Andrew Gray, a life-long campaigner in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples was lost in an air accident in the sea off Vanuatu on May 8th. Andrew was in the middle of a networking trip in the South Pacific linking up with Indigenous Peoples and their organisations in the region as part of IWGIA's expanding programme in support of the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Andrew, who had trained as an anthropologist at the Institute of Social Anthropology in Oxford, and had spent years living with the Harakmbut people of the Madre de Dios region in the Peruvian Amazon, was also Policy Adviser to the UK-based Forest Peoples Programme and member of the board of Anti-Slavery International. He was also vice-Chairman of the IWGIA and an affiliate of the World Rainforest Movement.
His enormous contribution to the cause of Indigenous Rights and to promoting a morally engaged form of anthropology was internationally recognised and his loss leaves a huge gap in the lives of his family, friends and professional colleagues. Andrew was a close and trusted friend of Indigenous Peoples all around the world, and his balanced and insightful mastery of fact and analysis were hugely valued.
A memorial service for Andrew will be held in Oxford on the 12th of June at 1.00 p.m. The memorial service will be held in St. Andrews Church, Sandford-on-Thames, Oxford. IWGIA will have a gathering in respect of Andrew, during the Working Group in UN in Geneva on the 27th of July at 1.30 p.m. in World Council of Churches.
Forest Peoples Programme.
International Work Group for Indigenous Affars.
