– Minister Sukhai says in International Day of Indigenous Peoples message

INTERNATIONAL Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was on Wednesday celebrated under the theme, “Indigenous youth as agents of change for self-determination.”

Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai related in a message for International Day of Indigenous Peoples that the government of Guyana is invested in ensuring that it hones and builds the skills and capacity of youths.

“Indigenous youths are primary targets in this developmental approach towards furthering meaningful change and development in their villages and communities,” she said.

According to her, Indigenous youths have been taking their rightful place in advocacy and as agents for change in the promotion of Indigenous peoples’ rights in Guyana.

“More and more, we are seeing indigenous youths being voted into offices and endowed with decision-making powers as Toshaos and Councillors. At the national level, the President of Guyana, recognising the huge power youths have as agents of change, has established a National Youth Council with advisory powers to ensure that there is inclusivity, encapsulating the indigenous youthful voice in policy making at the highest level,” she explained.

Through the Youth Entrepreneurship and Apprenticeship Programme, youths are provided with valuable capacity-building opportunities through training in small engine repairs, tractor driving and maintenance, garment construction, empowerment and tourism and hospitality.

These youths have returned to their respective villages to boost their agriculture production and community transportation needs.

Additionally, she said that access to quality education has a key role to play in Amerindian development, which is why there are continued efforts by the Government to ensure all Hinterland students have access to education through online and national scholarships.

“The Hinterland Scholarship Programme being implemented by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs has produced a remarkable number of young professionals and advocates in indigenous issues. This programme, as well as the tertiary dormitory, continues to be widely utilised by our indigenous youths to ultimately enable them to become the catalysts of change and advocacy through education,” she related.

Further, she said that in Guyana there continues to be significant strides being made in ensuring the rights of Indigenous people are fully promoted and realised.

This is seen through the Amerindian Act 2006 which specifically seeks to protect and promote the rights of our Amerindian peoples.

“Significantly, the Amerindian Act 2006 sets out the process for legal recognition of Indigenous people’s traditional lands, a process that is funded by the State. Any path to self-determination by Indigenous people is paved through ownership of their lands; land is an indispensable part of Indigenous peoples’ identity,” Minister Sukhai noted.

To date, there are 106 titled villages in Guyana, as the government remains committed to ensuring land tenure for Amerindians.

The Amerindian Land Titling Project is mandated to furthering land security for indigenous people collectively in Guyana, which she said is the first, and perhaps most important step towards recognising our Indigenous peoples and to promoting self-determination.

Moreover, taking the theme into consideration, she noted that the elders of communities have an extremely valuable role to play in preserving traditional knowledge and of equal importance is the role that youths have to play in the same way.

“While there exists traditional knowledge, it is absolutely quintessential that there be in place a relationship between the elderly and the youths to ensure there is transmission of and ultimately preservation of indigenous knowledge,” Minister Sukhai said.

She related that in the conversation on self-determination, the National Toshaos Council is the duly authorised and statutorily established Indigenous people’s leadership body comprising all Toshaos, which has seen the growing inclusion of youth representation in its core executive membership as elected by the wider body.