On the occasion of the World Day of Indigenous Peoples, we have selected some of the most significant stories of native resistance against “progress”.
The expansion of Homo sapiens' dominion over the planet continues relentlessly. The wildest forests, owing to constant infrastructural growth, are no longer as inaccessible as they once were; vast steppes are violated by gas pipelines, and oil exploration spares not even the Arctic waters. It is, naturally, a great number of animal species that suffers under the unbearable anthropogenic pressure and habitat destruction (the planet is currently undergoing its sixth mass extinction), but they are not alone. Particularly threatened are also certain human populations which, though belonging to the dominant species, are fundamentally different from it. We are speaking of indigenous and tribal peoples — those populations who still live in a traditional manner, as their ancestors did, and who have chosen not to betray their cultural heritage, preferring to face extinction rather than conform. These people might appear to be relics of an ancient era that seems definitively over, yet that is not the case; on the contrary, as Survival reminds us, "they are our contemporaries and represent an essential part of human diversity, and when their rights are respected, they continue to thrive and carry on their ways of life, themselves in a state of continual evolution." Despite the law guaranteeing indigenous peoples territorial rights, those rights are not fully respected in any country in the world, and the majority of these populations must contend with abuse and racism, while numerous tribes are victims of more or less silent genocides, all for a handful of banknotes.
Read also: 10 most important indigenous victories of 2016
To mark the World Day of Indigenous Peoples, we have selected five stories of the stoic resistance of indigenous peoples — romantic and melancholic, given the incredible imbalance of forces at play — against the advance of what is called civilisation.
The indigenous Guaraní Kaiowá people, who live in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in the centre-west of Brazil, have been almost entirely stripped of their ancestral lands, cleared and seized by ranchers and farmers, and the indigenous people are forced to live in cramped government-established reserves on the outskirts of cities. In the face of the Brazilian government's inaction, the indigenous people have decided to peacefully reclaim their lands. But the reaction of the landowners is fierce: community leaders who reoccupy their territories are systematically killed, and the Guaraní are disappearing in a deafening silence. Ládio Veron, spokesperson for the Guaraní Kaiowá of Brazil, who came to Europe with the aim of making the abuses suffered by his people known, told us about his people's ordeal when we met him in Milan last April.
Indigenous peoples, whose lives have been intertwined with those of animals for generations, are conservationists by nature. Yet not everyone sees it that way: in the Amrabad Tiger Reserve in the state of Telangana in southern India, authorities would like to remove the native Chenchu tribe in the name of big cat conservation. According to the Indian government, the presence of indigenous people would be harmful to the tigers; the tribe has launched an appeal through an open letter, asking to remain on their lands. "The Forest Department wants to evict us from here, but we don't want to go anywhere else. Leaving would be like taking a fish out of water: it would die." While Indian officials would on the one hand like to evict the indigenous people, on the other they have approved exploration for uranium within the same reserve, giving rise to the suspicion that, at the end of the day, tigers are not their primary concern.
Survival International, the global movement for the rights of indigenous peoples, has long accused the WWF, the world's best-known conservation organisation, of funding anti-poaching units guilty of abuse and violence against Pygmy communities in central Africa. Last January, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) decided to accept the 228-page complaint filed by Survival in February 2016 and to assess the dispute between the two organisations.
According to a study presented last June in Guatemala, guaranteeing land rights to rural communities helps reduce the risk of forest fires. The researchers argue that entrusting the management of forests to local communities living in rural areas would significantly reduce the risk of fires, ensuring far more effective prevention than that provided by the government.
Rodrigo Tot, 59, is one of the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2017, an award that honours environmental activists from around the world. The man, a Guatemalan indigenous leader, led the non-violent uprising of his community against the development of a nickel mine in the El Estor region, on the shores of Lake Izabal. The area in question is of vital importance to its inhabitants, the Q'eqchi' people, descendants of the Maya, whose subsistence still depends on fishing and agriculture.