Indigenous peoples land issues should be properly addressed before Exxon gets fully underway

Dear Editor,

Awkward moments were always known to play some role or other in my life. And some can most startlingly dart back to mind occasionally. But those moments have also taught me some lessons like the two stated below.

One of those goes back to 1992 in Sarawak, Malaysia, a place which bears many similarities to the ways of life of indigenous peoples living in our interior places home here in Guyana.

One similarity observed at the time was the unfair treatment by the government of the day towards the indigenous nations there. There in Sarawak this was prevalent in the areas of logging and deforestation. Owing to this, people, but more especially indigenous peoples and foreigners were regarded with much suspicions and skepticism. At that time much was amiss including having to travel all day by rough road, and having to stop occasionally to clear the road of fallen trees because the night before was very stormy and windy. We had arrived at one of the villages late that night very much in need of a bath, and also feeling very tired, hungry and sleepy. Having nowhere to go our guide took us to a large house where he tried to negotiate with the owner of it the possibility of us spending what was left of the night there. But, the house owner only said, “Sorry but I cannot help you”, and he closed the door in our faces. The only thing left to do was to walk back out to the road and into the pouring rain.

The next awkward moment happened in 2009 in the village where I was born and raised and where I was serving as a councillor on our village council. It was also just after Digicel, the bigger better network had provided our village with cell-phone accessibility.

On that miraculous night I had received a call from someone in Georgetown. After a brief greeting I was asked what I knew about the presidential grant which our village had received a few days earlier. I was also asked if I was aware that money was  being given out to persons, from my designated areas of the presidential grant. Well although I was thankful for the information I also couldn’t help feeling exceedingly humiliated. This being so because clearly I was excluded from whatever discussion there was.

After my shock I made a call to someone on a separate committee for the council to ask that the money that was given out be back in the canister as early as the next morning. The money was returned, but immediately after that an organized campaign was launched to remove me from the council at the then upcoming toshao and councilors elections. Voters were asked to vote for people who could develop the village and who looked more Amerindian.

Now my reason for choosing to use these examples is because it raises the question that if something as meagre as a presidential grant can create sensations like hatred, alienation, division and corruption among other things, then already I can envisage what the big dollars already being thrown around by the oil and gas giant Exxon will do.

Till now our lands are yet to be properly demarcated with requests for extensions granted. It is therefore important that government realise early …the bit of land indigenous people supposedly have. Yes the bit of land is all we have. Nothing else.

One can easily understand why there is so much foot-dragging to the demarcation process. Already in recent years Ministers of Amerindian Affairs  were noted for sending toshaos back to their  villages to review their requests for extensions because they appeared to be bigger than Barbados. Also as new toshaos head village councils, increasingly they, too, are threatening villagers to take away their land and give to people who will develop them.

But it was also observed that the city council doesn’t just turn up and take someone else’s land and give to people who would better develop it. If this was so then there wouldn’t be so many vacant lots and old abandoned buildings around Georgetown.

Confiscation of property is something therefore observed to be happening only to Amerindians.

It is therefore easy to also envisage how the land grabbers will have money in abundance to buy or take away indigenous peoples’ lands and turn back and sell to them at highly exorbitant prices.

So unless something is done quickly about this very dire situation then Baramita village will not be the only village making the news but the rest of villages too.

All indigenous peoples’ land issues should therefore be properly addressed in good time before Exxon gets fully underway. Without proper planning and preparation, the example of the fellow in Sarawak who closed his door in our faces will be repeated right here in Guyana because indeed the indigenous peoples will have nowhere to go.

The presidential grant example is already bad so it will only get a million times worse.

Yours faithfully,

Penny Atkinson