Amnesty International, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights organization, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011. In recognition of this milestone, powerHouse Books presents
Dignity, a collection of photographs by Dana Gluckstein that celebrate the lives and cultures of Indigenous Peoples worldwide. This lavishly printed hardcover is filled with
beautiful and inspiring images of this under-documented segment of the globe’s population. Whether photographing a Haitian healer or a San Bushmen chief, Gluckstein infuses each portrait with
an essential human grace.
Across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, Indigenous Peoples are among the world’s most impoverished and victimized inhabitants. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United
Nations, explained the urgent need to take action, “For too long the hopes and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples have been ignored; their lands have been taken; their cultures denigrated or
directly attacked; their languages and customs suppressed; their wisdom and traditional knowledge overlooked; and their sustainable ways of developing natural resources dismissed. Some have
even faced the threat of extinction. The answer to these grave threats must be to confront them without delay.” Photographed over a period of 25 years, the luscious black-and-white images in
Dignity serve as an urgent plea on behalf of Indigenous Peoples.
Dignity will benefit from the heightened global exposure that Amnesty International will receive throughout the anniversary year. The book’s publication will coincide with the
festivities and the photographs will tour internationally as an exhibition intended to support the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ratified
by 144 nations in 2007. Dignity features a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate; an introduction by Iroquois Faithkeeper Oren R. Lyons; an epilogue by Amnesty
International; and the full text of the U.N. Declaration. The Declaration is the most comprehensive global statement of the measures every government needs to enact to ensure “the survival,
dignity and well-being of the Indigenous Peoples of the world.” Through striking portraits, Gluckstein’s Dignity illuminates this vision.
