We at BetterListen! are delighted to offer this excerpt from our recording of "Indigenous Peoples -- Message to the World." Below is a transcription of The Indigenous Peoples Declaration of Interdependence. Recorded Live at The First Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.
Declaration: We the Indigenous Peoples walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors, from the smallest to the largest living being, from the four directions, from the air, the land and the mountains. The Creator has placed us, the Indigenous Peoples, upon our mother the earth.
The footprints of our ancestors are permanently etched upon the lands of our peoples. We the Indigenous Peoples maintain our inherent rights to self-determination. We have always had the right to decide our own forms of government, to use our own laws, to raise and educate our children, to our own cultural identity, without interference. We continue to maintain our rights as peoples despite the centuries of deprivation, assimilation, and genocide. We maintain our inalienable rights to our lands and our territories, to all our resources above and below, and to our waters we assert our ongoing responsibility to pass these on to the future generations.
We cannot be removed from our lands. We the Indigenous peoples are connected by the circle of life to our lands and environment.
We the Indigenous peoples walk to the future in the footprints of our ancestors. Signed in Karoka, Brazil on the 30th day of May, 1992.
