NEW YORK CITY — On the morning of Tuesday, September 19th, Indigenous peoples on the frontlines of the climate crisis on Turtle Island took over Times Square in New York to paint a giant mural with the message, “No Green Colonialism; Land Back NOW!”
This mural comes the day before the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where world leaders are expected to come together to make decisions around combatting the climate crisis.
“For too long, Native lands and communities have borne the brunt of harm from mining and other extractive industries. As the federal government moves to support clean energy development, this cannot come at the expense of clean water or Indigenous rights. This familiar assault on Native lands and communities is another wave of colonialism, and we will not stand by and allow our lands to be sacrificed,” said Krystal Two Bulls, Executive Director of the national Indigenous organization Honor the Earth.
Indigenous communities are resisting mining projects that they say violate treaty rights and threaten clean water and land in places such as Thacker Pass, Oak Flat , and the Talon-Tamarak mine near the Mississippi headwaters.
In a statement the group said, “In order to truly address the climate crisis, Indigenous peoples across the globe must be at the center of the solutions and the decision-makers. As original stewards of the land who stand on the frontlines of climate chaos, Indigenous people have a roadmap that can lead the world out of the harmful systems of capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy that are the root cause of the climate crisis. The first tangible, concrete order of business is to return Indigenous lands to Indigenous hands. “
