Search results

This paper aims to draw attention to the global infringement of reproductive rights of Indigenous and racialised Peoples.

Narrative literature review. Description and comparative analysis of examples of forced sterilisation.

Large-scale sterilisation campaigns were identified in three different regions of the world: North America, Latin America and Europe. Within these, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous and racialised Peoples have been forcibly sterilised as part of state-sponsored procedures, predominantly aimed at women and gestating people. These abuses are continuing in the 21st century and have origins in “racial science” theory. The exact nature of the abuses is identified alongside the long-term health and wellbeing implications. Professional attitudes and behaviours that condoned such practices within healthcare settings are identified. The psychological, social and cultural impact of such practices, including on Indigenous body sovereignty and self-determination, are demonstrated.

These are twofold: firstly to eradicate any future practice of forced sterilisation and secondly to provide reparations to those affected.

The analysis brings together scholarship from Indigenous studies alongside that of health and social sciences.

Climate change is recognised as a severe threat to human and planetary wellbeing. Many children and young people around the world have chosen resistance as their form of resilience in the face of the climate and biodiversity crises that threaten their current and future wellbeing. Their activism has widened the discourse pertaining to the climate emergency from a narrow focus on technical and scientific sources, bringing the discussion into broader public consciousness. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), the context for youth climate activism also reflects commitments to Māori, the Indigenous people, and to Pacific Peoples, given the ongoing impacts of histories of colonisation. This chapter draws from a range of focus group interviews with young Aotearoa (New Zealand) high school climate activists, and Māori and Pacific children and young people ranging in age from 10 into their 20s. Data were gathered during a recent small-scale project to develop a wellbeing guide which accompanies a climate change education programme for schools. It identifies the collective, collaborative leadership exhibited by these young people of diverse backgrounds, as well as their sophisticated analysis and advocacy for urgent remedies to address the climate crisis. It is argued that, instead of focussing on the blinkered continuation of restrictive assessment-driven pedagogies, teachers need to meet the moment of the current convergence of inter-related crises which include, along with the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, pandemic related exacerbation of socio-economic inequities, global conflict, and the unsustainable agenda of current global neoliberal economics. This can be done by supporting children and young people with knowledge and skills for climate action as they seek hope through active participation in endeavours to reshape their potential futures.