Abstract

During the 2015 United Nations Climate Summit in Paris (COP21), one the most widely reported and visually compelling protests featured a group of indigenous men and women from around the world paddling canoes down the Seine. The point was to prod world leaders to include indigenous rights protections in the pact they had gathered to negotiate. The action organized by the Indigenous Environmental Network and Amazon Watch made an intentional and powerful juxtaposition, setting the protestors in traditional garb with handmade banners reading ‘leave fossil fuels in the ground’ and ‘protect sacred water’ against the opulently materialist Paris cityscape.