For more information: Dallas Goldtooth +1-708-515-6158 or dallas@ienearth.org
December 11, 2015 PARIS, France – As the COP21 climate negotiations begin their final plenary at Le Bourget on Friday December 11, the Indigenous Environmental Movement have invited Indigenous Peoples in Paris for the conference to gather at the base of the Eiffel tower at 6 pm to hold a water ceremony. Water will be brought from various Indigenous lands and territories from across Mother Earth. The ceremony will be led by actor and Indigenous rights activist Casey Camp-Horinek from the Ponca Nation, Oklahoma, USA.
All life on Mother Earth is tied to water. Indigenous Nations of the world have much in common including a shared cosmology about the sacredness of water and the role of women as defenders of the water. Indigenous women, as life givers and defenders of the water will led this ceremony to pray for our water and honor all life across the planet.
Indigenous representatives from North and South America, the Arctic, South Pacific, and more will together in this water ceremony rooted in peace and renewal. The ceremony will involve the mixing of waters from the different regions to signify a ceremony of renewed strength and relationship to uphold the collective work of Indigenous peoples. The onslaught of the fossil fuel industries has led to the degradation of the sacred systems that Indigenous people have relied on and lived in harmony with since time immemorial. Water as central element of life is contaminated and degraded by these destructive industrial projects.
As part of this ceremony Indigenous woman participating will be invited to a sign the historic first International Indigenous Women’s Treaty uniting the voices of Indigenous Woman from the Amazon to the Arctic calling to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Location: Base of the Eiffel Tower at 18:00
