A meeting of groups representing indigenous persons earlier this month called on the new PPP/C government to honour its promise that revision of the Amerindian Act of 2006 is a priority.
A statement from the meeting held from December 16 – 18 by the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the National Toshaos Council (NTC) said that the revision of the Amerindian Act continues to be a high priority for Indigenous peoples in Guyana.
The consortium of Indigenous leaders will present a joint statement to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai indicating their collective decision that the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 is of the utmost importance.
Among the groups at the meeting were the Moruca District Council (MDC) Region 1; Hinterland Affairs Committee (HAC) Region 2; Upper Mazaruni District Council (UMDC) Region 7; North Pakaraimas District Council (NPDC) Region 8; North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), Kanuku Mountain Community Representative Group (KMCRG), South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) of Region 9; and the Region 10 Regional Toshaos Council (RTC).
Also present the statement said were representatives from the Mabaruma sub-region, Matarkai sub-region, Middle Mazaruni, Lower Mazaruni and the Potaro region where there are no district council bodies.
As part of the meeting, the Indigenous leaders discussed recommendations for the proposed revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 done previously and submitted to the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ in 2019. Among these recommendations are amendments to existing provisions that relate to land titling, Free, Prior and Informed Consent and village governance.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the statement said that President of the APA, Lemmel Benson Thomas reminded participants that as indigenous peoples they are responsible for their way of life, as such, they must chart their own ways of doing so.
“Our political landscape is changing; our economies are changing, socially our lives are changing but, we have to adapt to it,” Thomas said.
The statement traced the evolution of attempts at revision of the Amerindian Act. It said that in March 2017, the APA and the NTC jointly facilitated activities aimed at jumpstarting the process. This it said was further galvanized by the public commitment from the former APNU+AFC government to have the Amerindian Act 2006 revised.
As a result, the APA and the NTC had also trained resource persons to conduct work on the revision of the Amerindian Act among other areas.
After the training sessions and discussions, rounds were made to clusters of villages in Regions 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9, to receive recommendations for revision of the Act.
The draft recommendations coming from these sessions were further validated at the cluster and district council meetings, and then put into matrices.
Around the same time, the statement noted that the then government also conducted some national consultations on the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 even though they later reported that they were unable to go into all of the regions.
The indigenous grouping was able to make a joint presentation of these recommendations to the then Junior Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe in the presence of their advisors in June 2019.
Never took place
It was also decided that once the APNU+AFC government had concluded their consultations, they would meet with stakeholders to discuss the next steps. However, the statement said that this meeting never took place. Additionally, there were limitations on what the government could have done after December 2018 because of the implications of the vote of No Confidence that effectively made the Coalition government a “caretaker government”.
The statement pointed out that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), before its subsequent election to office, had also made public promises to have the Amerindian Act 2006 revised and this was also included in their manifesto in the run-up to the general elections of March 2020.
The indigenous groups say that they understand that the passage of an emergency budget by the new government for 2020 could not see budgetary allocation made for work on the revision of the Amerindian Act and that this was not taken as an unwillingness of the government to do anything about it.
“Instead, it is more seen as a delay until the new budget is passed, and so the new government is called upon to show its commitment to its promise that revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 is a priority”, the statement said.
To this end, several organizations including the APA, NTC, UMDC, NPDC and SRDC have since met with the current Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Sukhai, and have discussed the revision of the Act as part of their general discussions with her. Among other things, this has seen a general response that “the revision can take place once there is a call from a wide cross-section of villages and once it adds to the rights of Indigenous Peoples”.
As it relates to their next steps, the statement said that the consortium of Indigenous leaders will present a joint statement to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, indicating their collective decision that the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 is of the highest priority. Additionally, they will also seek a meeting with the Minister to present their proposal.
“The revision of the Amerindian Act continues to be a high priority for Indigenous peoples in Guyana as many, including the members of the APA are of the firm belief that the Amerindian Act 2006, does not thoroughly recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and does not meet international standards and the provisions of our own constitution”, the statement asserted.
