Global Coordinator of the ICCA Consortium, and David Strelneck, Senior Advisor at Ashoka Foundation.

Produced by Dev Kumar Sunuwar and Jagat Dong from Nepal, for Cultural Survival after attending the Indigenous Terra Madre conference held in November, 2015 in Meghalaya, North East India.

Interviewees discusses the main challenges to food security for a rising global population. Dhrupad Choudhury of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, argues that Indigenous farmers are doing important work to tackle challenges the world is facing today due to climate change. Indigenous farmers have the building blocks of stress tolerant crops, as well as sustainable agricultural practices because they are dependent only on the resources available to them.

Dr. Winona LaDuke describes her practices experimenting with various types of maize.

The Slow Food movement was founded in Italy in 1986 to promote an alternative to fast food.

Analee Johnson, Sami, of Sweden, says that the Slow Food movement believes that the food we produce should be good, clean, and fair. She gives an example of marketing Sami traditional food of Reindeer meat.

Bibhudutta Sahu, of the North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society explains that local food is always the best, because mother nature has been kind enough to provide us what we need.

Dayamani Barla, Indigenous tribal journalist and activist from Jharkland, India, discusses how Indigenous Peoples have been displaced from their traditional farming lands in the name of dams, mining and other development projects.

Produced by Dev Kumar Sunuwar and Jagat Dong from Nepal, for Cultural Survival after attending the Indigenous Terra Madre conference held in November, 2015 in Meghalaya, North East India.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, discusses with IRR Producer Shaldon Ferris the high rate of imprisonment of Australian Aboriginal individuals that she observed in her official visit to Australia. Disproportionate criminalization of Aboriginal people is evidence of systemic, structural inequality in Australia.

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Song: "YAWLICHALLAY" by Luis Cisneros. Used with permission.

HIV advocate Marama Mullen (Ngatiawa Māori), Executive Director of INA, the Maori, Indigenous, and South Pacific HIV/AIDS Foundation, discusses the HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness network that her organization has fostered among Indigenous communities in the South Pacific.

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Song: "Atahualpa" by Yarina. Used with permission.
Introduction: "Burn Your Village to the Ground" by A Tribe Called Red. Used with permission.

Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, says she has found an inadequate process of consultation with Indigenous communities on the part of the national government during her visit to Honduras, where she was recently invited for a working visit to comment on a draft of a law regulating Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Indigenous Hondurans do not feel that they were adequately consulted on the content of the law. Further, the law does not meet widely accepted international standards of F.P.I.C.

In many Indigenous communities, dual justice systems operate in tandem: the European system, a colonial imposition characterized by hierarchical, punitive, written codicies, and the Indigenous system, which is often based in tradition and holistic in nature.

Human Rights Lawyer Michelle Cook (Dine') elaborates on the interactions between these two systems, and explains how communities can use the language of human rights to challenge the colonial legal system imposition in order to gain a seat at the table as independent nations with internationally recognized justice systems.

Indigenous Rights Radio Producer Avexnim Cojtí Ren investigates the movement to repatriate sacred objects, remains, and cultural patrimony taken without consent from Indigenous Peoples by governments, collectors, and individuals. Concepts of ownership, histories of oppression, methods of legal recourse, and recent examples of repatriation attempts all play an important role in the prospects for the return of heritage items to Indigenous Peoples.