The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and 10th General Assembly during March 4th to 6th, 2019 at Camp Kayuka, Linden-Soesdyke Highway, Region 4.
A press release yesterday from the APA said that this year also marks twenty-eight years since its establishment and the year also marks the United Nations declared “International Year of Indigenous Languages” which Guyana is also observing.
“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!”, the release said.
The release added that the APA’s General Assembly is the largest decision-making forum of the organization.
According to the release, 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 organization will continue to focus on during this Assembly.
The organization will also be holding elections for office bearers of its Execu-tive Committee. These persons will come from the membership of the Association drawn predominantly from Region 1- Barima/Waini, Region 2- Pomeroon/ Supenaam, Region 7-Cuyuni/Mazaruni, Region 8- Potaro/Siparuni and Region 9- Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo.
The APA was established 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 organization to represent their concerns particularly as they were not being addressed by the government. These issues included natural resources exploitation on traditional Indigenous lands by large mining and logging companies and various forms of human right abuse including police brutality.
The organisation held its inaugural General Assembly in Georgetown in 1992 and has since held nine others, the last at St. Cuthbert’s (Pakuri), Region 4.
