The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issue

The last two weeks I have been preoccupied by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. This is a forum in which the concerns of indigenous peoples around the world are debated and people from the north of Greenland to the Arizonas to the desert of Central Africa come to make their voices heard. As a formal UN meeting the forum is rather unusal. For 14 days the norm of grey suits and monotonous voices is replaced by costumes in all colours and statements with references to spirits, ancestors and Mother Earth. The experiece is sometimes perplexing but in a good way and I have been told that it is strengthening for the grassroots organisations from around the world to have a forum to discover the similiarities of the problems they face despite the diversity in traditions and origins.