International Day for the World's Indigenous Peoples

By resolution 49/214 of 23 December 1994, the General Assembly decided to celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous People on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. In 2004 the Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade by resolution 59/174. The goal of this Decade is to further strengthen international cooperation for the solution of problems faced by indigenous people in such areas as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development.

So if you are in Stockholm tomorrow go to Skansen to see my friend Billy Marius from Congo speak about yeyi and the pygmie people. From midday at Samevistet. The whole programe is (in Swedish):

kl 12:00 och 14:00
Etnologen Marius Billy, bördig från Kongo framför ”yeyi” och berättar om pygmeerna i centrala Afrika.

kl 12:30, 14:30 och 16:00
Den lulesamiska etnologen Lis-Marie Hjortfors berättar om den samiska traditionella kunskapen om djuren och naturen.

kl 13:00 och 15:00
Jojk och jojkverkstad med de samiska systrarna Elina och Susanna Israelsson från Gällivare.

kl 13:30 & 15:30
Djurvårdaren Kerstin Johansson berättar om renen.

Under hela dagen kan du också prova-på att kasta lasso!

Wildman säljer souvas, renklämmor och andra samiska läckerheter på Bollnästorget under hela dagen.


Babongo Pygmies of Southern Congo Imitating Forest Animals


Wujal Wujal Aboriginal dancers at Laura Festival, Australia


Mornington Island dances with didgeridoo


On Jan. 26, 2008, the Eiteljorg Museum hosted a symposium to discuss the 1973 standoff at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The symposium featured William Means (Oglala Lakota), AIM leader and participant in the standoff, and other activists including Johnny Flynn (Potawatomi), who participated in the Wounded Knee 1973, Sally Tuttle (Choctaw), who participated in the 1969 takeover of Alcatraz Island, and Lann Thompson (Cherokee), who was working in South Dakota during Wounded Knee 1973 where he observed the immediate impact of the event. Charlie Abourezk, one of the writers and directors of Tattoo on My Heart, was also be a part of the panel.