“This is a terrible tragedy”, states Mililani B. Trask, leader of the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement and Founder of “Na Koa Ikaika O Ka Lahui Hawaii”, an internationally recognized NGO, describing the possibility of Botswana and Namibia blocking the passage of a declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which she says has been some 21 years in the making. Sitting across from Ms. Trask in the Vienna Café, she is visibly and audibly shaken by the thought of what she calls the “irony” of it all. She told me there must have been a reason for me to be here today. “No one else would be able to talk to you in this way.” I realize I’ve fallen into an issue that is so far reaching and touches the very core of the existence of some 500 million Indigenous peoples (arguably), across the world, if you take into account the Indigenous peoples of countries like India who do not recognize the existence of an “Indigenous population” there.
For clarity, please click the photo of Mililani B. Trask and then continue ...