 
Why do we allow these injustices to continue?
The International Day for the World's Indigenous Peoples takes place on August 9, and here in Australia, the National Aboriginal and Islander Children's Day took place on August 4. This week's Backgrounder asks us to ponder why, in 2003, it is still so tough to be Aboriginal. By every measurable outcome Aboriginal people remain behind the eight ball. The Backgrounder provides cross curricular teaching and learning activities to explain Aboriginal marginalisation.
 
CAFOD fears for Guatamala's Mayan people 
The UK welfare group Cafod has expressed fears that Guatamala will be plunged into political crisis this week. Former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt is to run for the presidency in Guatamala following a change in the constitution. The Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala blames Rios Montt for dozens of massacres during the country's 1960-96 civil war, which killed 200,000 mainly Indigenous Mayans – Patrick Nicholson
Brazilian Indians send White Man's Spirit to Heaven
Under the stars known to the tribes as the Jaguar's Eyes, Brazilian
Indians in the Xingu Indigenous Park chant and wail in homage to a white man who spent his life
protecting them. Orlando Villas Boas saved at least one tribe from extinction and rescued the ancestral lands that allowed the Brazilian Indians to continue living a traditional lifestyle – Axel Bugge, Reuters
Aboriginal art to invade Paris
Parisians are bracing for a cultural invasion, with Aboriginal art to cover the ceilings of a new museum in the French capital planned as the legacy of President Jacques Chirac.
Stephane Martin, the director of the $360 million Quai Branly Museum under construction near the Eiffel Tower, this week kicked off the search for an Aboriginal artist to undertake the monumental work – AAP
 
ICT for Indigenous People
The internet has opened up a whole new world for everybody. No less for Indigenous peoples of the planet, for whom the new technologies can provide new opportunities for Indigenous youth and become a window to the world – the developmentgateway.org
 
Reconciliation must have Federal support
Despite a strong and continuing grassroots commitment, reconciliation has
gone off the boil as a federal political issue. In part this is due to the Howard
Government pursuing "practical reconciliation" to the exclusion of any
"rights agenda" for Indigenous peoples. It has done so despite the Council
for Aboriginal Reconciliation emphasising that reconciliation means
addressing both practical measures to tackle disadvantage as well as legal
steps to recognise Indigenous rights. – Sean Brennan and George Williams, SMH
 
 Survival for Tribal Peoples
Survival for Tribal Peoples is the only international organisation supporting tribal peoples worldwide. It was established in 1969 following an article in Britain's Sunday Times which revealed the massacres, land theft and genocide of the Brazilian Indians which took place in the name of 'economic growth'. This site has stuff for kids and free educational material on Indigenous peoples from Siberia to West Papua. See also
Friends of People Close to Nature, a global movement of individuals and groups dedicated to the survival of triBal peoples, in particular hunter-gatherers.
 
American Indian Prayer
Great and Eternal Mystery of Life, Creator of All Things, I give thanks for the beauty You put in every single one of Your creations.
I am grateful that You did not fail in making every stone, plant, creature, and human being a perfect and whole part of the Sacred Hoop.
I am grateful that You have allowed me to see the strength and beauty of All My Relations.
My humble request is that all of the Children of Earth will learn to see the same perfection in
themselves.
May none of Your human children doubt or question Your wisdom, grace, and sense of wholeness in
giving all of Creation a right to be living extensions of Your perfect love.
– 1st holistic.com
 
ABOUT US - The Bushman's Last Dance SBS TV Friday August 8, 8.30pm
While fighting to remain on their ancestral lands, Bushmen (also known as the Basarwa) are trying to preserve their way of life. Since the late 1990s, the Botswana government has been relocating Bushmen to the resettlement camp of New Xade, but they are reluctant to go. In an attempt to force the remaining Bushmen to leave, the government turned off the water early in 2002. According to the lobby group Survival International, the government wants to develop the area for mining. The Bushmen fear for the survival of their culture, one of the oldest in Africa.
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