Today is International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples. It's a day to honour and uplift the unique identities, traditions, and ways of knowing of more than 476 million Indigenous Peoples around the world in 90 countries, including Canada.
It's also a day to raise awareness of the challenges many Indigenous Peoples face, including persistent violations of their rights to land, water, language, and culture. Knowledge is power, so today, we're sharing some important facts about Indigenous Peoples across the globe:
➡️ Indigenous Peoples' territories encompass 28% of the world's surface and contain 11% of the world's forests. They are the guardians of most of the world's remaining biodiversity.
➡️ Indigenous Peoples speak the vast majority of the world's estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 distinct cultures.
➡️ Roughly 200 groups of Indigenous Peoples still live in voluntary isolation in remote forests in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and Venezuela.
➡️ Indigenous Peoples’ food systems have high levels of self-sufficiency, ranging from 50% to 80% in food and resource generation.
Please share and join us in observing this important annual event! #WeAreIndigenous
Source: United Nations