Nia Tero 2022 Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 9
INTRODUCTION
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
CENTER INDIGENOUS WAYS AND MEANS
IN NIA TERO’S WORKING PRACTICES
Our structures and working practices
explicitly reflect an intention to listen
to both descendants and ancestors, and
to work patiently to build relationships
and trust. We refer to this intention as
Indigenous Ways and Means.
FOLLOW AND RESPECT THE RIGHTS
AND SELF-DETERMINATION OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Our work is guided by the priorities, systems
of governance and decision-making, and
ways and means of Indigenous Peoples
achieving guardianship of territories. The
United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples is our starting point
for all our work and partnerships.
RESPECT THE DIVERSITY OF INDIGENOUS
PEOPLES’ WAYS OF BEING AND DOING
Indigenous Peoples have diverse cultures,
languages, ways of being, protocols, and
live in geographically and ecologically
diverse territories. Nia Tero acknowledges
this spiritual and cultural diversity as essential
to our shared humanity and in shaping our
understanding of why the lands and waters
that Indigenous Peoples inhabit remain
among the healthiest and best cared for
on Earth.
VALUE THE FULL SPECTRUM
OF THE DIVERSITY OF LIFE
In all our partnerships and choices, we
center actions that sustain the abundance
and diversity of life at local and global
scales, including ecosystems, land and
seascapes, humans and all species, and
the molecules carried within them. Doing
so honors and sustains diverse human
identities that overlay and are nourished
by these other patterns of diversity.
FOCUS ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’
GUARDIANSHIP OF COLLECTIVE
TERRITORIES
All our work serves Indigenous Peoples
whose territories are defined by the selfdetermined geographic lines of Indigenous
nationhood. These lines often pre-date and
transcend modern nation-states and create
a map of the world delineated by human
identity, language, culture, and ecology.
COMMIT TO TRUSTING,
LONG TERM PARTNERSHIPS
Our work relies on building and
nurturing trust-based, direct relationships
Commitment to this is enduring—spanning
multiple human generations and animating
all our interactions. We place the survival
of our partners above all else, and we
are committed to co-designing all of our
engagements with our partners.
THRIVING PEOPLES. THRIVING PLACES.
9
