There are an estimated 476 million indigenous peoples in the world living across 90 countries. They make up less than 5 % of the world’s population, but account for 15 % of the poorest. They speak an overwhelming majority of the world’s estimated 7,000 languages and represent 5,000 different cultures. Indigenous peoples are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They have retained social, cultural, economic and political characteristics that are distinct from those of the dominant societies in which they live. By resolution 49/214 of December 23rd, 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples shall be observed on August 9th every year. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Learn more at: https://www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day/background