Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Feminists Around the World: Sara Omi

Transcript

Feminists Around the World: Sara Omi · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told you production of Bahart Radio and welcome
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to another feminist around the world. And today we wanted
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to feature an indigenous activist as yesterday, not that you
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: guys are listening when it's being published, but what's actually
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Indigenous People Day here in the US, So like October fourteenth,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: you know, around that time is what used to be
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Columbus Day. But we don't want to necessarily celebrate a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: colonizer who stole people's identities and property. So of course
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about Indigenous People's Day. And so
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: with that coming and going, we were talking about activists
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and lawyer set Ami. So Ami is an EMBEDDA lawyer
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: who has been working to advocate for her community and
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the environment. And though her work alone is something that
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: we should be celebrating, she has made history becoming the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: first Indigenous woman lawyer in Panama, which I thought was
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: really really significant. In went an article Annie, they featured
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: like how many people within their community go on to
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: law school or graduate from law school, and it's like
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a three to one so three men to one woman
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: in general. So according to a lot of the stats
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: is obviously overbeandonly men who are in this field and
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: getting an education alone. So she decided at a young
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: age around fifteen, that she was going to go down
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: this path, that she needed to do something for her
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: community and that one of the things that she knows
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that has some power is education and then also knowing
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: policies and law. So she went down this route, which
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: was amazing. So AMI's journey has been heavily influenced by
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: her family and her community and her calling to fight
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: for them and for herself. So Eco Americas was able
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to sit down and talk with her about herself and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: her works in twenty twenty three. So here's what she
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: told them about why she wanted to go into law
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and her work. She said, I was born in a
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: moment of conflict. My community had been relocated and was
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: seeking ways to survive. Everything was in short supply and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: there were no opportunities. Women and young people had no voice.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: My mother was the first female in better achief, and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: throughout my childhood I watched her fight for the rights
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: of a relocated community. From when I was very young,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go to school so I could become
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: a lawyer and support my mother in her pursuit of justice.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I was lucky my parents understood education was the way
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: to change things, even though at the time it was
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: not normal for em bettered girls to be sent to
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: primary school. I left my village at the age of
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: fifteen so I could continue my studies, and thanks to
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: scholarships from this Catholic church, I graduated as a lawyer
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: at the age of twenty two. Even when I was
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: far away from my community, I never lost my connection
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: with my village, and I always dreamed of returning to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: help my people in their search for better economic, social,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and political opportunity, to fight against the invasion of our
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: territory by non indigenous communities, and to defend women in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: indigenous communities from violence and discrimination. So her family has
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: always made sure she knew and understood the legacy of
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: her people, including the uprooting of her people. Here's some
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: information about that from elpass dot com. They write from
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: family stories. Ami learned earlier on about the uprooting that
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: her people had to endure. It happened between nineteen seventy
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: two and nineteen seventy six, when the construction of the
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Vola LEAs Hydroelectric dam on the Bayana River flooded the
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: land they inhabited and forced them to rebuild their lives elsewhere.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: This opened a community wound and motivated an international claim
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: recognized in twenty fourteen by ruling by the Inter American
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Court of Human Rights. So a lot of history, a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: lot of hurt, especially when it comes to the uprooting
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: of an entire indigenous community. Yeah, so we know that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: there's a lot more to that history than we're getting into,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: but just to pinpoint that, and so when she returned
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: back to her community, she was able to assess the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: level of needs not only for her community, but for
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: many other Indigenous communities around them. She told the Latin
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: America and Caribbean Sector for the UN Women's Organization quote,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: when I arrived in Panama City, I thought that the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: problems only existed in my community, but I realized that
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: all Indigenous peoples faced the same needs. And that is
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: where I became concerned as a young person and decided
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to become part of the organization of Embedda Munan Youth
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: of Panama or OJEWP. That is where I learned about
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the rights of Indigenous peoples and I support the political
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: agenda to ensure the fundamental rights of our people, and
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: she went on talking specifically about the lack of women
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: when it comes to being a part of the solutions
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: for the issues, saying, knowing all the difficulties of our
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: people and the lack of participation of women in decision
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: making at the level of our traditional structures, I accepted
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the challenge of participating and being a traditional authority in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the position of President of the General and Better Congress
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: of Altabaio. Then, in search of occupying a more visible
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: space in my territory a year ago, I dared to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: challenge the traditional structure to be the only female candidate
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: to aspire to the position of General Chief of said Congress,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: because we are the women who desire better opportunities on
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: a personal, family and community level with the help of
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: breaking the barriers of violence against girls, boys and women
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: in the community and trying to seek better living conditions
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: without straying from our Embarrah worldview. So she's been really
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: vocal about the importance of Indigenous women being a part
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of this conversation when it comes to Indigenous rights and
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: also for the fight against climate change, and we've seen
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: that over and over and over again when we talk
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: about indigenous peoples and activists. So here's a quote from
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the Ecoamericas dot com interview. Indigenous women are the guardians
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: of traditional knowledge about planting, food, protection of the forest, water, biodiversity,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and other ancestral spiritual practices. It has always been women's
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: role to transmit that note to current and future generations.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Yet that all important responsibility has always been made invisible.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: We were just seen as women at home. Women and
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: our communities have so many tools, but in the past
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: we had no way to put that ancestral knowledge on
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the table and use our skills to accompany our community's
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: process of development. From the fight for territory, the fight
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: for development with dignity, the protection of traditional values, our
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: cosmo vision, all of these can now be positioned at
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: territorial and national level. We have worked to bring our
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: role to light and position the voice of women in
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: indigenous communities so that we can exert our influence. Climate
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: change is very present in our communities and women are
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: on the front light of its effects and during crop
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: failure and extreme weather conditions, for example, we work hard
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: to restore the forest, leading the process and applying our
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: ancestral knowledge. Again, I think that's been a common theme
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: when we talk about indigenous peoples, when we talk about
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the community and activists itself, that the women are the
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: front line. And we know this as a tradition in general,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: but as they are even biblically, which we kind of
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: talked about, held responsible for teaching traditions and passing those
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: down in those stories. So I think it's one of
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: those conversations where we talk about the importance of remembering
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: cultures and traditions, and especially if it's an honoring a
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: good system, I think we should that key word being good.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: So and with that, it's not surprising that she would
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: become a part of the leaderships for different programs and
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: organizations to continue with the much needed conversation. She's the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: founder of the Embeter Artisan Women Association or a Marie
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: em Betterra, which works to promote the culture and empower
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the Embtter women by passing on the traditions and preserving
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: their cultural knowledge. She was also the president, and I
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: believe she is now a spokesperson coordinator for the territorial
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: women leaders of the Mesoamerican Alliance of People in Forest
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: and a spokesperson for the Women of the Global Alliance
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: of Territorial Communities and as a representative, she has used
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: her platform to continue the conversation of the importance of
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: women in the community. Like we said before, she told
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: olpast dot com, women maintain the balance that the family needs.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: They protect the family and the community. It is women
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: who are active, better organized, concerned every day with maintaining identity,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: in my case, influencing the creation of public policies that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: integrate the vision of Indigenous women and that achieve concrete
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: results in the territory. And she told climateforest dot org
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: about what her organizations are doing in regards to climate change.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: She said, the women in my organizations, both locally and
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: across Panama, are proposing various alternatives to combat the effects
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: of climate change and to recover and preserve our traditional knowledge,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: for instance by creating botanical gardens made by women to
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: promote this knowledge. We are working hard on sustainable economic
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: through our identity. Where do we want to go? We
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: are proposing our initiatives and our alternatives to be able
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to continue working with the balance that our mother earth needs.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: We are also working on how families can subsist despite
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the current and future challenges to food security. We are
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: working with the concept of the living forest, with the
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: traditional medicine, food security, agricultural production, which are important tools
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: to maintain the balance and protection of our mother earth.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And when she was asked about some of her biggest challenges,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: she told them the biggest challenges that we have, especially
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: as women, is our access to full and effective participation
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: in all spaces. We currently lack strategic allies that can
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: help us to promote our positions. We also need compensation
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: for the yearly losses that our communities suffer because of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: climate change. It impacts us severely and disrupts life in
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: our territories. We need to fight these challenges on the
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: grounds of our own vision, especially the vision we have
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: as women. But again with the challenges, she also has hope.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: The Eco America's interview, she says, I'm optimistic that there
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: will be a positive change. Those changes depend on us
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: being committed to repairing and restoring our mother Earth. With
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: our influence, power and voices, we will be able to
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: ensure that there are more women leaders who can unify
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: our message in a single voice, so that in the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: near future, rights can be perspected and there can be
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: full and effective participation of Indigenous people and women in
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the dialogue. I aspire to see more women leading the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: process of social and environmental justice. And from the LAC
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: dot unwomen dot Org they asked her what her message
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: was for the younger Indigenous women and generations, and she said,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: my message to the youth is that they have the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: responsibility to keep the essence of our Indigenous peoples alive.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: They need to be present in our struggles and value
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: this knowledge as an essential tool representing the voices of
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: women and our grandparents, and that without their participation, the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: development to which we aspire as Indigenous people women in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: youth will not be possible. Yeah Ay missed out on
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: our previous feature with Gualinga that she is a younger generation,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: her and her sister of Indigenous people who have been
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: putting in this fight and making sure that their culture
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: and their community are preserved and that they are fighting
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: for not only their land, but again for their people.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: So we've seen this example and we know if anybody
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: rallies and answered these calls, it is the Indigenous peoples,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and it is a lot of the Indigenous Indigenous young peoples.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: So it's amazing to see. But for a MEI she
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: her work continues to be acknowledged, and not just with
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: her leadership, but also being nominated for her work, including
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: being named one hundred most Powerful Women by Forbes Central
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: America for two years in a row. I don't know
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: if the twenty twenty four list has come out, but
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: last like twenty twenty three, she was on that list.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: So we'll see she's back on that list because I'm
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: sure she definitely deserves it with all of her amazing works.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we'll come back. I'm sure we're going to
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: do a found up soon about where are they now
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: conversations if we can find them. Yeah, I like that idea. Okay,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: we did that before. We were like, yeah, well, we'll
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: see look forward to that listeners. In the meantime, if
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: you would like to contact us, you can. You can
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcasts,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've never told you.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: If you have a tea public store and we have
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: a book, you can get wherever you get your books.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always, start super Christina or executive producer My
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: for listening stuff I ever tell you the production of iHeartRadio.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can listen
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: to the Art Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.