Today, the United Nations General Assembly takes a historic step: it officially adopts the International Day of Indigenous Women, a date dedicated to recognizing and honoring the strength, wisdom, and leadership of millions of Indigenous Women from the seven sociocultural regions of the world.
We welcome this adoption and join together to pay tribute to our ancestors, who—through their resistance, vision, and collective struggle—opened the paths we continue to walk today. Their contributions—in the defense of territories, the safeguarding of languages and cultures, the transmission of ancestral knowledge, and community organization—remain a guiding light for present and future generations.
Indigenous Women have made invaluable contributions to humanity:
Through ancestral knowledge that sustains practices of health, agriculture, and harmony with nature.
Through our active defense and protection of territories and natural resources, essential for life on the planet.
Through our daily and organizational work, which strengthens communities, local economies, and cultural expressions.
Through the collective struggle inherited from our ancestors, which continues to advance processes of justice, autonomy, and dignity.
This day must reaffirm the responsibility of States to eliminate racism, discrimination, violence, and the inequalities that continue to affect the lives of Indigenous Women. The full exercise of the individual and collective human rights of Indigenous Peoples—and especially of women—is a commitment for all of us.
Nothing about us without us.
International Indigenous Women’s Forum
