Plastic Colonization: Indigenous Nations Survivance in the Arctic Circumpolar Region

American Indian Airwaves

Today we go to the state of Alaska which is home to 229 federally recognized Native American nations. Our guest joins us for the hour to share her experiences at the United Nations Environmental Programme 4th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (April 23rd-29th, 2024), including the United States violations of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, U.S. militarism, plastic colonization from the violent legacy of the American petroleum and chemical companies maiming, MMIWG2+, and the wounding and killing life throughout the Arctic region combined forms are intensifying the process of genocide and are placing Indigenous peoples throughout the Arctic Circumpolar Region futures at risk. There are more than 13 million people from more than 40 ethnic groups and Indigenous nations inhabiting the Arctic Circumpolar North region and all face real and formidable risks and threats from the climate crises, state-corporate violence, other compounded forms of settler colonial violence, including the intergenerational harms caused from plastic colonization. With the annual plastic production doubling in 20 years to 460 million tons, plastic contributions to global warming could more than double by 2060 if current rates remain unchanged. Plastic colonization severely impacts the Arctic region and it is, in fact, a “hemispheric sink” where plastics and petrochemicals from the South (of the Arctic region) accumulate, leaving Indigenous communities and nations to bear the brunt of pollution that did not come from their traditional lands. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee 4th Session was held from April 23rd to April 29th, 2024 in Ottawa, Cananda. The meeting, nonetheless, was attended by 480 observer organizations, including environmental NGOs and 196 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists and its purposes was for all parties to develop a legally binding instrument that ultimately would eliminate toxic plastic productions as one way to stop plastic colonialism, the killing life on the Mother Earth, and help reduce the impacts of the climate crises. Listen to hear what happened and how Indigenous peoples and nations were treated. Guest: Vi Waghiyi, Sivuqaq Yupik, Native Village of Savoonga Tribal Citizen, grandmother, mother, activist, and she is the Environmental Health and Justice Director with the Alaska Community Action on Toxics (https://www.akaction.org). Vi Waghiyi is a nationally recognized environmental justice leader and is frequently invited to speak locally, nationally, and internationally. Vi serves as a leader of the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus that advises the United Nation’s international delegates for treaties concerning persistent organic pollutants. She served as a member of the Environmental Health Sciences Council that advises the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The Native Village of Savoonga is located on what is colonially known as the St. Lawrence Island which is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea. See the co-authored Alaska Community Action on Toxics and IPEN April 2024 report titled: The Arctic’s Plastic Crisis: Toxic Threats to Health, Human Rights, and Indigenous Lands From the Petrochemical Industry. Archived AIA programs are on Soundcloud at: https://soundcloud.com/burntswamp American Indian Airwaves streams on over ten podcasting platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Podcast, Audible, Backtracks.fm, Gaana, Google Podcast, Fyyd, iHeart Media, Mixcloud, Player.fm, Podbay.fm, Podcast Republic, SoundCloud, Spotify, Tunein, YouTube, and more.