What's Happening

June 4, 2024, New York, New York – Indigenous People need to be accepted for who they are and for the gifts they bring to the world and need to be offered a place at the table, especially when decisions are being made in the area of sustainability and restoring Earth. 

Those were the takeaways of Sister Mary Rae Waller, OP, and Rose Johnson after they attended the first week of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Sister Durstyne Farnan, OP, Dominican UN representative, and the Dominican Leadership Conference (DLC) sponsored the women’s attendance at the Forum. (Read more about Sister Durstyne’s experience of the Forum.) 

Rose, of Comanche and Aztec descent, is a member of the People of the Four Winds, an evolving group based in Adrian and composed of people with Native ancestry, people who serve in Native communities, and other interested people. Sister Mary Rae is of Cherokee heritage. 

The 23rd session of the forum, held April 15-26, 2024, drew 2,000 participants from around the world in addition to UN delegates. The theme was “Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination in the Context of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” 

The United Nations first issued its Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007. The formal UN proceedings focused on ways for Indigenous Peoples to enhance their rights to self-determination through such means equal access to funding.

Rose and Sister Mary Rae attended side events – workshops and forums offered by civil society, UN governments, and their NGO partners. They came away from the Forum with new perspectives – and a new understanding of their identity. In the opening session, David Choquehuanca, Vice President of Bolivia, encouraged participants to embrace awareness of themselves as “Ancestral Peoples” rather than Indigenous Peoples. 

“Indigenous relates to something that’s boxed, put away,” Sister Mary Rae explained. “Ancestral embodies memories of healing, memories as guardians of life relationships on Earth.”

We speak for ourselves, Rose said. “We talk about our own ideas as ours. It comes from generational ancestors. We all have a gift of some sort that we can speak out about.” 

Rose and Sister Mary Rae focused on the need for the governments and the mainstream culture to listen to Indigenous Peoples in the area of the environment. “We ask that you see we carry in our genes the memory of how to keep in balance,” Sister Mary Rae said. “We ask of you, let us bring our insight, our experience, and our knowledge to help save Earth. We’re not asking that you don’t have all your advancements but invite us to the table.”

Much of the conference focused on climate change and on mining companies that have been moving into native lands without their permission. Rose and Sister Mary Rae attended a reflection session by Indigenous Peoples of South America, focusing on mining practices and on mining companies that came into the Amazon 10 years ago, cutting down trees and bulldozing. The UN began to monitor the mining companies, beginning a process in which the miners would first have to engage with the Indigenous Peoples.  

“What they’re doing is killing the bloodline of Earth with their mining and stripping,” Rose said. “Mother Earth gives us everything we need when we need it … Mother Earth can heal herself if you give her time.”

Sister Mary Rae gave an example of the healing power of Earth. Part of the Amazon rainforest was destroyed and went barren, she said. “The ancestral people came in, began working with and nurturing her, and she came back to life. Earth has her own life force and if it’s nurtured and brought back into balance, it can be restored,” she said.

Rose and Sister Mary Rae also reflected on efforts in the past to kill the culture of Indigenous Peoples. Rose pointed to the boarding schools in the United States that tried to force children to adapt to the white European culture. Some children lost the use of their native language in the boarding schools, she added.

The boarding schools followed the notion of “kill the Indian and save the person,” Rose said. But “you can’t kill the Indian. You can’t kill what God made in our hearts. You can’t kill our soul, even though they tried.”

Rose added that she felt safe at the UN. “I was amazed,” she said. “The first thing I thought of was that could have been shot not long ago for all of us being together.” In the opening session that began with a procession that included an Ecuadorian drum and a pan flute, “I knew I was in the right place,” Rose said. “It was really an interesting time, and I definitely would do it again.” 

Sister Mary Rae sees hope in the healing of relationships between Indigenous Peoples and people of the dominant culture. “The advances in society have given us the opportunity, and the mindset of the United Nations has really helped so much with advancing the rights of all the people,” she said. “We still have a long way to go, and I felt the commitment to stay the course.”
 

April 19, 2024, Phoenix, Arizona – In a place where many people might see hopelessness, Adrian Dominican Associate Sharon Pikula saw a heart-warming scene where people help one another and find joy and comfort in small matters. 

Sharon volunteered for a week at a welcome center for immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona, working with other volunteers to give immigrants who pass through the center time for respite and recovery. Typically, the immigrants come from a detention center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or from other nonprofit organizations located near the border, she explained. 

The welcome center where Sharon served was established in a former elementary school building by various local nonprofit organizations, under the umbrella of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Sharon explained. The center has space for up to 400 people to sleep, but its primary aim is to offer temporary space for immigrants to “stabilize their situation – rest, get a new set of clothes, get a shower, [and enjoy] three meals a day,” she explained. The ultimate goal is to prepare them for journeys to the homes of their sponsors, family members or friends who reside in the United States. Typically, 175 to 300 immigrants pass through the welcome center each week, Sharon said. 

During her week at the IRC Welcome Center, Sharon worked three-hour shifts packed with activity: coordinating showers, preparing used clothing, working in the clothing room, serving meals, and offering any other service needed by the immigrants. Often after her shift, she and other volunteers shopped at local thrift stores for clothing, toiletries, and other necessary items to stock the shelves of the IRC Welcome Center. 

Sharon described the work as heart-wrenching. “Other than the clothes on [their backs] and maybe a backpack, that’s all they’ve got,” she said. Yet, during the orientation, the volunteers were told not to question the immigrants about their experiences to avoid re-traumatizing them. “Their recommendation was to give them as much autonomy as possible and not to throw questions at them,” Sharon said. “I tried to be as helpful as I could, but I did not push any questions … and just helped them get whatever they needed.”

During off-hours, Sharon stayed at the nearby house of Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The experience was “very holistic in terms of being of service but also having space for yourself to take in what you were experiencing – time for prayer and reflection,” she said. She also spent part of her evenings gaining some insight into the plight of the immigrants by reading Solito, the memoir of Javier Zamora, who, in 1990, at the age of 9, traveled by himself from his native El Salvador to be reunited with his parents in the United States. 

Still, Sharon witnessed joy and hope. “One of the things you learn is that you may find yourself in some really tough situations, but you still see the humanity of people in terms of helping each other out,” she said. She gave the example of a man from Africa who, on watching Sharon clean off the tables before preparing a meal, stepped in to help her with this task. She also recalled the generosity of a man from San Francisco who traveled to Phoenix with a carload of donated shoes for the immigrants. “They were gone within a day,” she said.

Sharon also applauded the generosity of activists who advocate for the welfare of immigrants, even if they don’t necessarily work with “day-to-day direct service,” and spoke highly of the support she felt from Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates who prayed for her and for the immigrants she served. “I really, full-heartedly believe that prayer support is deeply needed across the spectrum, whether you’re in direct service or the activist or whatever role,” she said. “We need that praying presence.” 

Sharon said volunteering at the IRC Welcome Center was part of her search to serve others. “As I’m moving into retirement, I want to do some service,” she said. She heard about the center from a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur in her parish, who had served at the center. Feeling that Phoenix was not too far from her home in Washington State, Sharon applied to volunteer at the welcome center. “I’m hoping in the later part of the year to return there,” she said. “It’s a very tender and vulnerable place.”

Sharon has some advice for anyone who would like to volunteer at a welcome center for immigrants. “Be open to the experience,” she said. “If you have some prayer or spiritual practices, make sure you’re doing them regularly. Watch for the simple things. It’s not the grandiose stuff – it’s paying attention to the simple needs of the people and allowing them to be as autonomous as possible and giving them space.”

Listen to Sharon’s Holy Week reflection on her experience at the welcome center.