'We Know What Is Best for Us.' Indigenous Groups Around the World Are Taking COVID-19 Responses Into Their Own Hands

“We can’t be waiting for the government to decide,” says Myrle Ballard, a Canadian Indigenous researcher studying effective health responses to COVID-19 for Indigenous communities. “We Indigenous people know what is best for us.”

Abandoned in the Amazon: how indigenous Brazilians fought covid-19

After a tribal community in Manaus was abandoned by the authorities, the group’s resourcefulness and solidarity saw it through

Australia’s worsening outbreak raises concerns about Aboriginal communities.

“Australia is a very big country, and our Indigenous populations live in some of the remotest parts of our country,” he said on Friday. “It was always going to be the most challenging element of all the vaccine rollout.”

Coronavirus Is Killing Brazil's Isolated Indigenous Peoples at a Staggering Rate

The mortality rate among indigenous people is twice that of the rest of the population.

COVID-19 and Indigenous peoples

“We urge Member States and the international community to include the specific needs and priorities of indigenous peoples in addressing the global outbreak of COVID 19.“ — Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Anne Nuorgam.

Governments Worldwide Are Failing Indigenous Peoples During the Pandemic

Indigenous communities from the U.S. to Australia to Brazil have taken matters into their own hands—even closing their borders and implementing curfews—to protect themselves.

In Ecuador, A Model In How To Protect Indigenous Villages From The Coronavirus

Want to get money to the most in need during a pandemic? Don’t count on your government. Do it yourself. Roque Sevilla, former mayor of Quito, Ecuador in the late 1990s, had an idea. The coronavirus was ripping through Guayaquil and then later into Quito, the nation’s capital. His concern was that the virus would spread into crowded and cramped inner cities, and — primarily — into the Amazon jungles where some 15 different indigenous peoples live along rivers.

Indigenous Groups Isolated by Coronavirus Face Another Threat: Hunger

Indigenous people across the Americas are trying to defend their communities from the pandemic. But for many, isolation can quickly turn into deprivation.

Protecting Indigenous Populations From Covid-19: The Australian Example

Indigenous populations around the world are more likely to be infected by or die of Covid-19. In countries like Canada and Brazil and in the US, Indigenous people are dying at disparate rates to the general population. However there is one notable exception; Indigenous Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders).

Protecting the Health of Indigenous Peoples from COVID-19 in the Americas

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated many inequalities that already existed, disproportionately affecting populations such as indigenous communities, which were already suffering from poverty, discrimination, or financial insecurity.

The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Causing Kenya’s Maasai To Change Its Ancient Habits

As people across the world struggle to adapt their way of life to the unfolding COVID-19, the Maasai people of east Africa are already having to change ancient customs to minimize the impact of the disease.