 Welcome to Prospectors on Global Justice ThinkTech Hawaii program. This is your host, Beatrice Cantelmo. Today, we will devote some of our program to talk about Indigenous people's social justice issues and environmental rights around the globe. Worldwide, there are approximately 730 million people belonging to 5,000 different Indigenous groups across 90 countries. These communities often have their own language and did see the cultural traditions. Yet land and misappropriation and destruction, unsustainable urban planning practices, agro-industrial development, mining oil and dam constructions, along with high poverty and infant mortality rates, high suicide rates, hunger, dehydration, human trafficking and labor exploitation, genocide and houselessness, along with the threat of sea level rise and global warming, plagues the lives of many Indigenous people. Mainstream societies are at odds with Mother Earth, who is begging for an Earth revolution. Today's guest is Takaya Blane. Takaya is an accomplished actress, a singer and a songwriter and a Native children's survivor ambassador from the Kla'Ami Nation, which is located on the Turtle Bay Island along the shore of Salish Sea of the British Columbia, Canada. She's also an amazing social justice activist and advocate. And I must mention that she's only 16 years old. Takaya made it to Hawaii via the Peace Child International's World Youth Congress, which is happening Honolulu this week. Takaya's spirit, heart and voice guides her walk and has inspired a new call for the type of Earth revolution that Mother Earth is in need of. Her call for Earth revolution is a global action and a movement that is designed and it is empowered and inspired by children and youth to protect the environment and Indigenous people from all over the globe. Everyone is invited to take part in this movement because Takaya beautifully sings, there won't be tomorrow if we don't change today. On that note, welcome to our show, dear. Thank you, I'm sorry to be here. I'm so happy to have you here. So how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm really enjoying Honolulu and the conference and all of the really incredible insights. So tell me a little bit about the conference. So you're here as a guest. You're here as a participant of both. Yeah. So the World East Congress, I was invited to participate as a student and be able to take what I feel is relevant and important information back to my community and implement it in some way. But also I was invited to perform as a speaker and singer. So I'm just having a really fun time. And I know it must be very exhausting too even though it's fun to still be in school, back home and doing your assignments there, plus the assignments here for the Congress and the time zone differences and all of the commitments. It's okay to feel tired sometimes in today's Friday. So I'm so grateful that you're here with our viewers. So do you mind telling a little bit of me? You've been on this road since you're six years old. How did it all start? Well, I guess I would officially have kind of engaged myself with the activism community with the intention of being involved on a long-term basis at age 10. But I think before that my amount of knowledge of environmental mispractices and industrial exploitation and how that had these very devastating repercussions on the well-being of indigenous communities, the soul and freedom of these communities to be able to practice in the cultural way and regain a sense of identity after what has been in Canada and in many other colonist countries of a very devastating history. So I think that being aware of the environment of subtle systemic injustices that together become deafening and impossible to avoid, the Nerven Gateway Pipeline, which was the pipeline proposed from the Whalesands of Alberta to Ketemap, BC, the amount of resistance that First Nations communities had to this project and the prospect of, you know, more in forms of industrial destruction and extraction, transportation over indigenous territories, it made me feel as if for the first time I'd been witnessing a thing that parents and grandparents had watched throughout their lives and I had the opportunity to change it. So that was your calling to say, okay, I want to speak out with my voice, the voice of a child, the voice of an indigenous young spirit to help facilitate this dialogue and hopefully the transformation and all of the imbalances that's happening in your neck of the woods. But as a child, so you grew up in an indigenous reservation too, what was happening in terms of the exploitation, the environmental disarray, how did that impact your life and the life of your community? Looking at the co-growing up, what were the things you would be worried about as a younger child? Well, growing up, I would say, part-time on the Atlantic reservation, I had, while I lived for a longer period of time in Vancouver than the intermittent period of months that I would travel back. I considered Kalaam in my home first and foremost. I think that growing up, you have a very tangible sense of how the intergenerational repercussions of trauma inflicted in residential schools against those of a... those who are fathers and are cousins have these very devastating effects and resurface themselves as addiction and domestic violence and suicide and these sort of social ills that come with a loss of identity, especially for youth. It's difficult being indigenous and being a youth, because for many people, they have only experienced the pain in an identity that also carries profound beauty. So I was never formally educated in the ways of, I guess, statistics and projections for climate change and how it would impact human life, because as far as disarray in the environment impacting human life, I was already convinced. And I think that that's important because just as an advocate, I feel it's what I've brought to the table in sharing my story and destroying this false division that we have between environment and human communities and showing that indigenous people are the front lines of climate change and not only that, but other minority communities, those who live in the global south, that there is a very human consequence to these actions and... Absolutely. I don't know how much you've learned about the people of Hawaii and other Pacific islands, but the threat of global warming is quite real, not only... I mean, first of all, it breaks my heart to hear your account about how difficult it is to grow up as an indigenous person and to claim identity and to learn the beauty of it, but also have to deal with the stigma of also having and feel proud of an indigenous heritage. I think many people across the globe can relate, but also feel that in many ways there is also a huge movement to a revival of indigenous peoples' values and cultural traditions and wisdom, which are not always quantified and measured in the same way as western culture would like it to be, but nonetheless it has value and it has allowed us as human race to be here for as long as we've been a lot of the issues that we are struggling with now are man-made in the last maybe 70, 80 years. So there is hope. But for us here, the projection is that with the sea level rising in the next 20 years to 30 years, there is a projection of 30 million people that are having to leave their homes. So the Tom environmental refugee is quite real and I think it is up to the youth and to each one of us to recognize a set stake and to not only reverse some of the damages that we are facing, but also come up with ways to get united and to bring back what is already common human knowledge and I think that the secret is really with the indigenous people and its secrets and its treasures. And so I hear that you have a big drive, a big mission to initiate this dialogue and to do this push for Earth revolution with the energy and everything that has to do with this movement also that is driven by the children and youth. Would you like to talk a little bit about that? Yeah, well, just as a, I guess, technically my label as someone who is, you know, performing music would be musician, I've always felt sort of uncomfortable with it because when I started sharing music about my experience reflecting on either injustice or things like the Norwegian Gateway Pipeline and how the very steep decline in cultural fluency also paralleled with the steep incline of disturbing epidemics of, you know, suicide and substance abuse, I could reflect on the situation and when I wouldn't be able to articulate it I would put it into music and so Earth revolution, you know, it's not a manifesto calling for an Earth revolution, it's rather putting a rather silly ten-year-old name on what I, kind of an optimistic attitude about youth leading the way for the design and implementation of solutions for some of the most demanding issues that we're faced with today and not doing so out of a sense of obligation but also out of a sense of excitement because I definitely think that there's much to be achieved in the process of planning and moving forward with your community. In Canada one of our focuses right now with Indigenous peoples and our contemporary issues and what our communities are currently demanding it's reconciliation and so reconciliation being a form of not only apology but reparation funds and all the, I guess, adequate funds for social services, education and health care allocated to Indigenous peoples and Indigenous communities many of which still exist without running potable water so we have all of these stories within our communities that we have not told for a very long time and I believe that we cannot heal until we are heard and part of the process of feeling is if your voice is truly valued and feeling as if you have true agency and power in such dire situations is the ability to be able to plan for your future to contribute to a greater cause in that and so I think Earth Evolution was about looking at the negative and highlighting the more beautiful aspects of this movement. It's a beautiful movement and it starts from within and collectively and I do think you're right and the core of any issue which is recognition you can't move forward without fast recognizing the wounds and having the space to heal perhaps in that process of forgiveness and moving forward the restorative justice I would say it starts with all sides sitting down really and being able to listen to one another and that's quite a goal for Canada and I think globally too so what would the Earth Revolution look like for you at a micro level like for indigenous people and for the environment would you wish to see it happening through the lenses in the heart of a 16 year old? Well, I think a part of Earth Revolution that was compelling to me at the time and felt necessary to share just the whole idea of singing about issues that might have these really detrimental ramifications on your community and of course in that community your direct family and so what are considered numbers on a page and abstract political concepts become these very imminent threats to you that are sometimes hard to have conversations about and so going back to what kind of launched me into the path of indigenous rights and environmental activism is music itself the idea that I did have something to bring to the table that as a 10 year old I wasn't formally trained in politics and economics and environmental policy but I had a story as someone who had experienced the devastation, cultural devastation as a result of natural resource extraction and so a part of sharing that story is of course a part of who I am and a part of who I am is very much music and as for 16 year olds out there I would just recommend that if there is something that you feel passionately about the way in which you contribute to the issue and contribute to the conversation in the issue it doesn't always have to be as conventional as giving speeches because I think revolutions need anthems they need artwork when we push against the wall of a paradigm we have to do so with the strength of everything that we are and that goes hand in hand with recognizing the artist and the musician and the many cultures and identities that we have inside us I don't know what I want to be when I grow up but listening to you seems like the arts may always be a part of your path so the question I would have for you is have you thought about what you want to be when you grow up? Yeah, it's interesting because as far as music I've always wanted to separate that from any professional career because it's something that still feels very deeply personal to me that I don't know if I would be comfortable with selling as a product on a regular basis yeah, so it's I would feel compelled to continue in the direction of activism but something that's always excited me from the age of first being introduced into this community that was filled with familiar faces of my cousins and aunties and uncles and soon more global stages the idea of when you get off the stage that you didn't just make hollow self-congratulatory announcements about environmentalism and that your intentions go beyond that kind of public glamour I've always been really excited to go to university and figure out what best suits my skill set and be able to give back in a way that's small that's maybe not glamorous but has a huge impact over the years Well, you know you're glamorous, right? I think not only for how bright you are but also how much you have been able to travel and to articulate in such a short period of spending your life, you're 16 years old you've traveled to many countries I hear you went to Brazil, you went to Korea you're here in Hawaii you spoke in front of the United Nations I mean that is so inspiring and you spoke from your own heart and your truth which you believed it was the right thing to do at the time and I hope that that will always be the energy that will propel you moving forward to stick to your own truth I'm sure that your path will be very enlightened and what we do with environmental and politics activism is very important but I think it's the essence, you know that part of connecting people, connecting people's hearts and the ability to open new spaces for dialogue you know, that's the real goal, the on your gutted girl you really do I do think that when political discussions become so abstract that the people and communities are intensely affected by such issues become hypotheticals then nothing gets done or no connection of empathy is made and I think when you have people who maybe are not scientists so they can't share objective truths that are gathered through their methods but can share a story of their life and their experience like my kukwa and chichi and my grandmother and grandfather said don't be intimidated if you're making speeches you're going to be surrounded by adults who will have a very different way of delivering your same message but remember who you are wear your cedar hat where you go for a reminder of your roots I see that most of your pictures in your career you carry this lovely hat would you mind telling us a little bit about the symbolism and the tradition behind it Yeah, so cedar is a sacred building material in Kossilish cultures the Islam and culture we believe that cedar has cleansing properties it can hold a space for ceremony and so not only do we incorporate elements of cedar into our arts but basically every area of our life from the material that we build our houses out of to utensils to even our clothing is made from cedar and so for my family and for myself it's more than having a more visual representation of the culture that I'm bringing to the table but it's also we believe that the ancestors are in these practices we believe that the ancestors we stand upon their shoulders with their strength and it is as Indigenous youth as I said at the beginning it's a process of self-discovery digging beneath the pain to find the beauty and identity and bringing our ancestors with us Wow, it's really profound, so beautiful we're almost at the end of our show and I want to leave you with three topiguanani woods I'm also a Brazilian national an Italian national and I'm half Indigenous and I didn't have a chance to really learn about my culture, my Indigenous roots and the language as much as I wanted to I'm claiming that now this stage of my life but I want to share these woods with you because I think that they really speak to your heart so the first word is kurumi which means child and youth I always remember and carry the energy of kurumi and extend that to all the kurumis around the globe whether you sing, whether you're silent whether you speak at a very fancy place or just one-on-one with an older person kurumi energy will always be with you if you allow it for that to happen the older world that I have for you and manye means the two in exchangeable meanings and it means world in itself and the soul and the interpretation of the meaning of this world is that your soul comes through your walls so never be silent but it's not for too long you may always be with you and that means gathering it's an invitation which I think all Indigenous people have as a core base of sustainability is that we don't do anything on this globe alone or individually it's a collective, interdependent, interconnected action always so what do you all mean in Kurumi? Thank you Thank you Well that concludes our beautiful program and I'm so touched to hear the voices of our youth and their wisdom and their clarity and their genuine purity so may our viewers carry that for the rest of the week and until next Friday, we hope