Cultural Survival

Q U A R T E R L Y

Free, Prior and

Informed Consent
Protecting Indigenous Peoples' rights
to self-determination, participation,
and decision-making

Vol. 36, Issue 4 • December 2012

US $7.50/CAN $9
D e c e mb er 20 12
V olum e 36 , Issue 4

Board of Directors

President & board Chair

Sarah Fuller
Vice Chairman

Photo by Danielle DeLuca

Vincent Nmehielle (Ikwerre)
Treasurer
Nicole Friederichs
Clerk
Jean Jackson
Karmen Ramírez Boscán (Wayúu)
Laura Graham Daniel Pascual, leader of Consejo de Unidad Campesino, lights a candle with his daughter in
James Howe Tecpan, Guatemala during a celebration of the Oxlajuj B’ak’tun cycle. December 21, 2012 marks
Edward John (Tl’azt’en)
Cecilia Lenk the end of the 5,128 year cycle in the Mayan calendar. See page 27.
Pia Maybury-Lewis
Les Malezer (Gabi Gabi)
P. Ranganath Nayak F e at u r e s Departments
Stella Tamang (Tamang)
Jeff Wallace
12 Justice for All 1 Executive Director’s
FOUNDERS Agnes Portalewska Message
David & Pia Maybury-Lewis An interview with UN Chair of the Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Survival 2 in the News
Board Member Grand Chief Edward John.
Cultural Survival
215 Prospect Street 4 Indigenous Arts
Cambridge, MA 02139 14 Free, Prior and Informed Consent: Writing Remembrance
t 617.441.5400 f 617.441.5417
www.cs.org Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights in Guatemala
to self-determination, participation,
2769 Iris Ave., Suite 101 and decision-making 6 Women the World
Boulder, CO 80304 Must Hear
Cultural Survival’s board members weigh in on
t 617.441.5400 f 617.441.5417 Power to the People: An
what Free, Prior and Informed Consent actually
5ª calle 14-35, Zona 3 means in practice. Interview with Mililani Trask
Apartamento 202
Edificio Las Tapias
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, 09001 16 Lost in Translation 8 Climate Change
Gregory Ch’oc Climate Change, Forest
Cultural Survival Quarterly Maya in Belize hope to set a historic precedent Privatization, and Apocalyptic
Copy Editor: Jenn Goodman for Free, Prior and Informed Consent. Prophecies in Mexico
Designer: NonprofitDesign.com
Contributing Arts Editor: Phoebe Farris
Production Manager: Agnes Portalewska
18 Hear Us! 10 Rights in Action
Ana Lucía Fariña I Am the River and the River Is
Copyright 2012 by Cultural Survival, Inc.
Mam people of Guatemala express their voices Me: The Implications of a River
Cultural Survival Quarterly (ISSN 0740-3291)
through community consultations.
is published quarterly by Cultural Survival, Receiving Personhood Status
Inc. at 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139.
Periodical postage paid at Boston, MA 02205
and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: 22 Reviving Passamaquoddy:
Send address changes to Cultural Survival, A Community Finds Healing 26 Bazaar Artists
215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Investing in Women and
Printed on recycled paper in the U.S.A. in Its Own Words
Please note that the views in this magazine
Meg Holladay the Future of Uganda
are those of the authors and do not necessarily
represent the views of Cultural Survival. A Passamaquoddy community in northeastern
Maine works to recover its language after three 28 Take Action
Writers’ Guidelines generations of English-only schooling.
View writers’ guidelines at our website Take action with the
(www.cs.org) or send a self-addressed, stamped Garifuna people as they
envelope to: Cultural Survival, Writer’s Guide-
lines, 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139.
24 We, Maasai recover ancestral lands
Daniel Salau Rogei in Honduras.
Cultural Survival recognizes that Indigenous Language loss is happening at an alarming
Peoples have long been exploited by photo-
graphers and publications. This publication rate all over the world. The Maasai of Kenya are
does not pay photographers for images and racing against time to revitalize Maa and transmit
makes no money from publishing them.
We also make a tremendous effort to identify
traditional knowledge. On the cover Margarita Videa, a member
every Indigenous individual in the images of Honduran Fraternal Black Organization
that appear here. From time to time, however,
such identification is not possible. We apol- 27 Celebrating 2012, Maya Style (OFRANEH) board of directors, uses traditional
ogize to the subjects of those photos and Danielle DeLuca incenses in a ceremony to the ocean and the
to any reader offended by the omission. land in San Juan Tela, Honduras. Learn more
The final installment in our 2012 series.
about Garifuna people’s struggle to defend
ii • www. cs. org And we are still here…. their territories on page 28. Photo by Tim Russo.
Executiv e Director’S message
Cultural Survival’s 40th Year
Supporting Indigenous Peoples
in Exercising their Rights to
Self-determination
A
ll over the world, Indigenous
Peoples are increasingly exercising
self-determination by drawing upon
their right to Free, Prior and Informed
Consent (FPIC). Over the past two years,
Cultural Survival has held strategy sessions
at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues with key Indigenous leaders to iden-
tify how we can contribute to the full imple-
mentation of FPIC. We heard many voices,
but the most compelling was by a participant
who stated, “The most important element
of Indigenous Peoples’ ability to claim the
right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent
is to have informed and organized com-
munities.” To this end, Cultural Survival
is implementing a new project to produce
and distribute a series of radio programs
on topics related to FPIC, and to facilitate
face-to-face networking and resource ex-
changes between Indigenous communities
who are engaged in a process of Free, Prior
and Informed Consent. Look for our con-
tinued reporting on this exciting work in
the months ahead.
This issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly
is devoted to discussions on Free, Prior and
Informed Consent. While we could only
highlight a few of the many who tirelessly
work on these issues, we began with Mililani
Trask, who describes her innovative Native-
to-Native energy development model as
being “established on a belief that Native
people are the best to work with other Na-
tive people because we have certain cultural
affiliations.” The model takes “the heart of
the Declaration, [and] using Western law,
put it into a format that would facilitate
protection of rights and benefits to Native
peoples.” Grand Chief Edward John, Chair
of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Peoples, echoes this idea when he says, “The
quality of life in our community—housing,
bilingual education, health, language—
is the cultural survival
aspect of our people
as Indigenous Peoples.
Our survival depends
on our ability to act as
the resources that people
depend on.” Gregory
Ch’oc, Executive Director
of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indig-
enous Management, tells about the long
fight the Maya in Belize have waged to pro-
tect their lands from extractive industry
development. There is no doubt that Indig-
enous Peoples will assert their right to FPIC.
As Grand Chief John says, “FPIC is a right.
It’s not simply a concept; it is a right to a
process.”
Throughout these discussions of FPIC is
an embedded understanding of the intrinsic
relationship between land and the natural
environment. Indigenous languages carry
within them an intricate web of relation-
ships with the natural world that must be Jennifer Weston (Hunkpapa Lakota), Endangered
in place to sustain life. To fight for FPIC Ancelmo Xunic (Kachikel), Community Radio
is to fight for Indigenous languages that
exist in all of our relationships, and which
remind us of the sacred responsibilities to
honor them. Fighting for the land and its
spiritual being is fighting for language, and
fighting for language is fighting for land.
The recent acknowledgement of the Whan-
ganui River as a living, integrated whole
with legal rights based on interdependent
relationships with the Whanganui Iwi is Copyright 2012 by Cultural Survival, Inc. Cultural Survival
a significant step in the right direction. Survival, Inc. at 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Periodical
Cultural Survival appreciates and supports
all language revitalization efforts taking
place in Indigenous communities.
Cultural Survival envisions a future
where all Indigenous Peoples live by their
inherent rights deeply and richly interwoven
in the aboriginal lands, native languages,
spiritual traditions, and dynamic cultures,
and whose rights are honored through self-
determination. Free, Prior and Informed
Consent may be one of the most challenging
rights to implement in the UN Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. But
the UN’s adoption of the Declaration in
2007 is a major step forward in recognizing
and protecting Indigenous rights, as it rep-
resents the ongoing aspirations and declara-
tive process for building international legal
norms and pressures states to commit to
moving towards them.
Suzanne Benally, Executive Director
(Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa)
Cultural Survival Quarterly
Donors like you make our work
around the world possible. Thanks
so much for being part of Cultural
Survival.
Staff
Suzanne Benally (Navajo and Santa Clara Tewa),
Executive Director
Mark Camp, Deputy Executive Director
Danielle DeLuca, Program Associate
David Michael Favreau, Bazaar Program Manager
Sofia Flynn, Accounting & Office Manager
Cesar Gomez (Pocomam), Content Production
& Training Coordinator, Community Radio
Program
Jamie Malcolm-Brown, Communications &
Information Technology Manager
Agnes Portalewska, Communications Manager
Rosendo Pablo Ramirez (Mam), Program
Associate, Community Radio Program
Alberto ‘Tino’ Recinos (Mam), Citizen Participation
Coordinator, Community Radio Program
Patrick Schaefer, Director of Development
Miranda Vitello, Development Assistant
Languages Program Manager
Program Manager
INTERNS AND VOLUNTEERS
Erica Adelson, Jennifer Bucolo, Don Butler,
Meg Holladay, Daniel Horgan, Curtis Kline,
Danielle Kost, Yunmee Kyong
Ava Berinstein, Linguistics Advisor
GENERAL INFORMATION
Quarterly (ISSN 0740-3291) is published quarterly by Cultural
postage paid at Boston, MA 02205 and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send address changes to Cultural Survival, 215
Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Printed on recycled paper
in the U.S.A. Please note that the views in this magazine are
those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the
views of Cultural Survival.
2012 Statement of Ownership, Management,
and Circulation
1. Publication Title: Cultural Survival Quarterly 2. Publication
Number: 0740-3291 3. Filing Date: September 15, 2012 4. Issue
Frequency: Quarterly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually:
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Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor-Publisher: Cultural Survival,
Inc. 215 Prospect St. Cambridge, MA 02139, Editor/Managing Editor:
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nonprofit status for federal income tax purposes has not changed
during the preceding 12 months 13. Publication Title: Cultural
Survival Quarterly 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below:
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printed in the December 2012 issue of this publication 17. I certify
that all information furnished on this form is true and complete:
Agnes Portalewska, Communications Manager, Cultural Survival, Inc.
December 2012 • 1
 i n t he new s
Land Title Rights Victories
for Four Queensland Peoples
Fall 2012
The Pitta Pitta, Wik, Wik Way, and
Jangga peoples in the state of Queens-
land of northeast Australia won historic
victories in gaining non-exclusive rights
to hunt, fish, gather, travel, and hold
ceremonies on a combined total of ap-
proximately 61,000 square kilometers.
The settlement of these long-standing
claims restores access to the economic,
cultural, and social claims held on this
land by Aboriginal peoples.
Bangladeshi and Indonesian
Governments Ban Interna-
tional Day of the World’s
Indigenous Peoples
August 2012
Despite orders by the Bangladeshi and
Indonesian governments to disallow
celebration and participation in the October 2012
International Day of the World’s Indig-
enous Peoples, many Indigenous Bang-
ladeshis and Papuans of Indonesia tried
to go forward with the activities. The
day was marked by protests, clashes
with police and military, and several
arrests.
Indian Government Takes
New Steps to Protect following protests and a direct appeal
Adivasi and Dalit Lands
September 2012
Two new rulings by the Indian Supreme
Court assert that Adivasi and Dalit lands
cannot be bought by corporations or
other third parties in an effort to shield
Indigenous Indians from corporate in-
terests. At the same time, seven bauxite
mining leases have been withdrawn of the Iquitos area.
in the state of Andhra Pradesh by the
Tribal Affairs Minister to preserve Mapuche People Lose K’iche’ Protests End in
tribal rights.
Shipibo & Ese’Eja Com- October 2012
munities Make Gains Over
Resource Exploitation
September 2012
A group of approximately 400 Shipibo
people gained control of nine oil wells
from a Canadian company in their com-
munity in an effort to re-assert their
rights and make their dissent public.
2 • www. cs. org
The Shibipo of
Peru are renowned
for their intricate
geometric patterns
on textiles, pottery,
and in beadwork.
Teresa Rango
pictured.
Photo by
Howard G. Charing
On the heels of the takeover, Peru’s the court ruled. The defeat was a dis-
Supreme Court affirmed Shipibo and appointing blow for the many Mapuche
Ese’Eja communities’ right to seize a who travel to the land for rituals and
road being constructed on their land view the environmental destruction
by illegal miners and loggers that were as an affront to their sacred land.
operating without prior consultation.
The court also vacated the sentences Indonesian Government
of four community leaders fighting Claims No Indigenous
against the illegal exploitation. People in Its Population
Peruvian Amazon Bids The Indonesian government announced
Farewell to Talisman Energy again that it has no “Indigenous” citizens
and ConocoPhillips at the prompting of the UN’s request
September–October 2012 to respect Indigenous rights. The state
The oil company Talisman Energy an- maintains that of its 365 ethnic groups,
nounced its imminent departure from several fit the category of “geographical-
the ancestral land of the Achuar people ly isolated customary law communities,”
in the Peruvian Amazon, much to the but do not qualify as “Indigenous.”
delight of many residents. Soon after,
Yoruba Organizations
from the regional government’s presi- Promote Regional Autonomy
dent, ConocoPhillips announced that October 2012
it too would abandon its exploratory In an effort to combat the effects of
drilling projects in the Upper Nanay- colonization that destroyed the power
Pintuyacu-Chambira Regional Conserva- held by the Yoruba kingdoms, several
tion Area. The area’s fragile watershed Yoruba organizations in their traditional
provides over 90 percent of the drink- lands of southwest Nigeria have begun
ing water to some 500,000 residents campaigning for regional autonomy to
regain their place in governance.
Court Case for Land Access Deadly Violence
and Protection October 2012
Eight K'iche' activists from the city
The Chilean Supreme Court deemed of Totonicapán, Guatemala were killed
claims by the Mapuche people for and more than 35 injured after military
protection to a piece of land they call forces opened fire on a protest that
Ngen Mapu Kintuante from logging and had closed the Inter-American highway.
for ceremonial access invalid. Under Activists were opposing several new
current Chilean law, the land does not government measures including elec-
qualify as “Indigenous” and therefore tricity rate increases, unilateral changes
is not subject to Mapuche demands, to the constitution, and challenges to
education access.
 Global Response
Campaign Updates
Cameroon: Stop Oil tion the illegal detentions and a series
Palm Plantations from of other gross anomalies. In the case
Destroying Africa’s of Barillas, the justice apparatus has
Ancient Rainforests
Herakles Pulls Out of Sustainability
Certification
 Herakles
Farms with-
drew its application
in August from the
Roundtable on Sus-
tainable Palm Oil,
eager to move for-
ward with its oil palm plantation project
with disregard to the internationally
recognized social and environmental
standards. In October, Cultural Survival’s
Executive Director Suzanne Benally tion of a pipeline
sat down with Herakles CEO Bruce
Wrobel to deliver local signatures of
local opposition to the project and
restate Cultural Survival’s commitment
to making sure that a process of Free,
Prior, and Informed Consent of the to conduct work on the Ukok Plateau
local people is carried out.
Guatemala: We Are All zations show that work on the Ukok
Barillas- Stop a Dam on
Our Sacred River! even though the decree did not take
Justice Needed for Political Prisoners
 Twenty-three
leaders of the
Q’anjob’al commu-
nity of Barillas,
Huehuetenango
continue to be
sought for charges
of alleged crimes against the Spanish
hydroelectric company Hydro Santa
Cruz. Of 11 leaders imprisoned, only
one has been released after spending
five months incarcerated with no evi-
dence against him. Ten of the original
33 arrest warrants were thrown out
by a judge in September for procedural
violations. Carlos Bezares, the lawyer
representing the defense, stated, “the
concept of innocent until proven guilty
has been absolutely obliterated in this
case. There was no impartial investiga-
tion and no due process...not to men-
been fine-tuned to oppress the inno-
cent.” Lawyers have brought the case
to the attention of the United Nations
in a petition to the Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention in Geneva.
Russia: Pipeline Threatens
Sacred Highlands
Pipeline Approved Despite
Legal Concerns
 Officials from
Russia’s Altai
Republic have
approved construc-
that would bisect
the sacred Ukok
Plateau carrying natural gas from Sibe-
ria to China. The August 2 decree gave
Gazprom and its contractors permission
despite violation of several local and
federal laws. Reports from local organi-
Plateau took place over the summer,
effect until August 17. We must put
pressure the governments of the Altai
Republic and Siberia to meet their legal
obligations and to respect and protect
the sacred Ukok Plateau from dese- ting black venom at our water, which
cration by the gas pipeline.
Cambodia: Help Us Save
Prey Lang (“Our Forest”)
Four Concessions Cancelled but
Illegal Logging Continues
 In August, four concessions
that had been authorized in
Prey Lang were
cancelled. The the US. It is a treaty violation.”
concessions, total-
ing nearly 41,000
hectares, were
considered to be
“game over” for
Prey Lang if they had gone through.
Kuy activists celebrated this success,
but report that they continue to encounter
illegal logging operations in the Prey
Lang forest during their community
patrols. In October, the courts dropped
the investigation of the murder case of
anti-logging activist Chut Wutty, who
was shot by police at a military check-
point while leading two journalists to
illegal logging activity in the forests
of Cambodia.
United States: Block
Construction of the
Keystone XL Pipeline
Natives Call on Candidates to
Withdraw Support for Pipeline
Construction
has begun on the
southern leg of
the Keystone XL
oil pipeline. Pro-
tests have surged
in Texas, where
activists have chained themselves to
machinery to stop the progress of con-
struction. On October 2, Indigenous
activists joined together in Colorado to
call on Mitt Romney and President
Obama to withdraw support for the
pipeline. Tom Poor Bear, Oglala Nation
vice president, called the pipeline “a
1,800 mile snake that’s going to bore
itself into Mother Earth and start spit-
our future generations are going to
drink someday.” TransCanada, the
company that owns the pipeline, claims
that it has “no legal obligation” to con-
sult with tribes. Poor Bear counters:
“These are treaty lands and the treaties
were signed with the promise of undis-
turbed lands. This was an agreement
between the great Sioux Nation and
Learn more and take
action on Global Response
campaigns at www.cs.org/
take-action. Sign up for our
e-newsletter and read more news
at www.cs.org/news.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 3
 i ndi geno u s a r t s

Writing Remembrance
in Guatemala
T h e P r o c e s s o f P o e tr y
Cassandra Euphrat Weston

Above: Nicolasa
Pablo, Mam, (right)
interviews Rigoberta
Gonzalez (left) about
her experience as
a combatant in
Guatemala's Civil War.
Right: CS Staffer
Rosendo Pablo
Ramirez, Mam,
of Todos Santos
Cuchumatantes,
contemplates
ideas for a poem.
O
n July 7–8, 2012, representatives from com-
munity radio stations across Guatemala
gathered in San Mateo, Quetzaltenango,
at Radio Mujb’ab’l Yol (Meeting Place
of Expressions) to participate in a workshop led by
Cultural Survival staff exploring historical memory and
the Guatemalan civil war. The armed conflict formally
ended with the Peace Accords in 1996. Many of the
younger participants had no memory of the civil war
themselves, while those who had directly experienced
the conflict had previously lacked forums in which to
pass on their stories.
The workshop addressed complicated questions:
How can a person heal from a trauma when any discus-
sion about it, other than the most rudimentary recog-
nition of its horrific events, is perpetually stifled? Even
more vexing, how can a person heal, or even understand,
a trauma not experienced firsthand? One way to begin
answering these questions was via self-expression. After
a morning of factual presentations, participants spent
an afternoon writing poetry in exploration of their
personal relationship to the conflict.
Another session explored a new question: How
could such vast and difficult experiences be contained
by language? Before beginning their poems, the group
read two published poems by Indigenous Guatemalan
poets Humberto Ak’abal (K’iche) and Gaspar Pedro
Gonzales (Q’anjobal) touching on topics of conflict
and loss. They discussed the ways each poet had used
poetic language to convey emotional resonance more
effectively than a simple description of facts could have,
and then responded individually to creative prompts
inviting similar poetic expression.
Each poet presented their poem to the group for
feedback. The finished poems were then recorded for
radio broadcasting and collected for publication. These
moving words capture the complex relationships be-
tween present and past, between personal experience
and collective, between love and grief, between history
and memory.
— Cassandra Euphrat Weston was an intern over the
summer with Cultural Survival’s Guatemala Radio Project.

4 • www. cs. org

 The following examples showcase the variety of experiences and expressions that the poets brought to their work.
Untitled
Ana Luisa Catalino (Mam)
Stereo Acodim, Nampix Ixtahuacán,
Huehuetenango
Atzan tuj paxil jatuma ateqa xnaq b’ix
x’uj aq’nal xjal. Tuj chik’ul b’ix
tze’ nchi tzen ixytzan ni b’ech b’ix
ikytzan ch’it nchi bitzan tuj chik’ul,
jun prim o chi kub’ b’iyon qa xjal
nchanq’in b’ix nti kyu’n ti twitz
kyil tzan o chi kub’ b’iyon—
Ikytzanjajo.
Guatemala, a country where
hard-working men and women live Pero llegó aquel día
in harmony,
in those mountains and forests,
smiling like the flowers in the
gardens, just like the birds with their
songs in the mountains; but one day
they killed those human beings
without knowing what they had done
Why did they have to die this way?
Untitled
Idelfonso Ambrocio (K’iche)
Radio Nojibal Stereo
Aldea La Ceiba, Suchitepéquez
You belong to me, but I don’t belong to you
Why do they invade my homeland?
Why do they want to take over your name?
When will they let me speak? I want to speak
In your beautiful name I see myself
Sometimes they kill each other born from
the same blood
Weeping is heard in the furthest corners
Of your mountains.
In your name I will give my life for
this struggle.
At wech, inawetaj
Jaschech kin nelsax chuwach ri wulew
Jaschech kuxla’n taq winäq kkaj kkalaq’aj
ri ab’i’
Janipa’ kya b’e chuwech kin ch’awik
Ruk’ ti je’lalaj ab’i’ kin k’utunsaj ri un
b’antajik
Tz’ikin rech ri uwakaj ka kikamsajkib’
Pataq ri k’achelaj kintawi ri oq’ej kech incisive in its work today than ever.
ri e qati’t qa mam
Ruk’ ri ab’i’ kin ya ri un k’aslemal All photos by Danielle DeLuca
chech ri ato’ik
Nan Pix Pix
Rigoberta González Sul, Radio Ixchel
Olga Mercedes Ajcolón Tuís, Radio Juventud
Alma Temaj, Radio Doble Vía
Un pedazo de tierra
con árboles, montes y un
hermoso tanque de agua
El lugar mas hermoso
del mundo, donde sólo
los pájaros y los animales
lo habitan uno que otras
casas de adobe y pajón.
en que el cerro Pix Pix
gritaba, lloraba, auxiliaba
ante los balazos que
mataba una por una a su gente.
Rigoberta Gonzalez, Kakchiquel, of Sumpango
Aquellos niños, aquellos ancianos Sacatepéquez translates a poem into her native
miraban el atardecer, al sol language.
esconderse con lágrimas en los ojos.
Pensando a donde ir, a refugiarse por
el temor, en los hermanos con un
fusil en la mano
Why I Support
sin saber ¿qué pasará mañana? Cultural Survival
A piece of land For four decades,
with trees, mountains and a Cultural Survival has
beautiful cistern of water stayed true to its
mission of standing
The most beautiful place
in the world, where only with Indigenous
the birds and the animals live, Peoples in defense
houses of adobe and straw of their human rights.
here and there. Its many partnerships
and projects with
But the day came
when the pig Pix Pix Indigenous groups,
screamed, wept, cried for help its global interventions
before the bullets that in a variety of human Tim Sieber, Professor
killed its people one by one. rights debates, its of Anthropology,
dedicated work on UMass Boston
The children, the elders the Declaration on the
watched the late afternoon, watched Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and its
the sun hide with tears in its eyes.
programs point to an organization that has
Thinking of where to go, of taking refuge
out of fear, of the brothers with a worked assiduously to promote the empow-
rifle in hand erment efforts of Indigenous Peoples for
without knowing, what will happen self-determination. Cultural Survival has never
tomorrow? given up, truly walks the talk, and is more
   To learn how you can support CS, visit:
www.cs.org/get-involved.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 5
 women th e wo r ld m u st hear

Power to the People

A Rights-Based Approach to Energy
A n I nter v ie w w ith H a w aiian A cti v ist M ililani trask

who were going up to represent the community interests. [In

the] 1990s we were receiving word that no progress was be-
ing made at the UN level on passing the UN Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples...so I decided to go up to
the UN myself to use my legal degree. When I came into the
arena, there were many other Indigenous Peoples there, and
so we began work that took 22 years to pass the Declaration.
One of [many] good things that came out of that work was
that a strong, global caucus was built.” When the UN Perma-
nent Forum on Indigenous Issues was created in 2002, Trask

Photo courtesy of Innovations Development Group

was nominated from the Pacific and served as the first Pacific
basin representative. The UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General Assembly
in 2007, and Trask had a heavy hand in its passage.
Encouraged by longtime friend Winona Laduke, Trask has
recently focused her efforts on renewable energy development
projects in Native communities, especially around geothermal
energy development through the Innovations Development
Group (IDG), a majority-owned Native Hawaiian company
dedicated to increasing the prosperity and well-being of all by
developing sustainable energy resources in ways that preserve
Mililani Trask vital cultural traditions. The company is a model for how the
Declaration can be implemented via the private sector.
“Hawaii is the most energy-insecure and food-insecure
Agnes Portalewska (CS Staff) state in the Union,” Trask says. “I decided that I would work

H
with other Hawaiians to develop a good business model
er voice is warm, assertive, and iconic; her passionate so that we could look at economic development, focusing
tone and straightforward message are instantly recog- on renewable energy, in a way that would be respectful of
nizable. With an internationally renowned reputation Indigenous human rights and bring about change in terms
as an Indigenous expert in international law and of the development of renewable resources in Indigenous
human rights, Mililani Trask has been advocating territories.”
for the rights of Native Hawaiians and Indigenous Peoples This is how the Native-to-Native model for development
worldwide for over three decades. was born; it is the fundamental operational guide for IDG.
Trask comes from a long line of activists for Hawaiian Trask explains: “It was established based on a belief that
sovereignty and Native Hawaiians’ rights for self-determi- Native people are the best to work with other Native people
nation. “My father was an attorney and my mother was a because we have certain cultural affiliations. It took the heart
Hawaiian. Both raised me to understand our history, the of the Declaration, [and] using Western law, put it into a
overthrow, and the loss of our lands, what happened with format that would facilitate protection of rights and benefits
the Hawaiian people. That gave me a certain initiative to to Native peoples.”
right those wrongs for Hawaiians, and for others as well The Native-to-Native model challenges the current approach
who are in the same position,” Trask says. to how energy is developed by governments where, as Trask
For nearly 20 years, Trask was the executive director of says, Native peoples are expelled from territories, their title
the Gibson Foundation, a nonprofit organization that as- to their energy resources is denied, contracts are negotiated
sists Native Hawaiians in attaining home ownership. She has giving exclusive development rights to the company, and
served as a trustee at large in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs energy is sold at the highest market price.
and as the interim prime minister of Ka Lahui Hawaii (the “The Native-to-Native model is very different. It begins
Native Hawaiian Nation) for 11 years, among numerous by establishing four criteria for development: culturally
other roles in state and local government. appropriate, environmentally sustainable and clean, socially
Working through and at the UN, Trask has contributed to responsible, and economically equitable. We have built
the international discourse on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. into our model ways for community benefit-sharing.
“I started working with the UN in the 1980s with Hawaiians [For example], if you come into a community and you’re

6 • www. cs. org Background photo courtesy of Manoj Pulala

Development in the Pacific

If you come into a community and you’re developing geothermal

energy, you’re making money! You have a business opportunity and you
have a product that is energy, so what do you owe that community?
Number one, you owe them a share of the revenue every year.

developing geothermal energy, you’re making money! You and geothermal; she serves as a member of the International
have a business opportunity and you have a product that Indigenous Caucus on Biodiversity; and is encouraging
is energy, so what do you owe that community? Number UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to respect Indigenous
one, you owe them a share of the revenue every year.” people’s rights when recognizing new World Heritage sites,
The model is gaining traction; the Office of Hawaiian among many other initiatives.
Affairs adopted it last year. Additionally, the Hawaiian state For Trask, the tasks at hand—and the urgency of
legislature has introduced legislation requiring that there be accomplishing them—are clear. “All over the world we have
an economic and social benefit whenever state resources and a pressing crisis as a result of climate change…and we don’t
lands are being developed. The model is also being considered have time to waste bickering and fighting. If you look at the
by the State of Hawaii Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Indigenous territories all over the world, you’ll see that there’s
Though based in Hawaii, IDG has worked on projects vast renewable energy resources available. So we need to move
across the Pacific, including several geothermal projects with rapidly to have states, the World Bank, and others working
Ma-ori in New Zealand. “We have totally shifted the paradigm. in this area take a look at other models.
When we were first working with Ma-ori 10 or 12 years ago, “The Declaration says that we have a right to give our Free,
we were negotiating with folks who were developing geother- Prior and Informed Consent. Well, that tells me we have to
mal, and they had a great deal of power. When we’d sit down be at the negotiating table, we have to request disclosure, we
to negotiate with the Ma-ori, [the developers] would just kind have to ensure that consultation is meaningful. The challenge
of laugh and dismiss us and say, ‘you know, we don’t really do to implementing the Declaration is that we have to step into
business that way. We recognize that Ma-oris have this land, the driver’s seat. We have to say, based on protocols, what this
but what are they doing with it? They have sheep on it. It’s means to have culturally appropriate development.”
our money, our know-how, our technology… so we’re gonna
give them a long-term lease and we’ll be paying them rental To learn more about the work of the Innovations
at the value of sheep-grazing.’ Well, we had to sort of turn Development Group and the Native-to-Native
that around on them and point out to them that it’s Ma-ori model, visit idghawaii.com.
who own the land. They own not only the surface with sheep
on it, but they also own the subsurface resource rights. We
had to point out that the actual evaluation of energy in the
Pacific market, and in the global market, as set by Wall Street,
is not the price of sheep. When you talk that kind of talk Support Cultural
with somebody like Chevron, they very much change their
approach.” Survival Today!
IDG is uniquely positioned as its management team is
made up of Native Hawaiian professionals and entrepreneurs For 40 years Cultural Survival has
who know and understand the global energy market. They worked with Indigenous Peoples all over
bring an extensive network of business contacts that span the world, from the Anuak people in Ethiopia
the financial markets of the US, as well as Asia and the South to Maya communities in Guatemala.
Pacific, but are first and foremost sensitive to the needs of As we look forward to our next 40 years,
Indigenous Peoples and devoted to the economic advance- it is essential that we continue to have
ment of the communities they serve. your participation in our mission.
Trask maintains a global focus while continuing to work
as a tireless advocate for policy change in Hawaii. In addi- For more information or to make your gift,
tion to her work with the Ma-ori, she is working on renewable go to donate.culturalsurvival.org
energy initiatives in Indian country that include wind, solar,

Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 7

 c l i mat e ch a n g e
Climate Change, Forest Privatization,
in Quintana Roo, Mexico
José E. Martínez-Reyes, Ph.D.
T
ensions are brewing in the Máasewal communities
of central Quintana Roo (known as Zona Maya)
between those who want to continue the current
system of ejido and those succumbing to the pres-
sure to sell their ejido rights. Ejido was established during the
Mexican Revolution as a system of communal land tenure
that bestowed land rights to peasants and Indigenous groups.
Since 1994, individuals have been permitted to sell their the quality of their nutrition and their relationship with the
land titles.
Contributing to the community’s strain is the recently
formed de facto partnership between one of Mexico’s wealthi-
est couples and the United Nations program, Reducing Emis-
sions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).
The program issues carbon credits that are intended to help
mitigate the effects of climate change, but so far their primary
effect has been increased privatization of land and disenfran-
chisement of local Maya (the program imposes various com-
pliance restrictions that dictate what they can do with their
land in order to receive the credits). Additionally, Zona Maya
8 • www. cs. org
is suffering from increased periods of drought associated
with climate change. The drought inflicts enormous pressure
on the community’s resources—the forest, wildlife, tradition-
al agriculture—and is causing greater dependency on govern-
ment subsidies. It is also resulting in migration to the “Riviera
Maya,” where Maya are forced to seek work in the tourism
industry that is often temporary and without benefits.
Faced with these difficulties, local leaders are questioning
the prospects for future generations. As a people that have
endured profound struggles, including invasion and war, the
Maya tend to respond with an apocalyptic sentiment—one
that has nothing to do with the 2012 doomsday prophecy
nonsense perpetuated by the media—but much to do with
a history of colonization and socioeconomic disenfran-
chisement.
A History of Conflict and Change
Most inhabitants of the Zona Maya are descendants of the
rebel Cruzo’ob Maya who fought against Yucatecan elites
during the Caste War from 1847-1901. Known for being fierce
warriors, they kept Mexican capitalist extraction companies
at bay until the Mexican army arrived in 1901. After the
Mexican army took control of the region, it began construct-
ing schools and other public institutions in order to quell
the Mayas’ resistance. This was followed by a chicle (chewing
gum) industry boom that opened the area to extensive forest
exploitation. In the 1930s President Cárdenas implemented
agrarian reform, and ejidos continued to be organized
through the 1950s despite the fact that the Máasewal already
had communal access to land.
In the 1970s, the Mexican government began to promote
tourism as a tool for economic growth. Spearheaded by the
creation of Cancún, today Quintana Roo is one of the fastest
growing states in Mexico. The tourism industry profoundly
transformed the coast between Cancún and Tulum by creat-
ing tourist spaces along virtually every beach and re-conceiv-
ing it as the “Riviera Maya” for promotional purposes. The
tourism boom has had enormous repercussions on Máasewal
communities as many have journeyed north to work, aban-
doning their milpas (cornfields) and prompting changes in
environment.
By 1986, the landscape had been significantly altered
again—this time by biodiversity conservation efforts, in par-
ticular the creation of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve. In
principle, nature reserves are a positive response to the rapid
decline of biodiversity caused by the global expansion of
extractive capitalism. However, the implementation of these
reserves has been problematic. Those with ejido lands sur-
rounding the Biosphere were pressured by NGOs to partici-
pate in oft-ill conceived “alternative development projects” in
the hopes of deterring them from their traditional agriculture
and Apocalyptic Prophecies
A Maya farmer, Ol Canul,
in his milpa (cornfield).
practices, and instead generating income from the “sustain-
able use” of forest resources as defined by UNESCO. Such
projects included organic agriculture, parrot husbandry, and
the creation of ecotourism trails, rustic furniture, and crafts.
However, funding for these projects frequently fell through
and communities never realized the benefits.
Climate Change, Privatization, and Apocalyptic Visions
The Máasewal are directly experiencing changes in the envi-
ronment. They are acutely perceptive of variation in the climate
—particularly to rainfall—as agriculture on the Yucatan
peninsula has always been difficult due to the lack of surface
water. While acknowledging that life in the forest is never
easy, many farmers attribute their declining yields to climate
change. In addition to less rain, they see changes in the tree
canopy and character of the soils. “A long time ago, between
one and three hectares [of corn] would last all year; now we
plant five or more and it doesn’t produce enough for the
whole year,” says a farmer.
There are explanations for the Máasewals’ hardships that
extend beyond climate change, however. Elder leaders see
outside influences as an additional cause of many problems.
One community remember recalled: “I remember when I
was a little boy, my grandmother telling me that the huaches
(white foreigners) were going to build a four-lane road and
that would be the beginning of the end of the world.” This
vision was retold in 2009 during the expansion of the Tulum-
Felipe Carrillo Puerto road. While massive development has
yet to reach Zona Maya, the highway’s expansion has opened
the gates for unprecedented land privatization. Community
leaders also point out the consequences of selling ejido rights,
which they predict is “a signal of the end…[We] don’t know — José E. Martínez-Reyes, Ph.D. is assistant professor of
if today, tomorrow, or in 10 years, but nevertheless, the end.”
Prophecies Fulfilled?
The concerns of the Tres Reyes ejido community are coming
to fruition. Recently, ex-banker Roberto Hernández bought
Privatization
signs along
Sian Ka’an
Biosphere
Reserve.
Photos by José Martínez-Reyes
eight ejido rights. (Each ejido
member has access to approxi-
mately 400 hectares of land.) While this is a large amount
of land, most of the ejido is forest cover, and the traditional
agricultural practice amounts to only a few hectares in pro-
duction each year. In addition to what he purchased from
these farmers, Hernández has acquired other ejido lands. The
local press claims he used family members to buy the major-
ity of the Pino Suarez ejido, south of Tulum; it is believed
that Hernández intends to accumulate land in order to take
advantage of newly devised economic programs for ecosys-
tem services on protected lands. These programs will benefit
Hernández’s foundation at the expense of the local Maya and
violate the spirit of REDD+, which declares that it “will re-
quire the full engagement and respect for the rights of Indig-
enous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities.”
Maya leaders worry that farmers will lose access to the
land “that God has given us,” as they attest. By selling their
ejido rights, they are conceding all future rights to land that
has served as a safety net and cultural resource. Many Maya
have worked in the tourist industry; in low seasons many
returned and worked their land. If privatization continues, it
will lead to further economic insecurity for the Masewalo’ob.
Not all community members have succumbed to the
promise of what they view as a lot of money, however. For
many, life in the forest is a source of pride and a way to con-
tinue traditions. “I will never give up my rights. My tatich
(grandfather) said that he who gives up his land, gives up his
future. This is land for my grandchildren. Why would you
give up the land of your grandchildren?”
anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
To read the extended version of this article,
visit: goo.gl/2pi2G.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 9
 r i ght s i n a ct io n
I Am the River and the
The Implications of a River Receiving Personhood Status
Brendan Kennedy
W
hen an agreement recently signed in Aote-
aroa (New Zealand) proposed the acknowl-
edgement of the Whanganui River as a legal
person, many saw it as an innovative re-
source management solution. Indigenous
Peoples around the world often struggle with governments
that do not recognize their view of the natural environment;
when natural resources are involved, Indigenous worldviews
are often in direct conflict with non-Indigenous notions of
property ownership. Viewed in this light, the agreement is
even more compelling—because it is an agreement to define [By] the profit you can make? Or the taonga (treasure’s)
a natural resource according to the worldview of Ma-ori, the
Indigenous people of Aotearoa.
10 • ww w. cs. org
A Resource for Profit or Te Awa Tupua?
The natural resources in Aotearoa are often viewed through
two different lenses: Ma-ori and non-Ma-ori. Honorable
Peter Sharples, noted Ma-ori academic and cabinet minister,
describes these competing views best: “Holding a title to
property, whether Crown or private, establishes a regime
of rights—to capture, to exclude, to develop, to keep. Ran-
gatiratanga (Ma-ori sovereignty or absolute chieftainship) is
asserted through the collective exercise of responsibilities—
to protect, to conserve, to augment, and to enhance over time
for the security of future generations. Both seek to increase
value, but the question is, how do you value the resource?
contribution to the survival of the group?”
Whanganui River, New Zealand
Photo by John Steedman
River Is Me
The answer, in this case, is the latter: the Whanganui River
will be defined and governed by the Ma-ori view of the river.
Whanganui Iwi, the Indigenous people that possess rangati-
ratanga over the Whanganui River, and the river itself will be
considered a living, integrated whole, or Te Awa Tupua. This
view encompasses more than chieftainship, however. As ex-
plained by the late Niko Tangaroa, a Ma-ori elder, Whanganui
Iwi have an interdependent relationship with the river: “The
river and the land and its people are inseparable. And so if
one is affected the other is affected also. The river is the heart-
beat, the pulse of our people....[If the river] dies, we die as Tu-tohu Whakatupua: A Cause for Cautious Optimism
a people. Ka mate te Awa, ka mate tatou te Iwi.” This unique
relationship is not a concept that can be easily understood legal entity, to be protected by appointed guardians, is
by non-Ma-ori because its value exists outside of the profit-
generating notions of property.
According to Honorable Tariana Turia, a member of par-
liament who is affiliated with Ngati Apa/Wairiki, Nga Rauru,
Tuwharetoa, and Whanganui Iwi, the Whanganui River has
always been a protected tribal resource—so the Whanganui
Iwi do not accept the argument that everyone and no one
owns it. In fact, prior to signing the agreement with the
Crown, Whanganui Iwi argued that assigning non-Ma-ori
ownership rights to the river were the only way that their
unique relationship, identity, and rangatiratanga could be
protected. So if Whanganui Iwi view the river differently from
non-Ma-ori, how did Iwi get the Crown to agree to define it as
they always have, as Te Awa Tapua? Also, why did Whanganui
Iwi agree to have their rangatiratanga protected through a
non-Ma-ori guardianship model where the river is considered
a legal entity? The answers, not surprisingly, are complex.
Defining the River According to the Worldview of Ma-ori
Ma-ori chiefs and agents of the British monarchy began their
official partnership when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi
in 1840. The partnership continues between the Ma-ori and
the Crown today, though it is the Treaty’s principles that gov-
ern the duties and obligations of this partnership rather than
its explicit text. Although these principles will inevitably
change to reflect the transforming needs of the country, the
courts have found that the Treaty’s principle of partnership
imposes a duty of good faith and reasonable conduct between
Ma-ori and the Crown. Additionally, the Crown has a duty and its sanctity is maintained.” It is difficult to speculate on
to make informed decisions and to protect Ma-ori property
rights. The spirit of the Treaty also imposes the principle of
redress, where the Crown is required to provide active and
positive redress for past breaches of the Treaty. In such a case,
the settlement process usually begins by the Ma-ori filing a
claim with the Waitangi Tribunal; then Ma-ori negotiate with
the Crown directly so that Ma-ori can get compensation for
proven breaches of Treaty principles. Whanganui Iwi have
been engaged in this process for decades. As both parties School in Boston, Massachusetts.
continue to negotiate a final settlement, the agreement recog-
nizing the river as Te Awa Tapua is an important step forward.
The agreement that defines the Whanganui River as a
titled Tu-tohu Whakatupua. It states that Ma-ori values of the
Whanganui River be central to a final settlement in which
the Crown will appoint one guardian, Whanganui Iwi will
appoint one guardian, and both guardians will act together
for the benefit of the river. If the guardians have to protect the
Indigenous property value associated with the river, then they
must promote and secure the river as more than just a natural
resource. In other words, the guardians must also promote
and secure the spiritual and cultural rights of the river—
not simply the physical and ecological rights.
Although Tu-tohu Whakatupua is neither a settlement nor
a decision with any independent binding authority, if the
terms are followed then the final settlement will be governed
according Whanganui Iwi values—values that define the river
as a treasure contributing to the survival of the group, rather
than a profit-generating resource. However, Whanganui Iwi
rights to the river may also end up being restricted by the
recognition of the river as a legal entity because once the
guardians have been appointed, Whanganui Iwi, like the
Crown, will have no power to influence them.
While the guardianship model ensures that the Whan-
ganui River will not be owned by anyone, thereby promoting
the Crown’s view of natural resources, the Whanganui Iwi
maintain that the welfare of the Whanganui River is the most
important part of any settlement. As Che Wilson, affiliated
with Whanganui Iwi, notes, “the recognition of [the river] as
its own legal entity goes a long way to us as descendants of the
river [in] ensuring that the protection of the river is upheld
the full implications of the agreement because its details have
yet to be fully fleshed out. But Tu-tohu Whakatupua is argu-
ably cause for cautious optimism as Indigenous Peoples con-
tinue to fight for the recognition of their views of the natural
environment.
­— Brendan Kennedy was born and raised in Aotearoa, and
is currently a third year law student at Suffolk University Law
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 11
 justice for all
An interview with Grand Chief Edward John
Agnes Portalewska (CS Staff)

I
“ was born and raised in a fairly remote part of Western Canada in British Co-
lumbia in the territory of my peoples, in a community where the only language
spoken was Dakelh, or Déné, of the Athapaskan language family. Our families
and communities were heavily dependent on the land for food and for liveli-
hood. It was a strong connection to our history, culture, values, and the land.”
Tl’azt’en Nation, “People by the edge of the bay,” is a First Nations community
in north central British Columbia, Canada. They call themselves Dakelh (“We
travel by water”), though Europeans popularized the name “Carriers.” The popu-
lation of the Tl’azt’en Nation today is around 1,300. Of these, approximately 800
live in one of the main communities of Tache, Binche and Dzitl’ainli, and K’uzche.
Tl’azt’en people still live off the land, hunting for moose, deer, bear, caribou, and
mountain goats. They still set nets for salmon, white fish, trout, kokanee, spring
salmon, and Lingcod, and still go to campgrounds in the summer to gather food
for winter storage, much like their ancestors.
Grand Chief Edward John’s proud heritage and upbringing have made him
the man he is today, a prominent First Nations political leader and Indigenous
rights lawyer in Canada. For his service, he was awarded the title of Grand Chief
of Tl’azt’en Nation. He helped to create the First Nations Summit, the organization
representing the British Columbia First Nations involved in treaty negotiations
with Canada and British Columbia. For over 30 years, he has been a tireless advo-
Cultural Survival board member
cate for Indigenous rights. In January 2011, John began a three-year term as the
Grand Chief Edward John
North American Representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on
Photo courtesy of First Nations Summit
Indigenous Issues, and in 2012 he was elected Chair. Cultural Survival has the
great honor to have Grand Chief John on its board of directors.
“The essence of what I bring forward to advocate for Indigenous Peoples
In our series spotlighting
is the historic and cultural connection to our teachings, to everything we see
the work of our Board around us that is interdependent,” John says.

members, Cultural Survival Killing the Indian Inside the Child

is honored that Grand Chief The seeds of John’s resistance were sown early on when John was subjected to
mandatory residential schooling. As he tells it: “When I was a child the only schools
Edward John (Akile Ch’oh), available to us were the Indian residential schools, located far away from our com-
munities. As 4-, 5-, and 6-year-old children we were bused away every year in Sep-
chair of UN Permanent tember to these schools. We didn’t practice any of our cultural traditions; instead
forum on indigenous issues, [we] were indoctrinated into anything but our own ways. We were literally there
for 10 months of the year.
took time out of his “As children, we didn’t realize the schools were instruments of the state operated
by church groups, the purpose of which was to ‘educate’ us and ‘civilize’ us...[the]
schedule to speak with purpose identified [in] a state document was to ‘kill the Indian inside the child,’
Cultural Survival Quarterly and that meant that we could forever lose our connection to our culture, to our
language, traditions, to our land.”
about his background These experiences led John into the Anglo legal system in order to seek justice,
not only for his people, but for all Indigenous Peoples. “A sense of injustice means
and current work.
you have to find a way to address these things,” said John. “My late grandmother
said, ‘we’re sending you to school so you can speak the language, so you can deal
with the crooked manager at the local store.’”
Much of John’s work has centered around treaty negotiations and economic
and social rights of his people. “The quality of life in our community—housing,
bilingual education, health, language—is the cultural survival aspect of our people
as Indigenous Peoples. Our survival depends on our ability to act as the resources
that are what people depend on.

12 • ww w. cs. org
 “The other big issue is the legal matters related to our We Have a Responsibility
title of lands and territories. We have very few agreements John was closely involved in the negotiations and adoption
and treaties in this part of Canada. We were dispossessed of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by
from those lands by legal means from the Crown in the 1840s the UN General Assembly five years ago, and is now the chair
and ’50s . . . [so] there’s been 150 to 160 years of long-distance of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “I was
fighting for our legal interest. This underlying issue is very there and fought for the provisions in the declaration. The
important for our survival.” critical standard is the issue of Free, Prior and Informed
Consent, in particular where development is to take place
Restoring Connections in or on the territories of our peoples.”
John, who is fluent in Déné, is one of the few people con- Canada first voted against the Declaration in 2007, then
sidered an eloquent public speaker in the language. He was reversed its position by endorsing it in 2010, but implemen-
the founding president of the Yinka Déné Language Institute, tation is a slow process and raising awareness about the Dec-
which works to revitalize the Yinka Déné language and culture laration in Indigenous communities is critical to its success.
that has suffered under Canada’s Indian residential school “Many will read the Declaration and see. . . that their words
system. “[The residential schools] attacked our linguistic are reflected in it,” John says. The Declaration is being trans-
connections, our cultural connections. Not many people still lated into Indigenous languages as well; it is an international
speak our language—mostly [people] in their fifties and six- standard and a point of reference for all of the work being
ties. The younger people of course hear that, and pick some done on Indigenous issues.
of it up, but it’s not as deeply entrenched as it needs to be As to how supporters of Indigenous rights can contribute
to survive. to implementing the Declaration, John says: “Dialogue is
“One Indigenous language dies every two weeks, so it’s important. Greater dialogue leads to greater awareness and
a challenge not just to Indigenous Peoples of North America, a degree of development of a critical mass of thinking and
but globally as well. There are very small groups of people greater degree of acceptability of the issues.
who continue to speak the language and it is really difficult to “There are those in Canada who, for example, deny that
see and hear when the last speaking member of that language Indigenous Peoples exist, and those that deny that Indigenous
family is gone. Every government and every state needs to Peoples have any right to their territories and resources.
work with Indigenous people to keep those languages alive, Generally, most people are not aware of Indigenous issues . . .
because when they are gone, that whole stream of cultural so we have a responsibility to continue to talk about it.
connections to that part of civilization is gone forever.” Regardless of what anybody says or what anybody thinks,
John says that the Institute has been making important we have to be our own strongest advocates.”
inroads to sustaining Yinka Déné. The Tl’azt’en Nation cur-
rently runs a daycare, a Head Start program, and a community- — Grand Chief Edward John currently lives in Coast Salish
based elementary school. Additionally, the Institute is actively Territory (Vancouver, BC).
working with elders to document and promote their language,
stories, and cultural practices and integrate them into curri- To learn more about the legacy of residential
cula. It’s an uphill battle since there is no state support and schools in the US and Canada and what is
“funding is minuscule,” according to John; the government being done to address prior injustices, read our
allots approximately $1 million per year for 630 tribes Cultural Survival Quarterly issue on Truth Commissions
across Canada. goo.gl/ysxtP.

Photo by Grand Chief Edward John

Another one of those incredible sunsets

in Tl'azt'en traditional territory, near Tache,
British Columbia.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 13

Maya women of the community radio movement in Guatemala present their demands at the October 12, 2012 March of Resistance in
Guatemala City.
Free, Prior and Informed Consent
Protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination, participation, and decision-making
F
ree, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is an emerging
standard in the dialogue on Indigenous Peoples rights;
some argue that it is becoming part of customary inter-
national law. At Cultural Survival’s recent board meeting
in October, Stella Tamang (Tamang) from Nepal, Grand
Chief Edward John (Tl’azt’en) from Canada, Vincent Nmehi-
elle (Ikwerre) from Nigeria, and Nicole Friederichs weighed
in on what this concept actually means in practice. They see
FPIC as an important standard Indigenous people can use
to claim their rights to self-determination, consultation, and
Photo by Felix Horne
14 • ww w. cs. org
Photo by Danielle DeLuca
participation in decision-making. Governments and corpora-
tions can no longer ignore these principles.
FPIC is a standard protected by international human
rights law. It states that “all peoples have the right to self-
determination” and “all peoples have the right to freely pur-
sue their economic, social, and cultural development.” In the
words of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indig-
enous Peoples, James Anaya (excerpted from Indian Country
Today), “We need to return to the origins of the discussion
about [FPIC...having] to do with identifying Indigenous
Peoples’ rights of self-determination over lands and resources.
With those rights come certain safeguards, and one of those
safeguards is that those rights can’t be affected or impacted
or diminished without consultation and free, prior and in-
formed consent.
“Anybody with property understands that you can’t
just take the property without consent, unless there’s some
over-arching governmental purpose. Because of this special
significance of lands and resources to the cultural survival of
Indigenous Peoples...it would have to meet a very, very high
burden of justification. [In] other parts of the world, compa-
nies or governments are saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to get your
consent’… [but] very often not in the most equitable terms
and very often in ways that diminish the rights of those in-
volved.”
Oil palm seedlings are replacing Cameroon’s ancient
rainforest vegetation on the homelands of the Oroko,
Bakossi, and Upper Bayang peoples in southwest Cameroon.
Herkales Farms has ignored the Free, Prior and Informed
Consent of the local population by planting oil palm,
which is destroying the local livelihoods.
 “Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is one of the most important principles
that Indigenous Peoples believe can protect their right to participation. It is embedded
in the right to self-determination. The duty of States to obtain Indigenous Peoples’
FPIC entitles Indigenous people to effectively determine the outcome of
decision-making that affects them, not merely a right to be involved.”
UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

(Left to right)
Grand Chief
Edward John,
Stella Tamang,
Vincent Nmehielle,
Nicole Friederichs

FPIC is protected under the International Labour Orga- to undertake their own decision-making processes; ‘informed’
nization Convention (ILO) 169 and the UN Declaration on implies that Indigenous Peoples have been provided all in-
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, where it is specifically formation relating to the activity and that that information
mentioned five times (Articles 10,11,19,28, 29). The duty is objective, accurate and presented in a manner and form
to consult is further reflected in Articles 19 and 32. ILO 169 understandable to Indigenous Peoples; ‘consent’ implies that
Article 6 also requires that consultation with Indigenous Indigenous Peoples have agreed to the activity that is the
Peoples be carried out through institutions that are repre- subject of the relevant decision, which may also be subject
sentative of Indigenous communities, and specifies that to conditions.”
Indigenous people should control the process by which Nmehielle, who is an Indigenous rights lawyer and inter-
representatives are determined. national law professor, elaborates. “FPIC is a concept based
on autonomy of the individual. Indigenous Peoples’ rights
The Meaning of FPIC have been so violated in the past by those who felt they knew
“In plain terms, FPIC is knocking on somebody’s door and what’s best for Indigenous Peoples, it becomes a concept to
asking for permission before you come in,” explains Grand allow them to make the decision on their own as to whether
Chief John. A central element of FPIC is genuine inclusion, a project or action is beneficial to them. It’s like taking a refer-
disclosure, and respect for Indigenous Peoples decision- endum: do we really want this or not? We want to make sure
making processes. “Many times Indigenous Peoples are Indigenous Peoples are not taken for granted, are consulted
accused of being anti-development, but the only claim In- regularly, and make decisions based on what they know to
digenous people are making is that they really want to be be true—the positives and negatives about the particular
part of the decision-making,” maintains Tamang. After initiative that affects them. That is the bottom line.”
centuries of exclusion, dispossession, and discrimination, Friederichs, a law school clinician, adds, “When you are
Indigenous people want their voices heard. talking about FPIC, you are talking about the broader duty to
Under current international law, governments are obli- consult and then the overarching principle of participation.
gated to consult Indigenous communities before any develop- The way I read the Declaration is that states have a duty to
ment affecting their lands and resources takes place, and even consult with Indigenous Peoples and the goal of consultations
more broadly, any decisions directly affecting Indigenous should be to obtain their FPIC. Participation is about rem-
Peoples and their self-determination require their consulta- edying centuries of denying Indigenous Peoples access to
tion and consent. The final study on Indigenous Peoples and decision-making that was happening without their voice
the right to participate in decision-making by the UN Expert at all. This is a way to make sure that the states recognize
Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples advises on they have an obligation to actually bring Indigenous people
the proper implementation FPIC: to the table and listen to them.”
“The element of ‘free’ implies no coercion, intimidation or
manipulation; ‘prior’ implies that consent is obtained in ad- A Process Right vs. Substantive Right
vance of the activity associated with the decision being made, As Grand Chief John sees it, “FPIC is a right. It’s not simply a
and includes the time necessary to allow Indigenous Peoples concept; it is a right to [a] process. In many cases the natural

Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 15

Free, Prior and Informed Consent
relation is to lands, territories, and resources. If somebody’s
coming in to your territory to put a pipeline or a mine, then
they should talk to you and determine what it is that they’re
planning. [There are] those who just go to the state govern-
ment or national government and then come and say, ‘we got
a permit from the government to put a pipeline in here.’ What
they need is permits from the Indigenous people themselves.”
Many governments pay lip service to the UN Declaration,
but as Grand Chief John says, “when the issue of land rights
comes to the fore, suddenly people start backing off and say-
ing, ‘hey, wait just a minute, we didn’t mean that you people
have any rights to your land. We stole it fair and square, and
you don’t have it anymore.’ That’s why I come back to the
Declaration, as a remedial instrument to right the wrongs example: “In Nepal we are not limiting FPIC only to devel-
of the past; these rights are recognized in an international
instrument to the UN. These rights, and these processes consent: it is about the effective and meaningful participa-
containing their rights, are designed to remedy the historic
injustices.”
FPIC in Practice
Russia
I n 2005, Novatek, the second largest natural gas company in
the Russian Federation, working in the autonomous district of
Yamal-Nenetz, designed a socio-economic program for and
with the Nenetz peoples affected by its activities, drawing on
meetings with community members and leaders. In November
2008, an agreement was signed with the local Nenetz organiza-
tion defining the terms of cooperation between the company
and Indigenous Peoples. The company provided support for
infrastructure and allowed Indigenous people to maintain their
traditional livelihoods and economy while benefiting from job
opportunities in oil and gas developments.
Source: Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ final study on Indigenous
Peoples and the right to participate in decision-making.
FPIC in Practice
Bolivia
I n Bolivia in 2010, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons and Energy
coordinated a consultation process on a proposed hydrocar-
bon exploration project in the Indigenous territory of Charagua
Norte and Isoso, located in the Santa Cruz region. Ultimately,
the process resulted in a signed agreement between the gov-
ernment and the Guaraní Peoples Assembly of Charagua Norte
and Isoso documenting community consent prior to the initia-
tion of exploration activities by the company Pluspetrol of
Argentina. The consultation process reached a positive out-
come largely thanks to the willingness of the Ministry of
Hydrocarbons and Energy to respect the use of traditional
Guaraní institutions and systems. Importantly, the process
originated from the proposals of the Indigenous communities
themselves and guaranteed free, prior, and informed consent
for affected communities.
Source: Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ final study on Indigenous
Peoples and the right to participate in decision-making.
16 • ww w. cs. org
When Is FPIC Required?
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples re-
quires that the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous
Peoples be obtained in matters of fundamental importance
for their rights, survival, dignity, and well-being. As written in
Article 19, ”States shall consult and cooperate in good faith
with the Indigenous Peoples concerned through their own
representative institutions in order to obtain their free, prior
and informed consent before adopting and implementing
legislative or administrative measures that may affect them.”
Some argue that FPIC is required in every case concern-
ing Indigenous Peoples, their lands, or their resources, such
as when new legislation is being considered. Tamang gives an
opment projects. FPIC is not merely informing and getting
tion of Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous women.
We are now drafting a new constitution and lobbying for the
meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples, and it is the
responsibility of the government to ensure their participation
in the decision-making process."
Others see the need to obtain consent as especially vital
when the following conditions are set to occur: relocation of
Indigenous Peoples from their lands; storage and disposal of
hazardous waste on Indigenous Peoples’ lands; removal of
cultural, intellectual, religious, and spiritual property; and
when large-scale development projects would have a major
impact on the lands and survival of Indigenous Peoples (for
example, the flooding of traditional territories and sacred
sites from the construction of a dam).
Limits of FPIC
There are differing ideas about whether FPIC extends beyond
the right to be consulted to also include veto power. In Nme-
hielle’s opinion, “It’s not about veto power, it is about mean-
ingful engagement: if it’s a development project, it has to be
sustainable. Indigenous people have to benefit from it and be
included in the whole process in accordance with what affects
them positively rather than adversely.” For example, “has an
environmental assessment been done? What is the 20-year
effect going to be? What benefits and values accrue to us as a
group?” According to Nmehielle, a few Indigenous communi-
ties, such as the Royal Bafokeng Nation in South Africa, have
turned development into something they want to do on their
own terms and have worked with the developers to benefit
from the projects.
The skeptics of FPIC often point to the UN Declaration as
being a “soft law” document, meaning that it is aspirational
but not legally binding. However, as Nmehielle states, “For
anyone to be able to explore the non-bindingness of the Dec-
laration, they are not ready to do something good. There are
parts of it that are considered customary international law.
FPIC is a piece of it…whether or not there’s going to be a
veto depends on the circumstances of how powerful that par-
ticular group is relative to the issues contended.”
He continues: “The companies are not usually the prob-
lem; it’s the countries, it’s the states. Because at the end of the
day, [companies] tend to get their licenses from the states, and
then get [empowered] by the state to either ignore Indigenous
people or engage with them. If a state says you have to engage
with Indigenous people, life becomes easier in a development
situation. But Indigenous people can [also] press some of
these issues and possibly go to court to obtain the maximum
consultation necessary, to ensure that their consent is not
taken from them.“
The objective of consultations is to obtain Free, Prior and
Informed Consent. Every day we hear about cases where cor-
porations say they consulted Indigenous Peoples by holding
a single meeting (sometimes not in their own language) and
informing them of what is being planned. But a PowerPoint
be copied and pasted into each community; it is imperative
for developers to understand the context of the communi-
ties, and based on that understanding, to develop and adapt
the protocols as needed for the best use of the community in
their specific environments. The process of creating a com-
munity protocol can make communities aware of interna-
tional human rights standards and help develop their nego-
tiation skills in asserting their rights.

Slides courtesy Nicole Friederichs

presentation with a Q&A is not the same as obtaining FPIC.
In many cases it is clear that while documents were signed
supposedly giving consent, the vast majority of the Indige-
nous community were uninformed about the consent process
or did not want to give up the resources in question. In short,
this process is often egregiously manipulated.
As the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples defines it, “consent is a significant element of the
decision-making process obtained through genuine consul-
tation and participation. Hence, the duty to obtain the Free,
Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous Peoples is not
only a procedural process but a substantive mechanism to
ensure the respect of Indigenous Peoples’ rights.”
So what does a meaningful consultation process look like?
A true consultation with a goal of obtaining FPIC takes time.
It has to respect the local governance and decision-making
processes and structures, and it has to occur in Indigenous
languages, on Indigenous people’s time frames, free of co-
ercion and threat. Mapping Indigenous territory from In-
digenous Peoples’ perspectives is another essential element.
Indigenous people are the ultimate judges on whether the
consultation process has been meaningful.
Several communities around the world are working on
establishing their own protocols on how to obtain their Free,
Prior and Informed Consent. The idea of asserting a proto-
col, a guideline a community establishes as to how outsiders
should communicate with them about the proposed outside
use of community resources, is an effort to ensure that there
is a fair dialogue in agreements and negotiations. It is impor-
tant to realize that in the process of asserting FPIC, one has
to be aware of the political, economic, social, environmental,
and even spiritual factors. There is no one formula that can

Cultural Survival’s FPIC Initiative

The most important element of Indigenous Peoples’ ability to claim the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is to
have informed and organized communities. Cultural Survival has launched a new initiative with the goal of strength-
ening Indigenous Peoples’ capacity to implement FPIC by increasing awareness and understanding of this right through com-
munity media and community exchanges.  We are producing and distributing a series of radio programs on topics related to
FPIC to inform Indigenous listeners about their rights. Initially, programs will be produced in English, Spanish, and several Indig-
enous languages for distribution to Indigenous Peoples around the world. Along with the radio series, we are planning community-
to-community exchanges (see page 18 to read about one of the participating communities) as another valuable and appro-
priate means of sharing information. These exchanges will include the development of appropriate context-based community
FPIC guidelines, which will further strengthen awareness and understanding of those rights. To learn more, visit: cs.org/fpic.

Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 17

Free, Prior and Informed Consent

Lost in Translation?
Maya in Belize Hope to Set Historic FPIC Precedent
Gregory Ch’oc

I
magine this scene: a bus hurdles over the dirt roads of
thick, tropical rainforest in southern Belize. It travels from
village to village picking up Maya who are panicked and
confused about oil drilling on their ancestral lands. Instead

Photo courtesy SATIiM

of going directly to the meeting, the Maya must first listen
to a two-hour presentation by the oil company. Once they
finally arrive, they gather for a traditional blessing, which is
how they start every meeting. They are told there is no time
for that. In fact, they have only one minute. As the appointed
representative, I start to speak. After 60 seconds, a govern- Gregory Ch’oc speaking at the Environmental Impact
ment official, backed by police and military personnel, pries Assessment consultation in Sunday Wood in October.
the microphone out of my hands. Apparently, the meaning of
“consultation” is lost in translation from English to Q’eqchi’. to be ‘primary’ or ‘pristine’ forests are likely remnants of
The story I am about to tell is more than an ordinary ancient Maya agroforestry systems.”
parable: it is a tale with implications for a people’s survival For a country that prides itself on low deforestation, trees
or extinction. The Maya of Belize established the first legal in the Toledo District were already being felled at a rate of 10
precedent for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights percent a year even before Prime Minister Dean Barrows
of Indigenous Peoples. Now we are ready to do the same for made his infamous vow, “drill we will.” The government had
the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent. already handed out leases to 41 percent of communal land to
The true beginning of this story is the morning in 1997 when commercial loggers and other interests, even when communi-
several Maya villages woke up to learn that their ancestral ties were actively farming the land. In hindsight, the prime
land had been declared a national park—and that it had been minister’s off-handed comment to the press about drilling con-
so designated for three years. Community elders wondered stitutes the only direct, official word Maya communities have
why it had taken so long for the government to let them know. ever received about the government’s intentions for their land.
Five years later, they know that secrecy is official government Back in 1997, the elders were told it was necessary to le-
policy on Maya land. gally establish the communities as park “co-managers.” At first
The Belize government has long recognized the area be- they thought giving a permit to explore for oil was a strange
tween the Sarstoon and Temash Rivers as the “least disturbed way to protect a park. Since their communities were the most
wildlands” in the country. Follow-
ing the state’s designation of the
Sarstoon Temash National Park,
the Ramsar Convention on Wet-
lands classified its 42,000 acres as
land of “international importance.”
More recently, researchers have
uncovered a rare and entirely new
ecosystem in the park. Research
acknowledges that the Maya have
managed these forests for millen-
nia, to the point that we are con-
sidered responsible for the wide
diversity of tree species. As the
Photo courtesy SATIiM

National Geographic Society re-

cently noted, “What might appear

Sphagnum moss that was burned

in seismic trails in Conejo’s land.

18 • ww w. cs. org
impoverished in the country, they certainly understood the
economic pressures on Belize; the skeletons of failed govern-
ment experiments in cash crops on Maya land—all of the
withered fields abandoned on the side of road—speak to the
futility of shortsighted schemes. So, they created the Sarstoon
Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM) as
their administrative body to meet their co-management
obligations.
Imagine their surprise to learn four years later that the
government had entered into a Production Sharing Agree-
ment with the local subsidiary of a small energy exploration
company based in the American southwest, US Capital En-
ergy. The company was granted the exclusive right to conduct
petroleum operations within a 12 square mile area of the park
called Block 19. SATIIM’s park rangers reported that dyna-
mite explosions had cleared paths wide enough for jeeps to
drive across to the Guatemalan border, giving poachers and
loggers access to virgin forest.
Upon this discovery, the elders held community meetings
long into the night. They decided that SATIIM would object
to the permit as a violation of the National Park System Act.
In response, the government simply ignored its “partners.” So
in 2006, the elders reluctantly instructed the Institute to file a seismic path. Additionally, seismic testing ignited a massive
a lawsuit to stop the activity. The Supreme Court of Belize
ultimately decided that an environmental impact assessment
was prerequisite for an exploration permit, and the permit
was temporarily put on hold—but for how long?
In the meantime, the elders were advised to legally estab-
lish their right to land they had occupied for millennia. In 2007
the Supreme Court decided a landmark judgment that gave
the nearby Maya villages of Conejo and Santa Cruz full legal
ownership over their lands and its resources. In 2010 the re-
maining Mopan and Q’eqchi villages in Toledo District won
similar land recognition. These historic judgments made in-
ternational news when the Maya held the Belize government
to its commitments under the UN Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, setting a new legal precedent as its first
domestic application. The government’s appeal resulted in an
injunction that prohibited activities on Maya lands until the
appellate court decided the case.
During this time, the Maya realized that they also needed to
Fire damage in Conejo’s land.
Cultural Survival’s FPIC Initiative
In January 2013, as part of our FPIC Initiative, Cultural
Survival is teaming up with SATIIM to coordinate
a one-on-one community exchange to share FPIC
experiences and best practices in community radio
programming between Indigenous leaders from
Guatemala and Belize. Community radio operators
will create radio content about FPIC. Stay tuned!
take their case to the people of Belize. They organized a
national oil summit to discuss the issue on all sides. Ultimately,
all major organizations publicly condemned oil drilling on
protected lands. Yet the government acted as if public opinion
and consistent court rulings simply did not matter and secretly
granted a new permit in late 2010.
In 2011 the Maya woke up to another surprise: the sound
of explosions right outside their village. Without any warning,
US Capital Energy had cleared some four miles of forest for
fire that destroyed more than 400 acres of the newly discov-
ered ecosystem. Panicked Conejo residents asked SATIIM to
assess fire damages, and independent experts were contracted
to research the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
It became evident that the government was obligated under
both domestic and international law to obtain consent for
oil activity on Maya lands, which it clearly had not done.
Meanwhile, US Capital Energy started to court certain villages,
painting school rooms and offering services of trash disposal
and limited contract employment. But the company showed
its true colors after media reports on the environmental
damage it had caused: it threatened the Institute with legal
action.
We now reach the final chapter of our story, although
this ordeal is far from over. This past October, under the
guise of “consultation,” Maya villagers were asked to review
a 300-page environmental impact assessment document—in
English—at the height of the harvest season. When the Institute
requested to move the review
date by a few weeks, the govern-
ment refused. At this point, the
elders feel they have exhausted
all good faith options. The Insti-
tute and the four communities
likely to be affected by the ex-
ploratory drilling have retained
a major US law firm. So, we are
left with a question. Will another
lawsuit, writing another Maya
chapter in the history books,
be enough to save us from
extinction?
Photo courtesy SATIiM
— Gregory Ch’oc (Q’eqchi’)
is executive director of the
Sarstoon Temash Institute
for Indigenous Management
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 19
Free, Prior and Informed Consent

Hear Us!
Mam People of Guatemala Express Their Voices Through Community Consultations
Ana Lucía Fariña ing the local population. From this discovery arose an urgent
need to start organizing and informing the community about

T
he survival of Indigenous Peoples’ heritage depends the situation; a need to develop what she calls, lucha en
on their ability to assert equal civil rights, including the defensa del territorio (fight to defend the territory).
right to participate in decision-making processes. Some The community began organizing into several groups:
of the most pressing limitations faced by Indigenous teachers, youth, authorities, and ecclesiastic figures, each led
people worldwide, including those in Guatemala, are by a representative. Their intention was to gather and discuss
linked to the protection and ownership of their lands, which a possible process of consulta, or consultation. Ramirez ex-
are frequently and increasingly being usurped for purposes plains consulta as the communities’ assertion of their right to
of mining, development, or other environmental exploitation. participate in decision-making, as well as the act of voting for
Guatemala is a multi-ethnic country; along with the Xinca or against a project that would affect them. The goal of the
and Garifuna, there are 21 different Maya groups making group meetings was to inform the population about the ad-
up an estimated 51 percent of the national population and vantages and disadvantages of the mining projects. Ramirez
speaking 26 Mayan languages. There are dozens of Maya refers to this stage as the proceso de sensibilización, or the
municipalities in the department of Quetzaltenango alone; process of building awareness.
this is the story of one, Cabrican. In total, 62 community consultas have been held through-
Bibiana Ramirez is a Mam community leader from out Guatemala. Ramirez says she was inspired by communities
Cabrican. Her story begins when her community became in Huehuetenango and San Marcos that had previously held
aware that the government of Guatemala was authorizing similar consultations, including public forums for the com-
licenses for mining companies in the area without consult- munity to vote for or against the initiative in question. How-
ever, unlike the others, her community decided to use paper
ballots to create hard proof that the consultation had occurred.
Indigenous people in Guatemala struggle to defend their rights in the Out of a total population of approximately 25,000, more than
wake of increasing repression. In October in Totonicapán, their protests half—13,610 people, a number that includes both children
were met with a brutal crackdown. Military forces opened fire on a and adults—voted against the mining project slated for
peaceful protest, killing eight and injuring more than 35 people. their lands. “It was a great turnout,” she recalls.

Photo courtesy of Bibiana Ramírez

20 • ww w. cs. org
Bibiana Ramírez sharing with the Wayuu of Colombia the FPIC National Indigenous movement in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Bibiana Ramírez
experience in Guatemala. Photo courtesy of Bibiana Ramírez

In spite of the popular mandate, due to various legal loop- related stories of their protests against the government and
holes Guatemala insists that these consultas, which frequently their ongoing work to defend their lands.
result in communities rejecting mining and hydroelectric While the consulta process is invaluable, it can also be
development projects, are not legally binding. Although it is expensive. The consulta in Cabrican involved the mobilization
obligated to conform to the right of Free, Prior and Informed of thousands of people, and Ramirez says it was difficult to
Consent, the state claims that it lacks a legal framework to obtain funding. The question of financing notwithstanding,
host consultations with communities. In the hopes of avoid- she believes her community was successful because the people
ing this roadblock, the community leaders in Cabrican pre- had clear information on their rights. Specifically, leaders
sented a document summarizing their consulta to govern- were educated about their land rights and the laws that pro-
ment officials in Quetzaltenango with the intent to obtain tected them. This knowledge in turn helped them educate
formal legal recognition of their consultation process. A del- the larger community about the dangers and consequences
egation of 70 community leaders then traveled to the nation’s of mining and their rights as Indigenous people, and allowed
capital to present the documentation to the president and them to inspire, gather, and organize people in the community
the minister in charge of approving the mining licenses. to assert their own rights. In short, education empowered
When asked if she believes that Cabrican’s consulta was their leadership skills.
successful, Ramirez replied, “Not completely, since there are Ramirez also discussed the importance of the “power
still mining companies coming and the current mining com- of voice,” leaders empowering and engaging people to take
panies are only giving us 1 percent of their earnings.” She action. “They have to trust you,” she says. “The leaders have
added, “the good thing is that we are defending our rights, to believe in their rights and in themselves, and be able to
our resources, and that we are not negotiating our lives.” convey a clear, inspiring message. We are talking about de-
Ramirez underscored that the community wants to protect fending our rights to live. I always tell them, what future do
its water resources; at various Canadian-owned mines in you want to leave for your children?” Ramirez believes that
Guatemala, the use of arsenic to extract heavy metals (pre- her role is to motivate and inspire people; not to educate, but
dominantly gold, silver, zinc, copper, and titanium) has con- to emphasize something they have forgotten they possess.
taminated local rivers and groundwater, making clean water Although there is still plenty of work to be done, the Mam
scarce and leading to serious health repercussions for the communities have successfully stopped the provision of new
local communities. mining licenses. Licenses previously issued for exploration
Within the Mam community there are eight municipalities, in the department of Quetzaltenango have mostly been left
and so far seven have asserted their right to Free, Prior and to expire, with one exception: a GoldCorp subsidiary, Entre
Informed Consent by virtue of the consulta process. Represen- Mares, was issued a license for gold mining in Cabrican and
tatives from each of these municipalities (including Ramirez) two other municipalities in 2007 under the auspices of a
have become part of Consejo de Pueblos del Occidente, or project titled “ELUVIA.” Its development has been halted,
Western People’s Council, an organization that was created to for the moment, thanks to a petition filed by the municipality
defend Maya communities’ rights in the western region of the of Cabrican to the Department of Energy to have the license
country. Following the consulta in Cabrican, several commu- revoked. As the community waits for a final resolution, the
nity leaders were invited to share their stories and experiences people of Cabrican continue to work with the Western People’s
with Wayuu communities in Colombia and to assist and ad- Council to organize community leaders to carry out more
vise in the process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent as consultations around Guatemala, asserting their rights for
the Wayuu confront coal mining in Guajira. On November their lands and creating a future of their own making.
16–18, 2010, a workshop was presented to approximately 200
attendees from 41 different communities. Council members — Ana Lucía Fariña as part of her Masters in Environmental
spoke of the obstacles they encountered during their own Leadership program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colo-
consulta, including their learning processes around community rado, did her internship at Cultural Survival, researching
organization, engagement, and empowerment. The presenters Indigenous communities that had successfully asserted their
rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.

Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 21


Frank Tomah and Raphael Sockabasin Finds Healing in
discuss muskrat trapping during a
Language Keepers conversation in
Indian Township, Princeton, Maine.
Meg Holladay
T
he first school was built in Motahkomikuk, a Passa-
maquoddy community in northeastern Maine, in the
late 1930s. St. Ann’s Indian Mission School, run by
Catholic nuns, enrolled children from Motahkomikuk
and nearby Sipayik, the two reservations where most
Passamaquoddy live. When the children arrived at
school they found that English-only was required, and they
were brutalized for speaking their native language. The pres-
sures on Passamaquoddy students to assimilate, reinforced and Julia Schulz. Levine and Schulz are also producers of the
by the violent treatment that they suffered in school, would
eventually cause English to supplant Passamaquoddy as the
community’s dominant language.
Those who had been abused at school wanted to spare
their children from a similar fate, so they would often speak
Passamaquoddy but require their children to reply in English.
As a result, the next generation grew up as only partial Passa-
maquoddy speakers. Now, two generations later, nearly all
Passamaquoddy children are monolingual English speakers,
and like many other Native American languages, the survival
of Passamaquoddy is threatened. Elder Allen Sockabasin
writes, “[Passamaquoddy is] the heart of our identity and about subjects entirely of their choosing. Subtitled in both
the foundation of our spirituality.”
But times are changing. Since the start of the Language
Keepers video project six years ago, many of those abused at
the mission school (who are now grandparents) have begun
to speak more Passamaquoddy. They once again sing child-
hood songs, are regaining vocabulary, and have begun to
speak their language to their grandchildren. Tribal members
who moved away from the reservations are returning and
have started to hear Passamaquoddy in their homes again.
Enthusiasm for the language is flourishing.
The Passamaquoddy language is technically a dialect of
Passamaquoddy-Maliseet, also spoken by the neighboring
Maliseet people. In total, about 500 Passamaquoddy and 600
Maliseet currently speak the language; nearly all of them are
over 50 years old. At one time Passamaquoddy was so present
in the community that its loss didn’t seem like a possibility.
But when the community realized its language was endan-
gered, the remaining speakers swiftly took action. First was
All Photos courtesy of Language Keepers Project
22 • ww w. cs. org
reviving
A Community
Its Own Words
the compilation of the Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary,
co-edited by speaker David Francis and linguist Robert
Leavitt. A product of 30 years of work, the dictionary was
published in 2008 with over 18,000 entries as well as a search-
able online edition. The most comparable resource, the
web-only Ojibwe People’s Dictionary, has 10,000 entries.
Following the success of the dictionary, in 2006 the Passa-
maquoddy began the Language Keepers project. The project,
which produces videos of people conversing in Passamaquod-
dy, is a partnership between the community and Ben Levine
2003 film Réveil – Waking Up French, which documented the
revival of French language skills among former New England
francophones whose communities had abandoned the language
after suffering from hate crimes at the hands of the KKK.
Levine and Schulz were pioneers of a language reacquisition
program that helped speakers work through their trauma;
Passamaquoddy language leaders thought the pair could help
their community as well, especially in addressing the loss of
public discourse.
The Language Keepers project produced a series of 95
videos of Passamaquoddy people speaking to each other
Passamaquoddy and English, speakers discuss topics ranging
from porpoise hunting and cranberry picking to spiritual
experiences and childhood memories. In the project’s online
version, many subtitles include hyperlinks to the words’
dictionary entries, which in turn provide lists of other videos
where the words occur. Levine hopes this cross-referencing
will help people see how ideas relate in culturally specific
ways, such as when people who are discussing muskrat trap-
ping first talk about the the animals themselves, and then
flagroot (a plant they eat) and its medicinal uses.
The videos have created a priceless record of Passama-
quoddy language and culture. For linguists, they represent
a new model for documenting language. In contrast to “elici-
tation,” a method in which linguists ask speakers questions
to learn about a language, Language Keepers videos show how
the language works in practice. They also document traditional
culture, activities, and the Passamaquoddy worldview, as
when Grace Davis talks about the healing possesomuwinuwok
Passamaquoddy
(star people) that she finds in ocean water at night.
The video project has also been a healing experience for
the community. In one session, while playing cards, a speaker
brought up St. Ann’s School. Out of this came nine videos in
which the elders recall their abuse in horrifying detail. When
they spoke Passamaquoddy, which some nuns called “the a day while engaging in activities from basket-weaving to
language of the devil,” they were variously beaten with grocery shopping, as well as learn to read and write Passama-
rulers, erasers, and switches, shut in the closet, and some-
times choked. Speakers say that they found these group and literacy education would put the program “one step be-
conversations deeply therapeutic.
Levine says that the videos’ online presence has brought
the language “back into visibility,” sparking new, positive
associations for speakers who had previously thought of the
language as “a symbol of ignorance, backwardness, and pov-
erty,” or, more recently, had felt ashamed that they hadn’t
taught it to their children. The project has also ignited new
language use, as many partial speakers watch the videos to get
the language “back into their systems.” Those living far from
the reservations can now hear it in their homes any time they
want, which they say gives them “a whole new lease on life.”
All of this offers the community new hope for the revitaliza-
tion of their language.
Another project currently underway is the recording of
native Passamaquoddy speakers pronouncing every word in
the dictionary, along with an example sentence. Since many
speakers are not literate in Passamaquoddy, a team of volun-
teers, often young adults, go to the houses of elders and read
them the words and phrases to be pronounced. The elders
correct their pronunciation and have been cheered by the
volunteers’ interest in the language. Donald Soctomah, the
leader of the recording project, reports that elders are now
less resistant to speaking the language to young people. Says
Apt, “I am always speaking to [my grandchildren] in Passa-
maquoddy and they understand and respond.” When spoken
Ben Levine and Julia Schulz of the Language Keepers
Film Project film a conversation between Imelda Perley
and Raymond Nicholas at the Tobique Maliseet Reserve
in Tobique, New Brunswick, Canada.
to cherished grandchildren, Levine observed, Passamaquoddy
becomes a “language of love.”
Soctomah said the tribe is also planning an immersion
program that will pair partial speakers with elder fluent
speakers. Together, they would speak the language for hours
quoddy. According to Soctomah, the combination of activities
yond” most apprentice language programs, and the language
would get the younger fluent speakers it needs in order to
stay vibrant. Meanwhile, the nearby Penobscot tribe is work-
ing on projects to revitalize its language, which is similar to
Passamaquoddy, and Levine and Schulz continue to work on
revitalization projects similar to Language Keepers for three
additional languages.
Although these endeavors have reinforced the use of the
language, so far they have not generated any new speakers.
But all of this effort and creativity may yet turn the tide for
the Passamaquoddy. For a community that once felt a great
deal of fear and shame about its past, its language has become
a great source of pride—and hope—for the future.
—Meg Holladay is a former Cultural Survival intern.
The Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal is at
pmportal.org. The Language Keepers Project can be found
at speakingplace.org.
To learn more about language revitalization
efforts around the country, visit our new site
Language Gathering: languagegathering.org.
Joan Dana,
Passamaquoddy,
in her home with
Ben Levine in the
background filming
a conversation about
traditional healing
practices.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 23
 Many Maasai community members increasingly worry about the future of their language and culture.

we, maasai
Revitalizing Indigenous
Language and Knowledge
for Sustainable
Development in
Maasailand, kenya

Daniel Salau Rogei yet [I] am a Maasai by birth. I blame my parents for this.”

W
Globally it is estimated that a language dies every 14 days.
e, Maasai, still have much of our If the current trend continues, by 2100 over half of the more
culture, customs, and tradition as we than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not
did thousands of years ago. Because yet recorded—may disappear, taking with them a wealth of
the Maa society does not have a clear knowledge about history, culture, the natural environment,
written history, it is difficult to say and the human brain. Much of what humans know about
precisely where it originated. Accord- nature is encoded only in oral languages. Indigenous groups
ing to linguistic research, the Maa language is hermetic and that have interacted closely with the natural world for thou-
not one of the numerous Bantu languages on the African sands of years often have profound insights into local lands,
continent. It is believed that the Maasai originated somewhere plants, animals, and ecosystems—many still undocumented
in the Middle East and came down the Nile River to our pres- by science. Studying Indigenous languages and cultural prac-
ent territory, the plains of East Africa. This is confirmed by tices therefore benefits environmental understanding and
the numerous Maa-named places dotting this route. Over the conservation efforts. Indigenous Peoples and local communi-
years, we have built a rich Indigenous knowledge system that ties, who depend entirely on their natural environment and
has allowed us to survive in harsh environments and seasons. traditional sociocultural, economic, and spiritual life skills
However, the Maasai, like many other Indigenous Peoples, that are encoded and orally passed from one generation to
are fast losing our languages and cultures. another, are at a great risk of assimilation and subsequent
Maa is an oral language that has not been documented extermination. Every time a language dies, we lose part of
and is therefore vulnerable to extinction. Other written the picture of what our brains can do. Every fallen sage
languages, such as English and Swahili, are quickly finding is tantamount to a burnt library!
their way into our communities through formal education, To address this threat, the Center for Indigenous Languages
religion, and globalization. Elder Parkesian recalls, “Our fa- and Cultural Studies, a project of Simba Maasai Outreach
thers never wanted us to go to school but the British colonial- Organization (SIMOO), a nonprofit community-based orga-
ists insisted and a few were reluctantly sent. They knew we nization working with the Indigenous Maasai pastoralists of
would lose our language and culture and then get lost.” Today, Kenya and Tanzania, was established. Based in Ngong Hills,
many Maasai regret that the Maa language was not passed the Center for Indigenous Languages and Cultural Studies
down to them. Sharoni Nangurai, a college graduate and a seeks to revitalize and promote spoken and written Indigenous
current student of Maa language voices this regret: “I lost languages. It also seeks to streamline traditional knowledge
the dream opportunity of getting [an] internship and work- and Indigenous practices to complement the conventional
ing with UNEP simply because I couldn’t speak Maa, and approaches to combating poverty in a bid to achieve

All photos courtesy of Simba Maasai Outreach Organization

24 • ww w. cs. org
 Cultural Survival is
excited to host SIMOO
at our winter Bazaars.
See bazaar.cs.org.

sustainable development. Chief Daniel Sankale says, “This the Maasai culture. Students also gain appreciation for aspects
is the best and sustainable way to preserve our culture. . . of the Maasai way of life such as herding and bead work, and
by teaching the youngsters the language and culture and get to live its spirit. Edward Simel, an early student of the Maa
documenting it for posterity.” language class explains: “It is very embarrassing to have a
Protecting, preserving, and promoting a language is no Maasai name and lineage but not be able to speak the lan-
easy task. The Center conducts research related to culture and guage. I was brought up in Nairobi where my parents worked
development to establish the relationships among culture, and where I went to school. I lost touch with my community,
peace, development, and environmental sustainability. Funded I lost the language and I lost the beautiful culture. This is a
by the International Society of Ethnobiology, we are research- great opportunity for me and my kids to learn the language
ing and documenting Maasai cultural practices such as rituals and some aspects of the culture again.”
and ceremonies for posterity. The research is then compiled The Center also has a global goal in mind, to promote
into materials and used for teaching and reference. This global understanding of the Maasai culture. Cultural ex-
provides a basis for a rights-based approach to advocate for change among people of diverse backgrounds is important
favorable policies both locally and internationally. We have for harmony, peace, and sustainable development. Exchange
been organizing a cultural field day where school children programs involve Indigenous Maasai visiting other parts of
and parents come to participate in an annual three-day event the world to share their culture, or international students
where cultural presentations are staged to inform the com- coming for internships in Maasailand. The international
munity about their rights and connections to global issues. exchanges are supported by Frogpond Production in PA.
Elder Mary Sakuda, 86 years old, says, “When we lose our We, the Maasai, like many other Indigenous Peoples, are
land, we lose our language and then we lose our culture. . . on the verge of losing our language and the rich Indigenous
we become like slaves of others.” knowledge inherent in it. This will be a big loss to the global
The Center is also documenting culture, language, songs, biocultural diversity and will be devastating to the environ-
and other cultural practices for posterity. We do this in printed ment. Safeguarding Indigenous languages is also a recogni-
and/or digital form by developing short videos, audio phrases, tion of the existence of such communities as well as a promo-
and online materials. School children conduct interviews with tion of their human rights. Unless Indigenous languages are
elders and translate from oral to written form. Story books protected, the gains made globally that have culminated in
are being compiled to preserve oral knowledge as elders pass the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will
on. Ole Kurraru, a 90-year-old elder, praises the program: be reversed. Sustainable development can only be realized if
“This initiative needs to be encouraged. Unless something and when Indigenous Peoples are given an opportunity to
is done, at this rate of alien encroachment and assimilation, exercise their right to cultural practices, including promotion
there will be no Maasai [speakers] in 50 years to come.” of their native languages. For the Maasai, this is an invaluable
To address the need to revitalize threatened languages and legacy that we will be happy to bequeath to future generations.
cultural practices, the Center offers linguistic lessons, cultural
orientation, and experiential learning. Classes are currently — Daniel Salau Rogei (Maasai) is a founder of the Simba
offered for Maasai who have lost fluency in the language. Maasai Outreach Organization in Kenya. To learn more,
Teaching and reference materials have been compiled to serve visit: simookenya.org.
as resources in the classroom, and the development of a Maa-
sai–English dictionary is underway. During the holidays, the To learn more about what is being done
Center offers camp-based experiential learning for urban stu- around the world to revitalize Indigenous
dents. In addition to learning the Maa language, the students languages, visit our Language Gathering site:
are exposed to environmental education that will allow them languagegathering.org.
to understand and identify the role of plants and animals in

Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 25

 B az aar A r t i s t s : project ha v e hope

Investing in Women and

the Future of Uganda
“I have really changed. I am now a doctor for coldness
by providing sweaters. I can now support my family.”
— Adul Doreen, vocational training graduate

T
he first thing you notice upon entering the booth of Project Have Hope
are the colorful strings of recycled paper beads—and then the remarkable
photographs of children and women by photographer Karen Sparacio, who
is also the executive director. Project Have Hope, a nonprofit organization
that works with 100 women in the Acholi Quarter of Uganda, has been a presence
at Cultural Survival Bazaars for six years and counting. Through the sale of their
beautiful, handmade paper bead jewelry, the women can feed their families, send
their children to school, and look forward to a richer future.
Residents of the Acholi Quarter, a neighborhood located on the outskirts of
Uganda’s capital city Kampala, are internally displaced persons who have fled from
war-torn Northern Uganda. These individuals experienced unimaginable atrocities
at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Led by the infamous Joseph Kony,
the LRA has wreaked havoc throughout central Africa for over 20 years. It is known
for its brutality, abductions, and use of child soldiers. The majority of the women
involved with Project Have Hope have been deeply affected by the war: some were
abducted and escaped; many lost family members and witnessed horrific violence; all
have lost their homes in Acholiland. As the women struggle to rebuild their lives and
regain their livelihoods, Project Have Hope strives to support them by providing a
source of sustainable income and educational and vocational training programs.

Project Have Hope’s Impact

 “When asked what my dream was, I did not even know what it meant. But after
two classes, we were taught about dreams and visions and that we should base all
our thinking on those two. I have since then developed a motto that says ‘I can.’ This
has made me think big!” said Lanyero Jenifer, an adult literacy program participant.
In 2011, Project Have Hope supported 104 children in school; 100 women
received microenterprise loans; and 34 women received vocational training. “With
profits from my motorcycle business, I have bought land and oxen to help me
produce simson (a staple food).  And now even if I am not here, the asset can help
my children,” says project member Ayoo Jennifer.
In addition to microloans and vocational training, Project Have Hope runs
adult literacy programs and has also trained Acholi women how to cultivate balcony
gardens and food such as tomatoes and mushrooms. Last year the organization
supported local members by constructing a greenhouse; the women have been able
to feed their families and generate additional income by selling the produce at the
local market.
Project Have Hope has just launched a new line of jewelry featuring the
“Hope Cures” collection: cancer awareness bracelets made from the iconic recycled
paper beads. These bracelets allow the
wearer to show support for women with
cancer, survivors, and their caregivers. The 2012 CS Bazaar
Additionally, one dollar from the sale of series raised over
each Hope Cures bracelet is donated to $445,749 for Indigenous
the Ugandan Child Cancer Foundation to artisans and their communities.
support young patients at the Uganda Can- Find a Bazaar near you! Visit:
cer Institute. www.projecthavehope.org bazaar.culturalsurvival.org

All photos by Karen Sparacio

26 • ww w. cs. org
Colectivo Noj youth group performs a traditional Ixil dance at the festival to celebrate Oxlajuj B’ak’tun. (All photos by Danielle DeLuca.)
Celebrating 2012, Maya Style
Danielle DeLuca (CS Staff)
D
ecember 21, 2012, the end of the Oxlajuj B’ak’tun
cycle of 5,128 years—not the end of the world, as
commonly, falsely interpreted—is fast approaching,
and for Maya in Guatemala, that means it is time to
start celebrating. To commemorate Oxlajuj B’ak’tun, the Waqib’
Kej Indigenous Youth Council held a festival of art, music, and
dance on September 22 on the grounds of the ancient Maya city
of Iximche, outside modern-day Tecpan, Guatemala. Iximche
was the capital of the Kakchiquel empire, founded in 1465 and
part of what archaeologists term the post-classical period of enous Peoples in our country, gives me an incredible hope
the Mayan empire. As Alex Ulul, community guide at the ruins,
explains, “Post-classical is the term archaeologists use, but that
implies an end to Maya civilization. We measure time in b’ak’tun.
This city was built at the end of the 11th b’ak’tun.” Oxlajuj, mean-
ing 13, is the last b’ak’tun. According to Maya priests, the next
cycle begins again at 1.
The festival also marked the conclusion of a two-day con-
ference for Indigenous youth focusing on a re-establishment of
the State of Guatemala in this new era. “We have thought deeply
about the reality that we’re living, and what we can propose to
the state of Guatemala. We demand real change in this country,”
said a presenter at the opening of the festival.
Indigenous artists, musicians, poets, and dancers gathered
from across the country to represent, via artistic expression,
what Oxlajuj B’ak’tun means for them. Eduardo Santiago Reyes,
from San Juan Comalapa, won first place for his painting about
Maya spirituality and hardships. “I am so grateful to have the
chance to be here. Being involved in this movement and painting
about these topics has been a huge challenge to me,” he said.
Reyes’ father forbids him from painting about injustices Indig-
enous Peoples have faced out of fear of repercussions. “Talking
about these issues is like a death wish,” his father has told him.
But Guatemala’s Indigenous youth are ready to take on this
challenge. “It’s our turn to construct a new government,” said
Reyes. As a result of the conference, youth leaders published a
statement demanding a state that reflects the multi-lingual and
multi-ethnic Guatemala that Indigenous youth live in today.
“Along this long historic path of struggle and resistance, we,
Indigenous youth, are discussing, deliberating, and articulating
our struggles, on the eve of Oxlajuj B’ak’tun, as a moment for
a new dawn for the people,” the statement begins. A musician
summed up the sentiment at the festival: “Seeing this many
young people, working together for positive change for Indig-
for this new era.”
Read the rest of our five-part series on 2012 at
www.cs.org/2012.
Leave a lasting legacy with a
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insurance, and retirement assets, builds a founda-
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Society recognizes those members who have
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For more information,
go to cs.org/plannedgiving, or call
Patrick Schaefer at 303.562.4360.
Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 27
December 2012

ow Global Response
CampaignHonduras
Alert
n N
t io
Ac
ke
Ta
Margarita Videa, a member of OFRANEH’s board of
Cultural Survival endorses directors, uses traditional incenses in a ceremony to
Grassroots International’s the ocean and the land during the opening of three
campaign to protect the days of activities on defense of land and territory
Garifuna people’s land rights in San Juan Tela, Bahia de Tela, Honduras.
and lives.

Across the globe, from

Indonesia to Cameroon to
Honduras, palm oil is being
touted as a a green solution
to a growing energy demand.
But when palm oil agribusiness
results in the eviction of
Indigenous Peoples from their
titled ancestral lands, complete
disregard for their lives and
their human rights, and mono-
cropping in precious, biodiverse
tropical rainforests, we know
that it is not sustainable. Honduras
The Garifuna people have
faced generations of abuse, and
Stand with the Garifuna People as
now even more so at the hands
of the Honduran government.
They Recover Ancestral Lands
In the last three years since the

I
2009 political coup, 65 small n Vallecito, Honduras, the Afro-descendant Garifuna community is threatened by
farmers have been killed in the agribusinesses intent on developing their ancestral land for palm oil production.
Bajo Aguan region as they were    In late August, 200 Garifuna families from a dozen different communities mobilized
attempting to reclaim illegal to reclaim 2,500 hectares of their ancestral land earmarked for development by large
landholdings from giant palm agribusinesses. The families set up camp, staking claim to the land that they intend to
oil plantations growing biofuel recover through non-violent protests as part of their right to self-determination.
for export.   The lands legally belong to the Garifuna people; in 1997 they sought and received
land titles from the National Agrarian Institute. But powerful elites, such as local business
In 2010, the Garifuna grass- magnate Miguel Facussé, did not accept the decree. Facussé usurped the Garifunas’ land,
roots organization OFRANEH, planting 100 hectares of oil palm. Today, his territory completely surrounds Vallecito.
the Black Fraternal Organization In total, 86% of Garifuna land has been seized by non-Garifunas over the last 18 years,
of Hondruas, teamed up with despite a Supreme Court ruling upholding the Garifunas’ title to the land.
Cultural Survival and three   Article 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
other Indigenous groups signed by Honduras, states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and
in Honduras to try to stop develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories
a Chinese company from and other resources.” But paramilitary groups, allegedly hired by local agribusinesses,
damming the Patuca river, Facussé, or others, are threatening Garifuna for attempting to recover their land.
territory of the Pech and Miskitu Politically motivated killings, kidnappings, and death threats against farmers and Afro-
peoples. Now, OFRANEH and descendant leaders have increased steadily since the 2009 coup. In the Lower Aguan
the Garifuna people need our region, 65 small farmers have been killed as they reclaimed illegal landholdings from
help to ensure their safe recovery giant plantations that will produce biofuel for export. These small farmers simply
of their ancestral lands. want to grow food to feed themselves and their communities.

Take action today and tell Honduran officials to protect Garifuna communities. With your
28 • ww w. cs.
support, we org can be part of a growing movement to protect Garifunas’ land rights and lives.
“Against their weapons, our drums
are all that we have.”
— Alfredo Lopez, vice president of OFRANEH and
founder of the first Garifuna community radio station

Biofuel over Food

The recent anxiety in the United States and Europe over the
need for clean energy has set off an explosion of land grabs to
farm African palm. In Honduras, campesinos are being forced
off their land to make way for mono-cropping, leaving them
without land to farm even for their family’s own consumption.
   Palm oil is being touted as a new miracle solution for climate
change mitigation. What is much less publicized is the fact that
Miriam Miranda, President of OFRANEH, stands before a line of
the best terrain for growing palm trees is tropical rainforest.
riot police during a demonstration in Tegucigalpa just days after
Scientists have noted that using palm oil for biofuel can only
the military coup against President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.
slow climate change if it does not promote deforestation, espe-
OFRANEH are pressing for the recognition of communal land
cially in tropical regions where forests store large quantities
titles despite the constant military abuses.
of carbon. Rainforests are the earth’s largest sinks of carbon,
safely storing the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Yet rainforests are being razed at an alarming rate to create
industrial palm oil plantations, releasing massive quantities
of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Charter Cities
Miguel Facussé is not the only culprit displacing the Garifuna
and other Honduran campesinos off their land. American econo-
mists are promoting a controversial new initiative that would
construct new, privately owned, autonomous city-states in Hon-
duras. These “charter cities,” or Special Development Regions,
would have their own legal systems, police forces, tax codes,
and trade policies. They are essentially what has been called
“the neoliberal dream of an investor-owned city operating
outside of Honduran law.” Investor-owners would also decide
who is allowed to reside in these cities, and who is not.
   Part of the Honduran government’s stipulation for charter
cities is that they be located in “uninhabited” areas. Yet on
September 4, the government signed a $15 million US contract Spiritual leaders of OFRANEH perform a ceremony to
with an investment consortium to begin construction on the first the ocean and the land during the opening ceremonies of
charter city, located between the Trujillo Bay and the Sico River: the Gathering of Indigenous and Black Peoples for a New
an area considered the cultural sanctuary of the Garifuna people, Constitution in San Juan Tela, Bahia de Tela, Honduras.
and home to 24 communities. Miriam Miranda implores, “We
are not only up against the interests of organized crime; we’re ‘Yes, we issued that land title to you in 1997 and we are
up against the interests of a government that—without reiterating that this is your land.’ Now we are up against
consulting us—makes decisions about our territory.” the silence and complicity of the state, the government,
these groups with power, and their plans. For us, this
Evicted...Again is very serious.”
The Garifuna people have a long history of forced relocation.    Please take action by calling on the government of
Their story began on St. Vincent Island in the Caribbean, where Honduras to uphold the Garifunas’ land titles and rights
they were shipwrecked in 1635 after crossing the Atlantic as to Free, Prior and Informed Consent for any projects on
captured slaves. The only Africans to arrive in the Americas as their land. Urge the government to ensure the safety of
free blacks, they were taken in by the Carib and Arawak peoples, the Garifuna and other campesino activists as they face
and through intermarriage formed the people today known as some of the worst human rights conditions in the world.
the Garifuna. In 1797 they were again relocated by English colo-
nizers to Roatan, on Honduran soil. The Garifuna then migrated
to fishing territories around the Sico River and Trujillo Bay. They Take action and make your voice All photos
had settled into the Vallecito Valley 17 years before the Spanish heard! Tell Honduran officials to by Tim Russo
granted Honduras independence in 1821. protect Garifuna communities. via Upside
  Miranda explains what her community is seeking. “We’re Visit: goo.gl/AbU9K and grassrootsonline.org Down World
asking for something very simple: that the state come and say,

Cultural Survival www.cs.org Cultural Survival Quarterly December 2012 • 29

 Seven easy ways to support
Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Survival
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