Speach At The United Nations
May 4th, 2005
Vickie Downey
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| Speach At The United Nations May 4th, 2005 Vickie Downey |
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First of all I want to thank the walkers, for taking this upon yourselves and walking on behalf of the people, on behalf of the indigenous people.
There is so much to share. I came here looking for my indigenous relatives, and I haven't really found any. So I saw Johnelle going up the elevator and I said " hi where are you from. Like you said, many of them cannot afford to come here. Many of them are struggling at home. We have so many issues. We are getting attacked for our land. For our water. For our minerals. Our health care. Name it, everything. And it's a struggle. There is so much connection. I come from New Mexico. I live about 30 miles from where the first atomic bomb was built - Los Alomos, and they are still making secret weapons. They don't tell you what they are doing. They just completed the expansion of the highway. And now they are... and most of the land is on indigenous land. The main highway goes through indigenous land. We are known as the Pueblo. And that's where they are taking the toxic waste - through our state. And then they are going to bury it. We keep asking them: "what happens when there is a spill?". I have been to Australia twice. That is my home. I have met my relatives there. I know their struggle clearly. I came to the United Nations in the year 2000 when they had the gathering for the world religious leaders. And that was the first time they invited indigenous people of the world. So we made phone calls to South America, Central America, Australia, where-ever we could. They allowed us 100 tickets for our people. So we came to the UN to make a plea. The message we gave was that, a year before we had had an uncle that came from Greenland and he brought the message that the ice was melting in the north. He challenged us to take this message out, "That the ice is melting very rapidly in the north, and that there was going be major changes in the world. And with our indigenous elders they have been telling us this for the past, I don't know how many years but they have been telling us how to be...how to take care of one another...how to love one another...because if we don't do those simple things, love, take care, and respect one another that were are going to see changes in the world. We saw this recently. The one that we saw recently was with the Tsunami. These are changes that are happening in the universe because of our actions, because we are not taking care of the land. We are not taking care of the water. We are not taking care of each other. I guess my challenge to you would be to take that out. It's very difficult to love, especially when you come to places like this, and you are hearing the same thing over and over. Peaceful uses. There is no peaceful uses!! Uranium and nuclear weapons they kill people, and that's what its for. So, we really have to, we have to look into our hearts, and find that truth, and find that peace. I heard about the walk, as one of my friends emailed me, as her niece from Australia had emailed her about this walk and my first reaction was that I wanted to walk. I wanted to go on that walk, because I am tired of talking. I am tired of talking because people aren't listening. But I didn't get to walk, because there is so much going on. I didn't know that I was going to be here this time. But I am here. We are presenting tomorrow night I put some flyers right there. There's another women that's with me and we are both going to present indigenous views on nuclear energy. So I thank you and I thank you for having me speak on your panel. |
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