Dear Editor,
I am not convinced that the Parliamentary Natural Resources Committee and the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples Affairs will be able to work together for the betterment of Indigenous communities if they can’t find common ground to facilitate the revision of the Amerindian Act.
The subject of mining has always been a matter of serious concern for Indigenous communities. It has been raised many times by representatives of various communities of the Middle Mazaruni, Upper Mazaruni and North West, among many others. In fact, most of these meetings were tightly controlled by the former Ministry of Amerindian Affairs which promoted the ruling party political agenda and sidelined many vocal village leaders in favour of those who offered praise and political support to the former administration.
The current executive body of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) must not continue to allow political interference; the NTC must be a strong and independent organization.
Editor, where mining is concerned Indigenous communities like Isseneru, Kako, Micobie, Chinese Landing, Arau and many others have experience of how adverse the Amerindian Act can be when it comes to Indigenous land rights in relation to mining. Politicians are influential people who will resort to political games to make the revision of the Amerindian Act look like it was only being done for a handful of villages. This is not true; many communities have been demanding the revision of the Act.
However, village leaders, Indigenous rights advocates and organizations must take a stand to show the realities of the situation in Amerindian communities, and represent them.
Editor, I disagree with these politicians when they had the question and answer segment of their presentations on large-scale mining in villages that support their respective political parties, and said there is no large-scale mining on Amerindian lands at present. The truth is not being told; Indigenous Peoples Affairs is well aware that the GGMC had granted prospecting licences to a company to do uranium drilling in the Mazaruni area, including on Amerindian lands. If mining is to commence to extract uranium, specialized equipment will have to be used; is that not termed large-scale mining?
Will the Amerindian Act have the power to protect communities if the government gives the mining rights to the conglomerate? The answer is no. There is no exemption of Amerindian communities under the current Amerindian Act to safeguard them from large-scale mining.
However, more details have to be provided by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs to persuade the opposition that it will be in the Amerindians’ best interest or else the opposition will always have an excuse to play political games.
Editor, if these politicians had taken the time to visit the Middle Mazaruni, they would have realized that the issue of large-scale mining may not be in Regions One and Nine, but in an area which does not support government policies that work against them.
As Indigenous peoples, we look forward to the betterment of our communities. Political, racial and economic barriers are being broken and should remain in the past where Guyanese politicians hoped to keep us divided on the basis of ethnicity.
Yours faithfully,
Dwight Larson
Isseneru Village
