Celebrating the Life and Traditions of Indigenous Peoples

August 9^th is the United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. International ‘days’ are created to educate the public on issues of concern, address global problems, and celebrate and reinforce achievement of humanity.

According to the United Nations, indigenous peoples are ‘inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment.’ They have retained social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. Today, indigenous peoples are arguably among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of people in the world, despite their vast generational knowledge of the land upon which they live.

Living throughout central Africa, Pygmy populations are nomadic, indigenous people that have lived in harmony with the forest for an estimated 40,000+ years. Moving from camp to camp throughout the year, each tribe moves to new sustenance hunting and gathering areas allowing the previous locations to regrow and repopulate which reduces their impact on the forests and the animals and plants found within it. In northeastern DRC, the Mbuti Pygmy tribe is found in and around the Okapi Wildlife Reserve.  To read more, click here.