– Environmentalist, human rights advocate Jean La Rose

By Shirley Thomas
Jean La Rose has an amazing track record of success in advocating for the rights of the indigenous peoples, and she does it with pride and purpose.

An indefatigable fighter for human rights, Jean La Rose, Programme Administrator of the Amerindian People’s Association, has been advocating for land tenure and security of indigenous people for more than 25 years and sees that connection as sine qua non.
Testament to that is the fact that after serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Guyana National Newspapers Ltd, for just under one year, she has resigned that position, citing the need to dedicate more time to the work of the APA.
La Rose is taking up a new appointment as Executive Director of the APA.
Serving at the helm of the struggle for indigenous peoples full rights to traditional lands, La Rose coordinated the first indigenous land rights lawsuit in Guyana to protect streams, rainforests and endangered indigenous communities harmed by mining.
She has travelled extensively around Guyana and internationally in pursuit of this cause. Her travels have taken her to the US Congress in pursuit of recognition and justice for the indigenous peoples of Guyana.
For her work, she has since won several awards and accolades, including the Goldman Environmental Award for South America in 2002 and Guyana’s prestigious Golden Arrow of Achievement (A.A.), which was conferred upon her by President David Granger at the 2015 Investiture Ceremony.
Outside of Guyana, she’s been to other parts of the Amazon, the Panama Canal, Ecuador and many American indigenous territories where farming is done.
Whilst her travels were many and her experiences varied – both local and internationally – La Rose claims she was most fascinated by her tours around Guyana.
“I’ve been way down South in the Wai-Wai territory of Essequibo, Phillipai, climbed the Chai Chai mountains, walked the Savannah to get to Chenawing, traveled for days on the river, moving from one community to the next. I’ve traversed the savannahs of the Rupununi, been on the Iwokrama canopy walkway and just recently travelled to the North Pakaraimas in Region Nine. I’ve done it,” she said with a feeling on contentment.
What probably prepared her for all those jungle treks were her childhood activities of playing in the Moruca Savannahs and swimming for hours in the river.
And now she is looking forward to the adventure of travelling from Georgetown to Lethem by road.
Reflecting on her years of struggles and challenges as she advocated for the rights of indigenous peoples across Guyana, Jean proudly acknowledges the support of her daughter, Soroya Simmons, now 20, a third year student of the University of Guyana, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Rehabilitation Physiotherapy. Soroya is also a national swimmer.
“I am proud to say that she’s stood my through it all, growing up and understanding what the issues were and understanding and appreciating that my intensions were always good – even when the job took me away from her for prolonged periods,” La Rose said.
The fifth of seven siblings to Jenevieve La Rose and Benson La Rose, Jean was born, grew up and educated at Santa Rosa Mission, Moruca in the Barima Waini region.
Her grandfather, Bertie La Rose, an Indigenous village captain and also a successful shopkeeper, left a proud legacy which specified that his children and by extension, his grandchildren should all move on to Georgetown and attend High Schools, noting that education was the key to life.
And so, her father Benson, who died when she was just four, moved on to Central High School in Georgetown, in pursuit of higher education. Pathetically, her mother also passed on in 2006, but by then Jean was already firmly grounded in education.
At age 14, she won a Hinterland Scholarship and travelled to Georgetown where she attended South Georgetown Secondary School. She later attended the University of Guyana from whence she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in History.
Other strides the APA made through La Rose’s intervention included:
• Fighting, in the early 1990s, against large multinational companies, particularly Barama, with regard to the effects of their production on Amerindian lands
• Getting the government to place a moratorium on mining concessions. Even though it did not last for too long, it was put into effect
• Paving the way for engaging multinational companies such as the World Bank with regard to Indigenous Land Rights and the consequences of mining on indigenous communities – socially, economically and otherwise. La Rose highlighted all the possible threats and human rights violations
• Highlighting the disadvantages of expanding the Kaieteur National Park as was being resolutely pursued by the then President Janet Jagan and the implication for the livelihood of the indigenous peoples living in the community
• Land titling (which is still ongoing), and demarcation, which was seriously displacing residents from lands they previously occupied, leaving them on naked lands, minus their hard earned gains (agricultural produce)
• Re-examining the issue of the lack of emphasis on indigenous culture, citing that in schools, children are being taught about other cultures at the expense of reinforcing their own. This they feel, will ultimately cause the indigenous people to lose the worth of their own culture.
• Pointing out the ills of the Protected Areas Systems, targeting about six areas, including Shell Beach, the Kanuku Mountains, Kaieteur National Park, Deep South in the Wai Wai communities. The APA applied pressure on government and highlighted the infringements on indigenous rights. La Rose said they cautioned the World Bank on the detrimental effects of going ahead with projects planned for those areas, in the absence of Legislation to protect the indigenous peoples. As a result, the World Bank pulled back on some of the projects they had planned supporting, in the interest of the livelihood and well-being of the indigenous peoples. Other works planned, while couched in development, had the potential to have negative consequences, infringing on people’s land rights, creating greater access for narco-trafficking, banditry, trafficking in persons, as well as greater pressure on animal life upon which the indigenous communities depend for hunting; fishing and their waterways.

Indefatigable and fervently doing what she set herself to do on behalf of the indigenous community, La Rose (for obvious reasons) would prefer not to be said of, as “championing” their cause.
“I just want to say that I was doing what I know is right,” she modestly asserted.
But the overarching need is for other people to have respect for the indigenous community’s wishes, she concluded.