Released on August 9, 2023

Statement by National NOW President Christian F. Nunes 

On December 23, 1994, the United Nations General Assembly designated August 9 as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. It marks the date of the first meeting, in 1982, of the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations. 

This year’s theme, Indigenous Youth as Agents of Change for Self-determination, recognizes Indigenous youth’s active role as agents of change working on the front lines of today’s most meaningful decisions. Now’s own commitment to engaging and supporting new generations reflects today’s observance. 

We know that Indigenous women are often the primary custodians of ancestral knowledge, passing on vital information on planting, medicines, food, the environment, and traditional ways of life. They are leaders, healers, elders, teachers, and providers—and the guardians of biodiversity, protecting forests, water, and ecosystems.   

Indigenous Youth, like all young people in the U.S. and around the world, are deeply concerned about the environment and believe in the grassroots activism that NOW members have always supported.   

As the world watches the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Indigenous flags of Australia and New Zealand are on display and First Nations and Maori cultures are strongly represented in ceremonies and on team captains’ armbands.  

Here at home, we see how polices that restrict access to asylum disproportionately impact Indigenous migrants, who face displacement from climate change and violence from gangs enforcing the building of industrial projects on ancestral land.  

As we observe today’s International Day of Indigenous People, NOW members celebrate the vibrant cultures, languages, traditions, and accomplishments of Indigenous people in the U.S. and around the globe. 

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Contact: Press Team, press@now.org,

Released on July 26, 2023

Statement by NOW President Christian F. Nunes   

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A quarter, a nickel, and three pennies is the typical difference between the amount that Black women are paid for a full-time job versus their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts. And while that 33-cent difference may seem trivial, it costs Black women $1,891 per month, $22,692 per year, and more than $900,000 over a 40-year career. Today, we recognize Black Women’s Equal Pay Day and the need to balance the scales between what we receive and what we are worth. 

Our country’s unsettling relationship with gender and racial wage gaps is inseparable from the labor history of America, beginning with the exploitation of Black women during slavery. This sophisticated theft created lasting disparities in various areas beyond the wage gap. NOW, committed to intersectional feminism, acknowledges how instrumental women of color were in fueling our nation’s economic growth.  While we cannot reverse the lasting imprints left on several generations of minority Americans in the past, we are fighting for the present and the future to dismantle the systems that obstruct equal opportunity. 

For this year’s Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, we urge federal lawmakers to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will modernize and strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to better combat pay discrimination and truly close the wage gap. Let us all work together to implore Congress to strengthen the law and provide new tools to ensure women – especially women of color – are paid what they deserve. 

Contact: Press Team, press@now.org,