Accompanied by their parents and mentors of the Midwest state of Wisconsin, the group wore skirts and ribbon vests handmade with seven colorful bands, each symbolizing a sustainable development objective (SDG) of personal importance, such as good health and gender equality.
Brenda Reynolds, a social worker from Canada and a member of the First Nation of Lake Fishing, is also visiting the UN in New York, a social worker from Canada and a member of the first nation of Lake Fishing. She was joined by her husband, Robert Buckle, and her 12-year-old granddaughter Lillian, and wore one of her own ribbon skirts for the occasion.
Ms. Reynolds will receive 2025 United Nations Prize Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela July 18. The prize, presented every five years, recognizes two people whose work illustrates the service to humanity. Ms. Reynolds will receive the prize alongside Kennedy Odede, a social entrepreneur from Kenya.
Mirian Masaquiza Jerez, UN social affairs officer, and Brenda Reynolds, recipient of the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 2025 Prize, brief Aboriginal youth visiting the UN headquarters in New York.
Change agents
After a United Nations tour (unanimously appreciated) and a quick stop for lunch and the memories of the NO bookstore (where a torthi -frying hummingbird was exchanged for a green turtle called “Coral”), the group settled in an information room.
On stage, Ms. Reynolds was joined by Mirian Masaquiza Jerez, a Kichwa woman of Ecuador and Social Affairs Officer in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (Undesa), easily recognized in the UN corridors to have always worn traditional insignia of her native community in Salasaka,
“Wherever you go into public spaces, wear that you are,” she said. “The UN is the place to raise your voice. Be free to be who you are. “
By encouraging to speak their languages and honor their cultures, Ms. Masaquiza urged young students to consider themselves agents of change.
“You have not come by invitation. You came because you belong, ”she said. “You are the future. You are the present. As autogotes, we have space. Use it. “
A painful past
Ms. Reynolds shared her personal history with the group, reflecting on her career as an advisor to the Indian residential school in Gordon in Saskatchewan, the last residential school funded by the federal government to close in Canada.
She described to see children as young as five separated from their family for a year at a time and issued shirts with figures instead of their names written inside: “The only time I saw people identified in this way, it was when the Jews had tattooed figures on them. »»
During her first year at Gordon in 1988, a young girl said that she had been mistreated. The next morning, 17 would appear, launching what would become the first case of abuse of the province’s residential schools.
Ms. Reynolds, then labeled a “troublemaker”, helped shape the Indian residential school settlement agreement and to advise the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His work had an impact on hundreds of thousands of indigenous people across Canada.
The room resonated with laughter, knowing the heads and tears, and the phrases of Ojibwe and other languages represented by the indigenous peoples of the room, notably Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Menomonee, Oneida, Navajo, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander and Afro-Indiges.
Brenda Reynolds, recipient of the Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela 2025 prize, poses with the late South African president at the UN headquarters in New York.
Make the loop
Youth came from the daughters of tradition and the sons of tradition, part of a long-standing healing initiative of the healing of the healing of Milwaukee, Institute of Intergenerational Well-Being (HIR), which supports Aboriginal communities with complete mental health care and complete mental services.
The founder, Lea S. Denny, wants young Aboriginal people to see themselves in positions of power. This particular group has been together for eight years, some heading towards the university in the fall.
A father, attended by his three daughters, thought about the education of young Aboriginal people in the digital age. “We want them to access the world there,” he said, “but also protects the inner world that we want to be dear.” He said he had also offered the advice that “if you don’t see yourself on the screen, you sometimes have to be the first.” »»
The day ended with hugs and the exchanges of Leis made by hand as a symbol of the lifestyle and sharing a good source of life.
They will meet on July 18 to see Ms. Reynolds accept the Mandela price in the room of the General Assembly.
Before that, a detour planned to visit Times Square.
Meanwhile, Ms. Reynolds and her family discussed their plans for a Broadway show. On leaving, she stopped to kiss a life-size bronze statue of Nelson Mandela, a gift from the South African government to the UN.
“I started my work with children,” she said. “And today I spoke to children. It makes me complete the loop. ”
Publicado anteriormente en Almouwatin.
