COP28: Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion Holds Opening Ceremony

For Immediate Release: December 2, 2023

Dubai, UAE – Today at COP28, the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change (also known as the IIPFCC or Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus) officially opened the Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion – a critical space for Indigenous Peoples from across the world to build collective power and center community-led strategies to address climate change. The pavilion is being co-sponsored by NDN Collective.

The crowd at the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change during COP28. Photo by Willi White for NDN Collective.

Photos of the pavilion’s opening ceremony, which featured speeches from representatives from all seven UN socio-cultural regions, can be viewed here.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion will host 83 sessions throughout COP28, uplifting Indigenous-led solutions from all seven UN socio-cultural regions and on a wide range of topics such as the importance of making a clear distinction between local communities and Indigenous people in the context of climate justice, climate finance, LANDBACK, loss and damages, and much more.

Janene Yazzie, Southwest Regional Director for NDN Collective speaks at the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change. Photo by Willi White for NDN Collective.

“The significance of the launch of the Indigenous Peoples Pavilion at the same time of the World Climate Action Summit should not be overlooked,” said Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC). “Indigenous Peoples cannot rely on state governments to take climate action at the urgency required to address catastrophic climate change. The Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion is a necessary response to the inaction and continued harm caused by nation-states. Indigenous Peoples must create our own spaces where our rights, knowledge systems, and self-determination are centered as the solution.”

“There is a lot of care and intention in the development of the Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion because we know how important it is to have a strong, visual presence in a space that has drowned out, invisibilized and outright excluded our voices in decision-making processes for far too long,” said Janene Yazzie, Southwest Regional Director of NDN Collective. “We know that taking over spaces is a necessary part of the work of decolonizing institutions. The Pavilion enables us to create our own pocket of power – because we know that even as we advocate for our rights in negotiations with states, our strength comes from our relationships with each other.”

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NDN Collective is an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Through organizing, activism, philanthropy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and narrative change, we are creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.