The following video clip is from “Sa Ngalan ng Mina?” (In the Name of Mining) a film that shows how politicians in the Philippines have been selling the country’s natural resources to foreign mining companies, and how those companies are impacting the environment and the cultures and livelihoods of Indigenous People. This particular clip focuses on the exploits of Canadian mining firm Toronto Ventures, Inc (TVI) in Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.
TVI’s operations are said to be “one of the most shameful of the existing mining operations encroaching on IP lands;” and “one of the more well documented cases of a firm literally out-muscling local opposition to its practices. The area is likewise heavily militarized.”
In 1994, TVI occupied Mount Canatuan, a sacred site for the Subanen People. The occupation was approved by the government, however TVI did not have the consent (FPIC) of the Subanen. A few …
The Crimean Tatars are Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula, now a part of Ukraine, for over seven centuries. During World War II, the entire Tatar population was unjustly accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to Central Asia and other lands in the Soviet Union.
In 1967 a Soviet decree removed the charges against the Tatars, but the government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement or to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property.
In the early 1990s, the Tatars began to return to their land, only to find their estates occupied by the state and Slav settlers. Today more than 250,000 Tatars are back home, struggling to reestablish their lives and reclaim their lands and rights.
Evictions and Violence
In recent months, ethnic tensions have been rising in Crimea, “laying the ground work for a bloodbath …
Earlier this month, a leader from the Kayapó delivered a letter to Brazil’s President, expressing a deep concern about a bill currently being debated in the Brazilian parliament which threatens to open up indigenous territories to mining and other development projects.
The letter, signed by 78 People from the Kayapó, Panará, Tapajuna and Yudjá Nations, warns that they will not accept mining on their lands without permission from the community; that they “do not want the entry of miners, miners, loggers, fishermen and any intruders into our territories.”
They also repeated their opposition to the hydroelectric dams the government plans to build on the Xingu river and its tributaries, stating ‘We will not allow the construction of these hydroelectric dams, …
For those of you who may not have had the chance to listen to the live online broadcast of the Border Summit, here’s a good 20 hours of audio for you. A big thanks goes out to Earth Cycles for recording and making the audio available on their site.
A few days ago, the 2nd Indigenous Border Summit came to an end in the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation.
The Summit brought together delegates and traditional authorities of 19 Indigenous Nations to exchange experiences and information about how the international borders impact their respective communities; and to create a way to unite Indigenous Peoples’ to address and resolve issues of mutual concern.
Participants talked about border policy and human rights violations, the startling number of migrant deaths, the pending Apartheid Wall, and land encroachment issues, among other border-related matters.
A …
The situation has quited now, but for the past week violence has gripped the Nandigram region of West Bengal, India. Under the guise of “cleansing” the area of political rivalry, cadres said to be hired by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) began entering village after village; burning houses, forcibly occupying land, and destroying crops. Dozens if not hundreds of people were attacked, killed and even raped.
It all started on November 6, after several gunshots were fired at local farmers belonging to the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC, Anti Displacement Committee) a group that formed to resist government attempts to seize farmland for industry. In retaliation, some armed supporters of the BUPC fired back at the cadres. At least nine people were killed.
Once the CIP-M onslaught began, supporters of the BUPC fled in the thousands as their homes were …
During the 14th Malaysian Law Conference, held two weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur, it would seem the lawyers got a bit of an education about indigenous life and the challenges facing the Indigenous People of Malaysia.
In the morning of the final day of the conference, there was a session entitled “Orang Asli and Our Constitution – Protecting Indigenous Customs and Cultural Rights.”
The first speaker in the hour was Dr. Ramy Bulan, from the Centre for Legal Pluralism and Indigenous Law at the University of Malaya. Dr. Bulan explained to the roomful of lawyers that the preservation and maintenance of the Orang Asli’s culture was fundamental to their existence and identity–that it must be safeguarded, and that the government must ensure they benefit from development projects.
Then, Tijah Yok Chopil, a woman simply listed as an Orang Asli representative from Bidor, Perak …
Teardrops Of Karnaphuli (Karnaphuli Kanna) tells the story of a dam that was constructed in the Karnaphuli region of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and the resulting impoverishment and suffering that was brought on to local inhabitants. About 100,000 people were evicted from their land during 1959-1962.
This is but one of perhaps thousands of stories about the struggles of the Jumma People, who have since the 1970s gone from being nearly the sole inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts to being minorities on their own land. This film also discusses this situation, describing how the Bangladesh government has been settling people from outside the region, and how that campaign laid the basis for protracted instability and human rights violations.
Unfortunately, the settlement campaign is ongoing. In recent months, the military has been offering cash incentives - along with the …
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