From DEBRA@OLN.comlink.apc.orgMon Sep 4 09:27:03 1995 Date: Sat, 02 Sep 1995 12:25:00 +0100 From: Debra Guzman Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org Subject: American Indian Women to Beijing [The following text is in the "ISO-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] ## Original in: /HRNET/WOMEN ## author : gtrujillo@igc.apc.org ## date : 01.09.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /* Written 8:30 AM Aug 31, 1995 by wickshand@aol.com INDIAN WOMEN GOING TO BEIJING CHINA The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and the non-governmental Organizations' (NGOs) Women's Conference will be held in Beijing China on August 30th through September 15th, 1995. The conference is held every ten years to date. The United Nations has registered 36,000 women world-wide. The theme of the conference, "Seeing the World Through Women's Eyes," was chosen so that the United Nations and national governments could work together to create and revise laws and programs addressing issues important to women including: education, health, economic development, environment, equity and human rights, and violence against women. Indian women representatives of WEWIN (Women Empowering Women of Indian Nations), an official accredited United Nations organization. Planning to attend the conference are Glory Begay-Duus, Navajo, Mervin A. Savoy, Chairperson of the Piscataway Conoy, Lorretta Metoxen, Vice Chair Oneida Nation, Genevieve Jackson, Navajo Council Delegate and Rebecca Seib-Toup, executive director of the Piscataway Conoy. Mrs. Begay-Duus and Chairwoman Savoy are official observers to the United Nations Women's Conference. The representatives have prepared a platform statement and position papers concerning Native American women addressing issues of the conference. The United States platform addresses issues of the dominant female society but does not accurately reflect the concerns and viewpoints of Native American women, according to WEWIN National Coordinator, Gloria Begay-Duus, who attended the Vienna conference in 1994. When asked if there was a difference between American views and Native views, she stated, "The voices of American women are not necessarily reflecting the views of Indian women in the U.S. because of the difference in culture and language." Mrs. Savoy further states that, "for instance, out of 553 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States, 125 tribes have women as their tribal elected leaders." Native women, in general, play a much different role in their tribal communities than the normal American woman in their respective communities." Ms. Seib-Toup states, "Economic development does not necessarily mean more women on the board of directors of large corporations but may mean in Indian country more jobs and less intrusion into the personal lives of the workers on the part of the employer. Traditional lifestyles and family values are of paramount importance in Indian country and should be treated as sacred, especially in the economic sector. WEWIN was organized by Gloria Begay-Duus to address Native American women's issues on a national and international level to facilitate change in the greater society's views on traditional values in the family and work place. WEWIN, in partnership with the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, will sponsor a workshop for conference participants concerning Native American women's concerns. The Indian women representatives will also serve on various panels sponsored by other women's organizations throughout the world.