Indigenous Prayers at Times Square Welcome Mother Earth Day

Indigenous Peoples from the Condor, Quezal, Eagle ( South, Central, and North America), and Indonesia shared prayers, songs, and messages at Times Square just before the beginning of International Mother Earth Day, April 22, 2016!

Then at midnight, almost all the giant video billboards surrounding Times Square transformed into the sights and sounds of the Amazon Rain Forest. As this all unfolded, the wonder, beauty, and momentary silence were palpable to all present!

It was a great beginning to this year's International Mother Earth Day! This day included signing an International Treaty to Protect and Restore Mother Earth and a Global Canoe action on the Hudson River to spiritually deliver the International Treaty to the United Nations!

Indigenous people gather at night in Times Square, elders in feather headdresses holding eagle feathers and a painted drum, others holding signs for Free Prior Informed Consent and memorials to killed land defenders.

Indigenous leaders sit and stand in Times Square holding signs reading Hope, Who is protecting our forests?, and Free Prior Informed Consent, plus portraits of defenders killed in Peru, Brazil and Honduras.