Showing solidarity with India's indigenous people

Shawn A-in-chut Atleo, regional chief, British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, who joined the Janadesh March that started in Gwalior October 2, is back in Canada. He is very emotional about the way the march -- from Gwalior to Delhi -- was organised and demands of the indigenous people in India.

The organisers of the march in India extended an invitation to leaders of the First Nations and Atleo, with his wife and Rene Pollett representing the Canadian Assembly of First Nations.

"It was Gandhi's birthday when the march started from Gwalior. There were 25,000 people gathered at the Moreno Town Stadium and the number will grow as the march proceeds to Delhi," he told Rediff India Abroad, on October 19. (Click here to see the route chart)

The poor rally for lost land: 'Zameen do ya jail do'

People had gathered in a huge ground in Gwalior, said Pollett. "It was a phenomenal operation. They were feeding 25,000 people. They had groups who were going ahead on the march, setting up toilet facilities, water tanks, etcetera."

The Canadian native group was amongst the first to be invited. "Of course, invitations had gone to native/indigenous leaders of several countries but they were invited to come and join the march on different dates and at different places as that way it would be easier for organisers to make proper arrangements for foreign visitors and it would make more impact having one or the other foreign group in the march," Pollett explained.

The main issue of the Indian indigenous people, who organised the march, is the title to land. Pollett said these India's indigenous people, landless poor farmers, took the initiative of organising the march to Delhi to bring the attention of the Indian government to their plight.

These landless Adivasis number over 80 million, "quite a shocking number as we have (in Canada) a relatively smaller population (2 million people)," he said. "These indigenous people have their culture, and their struggle for land reform."

Regional Chief Atleo was among the speakers on the first day when the march started from Gwalior: "I shared with them the problems of First Nations in Canada, our struggle to achieve a measure of justice, and my presence here is to offer our support. So, I marched with them, sang and danced with them. I also met tribal elders and discussed their problems and shared our problems with them.

"I told them how people of First Nations in Canada were dispossessed of their lands as our lands here have been used for resource exploitation, in many cases poisoning our water and cutting our forests. We also have not benefited from the wealth others have earned from our resources. We were separated from our traditional diets in many cases, causing health problems."

He went on to explain to the marchers in Gwalior this forced change from their normal diet has resulted in "rampant diabetes, and other chronic ailments and, as in India, people of First Nations in Canada are poor. While Canada regularly ranks 6th in the UN Human Development index, First Nations on our own rank somewhere close to 70th showing there is a tremendous gap between Canadians and First Nations."

Atleo said it was shocking for him to find a lot of similarities in the economic and social conditions of Adivasis and tribal people in India "with our conditions."

How would participation of Canadian tribal leaders help the marchers in India? "I think it helps in a number of ways," said Rene Pollett. "Just the fact that an indigenous leader speaks about his experience helps."

The Canadian leaders marched for two days and the third day drove the length of the march to Delhi, where they met India's Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh.

"We discussed with Minister Singh why we were in India and about the United Nations resolution on the rights of the indigenous people," Atleo said.

"India voted in favor of the resolution and Canada was among the only four countries that voted against the UN resolution. For us, this resolution is important and we told the federal minister in Delhi how important the UN Declaration was for indigenous people in India as well."

The objective of the resolution is to promote and protect 'rights of indigenous people and their empowerment to make choices that enable them to retain their cultural identity while participating in political, economic and social life, with full respect for their cultural values, languages, traditions and forms of social organization.'

Atleo said Minister Singh listened to them attentively and would only say 'he government was looking forward to the arrival of the marchers in Delhi."