Derry Peace and Conflict International hosting delegation from US Indigenous communities
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Derry’s Bloody Sunday Trust will host a delegation from Indigenous communities in the United States as part of Derry Peace and Conflict International (DPCI) week.
DPCI is a Trust initiative which “connects local lessons of civil rights and peacebuilding with global struggles for justice and equality”.
The delegation comprises: Krystal Two Bulls (executive director, Honor the Earth); Cheyenne ‘Chey’ Morgan (organizer, Honor the Earth); Joseph White Eyes (organizer, Honor the Earth); Big Wind Carpenter (tribal engagement coordinator, Wyoming Outdoor Council); singer - songwriter Rafael ‘Tufawon’ Gonzalez Jr; Lynette Two Bulls (executive director, Blue Bird Lifeways); and Mato White Plume (Oglala Lakota Youth Council).
Local people are invited to come along and hear directly from members of the delegation and “participate in discussion about international solidarity” at a public meeting in An Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin on Thursday, September 10, from 7.00pm to 9.00pm.
Speaking to The Derry News, Maeve McLaughlin, director of the Bloody Sunday Trust, said this was the Trust’s third DPCI week.
“This is the evolution of the work around The Derry Model. We have a whole lot of lived experiences here that resonate across the island, and we were always conscious they resonated internationally as well,” said Ms McLaughlin.
“We use the banner ‘One World, One Struggle’ and try to then use our voices to highlight injustices or inequalities where we see them internationally. We have hosted delegates from the Balkans in 2023 and a US Palestinian-led delegation of human rights activists in 2024,” she added.
We have a shared history of colonisation. We have a shared history of our language, culture and land being forcibly removed from us in many ways.
“We have been working for some time to try to secure this year’s DCPI delegation and we are really delighted and honoured to have them. There are very strong connections between Ireland and the Indigenous communities in the US anyway that we are aware of, and there have been strong links with the Indigenous communities and the issue of Bloody Sunday.
“In 1985, two of their movement came and attended the Bloody Sunday commemoration and attended the memorial service in the morning.
“But even further back, in 1847, during An Gorta Mór, the Choctaw Nation raised and sent about $170 (worth thousands today) for Irish relief, just 16 years after surviving their own brutal forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears. Remarkably, at a time where they were struggling with their own sets of circumstances, they were thinking of fundraising for Ireland.
“I suppose the bottom line in all of this is that we get it. We have a shared history of colonisation. We have a shared history of our language, culture and land being forcibly removed from us in many ways. We understand each other's stories in that regard,” said Ms McLaughlin, who described the visit to Derry by the delegation from the Indigenous communities as a “very powerful statement of shared histories”.
“It is also an opportunity to look at understanding more about each other's stories,” added Ms McLaughlin, “so we have a week-long programme which looks at language rights, for example. They will meet with former political prisoners to look at how language was used as a tool of resistance in the prisons, and how that has developed in terms of organisations and clubs including An Cultúrlann, and what the challenges are and cultural revival.
“They are very keen, obviously environmental rights and social justice rights. Data centres is a huge issue for them as well, as it is nationally and internationally. For them, living on their land, land which has been used for these centres, their power has been used, their water has been used. They have experienced all the challenges that come with data centres and AI.
“Thursday’s public meeting will be a great opportunity to hear about the current challenges faced by Indigenous communities and what they refer to as Turtle Island [the name used by many Indigenous peoples, particularly the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, and Lenape, to refer to the continent of North America.
"The name comes from various creation stories where the Earth was formed on the back of a giant turtle.
“We will close the week with a workshop around what Derry can do. Are there actions that we can take from this week of conversation to act on so this is not just a group of Indigenous people that just came here, but we actually have we actually have follow up,” said Maeve McLaughlin, who highlighted the strong links which already exist between Ireland and the Indigenous communities.
Free tickets for Thursday’s public meeting can be reserved on Eventbrite.