Indigenous people from across the world came to the opening of their pavilion at this year’s UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Belem, Brazil.

The ceremony was delayed after power went out in part of the pavilion area. Attendees waited in sweltering conditions with no air conditioning, no audio systems and no translation services because of the outage.

Wis-waa-cha, an Indigenous activist who is part of the Coast Salish and Nuuchahnulth Lands and who’s borrowed name is Kati George-Jim, said “there’s nothing that indicates that this was a priority,” about the lack of a functioning space.

Despite the technical challenges, Indigenous groups sang songs, performed ceremonies and spoke about the importance of Indigenous peoples in spaces like COP.

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