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In a court ruling last Friday, a Canadian Federal Court sided with the Ka’agee Tu — saying that the Federal government violated the Ka’agee Tu’s right to “meaningful consultation” when in 2005, it approved an application for Paramount Resources to drill several new oil wells in the Cameron Hills area — Traditional hunting grounds for the Ka’agee Tu, and also a location of their drinking water.

From CBC News - “The court has clearly ruled that Canada can’t make unilateral decisions about major industrial projects on aboriginal lands without, …

From Canada Press - Miners are stunned and environmentalists cheering over a northern regulator’s recommendation that a uranium exploration project be denied because it threatens the spiritual and cultural well-being of the area’s Dene people.

The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board says Ur-Energy’s (TSX:URE) plan to drill up to 20 holes near the Thelon River should not proceed under any circumstances. Read the report (pdf)

“Although the proposed development is physically small, the potential cultural impacts are not,” says the board in a written decision.

It is only the second time in the board’s history that it has dismissed a …

Indigenous people of the Gurdanji, Mara, Garrawa and Yanyuwa language groups in the Northern Territory have just had a victory in stopping the expansion of the Macarthur River Mine, a proposal that would have diverted a river that is of great importance to their dreaming: their identity. (From Anne. Thanks.)

The mining giant Xstrata has just been ordered to stop all work relating to the expansion of the McArthur River Mine, in the NT region of Australia.

The project would have transformed the McArthur River Mine from underground to open-cut …

Colombian court orders Ecopetrol to halt production on Bari land
by: Lisa Garrigues - www.indiancountry.com
February 26, 2007

LA PAZ, Bolivia - In a victory for the Bari people of Colombia, the national constitutional court has ordered the state oil company Ecopetrol to halt oil production on their land.

According to the judgment, ”We have observed not just damage to the fundamental right of the Motilon Bari Indigenous People to be consulted beforehand, but profound harm to the legitimate confidence that traditional authorities have deposited in government authorities.”

The judgment was first reported Feb. 2 in the Colombian newspaper La Republica, and later confirmed …

Mapuche reconvene historic parliament
by Lisa Garrigues
Today Correspondent

PANGUIPULLI, Chile - One hundred years.

That’s how long it’s been since the call of the traditional Mapuche instrument, the kull kull, has rung out in the Chilean valley of Koz Koz to announce the beginning of a Mapuche parliament.

This year’s parliament, which brought together almost 4,000 members of the Mapuche Nation from Chile and Argentina, was held in the valley of Koz Koz from Jan. 14 - 18. It commemorated the parliament of 1907, when Mapuche longkos, or chiefs, came together for the last time after the Chilean government invaded and took over their …

By Rupam Jain Nair (Reuters) January 2, 2007.
GIR SANCTUARY, India. - Daya Rakha, 36, was born in the jungles of the Gir wildlife sanctuary in western India and knows little else except how to live off the forest’s resources.

Just as his ancestors did generations ago, Daya ekes out a meager living mainly by tending to his cattle which relentlessly graze in Gir’s lush forests.

But Daya — like millions of India’s forest dwellers — has never been able to call the forest his home. Instead he has been treated as a criminal by authorities as he has no legal right …

BOTSWANA: JOY AS BUSHMEN WIN LANDMARK LEGAL CASE
Survival international

Scenes of jubilation greeted the Botswana High Court’s ruling today in favour of the Kalahari Bushmen.

The court ruled today that the Botswana government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

The court also ruled that the Bushmen applicants have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve, and should not have to apply for permits to enter it.

One of the judges, Justice Phumaphi, said the government’s refusal to allow the Bushmen to …