Mastodawn

#ApacheStronghold 'We Are Still Fighting'

Statement from Dr. #WendslerNosie Sr.
March 20, 2026

"Many of you have heard that on Friday, the Ninth Circuit again refused to stop the Government from giving #OakFlat to #ResolutionCopper for destruction. This is sad news. But we will never stop fighting to protect Oak Flat and each place that is sacred to our people. And we are still fighting—in the courts, in Congress, and, most importantly, spiritually.

In the courts, there are still four lawsuits seeking to protect Oak Flat. All four cases are still going. And any one of these cases could still put a stop to the Government’s and Resolution’s plans to destroy Oak Flat:

- In Lopez v. United States, on the day after Friday’s ruling, seven brave Apache women filed an emergency appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to stop the mine and protect Oak Flat. The Supreme Court could rule on that appeal any day. The women in that case can also ask the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling in their case. The deadline to ask for reconsideration is April 27, 2026. That case focuses on religious freedom.
- In #SanCarlosApache Tribe v. United States, also part of Friday’s ruling, the Tribe can also ask the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling and/or appeal to the Supreme Court. That case focuses on the Tribe’s rights, tribal consultation, and the inadequacy of the government’s decision-making process.
- In Arizona #Mining Reform Coalition v. United States, also part of Friday’s ruling, several environmental groups and the Inter-Tribal Association of Arizona can also ask the Ninth Circuit to reconsider its ruling and/or appeal to the Supreme Court. That case focuses on the government’s unfair appraisal of Oak Flat and inadequate #EnvironmentalReview.
- Apache Stronghold v. United States, which is our case, has been 'stayed' (or temporarily put on hold) waiting for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, which came on Friday. Now that the Ninth Circuit has ruled, our case will start again in the district court. We will continue making every possible legal claim to protect Oak Flat.

In Congress, on Tuesday, Representative #AdelitaGrijalva introduced legislation to preserve public lands in the Chí’chil Biłdagoteel Historic District and fight back against the proposed mine. This bill is an important part of the fight to protect Oak Flat.

But even more than legally and politically, we are continuing to fight spiritually. This fight has never been primarily about law or politics. It is about who we are as human beings, religiously and spiritually. If we allow sacred places to be destroyed for profit, we are saying that nothing is truly sacred. We are losing something essential about our humanity—our ability to respect #MotherEarth, to honor what is holy, and to live in balance with the world around us.

That is why we are calling on all people to continue raising their voices, in prayer and protest, to protect Oak Flat—to protect the sacred. We, the Apache Stronghold, invite you to an upcoming spiritual gathering on March 28-29, 2026 at Oak Flat.

The legal system may try to reduce our struggle to questions of ownership and profit. But our connection to Mother Earth predates those systems. It is something each one of us is born into, something we carry in our prayers, our songs, and our way of life. No matter what the courts rule, no matter what the government tries to do, we will never stop fighting to preserve our sacred places. We will not lose our connection to the Creator."

Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/03/apache-stronghold-we-are-still-fighting.html

#ChíchilBiłdagoteel #ProtectOakFlat #SanCarlosApache #ResolutionCopper #Arizona #RioTinto #SaveOakFlat #CopperMining #Fight4OurExistance #SacredLand #TontoNationalForest #WesternApaches #ProtectTheSacred #IndigenousNews #IndigenousActivism #CorporateColonialism #DefendTheSacred #CensoredNews #ReaderSupportedNews

Apache Stronghold 'We Are Still Fighting'

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

DoomsdaysCW Feb 15

#OakFlat March and Run: #ApacheStronghold Photos

By Apache Stronghold, Censored News, Feb. 9, 2026

"12th Annual #OakFlatMarch/Run. The final day of the run, Saturday, February 7, 2026, the experienced runners passed through the final corridor, ending at the Oak Flat campground. The annual gathering followed, with speakers representing many tribes, backgrounds, and ages sharing their thoughts on Oak Flat and the importance of protecting this sacred and irreplaceable site. Photos by Molly Peters.

Apache Stronghold is battling to protect Oak Flat from becoming the gigantic crater of a copper mine, that would destroy the Sacred Ceremonial Place, seize and pollute the water, and poison the air and land."

Source (includes photos):
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/02/oak-flat-march-and-run-apache.html

#ProtectOakFlat #SanCarlosApache #ResolutionCopper #Arizona #ChichilBildagoteel #RioTinto
#SaveOakFlat #CopperMining
#Fight4OurExistance #SacredLand #TontoNationalForest #WesternApaches #ProtectTheSacred #IndigenousNews #IndigenousActivism #CorporateColonialism #DefendTheSacred #OakFlatRun #CensoredNews #ReaderSupportedNews

Oak Flat March and Run: Apache Stronghold Photos

Censored News is a service to grassroots Indigenous Peoples engaged in resistance and upholding human rights.

Palm Oil Detectives Nov 29

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

In the wake of the worst wildfires in living memory in Mexico and Central America in 2024, news outlets were looking for someone to blame. Howler monkeys and many species of parrots perished in the blazes. Slash and burn farming practices by Belize‘s indigenous communities were singled out as a primary cause. Yet this knee-jerk reaction is not evidence based and doesn’t take into account forces like corporate landgrabbing for mining and agribusinesses like meat, soy and palm oil.

Belize’s indigenous Maya communities are rebuilding stronger based on the collective notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity, togetherness and community.

In the wake of horrific #wildfires in #Belize and #Mexico caused by #climatechange, #indigenous #Maya are rebuilding using the notion of se’ komonil: reciprocity #community and solidarity. #indigenousrights #landrights #BoycottPalmOil @palmoildetect https://wp.me/pcFhgU-924

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Written by James Stinson, Senior Research Associate and Evaluation Specialist, Young Lives Research Lab, Faculty of Education, York University, Canada and Lee Mcloughlin, PhD student, Global Sociocultural Studies, Florida International University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Driven by extreme heat and drought, some of the worst wildfires in living memory raged across Mexico and Central America through April and May 2024.

News agencies reported howler monkeys dropping dead from trees, and parrots and other birds falling from the skies.

In Belize, a state of emergency was declared as wildfires burned tens of thousands of hectares of highly bio-diverse forest. Farmers suffered huge losses as fires destroyed crops and homes, and communities across the country suffered from hazardous air quality and hot, sleepless nights. Many risked their lives to fight off the approaching fires.

As the wildfire crisis subsided with rains in June, public attention shifted toward identifying the causes and allocating blame. Many singled out the “slash and burn” farming practices in Belize’s Indigenous communities as the primary cause. This simple knee-jerk reaction ignores the underlying causes of the climate crisis, are scientifically unfounded and stoke resentment of Indigenous Peoples.

Young Mayan women. Image source: Wikipedia

Fanning the flames

On June 5, one of Belize’s major news networks ran a story with the headline “Are Primitive Farming Techniques Responsible for Wildfires?” The story placed blame for Belize’s wildfires on “slash-and-burn farming”, arguing that “there has to be a shift away from this destructive means of agriculture.”

The story was followed by an op-ed published online asserting that “because of the increased amounts of escaped agricultural fires, aided by climate change, global warming and drought, slash and burn has become more of a problem than the solution it once was.” This sentiment was further reinforced by Belize’s prime minister, who declared that “slash аnd burn has to be something of the past.”

While some of the recent fires in Belize were connected to agricultural burning — and poorly managed fire-clearing practices can have negative air-quality impacts — blaming “slash and burn” for the wildfire crisis ignores the larger context and conditions that made it possible, namely global warming.

May 2024 was the hottest and driest month in Belize’s history. This extreme heat is part of a broader global trend, with June 2024 marking the 13th consecutive “hottest month on record” globally.

More fundamentally, these statements confuse other forms of slash-and-burn agriculture with the distinct “milpa” systems employed by Indigenous people in Belize.

Indigenous knowledge undermined

Throughout Belize, Indigenous Maya farmers commonly practise a form of agriculture referred to as milpa in which fire is used to clear fields and fertilize the soil. Within this system, small areas of forest are chopped down, burned, and planted with maize, beans, squash and other crops. After being cultivated for a year or two, the field is then left fallow and allowed to regenerate back to forest cover while the farmers move on to a new area within a cyclical pattern where areas are reused after a regenerative period.

https://youtu.be/ok787HRp_gA

Commonly derided as slash-and-burn farming, milpa has long been perceived as environmentally destructive. This perspective has been perpetuated by long-standing myths and misconceptions that portray the farming practices of non-Europeans, and specifically the use of fire, as wasteful and irrational.

In Belize, this negative view of slash and burn has driven many colonial and post-colonial interventions to modernize Maya farming practices.

Recent research, however, has shown that the lands of Indigenous Peoples around the world have reduced deforestation and degradation rates relative to non-protected areas. The southern Toledo district of Belize, where the majority of Maya communities are located, boasts a forest cover rate of 71 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 63 per cent.

Further research has found that the species composition of contemporary Mesoamerican forests has been shaped by the agricultural practices of ancient Maya farmers.

In Belize, fire has been found to play a role in promoting ecosystem health and resilience and intermediate levels of forest disturbance caused by milpa can increase species diversity. Well-managed milpa farming can support soil fertility, result in long-term carbon sequestration and enriched woodland vegetation.

Research has also shown that previous studies of deforestation in southern Belize significantly overestimated the rate of deforestation due to milpa agriculture by not accounting for its rotational process.

Many researchers now believe that milpa is a more benign alternative, in terms of environmental effects, than most other permanent farming systems in the humid tropics. Indeed, findings such as these have led to a growing appreciation for the role of Indigenous Peoples in advancing nature-based and life-enhancing climate solutions.

Unfortunately, research in the region has also found that climate change is undermining the ecological sustainability of milpa farming by forcing farmers to abandon traditional practices and adopt counterproductive measures in their struggle to adapt. In some cases, this has resulted in a decrease in the biodiversity and ecological resilience of the milpa system. This issue is compounded by the decreasing participation of young people, resulting in a further generational loss of traditional ecological knowledge.

Together, these issues are serving to alter and undermine a livelihood strategy that has proven sustainable for thousands of years. However, rather than call for Maya farmers to abandon slash and burn, we encourage support for the self-determined efforts of Maya communities to adapt to this changing climate. https://www.youtube.com/embed/ok787HRp_gA?wmode=transparent&start=0 A video documenting the Maya response to the 2024 wildfire crisis.

Planting seeds of collaboration

Since winning a groundbreaking land rights claim in 2015, Maya communities in southern Belize have been working to promote an Indigenous future based on principles of reciprocity, solidarity, traditional knowledge, gender equity and, most significantly, se’ komonil, the Maya notion of togetherness and community.

Led by a collaboration of Maya leaders and non-governmental organizations, work toward this has included efforts to revitalize traditional institutions and governance systems, as well as the development of an Indigenous Forest Caring Strategy and fire-permitting system. In an effort to encourage and support the participation of youth in this process, Maya leaders have collaborated with the Young Lives Research Lab at York University to develop the Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing.

Building on previous research with Maya youth, the project has produced innovative youth-led research and education on the impacts of climate change, the importance of food sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge and the struggle to secure Indigenous land rights in Maya communities. This work has been shared with global policymakers at the United Nations and local audiences in Belize.

Rather than fanning the flames of climate blame, we must work together to revitalize Indigenous knowledge systems and plant seeds of climate collaboration and care.

ENDS

Read more about human rights abuses and child slavery in the palm oil and gold mining industries

Indigenous Peoples Fight Climate Change

After wildfires, Belize’s indigenous people rebuild stronger based on “se’ komonil”: reciprocity, solidarity, gender equity, togetherness and community.

SOCFIN’s African Empire of Colonial Oppression: Billionaires Profit from Palm Oil and Rubber Exploitation

Investigation by Bloomberg exposes that despite being RSPO members, #SOCFIN plantations in #WestAfrica are the epicentre of #humanrights abuses, sexual coercion, environmental destruction, and #landgrabbing. Operating in #Liberia, #Ghana, #Nigeria, and beyond, SOCFIN’s…

Palm Oil Threatens Ancient Noken Weaving in West Papua

Colonial palm oil and sugarcane causing the loss of West Papuans’ cultural identity. Land grabs force communities from forests, threatening Noken weaving

Family Ties Expose Deforestation and Rights Violations in Indonesian Palm Oil

An explosive report by the Environment Investigation Agency (EIA) details how Indonesia’s Fangiono family, through a wide corporate web, is linked to ongoing #deforestation, #corruption, and #indigenousrights abuses for #palmoil. Calls mount for…

West Papuan Indigenous Women Fight Land Seizures

Indigenous Melanesian women in West Papua fight land seizures for palm oil and sugar plantations, protecting their ancestral rights. Join #BoycottPalmOil

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The World’s Most Loved Cup: A Social, Ethical & Environmental History of Coffee by Aviary Doert

How do we stop the world’s ecosystems from going into a death spiral? A #SteadyState Economy

3. Supermarket sleuthing: Next time you’re in the supermarket, take photos of products containing palm oil. Share these to social media along with the hashtags to call out the greenwashing and ecocide of the brands who use palm oil. You can also take photos of palm oil free products and congratulate brands when they go palm oil free.

https://twitter.com/CuriousApe4/status/1526136783557529600?s=20

https://twitter.com/PhillDixon1/status/1749010345555788144?s=20

https://twitter.com/mugabe139/status/1678027567977078784?s=20

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Palm Oil Detectives Dec 30, 2021

Artist and Indigenous Rights Advocate Barbara Crane Navarro

Barbara Crane Navarro: In Her Own Words

Artist, Writer, Environmental & Indigenous Rights Activist

Bio: Barbara Crane Navarro

Barbara Crane Navarro is a French-American artist, writer, Indigenous and animal activist who lives near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 she studied at Rhode Island School of Design, then she went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for a BFA.

Her work over many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. She took various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments of different indigenous communities including the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and the Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil.

Over many years, during the winters, she studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, her interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced her artistic practice.

Her voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. These are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. Barbara is deeply concerned about the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest and this has inspired many of her films, installation projects and children’s books.

Palm Oil Detectives is honoured to interview to Barbara Crane Navarro about her fascinating work, indigenous activism, the devastation of deforestation and land-grabbing from gold mining on the Indigenous Yanomami people

Great Green Macaw Ara ambiguus

Behind the insatiable appetite for buying #gold is a dark secret of money laundering, illegal #mining, #ecocide, sex #slavery and human misery for the #Yanomami people of #Venezuela & #Brazil. @BarbaraNavarro #BoycottGold4Yanomami

Read more: Illegal gold mining and the Yanomami’s fight for their land

‘Illegal mining in the Amazon hits record high amid Indigenous protests’, Jeff Tollerson, Nature 2021.

FinCEN Files investigations into the gold trade from around the world. Kyra Guerny, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2020.

Five Golden Rings and an Environmental Dilemma, Wake Forest University, 2018.

‘Gold mining leaves deforested Amazon land barren for years, find scientists’ The Conversation, July 1, 2020.

Mercury: Chasing the Quicksilver by InfoAmazonia

‘Pictures from outer space reveal the extent of illegal gold mining in Peru’, The Conversation, May 7, 2021.

‘Sex trafficking ‘staggering’ in illegal Latin American gold mines: researchers’, Reuters, 2016.

Yanomami: Povos Indigenas Brasil

Yanomami, Wikipedia

Help Barbara’s movement to #BoycottGold4Yanomami

1. By regularly sharing out these tweets below…

2. By following the #BoycottGold4Yanomami hashtag on Twitter and share out other people’s tweets

“I wrote Rainforest Magic, children’s stories about Yanomami children Namowë and Meromi to honour the Yanomami families I love and to raise awareness of the disappearing Amazon” #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro

It’s important that consumers know – every item we buy affects the lives of people and animals. #Gold #mining and #palmoil directly impacts Indigenous peoples. #Boycottpalmoil #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @BarbaraNavarro

#Yanomami children as young as 12 are forced into prostitution for illegal miners that take over their rainforest home for gold mining. Fight back against this with your wallet and refuse to buy gold! #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro

Top Brazil gold exporter leaves a trail of criminal probes and illegal mines! Please #Boycott4Wildlife #BoycottGold4Yanomami! @ScarpullaA @barbaranavarro https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/top-brazil-gold-exporter-leaves-a-trail-of-criminal-probes-and-illegal-mines/ via @Mongabay

Tweet this

L’amico a sorpresa del ragazzo Yanomami nella giungla! #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @ScarpullaA @barbaranavarro https://barbara-navarro.com/2021/12/24/ital-dec-24-lamico-a-sorpresa-del-ragazzo-yanomami-nella-giungla/

Tweet this

Amigo surpresa do menino Yanomami na selva! #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @ScarpullaA https://barbara-navarro.com/2021/12/23/amigo-surpresa-do-menino-yanomami-na-selva/

Tweet this

The Art of #Greenwashing by Luxury Merchants of the Death #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @barbaranavarro @ScarpullaA https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/12/07/the-art-of-greenwashing-by-the-luxury-merchants-of-the-death-of-nature-and-indigenous-peoples-in-their-own-words-the-people-of-gold-and/

Tweet this

#Indigenous knowledge could be the answer to stopping #Climate Change! #ClimateEmergency @ScarpullaA @barbaranavarro #Boycott4Wildlife and #BoycottGold4Yanomami and save the forests, animals and indigenous peoples of South America! https://barbara-navarro.com/2021/12/25/indigenous-knowledge-could-be-the-answer-to-climate-change-the-st-andrews-economist/

Tweet this

Amigo surpresa do menino Yanomami na selva! Boicote todos os produtos resultantes do desmatamento; ouro, óleo de palma, carne, soja, madeiras exóticas, pedras preciosas #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife @BarbaraNavarro @ScarpullaA https://barbara-navarro.com/2021/12/23/amigo-surpresa-do-menino-yanomami-na-selva/

Tweet this

@Cartier Foundation uses #greenwashing “art” to sell their business model as eco-friendly. This is #greenwashing! #Yanomami people and #animals are dying for #gold! @BarbaraNavarro @ScarpullaA #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/10/11/the-cartier-foundation-epitomizes-the-insidious-practice-of-using-an-art-foundation-to-seduce-the-public-into-believing-that-its-merchandise-and-business-model-is-actually-the-opposite-of-its-true/

Tweet this

My Exhibition “Pas de Cartier: Yanomami and Trees” Gold mining by @Cartier @Bulgariofficial and COVID-19 are killing the #Yanomami people. This is why we #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro @ScarpullaA https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/08/04/exhibition-pas-de-cartier-yanomami-and-trees-gold-mining-and-gold-luxury-items-covid-19-propagated-by-gold-miners/

Tweet this

“When you cut down the trees, you assault the spirits of our ancestors. When you dig for minerals you impale the heart of the Earth” Cacique Raoni Metuktire Illegal gold mining is why we #BoycottGold4Yanomami #Boycott4Wildlife @BarbaraNavarro @ScarpullaA https://barbara-navarro.com/2020/06/27/gold-fever-covid-19-and-the-genocide-of-the-yanomami-update/

Tweet this

“In the Venezuelan and Brazilian Amazon, I witnessed the destruction of nature from deforestation and gold mining worsen as I returned year after year”

Barbara Crane Navarro

The Yanomami communities I spent time with were very worried about this situation and the shamans worked to fight against it, but this has been in vain so far.

Since my birth, I was always an artist and spent my childhood drawing and painting

I want to understand why people in indigenous societies spend so much time and effort creating art and with such an incredible variety of supports and substances.

“Since 2005, I’ve created a performance and film project: Fire Sculpture, to bring urgent attention to rainforest destruction. And to protest against the continuing destruction of the Yanomami’s territory. I’ve publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolise the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.”

~ Barbara Crane Navarro

The idea of burning the sculptures was to make a symbolic point about how Yanomami and other indigenous communities are endangered by our consumerism which creates chaos and destruction where they live, in their ancestral home.

I wrote Amazon Rainforest Magic, two stories of Yanomami children Namowë, a Yanomami boy and Meromi, a Yanomami girl in honour of the families I know and love

Several of the Yanomami children and their families I know well are among the characters in the two books of the series.

I self-published my books with CreateSpace years ago which was subsequently bought by Amazon’s KDP. Now my books are only available on Amazon or here at my gallery near Paris, where my artwork is also available.

The two books are available from Barbara Crane Navarro’s Amazon page in English, Spanish and French.

Buy Vol. 1 Buy Vol. 2

“Amazon Rainforest Magic” presents a world that at first might seem whimsical, where people, animals, and plants joke, conspire, and argue with each other. The serious point is that humans are no more important than any of the other creatures – all are mutually dependent, some are just more aware of it than others.

The plants and the animals, each with special knowledge, accompany the hero, Namowë, as he embarks on a life-saving quest for a cure for his ailing youngest sister. When he embarks on this exciting journey through the jungle, he has already taken a big step toward maturity.

Behind the charming artwork and story is a clear message that we humans are not separate from our environment and that to put ourselves above nature is arbitrary and ultimately counter-productive.

Review by John L. Pope

Illustration by Barbara Crane Navarro from her book “Amazon Rainforest Magic – The adventures of Meromi, a Yanomami girl

All of the various indigenous communities along the rivers in the Amazon are very alarmed at the acceleration of the devastation of the forests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd3GoL5MeAg

“I discovered that much of the Yanomami’s art is about venerating nature and the spirits of the forests, sky, water and the animals.”

~ Barbara Crane-Navarro

Tundra project/Nature Morte

The repercussions of the 2019 fires in the Amazon and Arctic regions continue to impact forests, water, the atmosphere and indigenous communities. This art is an artistic dialogue between two territories and two geomorphologies. Each have a planetary resonance.

It’s important consumers know that every shopping choice we make has repercussions on the lives of people in other parts of the world

I try to eat only local and in-season vegetables grown nearby. What I grow myself I keep as jam and conserve to eat in the winter months.

Many different indigenous communities in the nine countries of the Amazon region are devastated by gold mining with its resulting deforestation, violence against indigenous peoples, mercury poisoning and Covid-19 propagated by gold miners.

Amazonian gold mine

https://twitter.com/PersonalEscrito/status/1432750926004170755?s=20

https://twitter.com/BarbaraNavarro/status/1350098960954892288?s=20

https://twitter.com/PattyLaya/status/1161291783084621827?s=20

Merchants of Gold, Greed and Genocide

Hunger for Gold in the Global North is fuelling a living hell in the Global South

Here are 13 reasons why you should #BoycottGold4Yanomami

Image: ‘llegal gold that undermines forests and lives in the Amazon’ by Igarapé Institute

Behind the insatiable appetite for #gold is a dark secret of money laundering, illegal #mining, environmental damage and human misery. #BoycottGold4Yanomami @BarbaraNavarro

1. Gold mining = greenwashing of crime and corruption

2. Even the world’s biggest gold-importing nations don’t properly monitor the origins of their gold

3. Laundering crimes using gold is easy

4. Gold is a legal version of cocaine

5. Gold mining causes massive deforestation

6. Indigenous people have no rights

7. Brazil’s racist President, Bolsonaro allows land-grabbing to continue

8. Indigenous women and children are forced into sex slavery

9. Violence and murder in gold mining is common

10. Mercury kills ecosystems, people and animals

11. Ecosystems rarely recover from the damage – they are dead

12. Jewellery and electronics companies and criminals are the only ones who benefit from gold

13. Over a million children are forced to work in gold mines

How can I help?

Forests and rivers are a spiritual and practical necessity for Indigenous people

However their access to food and water is removed by palm oil and soy plantations, cattle grazing and gold mining, which contaminates the water and kills the fish. Forest wildfires are happening in the Amazon due to degraded and destroyed forests and rivers.

Deforestation by fire for palm oilDeforestation by Sean Weston https://seanweston.co.uk

Dirty Gold War: A documentary about gold mining

The gold industry is overflowing with corruption:

If there’s a crackdown in Peru, you just smuggle the gold across the border to Chile. Or if there’s a crackdown all across Latin America, then you can simply sell your gold through the Emirates, where there are very few controls. It’s a very difficult industry to completely eliminate the opportunities for money laundering, because it’s so global and you can just keep shifting your business.

‘‘Dirty Gold’ chases ‘three amigos’ from Miami to Peru and beyond’:
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

https://youtu.be/hzrJ9I3AJAQ

Nobody needs to use gold jewelry or watches to decorate themselves. There are so many less destructive and non-destructive options. Small elements of gold are in phones and other electronic items. We should replace them as seldom as possible.

Barbara Crane Navarro

We all need to boycott palm oil, soy, meat, exotic wood, gold and any other product of deforestation.

The #Boycott4Wildlife movement has the same goals as the #BoycottGold4Yanomami movement

Indigenous peoples know that their well-being depends on healthy forests and ecosystems. They see the evidence of that truth around them every day.

Mining incursions in the Amazon jungle. Maned Three-toed Sloth Bradypus torquatusThe Dolphin and the gold miners’ boat at twilight, from my children’s book series- Amazon Rainforest Magic, the adventures of Meromi, a Yanomami girl

The future well-being of people in the West will be determined by how soon we realise that we must respect nature and not take more than we need, just as indigenous peoples do.

“If we continue to treat nature as a commodity, all the living world, including us, will suffer”

~ Barbara Crane Navarro

Every effort, even the smallest effort, is important

I can’t predict the outcome, but I believe that we have to fight every day in order to mitigate the damage we’re doing.

Did you know that #gold #mining #palmoil and cattle grazing is destroying the last great swathes of the Amazon jungle? This land belongs to #Indigenous people! So #BoycottGold4Yanomami and #Boycottpalmoil @BarbaraNavarro

“I was born in 1950 and we are no longer living in the world that I knew when I was young”

I was 20 when humans began using more resources every year than the earth could replenish.

~ Barbara Crane Navarro

“It has been heart wrenching to witness the decline of nature
and to grieve for what has disappeared.”

Barbara Crane Navarro

[Before] The pristine Amazon rainforest. [After] Absolute devastation following gold mining in the Yanomami territory at the border of Venezuela and Brazil.

There are many rainforest animals that I love that make the Amazon rainforest absolutely enchanting. The monkeys, pink river dolphins, giant river otters, capybaras, tapirs, macaws and so many birds and butterflies are some of my favourites.

Here are a few of the 1000’s of animals disappearing forever due to out-of-control extractive mining, palm oil and meat deforestation in the Amazon jungle

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