Rigoberta Menchú Tum

[nanila]

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Guatemalan human rights campaigner. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her work to promote the rights of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples, who were tortured and killed in great numbers during the 36 year civil war that finally ended in 1996.

“We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.”

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Shamefully enough, Rigoberta Menchú Tum was the first Indigenous activist I'd ever heard of...and I lived in rural Australia, in an area with a large (and politically active) Koori community. But Koori activists never made it into the papers unless it was about something terrible they supposedly did. That's changed to some extent over the interventing 19 years, but not enough.

[nanila]

You know what I thought was shameful just now? I Googled "koori activists", and Google automatically turned that into a search for "Maori activists". *headdesk*

[lilacsigil]

No, Google, no! Archie Roach is probably one of the most famous Koori activists.

Then again, Deborah Mailman (in my icon) is both Aboriginal (though not Koori) and Maori!