Khuraijam Athouba extends Solidarity on World Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Human Rights and Indigenous People’s Rights activist Khuraijam Athouba, who is also the Convenor of the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), extended greetings and solidarity to Indigenous communities across the globe on the occasion of World Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Speaking ahead of his participation as a special guest in the New Delhi observance, Athouba said the day was both a celebration of pride and a moment of reflection. He noted that Indigenous communities, from the Arctic to the Amazon, from the Pacific Islands to the hills and valleys of Manipur, have sustained their languages, traditions, and balance with nature for generations, despite facing assimilation, displacement, and violence.
Athouba, who recently took part in the 18th Session of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) in Geneva, stressed that the survival of Indigenous peoples depended on speaking for their languages, protecting their lands, and upholding their right to self-determination. He emphasised that this was not merely a political demand, but a matter of existence.
Highlighting Manipur as one of South and Southeast Asia’s oldest living Indigenous civilizations, he said the state has preserved its stories, scripts, faiths, and traditions against numerous challenges. He called on the international community, governments, and people of conscience to ensure Indigenous voices are not silenced, lands are not exploited for profit, and children are not deprived of their mother tongues.
Athouba urged fellow Indigenous peoples to take pride in their identity, speak their languages, walk their lands, and pass on their heritage to future generations, stating that survival is the victory of ancestors and the responsibility of the present generation.