Andrea Carmen
Matriarch Monday
Andrea Carmen
“Women are very strong voices in the work for the protection of the environment. We have a natural connection to Mother Earth and the knowledge of Indigenous women in particular as food producers, as knowledge holders, as the first teachers of the children, plays a very key and central role. The cultural practices and traditions that Indigenous women keep alive and pass down generation to generation in Indigenous communities are being recognized very strongly all the way to the United Nations, but also in Indigenous communities and the broader movements addressing climate change. The importance of that knowledge and that role, in not only addressing the adaptation and mitigation, but also confronting the solutions to climate change: fossil fuel burning, mining, oil development, things like genetically modified seeds, which introduced into Indigenous communities really decreases our ability to utilize our natural biodiversity to respond to changing climate conditions. Indigenous women are at the forefront of discussing these matters on the community level, but also nationally and internationally.
In many places we see our young people, our youth, including young women and girls, really on the forefront of the struggle. If you look at the opposition to the oil pipelines, for example in Standing Rock, it was the young people that started that struggle and then got the Tribal Council and the Elders involved in support. Another place that I’ve worked is in the Yanite Traditional School in Alaska, and it was the elementary school students that decided to oppose coal mining there and then convinced the Tribal Council and the leaders to support them in that position. You actually see that happening already, where a lot of young people are taking a stand and asking their elders and Tribal leaders to support them.
I’m the executive director now of a very large international organization that has a lot of standing at the United Nations, but I started out in the IITC working as a student intern folding newsletters and answering phones. There is a lot of place and space for young people to get involved in this work. We’re constantly looking for new blood, new enthusiasm, new ideas, and we have to keep in mind that our young people, including our young girls, are the knowledge holders and the leaders of the future. I would like to see more youth involved. As we move towards future events, we can do a more effective job at including the voices of youth, students, young activists, and our young women in this work, because it’s very important and they have a lot to offer.”
source: https://ijrcenter.org/ijrc-interview-series/andrea-carmen-international-indian-treaty-council/
Andrea Carmen, Yaqui Nation, began working with the International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) in 1975 as a student intern focusing on the forced sterilization of Native America Women. She became a staff member in 1983 and Executive Director in 1992. Andrea has many years of experience working with Indigenous Peoples in North, Central, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific and was a founding member of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace with Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu. She has been a human rights observer and mediator in crises situations in the US, Hawaii, Mexico, Canada, Alaska, New Zealand, Nicaragua and Ecuador.
Since the mid-1980’s Andrea has participated in UN bodies addressing human rights, sustainable development, environment, persistent organic pollutants, land tenure, climate change, cultural rights, rights of the child and food sovereignty. She was IITC’s team leader for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and, in 1997 at the UN Earth Summit +, she was one of two Indigenous representatives selected to formally address the UN General Assembly for the first time in history. Andrea has served as an advisor, board member or steering committee member for the World Council of Churches, First Nations Development/Eagle Staff Fund, US Human Rights Network, Yoemem Tekia Foundation, First Peoples Worldwide, Calvert Social Investment Advisory Council and the National Native America Boarding School Healing Coalition. She was the first co-coordinator for the Chickaloon Village Tribal Environmental Program, served on the Indigenous Environmental Network National Council and co-founded the International Indigenous Women’s Environmental and Reproductive Health
Andrea has co-coordinated and organized international conferences and events including the Global Indigenous Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change (2009, Anchorage Alaska), Indigenous Peoples Rio + 20 International Conference (2012, Rio de Janeiro Brazil), the high level meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization with Indigenous Peoples (2015, Rome), the Ad Hoc Meeting of Indigenous Peoples on Follow-up to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (2015, Geneva), 3 International Indigenous Women’s Symposium on Environmental and Reproductive Health (2010, 2012 and 2018), 15 Indigenous Peoples’ Food Sovereignty, Traditional and Climate Change conferences and IITC International Treaty Conferences in various countries since 1986. She participated in international consultations with Indigenous Peoples and States for development of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN and American Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the new UNFCCC Traditional Knowledge Exchange Platform.
In January 2006, Andrea was an expert participant and Rapporteur for the UN Expert Seminar on Indigenous Peoples’ Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and their Relationship to Land in Geneva, the first time an Indigenous woman had served as Rapporteur for an UN Expert Seminar. Andrea has been an invited expert presenter at UN bodies and expert seminars addressing Treaty rights, Indigenous Peoples Cultural Indicators for Biological Diversity, the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals, Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Participate in Decision-making, Indigenous Peoples Right to Health, Climate Change and Human Rights, International Repatriation, Borders and Migration and Children’s Environmental Health and Toxics. In 2010 she served on the Coordinating Committee for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues International Expert Meeting on Indigenous Children and Youth in Detention, Custody, Foster-Care and Adoption and served as its Rapporteur to the 9th session of the UNPFII. Andrea was also co-Rapporteur for the 2nd UN Seminar on Treaties, Agreements and Other Constructive Arrangements between States and Indigenous Peoples and was a lead Indigenous Peoples’ negotiator for the UN Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. From 2006 – 2009 Andrea was the North America Region Indigenous Caucus co-coordinator with Grand Chief Edward John. She served as a member of the Global Indigenous Peoples Steering Committee for work on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and has written chapters in three books about the Declaration. From 2010-2018 Andrea served as one of two members from North America on the Global Coordinating Committee for Indigenous Peoples’ work at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change including at COP 16 in Cancun and COP 21 in Paris.
Andrea has conducted over 300 trainings and presentations for Indigenous communities, Peoples, Tribal leaders, organizations and agencies, and serves as the principle trainer for Project Access preceding the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, cosponsored by the UNFII Secretariat and Columbia University Human Rights Institute. Andrea graduated from the University of California with a Degree in Women's Studies, and was selected, as "Speaker of the Year" by People Are Speaking in San Francisco. She has three sons and two grandchildren and lives in Tucson Arizona.
IITC was founded on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota in 1974 to be an international voice and advocate for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 1977 IITC was the first Indigenous Peoples organization to receive Consultative Status from the UN Economic and Social Council and in 2011 it was the first to be upgraded to General Consultative Status.