THE Indigenous people from 15 communities of the Wapichan tribe in the South Rupununi — women, youth, village leaders and elders — met in the mixed Makushi/Wapichan village of Shulinab last Wednesday and Thursday, and have joined a global campaign in support of Indigenous peoples and community land rights.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the Wapichan people disclosed that their claim is 2.8 million hectares of ancestral territory in the Rupununi Savannahs and tropical forest of the Upper Essequibo Basin.

“Since I was a little girl, I used to hear my daddy talking about the land; naming our creeks, rivers and mountains,” Elizabeth Andre of Aishalton village said. “I never believed that after all this time — which is nearly 60 years now — nothing would have been done to properly protect our territory.

“We look to our new government to take action now. We have waited long enough.”

The Wapichan people have title to about 15 percent of what they say is their ancestral territory. They say that untitled collective land remains vulnerable to aggressive land grabbing, destructive logging, and illegal mining.

Wapichan villages have, over the last two decades, stepped up their efforts to mobilise their people to protect and secure their territory against land grabbers and destructive development. According to the statement, many villagers and leaders present at the meeting called for fair and effective actions to title their collective land.

“We want all our lands titled together. We do not want divisions and gaps. We want our lands whole. My mother is very elderly. I want her to see our territory legally recognized, so she may die peacefully, knowing that our people and our future generations are secure on our collective land,” Ms Andre added.

The Wapichan people have pointed to a number of activities which threaten their way of life, including destructive mining around Marudi Mountain and the movement of Brazilian gold miners close to pristine forest areas around Blue Mountain, a sacred site of the Wapichan people.

RESPONSE
In responding to these challenges, participants have underlined the collective support of all their villages for membership of the Global Call to Action on Indigenous Community Land Rights, launched last week by Indigenous peoples, communities and a coalition of international social justice and development NGOs, including Oxfam, Rights and Resource Initiative, and Forest Peoples Programme.

Paulinus Albert, Toshao of Potarinao Village and Chairperson of the South and South Central Rupununi Districts Toshao Council, said: “By joining this global campaign for Indigenous and community land rights, our villages aim to raise the national and global profile of our long struggle for this Wapichan territory.

“We want the whole of Guyana and the world to know how much we love our land, and how we need it fully secured for our present and future generations to come.”

The gathering of the Wapichan villages applauded President David Granger for his written agreement to hold formal discussions between the government and Wapichan representative organisations on steps needed to legally secure their collective territory.

Gavin Winter, great grandson of the late Henry Winter, who had submitted the Wapichan land claim to the Amerindian Lands Commission in 1967, said: “the Independence Agreement with Britain required that issues relating to Amerindian land rights be resolved through secure land title over our traditional lands. This Agreement has still not been fully implemented. Most of our traditional Wapichan territory in the South Rupununi remains untitled and insecure. In the year of the 50th Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence, our villages want the land issue settled once and for all.

“We welcome the President’s commitment to start talks with the Wapichan people on measures to settle our land issue. We are seeking a fair, open and effective settlement process that will fully recognize our collective land rights and enable us to own, govern and control this territory that we call Wapichan wiizi.”

The Wapichan people hope to hold preliminary discussions with the government in the coming weeks, paving the way for formal talks by May. The villages are hopeful that a ‘good faith’ process can be agreed for delimitation, demarcation and titling of all of their territory, in line with Indigenous peoples’ rights and international standards.

The villages are also asking that the Norwegian-funded Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) Project, implemented by the UNDP, adopt participatory and rights-based approaches to advance land titling, to the full satisfaction of the communities and in compliance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In a speech to the villagers and Wapichan land rights campaigners, Nicholas Fredericks, Toshao of Shulinab village, said: “UNDP and Norway have to be sure that their land titling project is fully in line with our rights, as established in the Constitution of Guyana and in international treaties signed by our country.
There is a genuine opportunity now, with the land talks planned and the ALT project, to set best practice for securing Indigenous peoples’ lands and territories in Guyana and other countries…We stand ready for the talks, and we will continue to push for land rights justice for our people.”

The Wapichan people are settled in 17 communities, and make a living from small-scale farming, hunting, fishing, and gathering, combined with free-range ranching, a little cash cropping (mainly peanuts) and traditional artisanal mining for cash income.

The Wapichan villages have jointly sought full legal recognition of their lands since before Guyana gained independence from Britain in 1966. In 1967, village leaders submitted a petition for collective legal title over their entire territory, to the Amerindian Lands Commission which was tasked under the Independence Agreement to settle Amerindian land claims.