2

Hunter-gathering Lifestyle Is An Archaic Fantasy

Bushman child, Botswana / Photo by Survival

Botswana’s High Court affirmed on 13 December 2006 that the government’s eviction of the Bushmen was ‘unlawful and unconstitutional’, and that they have the right to live on their ancestral land inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). The court also ruled that the Bushmen have the right to hunt and gather in the reserve. But President Khama said in his recent state of the nation address, ‘The notion… that they [the Bushmen] wish to subsist today on the basis of a hunter-gathering lifestyle is an archaic fantasy.’

One of the judges making the 2006 ruling said that the government’s refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt ‘was tantamount to condemning the residents of the CKGR to death by starvation.’ Yet two years after the ruling, the government has not issued the Bushmen with a single licence to hunt inside the reserve.  A Bushman spokesman said, ‘Hunting is not out of date. We want to be hunters and gatherers today. This is the best way for us to survive in the Kalahari.’

Diamond mine on Bushman land gets government approval on condition Bushmen receive no water

The Botswana government has approved plans for a diamond mine on the Bushmen’s land, on the condition that the mining company Gem Diamonds does not provide the Bushmen with water. It has banned the Bushmen from using a water borehole at one of their communities, but is allowing a nearby tourist lodge to pump water for its guests.

Gem Diamonds claims that the Bushmen are in favour of the mine, but the Bushmen have had no independent advice on its probable impact.  A consulting firm visited the Bushmen earlier this year, supposedly to obtain their views on diamond mining on their land. The company’s project manager joined the board of Gem Diamonds soon after the project ended, calling the impartiality of the consultation process into serious question.

Botswana’s President Khama is a board member of the US-based conservation organisation Conservation International.

0

Andaman Tribesman In Fatal Conflict With Poachers

Jarawa, Andaman Islands / Photo by Survival International

A Jarawa man, named Hotelle and thought to be about 18 years old, was severely beaten in the conflict on 19 November. He was last seen struggling to keep afloat whilst the poachers continued to attack him. One of the fishermen was also killed by members of the tribe.  Police have arrested the poachers.

The poachers were camping near one of the Jarawa’s huts. When the Jarawa demanded some of the fish that had been caught in their reserve, the fishermen threw boiling water at them and beat them with sticks. The Jarawa killed one of the fishermen with their arrows, and the fishermen attacked a Jarawa man by beating him when he jumped into a river in an attempt to escape. The invasion of their land by poachers poses a serious threat to the Jarawa, who number 320 and have only had friendly contact with the outside world since 1998. Poachers risk bringing in diseases to which the Jarawa have no immunity, and are rapidly depleting the wild foods on which the Jarawa are totally dependent. Entry to the Jarawa reserve by outsiders is illegal without a special permit, but poaching is now widespread.

“This tragedy must surely galvanise the Indian government to act to keep poachers off the Jarawa’s land. The Jarawa have hunted and fished on their land for 60,000 years, but the number of poachers has become so great that they pose a serious threat to the tribe’s survival. Now two men have died in the conflict. Poaching must not be allowed to continue.”

- Stephen Corry, Director, Survival International

Further information:

• For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (+44) 20 7687 8734 or (+44) 7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org
• Watch the first-ever filmed interview with a Jarawa talking about the invasion of their land by poachers.
• Read more about the Jarawa tribe.

2

Indigenous Leader In Ecuador Recalls First Contact

Ehenguime Enqueri Niwa, from the Waorani tribe, spoke publicly at a high-profile conference in Paraguay intendeding to help protect other tribes from suffering a similar fate to his own.

‘We were contacted by American missionaries,’ Enqueri recalled. ‘They made us wear clothes. That was when the polio arrived. It affected all of our group. Only 30 people escaped. Everyone was so angry.  ‘Wao, our language, is being lost. Our culture is not being practiced. The education we receive is in Spanish. We feel like we’re disappearing.  ‘We are against making contact with uncontacted tribes. They live peacefully, with their own way of life and their own food.  ‘It’s identical to what is happening in Peru. For centuries the Waorani have defended their territories, but now the biggest threats are oil exploration, loggers and miners.’

The Waorani were contacted in the 1940s by American missionaries. Enqueri’s father was one of the first members of the tribe to be contacted and was also involved in the killing of five of the missionaries – an event that made world headlines at the time.  The conference in Paraguay was organised by CIPIACI, a federation of indigenous organisations set up to protect uncontacted tribes in South America.

1

Electricity Consumers. Meet The Enawene Nawe Tribe

Construction in progress / Photo by Survival

The Enawene Nawe are a small Amazonian tribe in an area of savannah and tropical rainforest in Mato Grosso state, western Brazil. They are a relatively isolated people first contacted in 1974 by Jesuit missionaries. Today they number around 500 and live in large communal houses or malocas that radiate out from a central square where ritual and communal activities are performed. They chose for many years to have very little interaction with the outside world, but threats to their land have led them to campaign vigorously for their rights. The Enawene Nawe say the 77 hydroelectric dams to be built on the River Juruena will pollute the water and stop fish reaching their spawning grounds.

During the fishing season the men build dams across rivers in this area and spend several months camped in the forest, catching and smoking the fish which is then transported by canoe to their village. Fish is an essential part of the Enawene Nawe diet and plays a vital part in rituals such as Yãkwa, a four-month exchange of food between humans and spirits.  The Enawene Nawe also grow manioc and corn in gardens and gather forest products. Honey gathering is celebrated in keteoko (the honey feast) when men collect large amounts of wild honey in the forest and hide it on their return to the village, only revealing it when the women start to dance. Unusually for an Amazonian tribe, they do not hunt or eat red meat.  Most of their land was officially recognised in 1996, but this crucial area called the Rio Preto where they gather to fish was left out.

Land invasion is destroying the forest and polluting the land and rivers

For decades the Enawene Nawe have faced invasion of their lands by rubber tappers, diamond prospectors, cattle ranchers and more recently soya planters, all destroying the forest and polluting the land and rivers. Maggi, the largest soya company in Brazil illegally built a road on their land in 1997. This was subsequently closed by a federal prosecutor. Blairo Maggi who owns the soya company is also the governor of Mato Grosso state who are now building this vast complex of hydroelectric dams upriver from the Rio Preto.

“They are at a critical point in their history. Either the deforestation of the Rio Preto area and the dams are stopped or the Enawene Nawe will no longer be able to fish, which is crucial to their survival, their beliefs and their relationship with the spirit world.”

- Survival

You can read more about the plight of the Enawene Nawe on the Survival website.  Survival supports a land protection project run by the Enawene Nawe and the Brazilian non-governmental organisation OPAN.  A short film on their Tribal Channel, shows how the Enawene Nawe rely on the forest and the rivers, and tells how their ancestral spirits will respond to the destruction of their land.

0

Destruction Of People & Planet In West Papua

Photo by Survival International

Papua is home to around 312 different tribes, including some uncontacted peoples. The central mountainous region of Papua is home to the highland peoples, who practice pig husbandry and sweet potato cultivation. The lowland peoples live in swampy and malarial coastal regions, and live by hunting the abundant game, and gathering. Some of the many Papuan tribal languages are related to others, but some are completely unique. The people are ethnically distinct from the Indonesians who control their country.  All the Papuan peoples have suffered greatly under the Indonesian occupation which began in 1963.  Papua’s natural resources are being exploited at great profit for the Indonesian government and foreign businesses, but at the expense of the Papuan peoples and their homelands.

The mining and logging industries have brought environmental destruction and social catastrophe to West Papua’s tribal people. They have also brought the military, which supports many of the businesses, and provides protection for others. The armed forces have an appalling reputation for human rights violations against the tribes.  This industrial development is now also responsible for the spread of the deadly HIV virus. Most of the cases of HIV/AIDS in West Papua can be traced back to the commercial sex industry, which has sprung up around logging and mining projects.  A recent investigation by the Al Jazeera programme ‘101 East’ has shown the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis amongst the tribal people of West Papua, Indonesia.  West Papua has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate outside Africa. 3% of the population are now infected with the virus, and experts fear that by 2025 that figure will rise to 7%. Of every four people who are infected, three are indigenous, even though almost half of those now living in the province are outsiders.

A study in 2001 found that more than a quarter of prostitutes tested were HIV positive. Papuan men, drawn to these industries for work, have now taken HIV/AIDS back to their villages. Official figures put the HIV/AIDS figures at 15 times the Indonesian national average, but field workers say the real figure is closer to 50 times.  The Papuans have suffered years of violence and brutality at the hands of the Indonesian military. As a result, many tribal people blame the government and the military for introducing sex workers infected with HIV, and for failing to take adequate measures to halt the spread of the disease.  Much government treatment and awareness raising about the disease is failing to reach the Papuans – most is centred in the towns, which are dominated by the Indonesian outsiders. Many worry that the epidemic is even worse than feared because so few people in the remote areas have ever been tested, or are even aware of how to prevent the disease.

You can read more about the plight of the Papuan Tribes on the Survival website.  Survival is calling on the Indonesian government to enter into dialogue with the Papuan people so that they are able to decide their own way of life and their future.