Solidarity with the Inuit and their demand: “Nothing about us without us”

Written on 21 January 2026. Posted in News

STATEMENT FROM THE WAMPÍS NATION

The Wampis Nation stands in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the world, because an attack on one is an attack on all. This is especially true for the Inuit, who for decades have led the fight for collective Indigenous rights around the world, particularly for autonomy.

Greenland, their territory, is not for sale; nor is it empty, nor does it wish to be a colony of anyone. The Inuit have inhabited and protected it for 4,500 years and have built a system of life and culture there. They have faced various colonisations and ethnocides, until achieving their current system of self-government in agreement with Denmark and respected by the European Union.

Behind the media spectacle of “security” (a pretext for invading indigenous communities) lie the same old interests of colonial modernity. It is profit and power, now behind the 36 to 42 million metric tons (MT) of 17 types of “rare earth elements” (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, gadolinium, terbium, and others), which represent 25% of global reserves and are essential for missiles, radar, satellites, electric vehicles, cell phones, wind turbines, electric motors, lasers, and more. Added to this are 1.1 billion MT of iron and other “critical minerals” (copper, nickel, zinc, molybdenum, etc.), as well as oil and 120 MT of gold. The Wampis Nation knows the hell that gold mining wreaks.

This colonial monster joins the ranks of the climate and radioactive monsters. The mineral bounty is emerging with the melting ice, but these minerals are inseparable from 228,000 metric tons of uranium and thorium. Global powers are indifferent to the global warming apocalypse caused by their oil addiction, which destroys 264 billion tons of Greenland's ice each year, raising sea levels, destroying coastlines, and submerging entire countries. This mining will cause further melting, as well as severe toxic pollution throughout the Arctic, affecting water, winds, biodiversity, cities, and consequently, human life—not only for the Inuit people, but on a vast global scale.

The Inuit also live in Canada, Alaska, and Russia, and are organized within the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which defends their rights to not be colonized or subjugated in the disputes of the great powers. At this moment, the territorial future, the lives, and the continued dignity of an entire people are in grave danger. Therefore, we feel deeply morally committed and join in the spontaneous solidarity for dignity and in the struggle to guarantee life and our millennia-old history—a sentiment also expressed by other Indigenous organizations such as the Sami Council (of Russia and Scandinavia), the Aleut International Association, the Arctic Athabaskan Council, and the International Indian Treaty Council.

We call upon our brothers and sisters of the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, the Andes, Abya Yala, and their organizations such as AIDESEP and COICA, to raise their collective voices and coordinate internationally to halt the return of ethnocidal and ecocidal colonial violence.

Stop the coloniality of power!

Living in harmony for the Inuit (Inuuqatigiitsiarniq) and the Wampis (Tarimat Pujut)

Tags: Land rights