3 Indigenous Women Activists to Celebrate as a Family During Women's History Month and All Year
In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly recognized March 8 as International Women's Day after a long struggle by women who demanded gender equality, political rights, better salaries and the respect they deserve.
Despite this, Indigenous women have been silenced for a long time. Their voices are often belittled and ignored. Additionally, Indigenous people make up 5% of the population and protect 80% of the world's biodiversity and ecosystems. Indigenous women also lead some of the most important environmental movements.
This Women's History Month and year-round, learn about Indigenous women, what they have achieved and what they are still fighting for to teach your kids about them and imagine a better future for all women and girls together.
I hope you enjoy learning about these three women and feel inspired to keep learning about them the rest of the year and talking about them with your kids.
Berta Cáceres (1971-2016), Lenca People
Celebrate the life of Berta Cáceres, the woman who bloomed everywhere like flowers in spring, inspiring people with her environmental activism. She was an environmentalist, feminist, defender of Indigenous peoples' rights and guardian of the Río Blanco in Honduras, where the Lenca people are from. In 2015, Cáceres received the Goldman Environmental Prize for fighting alongside the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (available in Spanish) to stop the construction of a hydroelectric plant that a powerful company wanted to build in the Lenca people's territory.
In Cáceres' award acceptance speech, she sent this message to the world, "Let us build societies that can coexist in a fair and dignified way, a way that protects life. Let us come together and remain hopeful as we defend and care for the blood of this Earth and the spirits."
Bring Cáceres' lessons home with these tips:
- Watch this video where Cáceres reminds us why we need to protect mother earth.
- Talk to your children about Cáceres' legacy. She reminds us that we need water to protect all the living things around us because humans depend on ecosystems that depend on water.
- Read "Somos guardianes del agua/We Are Water Protectors" (Ages 3-6), written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade, which talks about the water protection movement led by Native American communities.
Leydy Pech (1965-Present), Maya People
Leydy Pech is a Mayan beekeeper who fights to preserve the Melipona Beecheii bee, the bee that's sacred to Mexican Mayans.
These bees are critical to the Mayans because they pollinate the forests that feed entire communities. Their honey, wax and propolis are known for their healing properties.
The bees, or as the Mayans call them, Xunan Kab, have shared the territory with the Maya for more than 3,000 years, which is why they are considered their ancestors and are a part of the worldview and daily life of the Mayans. Bees are vital creatures in the Maya's lives, who have performed ceremonies to honor them since pre-Hispanic times.
As Leydy Pech said in an interview in Spanish:
"The little bees can't defend themselves. They can't defend their rights, but we can. …Mayans have worked for generations to preserve bees. We have a very important relationship with the bees. Our cultural identity is, let's say, based on the care and conservation of bees." She said, "We have realized that to produce our food, we must protect the bees. We need bees to protect our medicinal plants. That's why the Mayans have a very important relationship with our bees."
In 2017, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled that Mexico violated the constitutional rights of the Mayan people, as well as Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization, by granting permits to Monsanto, an agrochemical company, to plant genetically modified soybeans in Mayan forests. Those plants would have needed agrochemicals to grow, which would have caused the forests the bees depend on to get contaminated. These permits should not have been granted without consulting Indigenous communities, which must be done when projects are developed in their territories. When they realized the bees were in danger, Pech and the Colectivo de Comunidades Mayas de los Chenes organized to defend the forests and the bees.
Like Cáceres, Pech received the Goldman Environmental Prize for fighting against Monsanto and the Mexican government.
Extend the learning about Pech's activism with these tips:
- Watch this video made to celebrate Pech's Goldman Prize in 2020.
- Talk to your children about the importance of bees and plant a pollinator garden to show them how they can take care of the bees.
- If you have preschoolers, try keeping a nature observation journal and write down (or draw) where you see bees in your community or make a wild bee hotel with Nature Cat.
- If you have children ages 7 and up, watch this episode of "SciGirls"to learn more about bees and how to protect them.
Yasnaya Aguilar Gil (1981-Present), Mixe People (Ayuujk)
Did you know that in Mexico, there are more than 68 ways to say, "I love you?"
Just in Mexico, 68 different Indigenous languages are spoken, each with its linguistic variations (bringing the total to 364). Each one is like a different universe and offers various ways of seeing the world.
Indigenous languages are part of humanity's heritage, and women like Yasnaya Aguilar Gil lead the movements to protect them from extinction.
Aguilar Gil, who was born in Ayutla Mixe, in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico, is an Ayuujk (Mixe) speaker. She is a writer, translator and activist devoted to studying and disseminating linguistic diversity and endangered Indigenous languages in Mexico. Aguilar Gil's linguistic and digital activism has helped start conversations about the importance of protecting Indigenous languages.
Many languages have died. In an interview with Letras Libres magazine in Spanish, Aguilar Gil said, "In 1820, between 65 and 70% of the population spoke an Indigenous language, according to historians' calculations. Spanish was a minority language. The remaining 30% probably spoke an Indigenous language in addition to Spanish or other languages. In 200 years, most of the population which was mostly Indigenous was de-identified, so nowadays, only 6.6% of the population speaks an Indigenous language, and only 11% identify themselves as Indigenous."
Aguilar Gil's work has taken her to important places. In 2019 when the United Nations recognized the International Year of Indigenous Languages, shegave a speech in Mixe at Mexico's Congress of the Union about the need to act quickly and protect the Indigenous people of the American continent. Recently, Aguilar Gil helped narrate a video in Ayuuk for Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo that shows people how to take COVID-19 tests at home.
For Indigenous languages to live on, it's essential to take action from home. Here are some tips.
- Explore your roots and find out what language your ancestors spoke. Afterward, talk about them with your children and learn some phrases and words in that language together.
- Read Aguilar Gil's weekly column in El País (available in Spanish) to find out how you can support women and communities who fight to protect their languages.
Let's celebrate Women's History Month every day by centering the voices of Indigenous women and helping build a future where no woman is left behind.
Long live Indigenous women!
