– advancement of Indigenous rights primary focus

THE Amerindian People’s Association (APA) will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and 10th General Assembly (GA) next week, and will place major emphasis on the advancement of Indigenous rights in Guyana.

The General Assembly will be held from March 4th to 6th at Camp Kayuka on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
In a press statement on Wednesday, APA said 2019 marks 28 years since its establishment and the milestone coincides with the United Nations declared “International Year of Indigenous Languages.”

“We see this year’s focus on indigenous languages as an opportune time to examine how far we have come and how we would like to move forward in the years ahead and have integrated the United Nations theme into that of our Assembly, “Our Land, Our Languages, Our way of Life!,” APA said.

APA’s General Assembly is the largest decision-making forum of the organisation. It is where members from the various APA units located across the country come together to agree on the future plans of the organisation, and to discuss and address key issues affecting Indigenous peoples in Guyana, the association explained.

Good governance, the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006, the reinforcement of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and land titling and demarcation of Indigenous communities are among issues that the organisation will continue to focus on during this Assembly. According to the APA, these subject areas remain critical for the advancement of Indigenous peoples across Guyana.

The organisation will also be conducting elections for office bearers of its executive committee. These persons will come from the membership of the Association drawn predominantly from Region One- Barima/Waini, Region Two Pomeroon/Supenaam, Region 7-Cuyuni/Mazaruni, Region 8- Potaro/Siparuni and Region 9- Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo. APA’s membership comes from APA Units throughout Guyana.

The APA was formed in 1991 at a conference for Indigenous leaders in Georgetown. “These leaders had met to discuss various problems affecting their communities and felt that there was the need for an independent organisation to represent their issues especially as they were not being addressed by the government. Such issues included natural resources exploitation on traditional Indigenous lands by large mining and logging companies and various forms of human rights abuse, including police brutality,” APA explained.

The APA was therefore formed to actively support community initiatives to address human rights violations and to work towards improving the general conditions of the Indigenous peoples of Guyana. The APA was first led by a Steering Committee, which later became the Executive Committee. The organisation held its first General Assembly in Georgetown in 1992 and has since held nine others, the last at St. Cuthbert’s Mission (Pakuri), Region Four.