Climate Change, International Law, International Relations , Latin America & the Caribbean Decolonize the future: Defending Indigenous rights and lands

To mark Indigenous People’s Day, Perry World House hosted three Maya activists from Belize in a panel discussion that ranged from land-rights struggles to ways researchers can better work with Indigenous communities to how Indigenous people will be key in helping battle the climate crisis.

“For us, every day is Indigenous People’s Day,” said Cristina Coc, a Q’eqchi’ Maya community leader who founded and is program director of the Julian Cho Society, dedicated to the conservation of the environment and rights of the Indigenous Peoples of southern Belize. “There’s not just one day that we exist, although it’s important to look at that day and reflect upon what this means for the people of that land.”

Joining Coc on the panel was Pablo Mis, program director for the Maya Leaders Alliance and Toledo Alcaldes Association, and Filiberto Penados, associate professor and research director at Belize’s Galen University. The talk was moderated by Richard M. Leventhal, executive director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center of the Penn Museum and a professor in Penn’s Department of Anthropology.

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