At the November 2025 United Nations climate summit COP30, in Belém, Brazil, Indigenous peoples sing 'songs of resistance' as they march through the conference venue following a People's plenary. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert
Global LWF consultation affirms long-standing engagement and shared commitments with Indigenous peoples
(LWI) - The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has reaffirmed the long-standing contribution of Indigenous peoples’ experiences and ministries to the global communion and society at large.
A recent online consultation with participants from member churches in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America, offered a space to listen to Indigenous peoples’ experiences, wisdom, and the lessons learned in their ministries.
Speakers at the consultation also addressed the concerns and challenges they face, such as widespread discrimination globally, constraints in accessing social services like education and healthcare, and displacement from ancestral lands while facing the risk of violence and economic exclusion.
LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt highlighted injustices rooted in economic and political models that exploit people and nature for wealth and power. “We live in times when the number of different armed conflicts across the world has increased and when violence against women and girls is growing,” she said. “We face climate emergencies and exploitation of nature as well as forced displacement of communities due to conflict or extreme weather events,” added the general secretary.
The LWF leader also expressed hope that truth and reconciliation processes under way in several countries would lead to healing, reconciliation, and strengthened protection of human rights. “God calls us to see a sibling in every human being, created in God’s image and loved by God,” Burghardt said.
Sharing experiences and recommendations
The representatives of LWF member churches provided a broad overview of issues affecting Indigenous peoples, including the land-based heritage and strong ties to nature and traditional territories. The need for an intercultural approach grounded in equality and mutual respect was stressed, along with educating non-Indigenous persons to ensure respectful dialogue and understanding. Participants also emphasized the need to challenge theologies that have promoted or tolerated oppression.
Preserving Indigenous languages emerged as a priority. Participants emphasized providing education in Indigenous languages and translating documents and books, including the Bible, to ensure access to information and meaningful participation in decision making.
Leadership formation in churches and seminaries, support for women’s leadership, and addressing sexual and gender-based violence—including the situation of missing and murdered Indigenous women—were highlighted as essential.
The 25 November consultation coincided with the 16 Days of Activism campaign against sexual and gender-based violence, which the LWF marks annually. In her remarks, General Secretary Burghardt encouraged participants to stand in solidarity with Indigenous women and girls affected by sexual and gender-based violence.
Discussing the climate emergency, participants noted that displacement, land dispossession, pollution, and the disruption of weather patterns and animal species particularly affect Indigenous peoples. They called for a critical approach to the “green transition,” so that it doesn’t become a form of colonialism. Truth and reconciliation processes were named as important pathways toward justice, healing, and transformation.
The church leaders sharing at the consultation as panelists were: Mr Vance Blackfox, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Rev. Karen Castillo, President Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala; Bishop Selma (Shu-Chen) Chen, President, Lutheran Church of Taiwan; Mr Fabian Dinamarca, Evangelical Church of the River Plate (Argentina); Ms Lavinia Heffernan, Lutheran Church of Australia; Ms Sara Keränen, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland; Bishop Paneeraq Siegstad Munk, Diocese of Greenland, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark; and Rev. Josef Ngula, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN).
Indigenous peoples’ rights at risk
Presentations from Dr Ojot Miru Ojulu, current Vice Chair of the United Nations (UN) Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) and Dr Michael Wiener from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), explored the need to create spaces for collaboration with Indigenous peoples over the rights at risk—land, self-governance, language, culture, and participation in decision-making—including the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis. Mutual learning, peer exchange, and open dialogue were emphasized. Participants were invited to approach the dialogue between Indigenous peoples and other faiths from a perspective of freedom of religion or belief, considering always international human rights frameworks that protect human dignity.
We will continue to open spaces for dialogue, cooperation and concrete action for the protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights together with our member churches
Fabián Wilches, LWF Senior Advocacy Advisor
The consultation is a first step in advancing the 2023 LWF Assembly resolution on Indigenous peoples’ rights and decisions from previous assemblies calling for spaces for Indigenous voices, support for truth and reconciliation processes, and strengthened protection of human rights including land rights.
“We will continue to open spaces for dialogue, cooperation and concrete action for the protection of Indigenous peoples’ rights together with our member churches,” noted Fabián Wilches, LWF Senior Advocacy Advisor. The inputs and suggestions for action “will help to guide LWF’s work on the rights of indigenous peoples in the coming years”. The consultation also served to strengthen engagement with UN mechanisms, including EMRIP and the OHCHR.
