Press Releases
2-6 March 1998 - WCW Holds First General Assembly
Overview
WCW chairman Tom (Mexsis) Happynook told delegates to the First Annual General Assembly:
"A battle has been raging to decide who will manage the world's renewable natural resources; and the people who live with those resources - whose very survival depends on managing them wisely - are losing. Since time immemorial, each of our communities has been honour- and duty-bound to serve as the custodians of nature. Indeed, it is this responsiblility which has shaped our cultures and traditions and defined us as people. Yet there are powerful forces who would take this responsibility from us and dictate how we should lead our lives. The time has come to make a stand and assert the right of all communities to manage their resources in accordance with proven and traditional practices."
Deliberations of the Assembly focused on protectionist campaigns and government policies that have threatened indigenous cultures from New Zealand to the Arctic. Particular attention was paid to decisions of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and how these are manipulated by organisations opposed in principle to whaling, regardless of how it is managed or of the consequences for whaling communities. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in the late 1980's, and currently allows only "aboriginal subsistence" whaling under a strict regime which requires that all products be consumed locally with no trading of products for cash.
No longer in control of their own resources, whaling communities have found it ever harder to satisfy their cultural, religious and dietary needs, and in many cases have experienced severe socio-economic distress. The Assembly concluded that this suffering was not only unjustifiable in conservation terms; it was a consequence of decisions that breached several legally binding international conventions including IWC's own International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. That convention requires the IWC to "take account of the interests of the consumers of whale products and the whaling industry."
Current whaling practices and whale use were described by representatives of New Zealand, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Iceland, Indonesia, Greenland, the Faroe Island, Australia, the United States, Japan, the Philippines, Norway and Russia.
In conclusion, Chief Mexsis said, "Whalers need a global organization in order to feel the strength and encouragement that comes from unity."