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Cultural Survival: How did you get into this line of work, advocating for Indigenous Peoples?
Galina Angarova: I come from the Buryat Peoples who have lived in Siberia for millennia, on both sides of Lake Baikal, the deepest and largest fresh-water lake containing 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. I was born and raised in a community of about 400 people. I grew up eating wild berries, mushrooms, pine nuts, wild garlic, deer, and rabbit that members of my family would gather and preserve for harsh winters. My grandmother would tell me stories which encapsulated the wisdom of our ancestors and have been passed down for generations. I participated in our traditional ceremonies. I still vividly remember a time when I was five years old, when my grandmother took me to a ceremony on a wooden horse cart miles away from our village. I still recall the fire, the chants, and the prayers of the women in my clan. I grew up with a deep sense of understanding of our lifeways and belongingness to the land, to my people, and a deep love for my culture and for Mother Earth.
It was not until I was 24 when I first encountered the term “Indigenous Peoples.” Growing up in Russia, it was hard to really understand my own situation and the situation of my own people. It took leaving and living far away to understand the degree of both external and internalized oppression, colonization, and paralysis that my people and other Indigenous Peoples in Russia currently face.
I received a full scholarship to go to graduate school in the United States, in New Mexico. This is where I first met Native American Tribal members - Zuni, Navajo, and Acoma. I was blown away by their rich and vibrant cultures, the people, and the food. I made friends with local people and I learned that there were more similarities than differences between my people and Native Americans communities. Having a Native language, our own culture, land-use and management practices, belief systems, traditional ceremonies, traditional governance systems, and close relationships to Mother Earth--all these elements make Indigenous Peoples “Indigenous” and are rightfully included in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
My work in a professional setting as an advocate for Indigenous Peoples started when I joined San Francisco-based Pacific Environment in 2007. Even though the organization’s focus was on environmental issues in the countries of the Pacific Rim, we worked closely with Indigenous communities, specifically in the regions of Siberia, Russian Far East and, Russian Arctic and Alaska. I worked as a program associate for community-based initiatives and was responsible for campaign organizing, regranting, strategy development, and movement building among environmental and Indigenous organizations in Siberia and the Russian Far East. I was promoted to the Russia program director and started organizing global campaigns and representing issues of Russian Indigenous Peoples on the international level. In 2012, I joined the board of Indigenous Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) where I served as a board member for seven years.
CS: Tell us about your work with Indigenous Peoples on the ground?
GA: During my years with Pacific Environment, our team helped to build one of the most effective movements in Russia that works to protect both local people and the environment. This is what influenced my strongest belief that local and Indigenous communities are best equipped to protect their own environment. This is why I have always prioritized local needs and building relationships. One of the most successful campaigns I led was against plans to build a gas pipeline in Altai, an Indigenous republic in Western Siberia that borders with Mongolia, China, and Kazakhstan. Together with local Indigenous partners, we worked on a multi-tiered campaign that included several elements: targeting potential investors, protection of sacred sites and protection of rare and endangered species. We worked to bring in alternative energy such as solar, wind, and mini hydro-power, and created protected areas managed by Indigenous Peoples.
We conducted numerous exchanges bringing experts and activists from the United States and other parts of Russia who had similar experiences with large infrastructure projects. They met with local people and shared with their experiences of what happened to their land and people once the projects started - loss of biodiversity, corruption, pollution, disease, prostitution and so on. These conversations had a powerful effect on local people which resulted in local support for the campaign.
Other successful campaigns were protesting against a toxic paper mill on Lake Baikal, an oil pipeline that was supposed to be laid in the proximity to the northern shore of the Lake, an hydro-electric dam that threatened to flood thousands of hectares of forest and a settlement of five thousand Evenk people. Read more. En español.
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