#first nations culture

[bpod-bpod]

Plants Against Parasites

From traditional knowledge to modern drug discovery, the natural world is a constant source of inspiration for medicine. Plants have proven especially useful in combating malaria, a disease caused by Plasmodium parasites and transmitted by mosquitoes: the widely-used antimalarial artemisinin was extracted from sweet wormwood, a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine, and promising candidates may yet emerge from a different culture. Dwarf Labrador tea (Rhododendron subarcticum, pictured) is traditionally used by Inuit and First Nations people in Canada to treat a wide range of ailments. Studying the composition of its essential oil uncovered 53 different molecules, dominated by ascaridole, a compound also found in other medicinal plants. Laboratory tests revealed both the essential oil and isolated ascaridole were toxic to Plasmodium falciparum, suggesting potential for antimalarial activity. As Plasmodiumbecome increasingly resistant to current treatments, drugs inspired by this tough northern plant could add useful weapons to our arsenal.

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image from work by Jean-Christophe Séguin and colleagues

Département de chimie and PROTEO, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Published in ACS Omega, May 2023

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[reasonsforhope]

A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday [January 30, 2025] after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being.

Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand's North Island at 2,518 meters (8,261 feet) and a popular spot for tourism, hiking and snow sports.

The legal recognition acknowledges the mountain's theft from the Māori of the Taranaki region after New Zealand was colonized. It fulfills an agreement of redress from the country's government to Indigenous people for harms perpetrated against the land since.

How can a mountain be a person?

The law passed Thursday gives Taranaki Maunga all the rights, powers, duties, responsibilities and liabilities of a person. Its legal personality has a name: Te Kāhui Tupua, which the law views as "a living and indivisible whole." It includes Taranaki and its surrounding peaks and land, "incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements."

A newly created entity will be "the face and voice" of the mountain, the law says, with four members from local Māori iwi, or tribes, and four members appointed by the country's Conservation Minister.

Why is this mountain special?

"The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place," Paul Goldsmith, the lawmaker responsible for the settlements between the government and Māori tribes, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday.

But colonizers of New Zealand in the 18th and 19th centuries took first the name of Taranaki and then the mountain itself. In 1770, the British explorer Captain James Cook spotted the peak from his ship and named it Mount Egmont.

In 1840, Māori tribes and representatives of the British crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi — New Zealand's founding document — in which the Crown promised Māori would retain rights to their land and resources. But the Māori and English versions of the treaty differed — and Crown breaches of both began immediately.

In 1865, a vast swathe of Taranaki land, including the mountain, was confiscated to punish Māori for rebeling against the Crown. Over the next century hunting and sports groups had a say in the mountain's management — but Māori did not.

"Traditional Māori practices associated with the mountain were banned while tourism was promoted," Goldsmith said. But a Māori protest movement of the 1970s and '80s has led to a surge of recognition for the Māori language, culture and rights in New Zealand law.

Redress has included billions of dollars in Treaty of Waitangi settlements — such as the agreement with the eight tribes of Taranaki, signed in 2023.

How will the mountain use its rights?

"Today, Taranaki, our maunga, our maunga tupuna, is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate," said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori and a descendant of the Taranaki tribes, using a phrase that means ancestral mountain.

"We grew up knowing there was nothing anyone could do to make us any less connected," she added.

The mountain's legal rights are intended to uphold its health and wellbeing. They will be employed to stop forced sales, restore its traditional uses and allow conservation work to protect the native wildlife that flourishes there. Public access will remain.

Do other parts of New Zealand have personhood?

New Zealand was the first country in the world to recognize natural features as people when a law passed in 2014 granted personhood to Te Urewera, a vast native forest on the North Island. Government ownership ceased and the tribe Tūhoe became its guardian.

"Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure, and remote beauty," the law begins, before describing its spiritual significance to Māori. In 2017, New Zealand recognized the Whanganui River as human, as part of a settlement with its local iwi.

How much support did the law receive?

The bill recognizing the mountain's personhood was affirmed unanimously by Parliament's 123 lawmakers. The vote was greeted by a ringing waiata — a Māori song — from the public gallery, packed with dozens who had traveled to the capital, Wellington, from Taranaki.

The unity provided brief respite in a tense period for race relations in New Zealand. In November, tens of thousands of people marched to Parliament to protest a law that would reshape the Treaty of Waitangi by setting rigid legal definitions for each clause. Detractors say the law — which is not expected to pass — would strip Māori of legal rights and dramatically reverse progress from the past five decades.

-via NPR, January 31, 2025

--

Note: The article doesn't get fully into the implications of the broader, global "rights of nature" movement (of which this is part), which is powerful tool for not only recognizing Indigenous ways of relating to the world, but also preventing ecological damage.

Examples of rights of nature include rivers having the right to not be polluted, etc. Powerful tool for leveraging the courts and legal frameworks against environmental destruction.

[thenextrush]

Parrtjima Festival of Light 2023: Preview Night

View Video of last night’s preview HERE https://fb.watch/jLdJchqqgH/

[alinahdee]

Until Dawn is getting remastered for the PS5 so I definitely needed to share this again.

In this episode I talk about the video game's appropriation of Native American cultures, imagery and spirituality. I'm not saying don't buy and enjoy the game.

I am saying that when you know better, do better, and then demand better.

[bubbas-place]

[cyber-corp]

are you even actually interested in Greek mythology or did you just get swept along with the tides of Tumblr

Sort of. A lot of the myths remind of some Aussie First Nation Dreamtime stories I heard growing up. Tiddalick or the Rainbow Serpent, stuff like that (Tiddalick especially, that dumbass frog experienced hubris)

The Greek mythology stuff is far less prominent here down under, I suppose

[amnhnyc]

“This is a profile of the Haudenosaunee, by the Haudenosaunee, speaking from the present,” says filmmaker Caleb Abrams (Seneca, Wolf Clan) about this film, which he produced in collaboration with the Museum. This film explores vital parts of Haudenosaunee life today: the continuation of traditional government structures, the revitalization of languages after decades of repressive policies by the United States and Canada, the role of lacrosse as an expression of sovereignty on the world stage, and the sowing of seeds of knowledge and hope for future generations.

[humanrightsconnected]

It’s Indigenous People's Day! As we honor this significant day, learn about 14 influential Native American figures 👇!

[wildfeather5002]

Indigenous folks, ex-christians & anyone who's knowledgeable on social issues, I have two questions that have bothered me for a long while and I believe y'all might know how to answer them.

The question: I read a webcomic about community A living on an island along with another community B with different culture & beliefs from them. Community A believes that their culture & religion are the correct ones and that members of community B are dooming themselves to eternal damnation (in a religious sense) if they don't adopt the beliefs & practices of community A.

I saw someone talking about the comic in its comment section, saying that one of the characters who's a member of community B is selfish for not adopting the burial practices from community A's religion, because according to that someone, not burying their loved one like community A believes is correct is " potentially dooming their loved one to eternal damnation".

If you're indigenous, has rhetoric / talking points like this been used against your own religious / cultural practices? Could you give any concrete examples?

If you have religious trauma / are ex christian of any kind, have people used talking points like this to guilt trip, to frighten, or to shame you into obeying religious rules? (People belonging to other religions than christianity are welcome to give their perspectives as well!)

[themadcapmathematician]

The US is like hey if you wanna drive somewhere it's 15 min but you'll spend 40 min and $20 parking. Oh you take the bus? You'll be there in 3 hours. 1.5 hrs of that is walking lol. lmfao even. Oh youre walking? Just walking there?? Asphalt is a pvp enabled zone and the sidewalk is width of a single grape. We have removed all of the benches for your convenience. See you there in 28 hours

[creaturefeaster]

these have been fun to make so far :3

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Content Warning for discussions of residential schools and the systemic violence and abuse of Indigenous children.

It was a reunion decades in the making and a kickoff to the new year the Quill family will never forget. Sisters Nita and Brandy Quill met for the first time at a SkyTrain station in Vancouver last week, more than 30 years after they were separated during a period of colonial violence against Indigenous families known as the ’60s Scoop. The pair found each other on Facebook in the years after their mother’s death. “It’s surreal. Nothing like this has ever happened in our lives before,” Brandy said, embracing her long-lost sister at Burrard Station downtown. “This is to me a miracle. I’m just trying to take it in. It will probably take a long time to process it. It’s a dream come true.”

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[shoezuki]

ok another pet peeve cuz im workin on an essay about the indigenous identity.

when referring to all the Indigenous groups together, it's 'Indigenous Peoples'. When referring to individual people who are indigenous, it's 'Indigenous People'. The first one the Peoples is plural due to it denoting that it is referring to multiple cultures as theres so many distinct and varying indigenous territories and cultures and groups under the umbrella term of Indigenous. Saying 'indigenous people' in that case is kinda just mushing all the homies into One huge thing.

[tlatollotl]

Old Copper Culture spear point found in the shallows of Portage Lake, Upper Michigan, United States. 6,000 - 4,000 BP.

News article about the find. I took this picture myself when visiting the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum several years ago.

[bubbas-place]

Young men like these are our future! Our future leaders and the future pillars of American society who'll continue to build what our forefathers have created and more! MAGA Youth & Brotherhood!

[winter-foul]

A drawing based off of the oral legend I was told in school growing up.

The story went something like this: The icy figure approaches a man's wigwam and asks to be let in. The man obliges and opens the flap to his home, the icy figure says he cannot come in until the fire is put out. So the man inside the wigwam puts the fire out one-by-one allowing the icy figure to crawl inside. The figure then tells the man that he was foolish for letting the figure come inside his home and tries to freeze the man to death. The man having seen through the icy figure's tricks begins igniting the fire inside his tent, melting the icy figure into a puddle of water.

The story had a frightening picture to go along with it and so I tried to redraw how the figure looked in that picture from memory.

I don't remember if the man inside of the wigwam was Wisakedjak or not but I don't think the story would change that much either way, and I don't know what exactly the moral of the story was either. I've tried asking elders and family in my community about this story I either get ignored or told that they don't remember hearing a story like that, so there's that.