Indigenous communities plead for action at plastic pollution talks

Indigenous communities from North America are at talks on a global treaty on plastic pollution in Geneva, pleading the case for the environment they depend upon, which is slowly being choked by microplastics.

In the grounds of the United Nations headquarters, overlooking Lake Geneva and the Alps beyond, a chant suddenly drifted through the humid summer air: a "water song".

Standing barefoot in a circle, six women and a young man from multiple North American Indigenous communities decided to do a spontaneous purification ritual.

A melancholic second chant follows, dedicated to the well-being "until the seventh generation" of "all the delegates" from the 184 countries attempting to thrash out what would be the first international treaty on tackling the worldwide ever-growing scourge of pl