Indigenous leaders told of 'insulting' UN rule on World Heritage listing The two are inseparable for us ... There is no distinction": Community organiser Sophia Rabliauskas. A gathering of global indigenous leaders in Australia will be asked to boycott an "insulting" UN requirement for gaining a World Heritage listing - that they claim their attachment to the land is exceptional and more important than other cultures. At the inaugural World Indigenous Network conference in Darwin on Tuesday, Canadian leaders will issue a petition calling for solidarity after the "offensive" snub on cultural grounds of the five First Nations of Pimachiowin Aki, whose application covers a 33,000-square-kilometre swathe of the world's biggest forest. The petition seeks a pledge that delegates will refuse to take part in a process that "requires indigenous people to make inappropriate claims of superiority about our cultures in comparison to other nations and communities in order to grant us special recognition." It calls on UNESCO, when it meets in Cambodia next month, to ignore the advice of the committee that recommended against the nomination and found the cultural links to Canada's famed boreal forest were not "exceptional." The International Council on Monuments and Sites acknowledged the cultural bonds with the land but found the relationship was "not unique and persists in many places associated with indigenous people in North America and other parts of the world." The council also noted that the First Nations' refusal to be seen as exceptional presented a "difficult dilemma" that might require further consideration "upstream" , but said the application did not meet the "wording of the criteria." In Australia, World Heritage claims are under way for Cape York and the Kimberley. The Canadian experience suggests they could only succeed on environmental grounds unless the traditional land owners were prepared to say their cultural attachment was more significant than for other groups. The Pimachiowin Aki application is on both environmental and cultural grounds. Community organiser Sophia Rabliauskas, who will present the petition, said: "Our intention has been have this area recognised for both its cultural and its ecological values ... the two are inseparable for us. There is no distinction. While they refuse to claim they are exceptional, others do. The Pew Charitable Trusts argues in a submission to UNESCO that it is "one of the best, if not the best" attempt to integrate cultural and ecological values in a nomination.