Saturday, October 12, 7:00 - 10:00 PM - in person at Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St, Boston, MA

Peña @ e5 - Oct 12: Indigenous Peoples' Day

Join us for a night of folklore, storytelling, arte y amor, the poetry of struggle bringing herstories to life to our circles of song.

There are more than 5,000 different Indigenous People around the world comprising 476 million people – around 6.2% of the global population. They are spread across more than 90 countries in every region and speak more than 4,000 languages.  Although the customs and cultures may differ, Indigenous Peoples experience similar harsh realities all over the world. Their human rights are routinely violated, and they often have the least protection by state authorities. They face high levels of marginalization and discrimination.  Indigenous Peoples routinely face eviction from the ancestral lands that they have inhabited for generations, as well as restricted access to education, health care, housing, and job opportunities. Defenders of Indigenous human rights are intimidated, attacked, and sometimes even killed, often with the support of the state.   Indigenous people are more likely to live in extreme poverty and endure all inequities while their life expectancy is up to 20 years lower compared to non-Indigenous people.

Join us this October Peña to celebrate some of the achievements for our indigenous people;  the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) passed in September 2007 and Bolivia’s 2009 Constitution that recognizes the importance of protecting nature. The rights of nature, Pachamama or Mother Earth, in the Bolivian indigenous tradition and its protection are set out in two statutes: (a) Law  Nº 071 of December 21, 2010 Mother Earth Rights Law (Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra)—the Mother Earth Law—, which establishes specific rights to which Mother Earth is entitled; and (b) Law Nº 300 of October 15, 2012, Framework Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well (Ley Marco de la Madre Tierra y Desarrollo Integral para Vivir Bien)—Mother Earth Framework Law—, which seeks to put into operation the rights of Mother Earth set out in the former law, in the context of Integral Development (Desarrollo Integral) for Living Well (Vivir Bien).