28 August 2006

Addendum: Caribs & Santa Rosa, 2006

This is an addendum to the previous post--my apologies for the omission, but I suspect I was already trying to forget this:

I had forgotten to bring attention to one of the other gems of exaggeration and distorted representation featured by the church, and its radio commentator, during this mass. Soon after the mass commenced, I was initially delighted, though a bit puzzled, to hear of "the proclamation of the gospel in Amerindian", and that the whole congregation would be involved in making this proclamation. In "Amerindian"? The entire congregation would do so? I wondered what that could mean. Well, what it means in fact is that the church's own choir would now play at being Amerindian, and without much in the way of effort or imagination either. What they did was to set the Hallelujah chorus to stereotypical tom-tom music. My personal recommendation to the church and its choir: leave the job of being Amerindian to the Amerindians.

Phony Amerindian Hallelujah

27 August 2006

Caribs and the Santa Rosa Festival, 2006

Today, Sunday, was the celebration of the 220th anniversary of the Santa Rosa Festival in Arima, Trinidad. Given confusion over dates, this anniversary has actually been claimed previously, but now it seems that more people are certain, for now, that this indeed is the 220th anniversary. The event was also special in that it was carried live by radio and over the Internet, courtesy of Trinidad and Tobago's I 95.5 FM. It has been a couple of years now that on each Santa Rosa feast day (that is, on the Sunday closest to August 23rd) that this radio station has broadcast the entire three-hour ceremony live. And when I say the entire ceremony, I mean that it also gives full play to the many, very lengthy, hymns, which can be a real "listening challenge" for those who are not especial devotees of this musical genre.

This article, part polemic, part exposition, is built around a selection of audio files that were edited from the larger broadcast. The files are in mp3 format. When clicking on each link below, you can choose to save the file to your computer and listen to it later and/or click the "open" button on the popup box that will appear when clicking on the links, and play it with your computer's designated audio player.

Introduction
A member of the Santa Rosa Roman Catholic Parish in Arima served as commentator. Like other members of this parish, she proclaimed it to be the "largest Catholic parish in the Caribbean" (by this I assume she meant the English-speaking Caribbean alone--sometimes people in the Anglophone Caribbean forget that the Spanish speaking, Roman Catholic, giants like Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are also in the Caribbean).

The Santa Rosa Festival certainly seems to have aquired an air of significance in recent years when, at the best of times, a newspaper article about the Festival, maybe even on the front page of the dailies, would be all one could expect to find in terms of national coverage. The significance of the event must have been heightened enough to be covered by commercial radio, especially since a mass is not something that can be easily covered live, and the sportscast-like commentary is sometimes intrusive, even if necessary.

The commentator began by framing the Festival as one of especial importance to the Caribs of Arima, and she also noted who was present in the crowd, paying especial attention to Queen Valentina Medina (who was recently popularized as a massive Carnival costume, titled "My Love for Carib Queen Valentina Medina"). This theme, that of the Caribs' historical ties to the festival, would go on a roller coaster ride of dramatic shifts in signification throughout the mass, repeatedly highlighted and then downplayed. My personal belief is that this Catholic church is unwilling to admit to itself that the main reason anyone outside the parish might show even passing interest is due to the Carib presence--otherwise, the mass itself can be rather ho-hum and like any other Catholic mass in Trinidad.


Controlling Information
The Roman Catholic Church in Arima is very diligent about controlling information and authorizing only those perspectives that favour it the most, which will doubtfully surprise many. The Santa Rosa Festival is no exception. On the one hand, the parish has recently begun to utilize the Web, launching its own Santa Rosa RC website.
Santa Rosa RC Church Website
Messages there are reinforced by a broader, national publication, The Catholic News, which also covers Arima events in occasional articles on its own
website. On the other hand, by selecting a parishioner, a non-Carib, as the radio commentator, this also allows the Church an inside edge, that is, an edge over the Caribs who are politely treated as mute participants from whom, and about whom, we rarely hear during the ceremony itself. Over the years, the Church has utilized the Festival to offer sermons that seem to promote a very basic theme, one that could be summarized as: "you aren't Caribs now so much as Catholics, and Trinidadians, so forget the past and remember your devotion to the Church." Sometimes the message is subtle, and sometimes it is abrasive and blunt, like today's ceremony by chief celebrant Father Clyde Harvey, although even here, as we shall hear, the message can sound quite confused, perhaps deliberately so.

As usual, the Church had one of its stalwarts lecture people on the "true" history of the Santa Rosa Mission, an event offered in the run up to this year's Festival. While the Church is keen to prop up its own amateur and unpublished "authority" on the Caribs, the Caribs themselves are routinely denied any voice. You can only look at them, but don't speak to them...and they have nothing to say anyway, right? Indeed, in 1998, as I attended the festivities in the Carib Centre, I heard the parish priest advise visitors to speak to this supposed expert--"she is the authority on the Caribs"--and he said so right in the presence of a mass of Caribs who, rest assured, have a thing or two to say about themselves. His absence, however, has not changed either the tone or the slant of the Church's own enforced whitewashing of history.

After all, the Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago is an especially conservative and defensive one. Unlike Catholic Churches in other nations, this one is particularly unrepentant about its own history of exploitation of Amerindians (using them as labour to plant and harvest cocoa for commercial export) and abuses (which in one case led to the famous 1699 uprising). This is not a Church that says "sorry"--ever. We should also bear in mind known cases where the Catholic Church in Trinidad covered up for priests who sexually abused minors, removing them to other parishes, or other dioceses, rather than defrocking them. We "lay people," however, living in our state of perpetual sin (although since God knowingly created Satan, created evil, someone please explain why we are the ones who are guilty of "sin"), we are required to be perpetually asking for forgiveness.


The message of submission in today's mass began with one of the first readings from the Bible, an astonishing passage given popular social transformations since the 1960s, in that it emphasized submission to the Church as shaping, and being shaped by, the total and unquestioning submission of a wife to her husband (or perhaps the submission of a little boy to a priest). A morning of speeches from the pulpit began with patriarchy and ended up in colonialism, assimilation, and then ethnically-cleansed nationalism.


Controlling the Setting
The Santa Rosa RC Church also has a curious, but hardly shocking, way of controlling the setting for the Festival, as if to remind everyone that this, at the end of the day, is a Catholic festival and not a Carib one. This brushes aside the Caribs' own belief that Saint Rose of Lima is their special intercessor, one who appeared to them, as legend has it, and is very particular to their Mission history...indeed, that is how the Festival came to be in the first place, via the Indian Mission of Arima. So while the Caribs may be used by the Church as a selling point, they are not meant to be the ending point.

"Selling" brings other issues to mind. This year, as has happened on occasion in the past, the Church decided to compete with the Santa Rosa Carib Community on the platform of the sale of lunches after the Santa Rosa High Mass. Given that the Caribs have always offered lunch to parishioners at their Community Centre, and rely heavily on the revenue generated from such sales, it seems odd that the Church, with greater resources, should now need to specialize in selling lunches. Do churches normally offer "take out"? Such a move can only financially hurt the Carib Community and work to further marginalize it, at the same time that the Church claims to be celebrating the Caribs, even posting a picture of them on their website's front page.

For at least four years now the Church has decided to keep the core of the mass under a tent adjacent to the Church (although from what I understood this year was different). Why this was necessary is a mystery: inside the Church sat parishioners, comfortably watching on a giant flat screen the proceedings that were transpiring just outside. Why couldn't the mass take place inside the Church and have the excess number of people outside to watch the giant screen under the tent? It's not an arrangement that pleased many Caribs: the subtle message appeared to be that circuses take place under tents, and Caribs are welcome as performers outside the Church. Given that the very large numbers of Caribs who have left the Roman Catholic Church and joined other denominations, along with those who never really cared too much about any church, this seemed like a dangerously back-handed welcome. Indeed, the Church seems to have been made to recognize this by the leadership of the Carib Community.

Keeping the main event under the tent outside also serves to marginalize the work done by the Carib Community in decorating the interior of the Church of Santa Rosa with their own crafts and flowers, a major tradition of theirs for this Festival. Perhaps, as some prelates might strategize, if Carib labour is minimized then so is the Carib investment, and the symbolic Carib imprint on the Festival. Instead we are offered what appears to be a lawn wedding, under a hot tent, packed into a parking lot.

Mixed Messages?
Speaking of greetings offered with the back of the hand, the main message of today's sermon was rather brazen in its "anti-tribal" message, as spoken by Father Clyde Harvey.

Father Clyde Harvey, celebrant for Santa Rosa Mass, Aug 2006


While we are instructed that we cannot go "back" to our tribes, it is curious to find out what lies ahead as an alternative. Ironically, the answer we are given by Father Harvey is: tribalism. He asks us to choose which god we will serve, acknowleding a plethora of other competing gods. To choose to be a Catholic, or a Christian generally, in a multi-ethnic and multi-denominational country such as Trinidad and Tobago is in fact to choose to belong to one of his so-called "tribes." So is the Roman Catholic Church in Trinidad truly against "tribalism" (assuming that "tribalism" is the neafrious creature that some believe it to be)? No, it is against the kind of tribalism that does not place it, as a social institution, in a place of privileged preeminence. However, some might argue: the Catholic Church is not a tribe in a ethnic sense. One could answer: so what? Is one form of sectionalism, of particularity, of difference somehow better and more valuable than another? In any event, Catholicism in Trinidad is very much marked in ethnic and colour terms--it is not the preferred religion of either East Indians, who have been routinely maligned by Catholics for being alleged "idol worshippers" who "pray to devils," nor of the African urban underclass.

Some might be tempted to suggest that there was "something for everyone" in today's sermon by Father Harvey. Indeed, while he at one point urges Trinidadians to think of themselves as one people (conveniently leaving the cultural content of this Trinidadian nation unspecified), he also returns to ethnic particularism, going as far as marking Santa Rosa as a woman with Indian tribal blood in her veins. He does, however, argue for a "Trinidad" that is under the Holy Trinity--again an expression of particularism that will clearly leave Trinidad's many Hindus and Muslims entirely unimpressed at best.


Where are the Caribs?
While the Caribs participate for their own reasons, their presence in the Festival is tightly controlled, and it is not accidental. Even mention of them, during the course of a three-hour ceremony is very rare, and rarely are they allowed to speak in any way, although today offered us one wonderful exception, with Carib leader, Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, reciting a prayer in the Island Carib language (usually considered by linguists as a derivative of Arawakan, and indeed Ricardo says the prayer is in "Arawak"). Otherwise, one can expect routine "blessings" to be offered to the Caribs, sometimes phrased as if the Caribs were ailing.

[ADDENDUM, posted 28/08/2006: I had forgotten to bring attention to one of the other gems of exaggeration and distorted representation featured by the church, and its radio commentator, during this mass. Soon after the mass commenced, I was initially delighted, though a bit puzzled, to hear of "the proclamation of the gospel in Amerindian". In Amerindian? The entire congregation would do so? I wondered what that could mean. Well, what it means in fact is that the church's own choir would now play at being Amerindian, and without much in the way of effort or imagination either. What they did was to set the Hallelujah to stereotypical tom-tom music. My personal recommendation to the church and its choir: leave the job of being Amerindian to the Amerindians.

Phony Amerindian Hallelujah]

Time dictates that I end here, even if abruptly. I welcome all comments by readers. It certainly has been a pleasure for me to have three hours of "fieldwork at a distance" today, and I am certain that there will be several other, alternate readings of today's events and statements. Please feel free to express your opinions and share your thoughts by posting comments below.

Native Currents in the Dominican Republic

A new article by CAC Editor Jorge Estevez has just appeared in Indian Country Today. His article appears at http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413536. Jorge's article also comments on an earlier piece published by ICT this month and authored by Jose Barreiro. That article can be found at http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413449 and is titled "Curanderos at 'El Cachote'".

22 August 2006

Venezuelan Aid for American Indians

Venezuela Considers Cheap Heating Oil For Indians,
The Bismarck Tribune,

August 14, 2006

"Everett, WA: Venezuela's state-owned oil company wants to offer deep discounts on home heating oil to American Indian tribes in the Pacific Northwest, The Herald of Everett reported Saturday. Representatives of oil-giant Citgo Petroleum Corp. have contacted the Tulalip Tribes near Marysville, the Yakama Nation in central Washington, the Nez Perce and Coeur D'Alene tribes in Idaho, and others with information about a possible 40 percent discount on home heating oil.

Citgo is the Houston-based subsidiary of an oil company controlled by Venezuela and its controversial elected president, Hugo Chavez.

The idea is still in the exploratory stage, Citgo spokesman Jorge Toledo said.

'We're going to meet with some tribes in the West Coast within the next few weeks to consider the feasibility of a program there,' he said. A local meeting is scheduled Wednesday at a SeaTac hotel.

While heating oil is widely used on the East Coast, it's been mostly replaced by natural gas in the West. Heating oil is essentially the same product as diesel fuel. Citgo first delivered discounted heating oil to low-income communities last year in Massachusetts, New York and other Northeast states. Using the slogan, 'From the Venezuelan heart to the U.S. hearths,' Citgo sold fuel to eligible homes and nonprofit organizations. By spring, the company had delivered nearly 40 million gallons of heating oil to 181,000 American households, company President Felix Rodriguez said.

The city of Chicago declined a deal with Citgo for fueling public buses that could have saved $15 million. City leaders said they were reluctant to deal with Chavez."

Rejecting Papal Bull

Indigenous in Americas Just Say 'No' To Papal Bull,"

Brenda Norrell,
Indian Country Today,
August 16, 2006

"Phoenix, AZ: Indigenous in the Americas are demanding that the 'doctrines of discovery,' the papal bulls that led to the seizure of American Indian homelands, be rescinded. At the Summit of Indigenous Nations on Bear Butte in South Dakota, delegations of indigenous nations and nongovernmental organizations passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the historical use of the doctrine of discovery as an instrument of genocide.

Tupac Enrique Acosta, coordinator at Tonatierra in Phoenix, said the effort at Bear Butte continues the indigenous battle to halt genocide of indigenous peoples and seizures of their homelands in the Americas. Tonatierra was among the organizations at the Summit of Indigenous Nations taking action to rescind the doctrines of discovery:

Papal Bull Inter Caetera of 1493 and the 1496 Royal Charter of the Church of England. 'The Indigenous Nations have resolved, here at the base of Mato Paha [Bear Butte], that the Pope of the Catholic Church and the Queen of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury rescind these doctrines of discovery for having served to justify and pave the way for the illegal dispossession of aboriginal land title and the subjugation of non-Christian peoples to the present day,' according to the summit's statement.

Forty delegations of indigenous spiritual and political leaders, as well as NGOs, signed the resolution. 'These papal bulls have been the basis for the extinguishment of aboriginal land title and the subjugation of indigenous peoples of Abya Yala [North and South America]. The implementation of the papal bulls evolved in the United States through the Supreme Court decision of Johnson v. McIntosh [1823] which established the precedent for the denial of aboriginal title to American Indian lands in the United States,' according to the summit.

'It has been resolved by 23 Nations and NGO's and 100 individual signatories that the 'Doctrine of Discovery' is a legal and political fiction in violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and intellectual act of oppression which continues to serve to suppress and repress the indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere.'"

www.Indiancountry.com

"Natives" and "Terrorism": Keeping the Hysteria Raw

Given the increased hostility towards "brown-skinned" people (as they have been termed on the front page of one of Canada's national dailies), and the extravagantly sloppy application of the term "terrorist" anytime three Natives carrying placards are to be found, it's not surprising that in this new round of heightened hysteria and paranoia that Native sovereignty should also come into question as a potential "security" risk.

In the article below, from The Buffalo News, the worry is that Aboriginal reservations spanning the US-Canada border might also provide conduits for those pesky "terrorists" of which there have been so many (?) since September 11, 2001. After all, as the article implies, these are already lawless zones of drug smuggling. Please read on:

Terrorists could easily enter U.S. at New York's northern border

By LOU MICHEL and PATRICK LAKAMP

News Staff Reporters
8/13/2006

ST. REGIS MOHAWK RESERVATION - There is a lot of anxiety along the U.S.-Canadian border here, where it's not always clear who is in control, but where officials say there is little doubt a terrorist could slip through.

This 12-mile stretch along the St. Lawrence River - with its islands, peninsulas and three other rivers - is where smugglers since Prohibition have established pipelines for cigarettes, cash, illegal aliens, drugs - you name it.

Beyond the 12-mile shoreline of the reservation, the northern border in Franklin County stretches 48 miles, mostly through forests.

And during a time of heightened concern over terrorism, this tangle of borders and Indian sovereignty presents challenges to homeland security.

A half dozen reservation roads cross into Canada without border checkpoints. Those driving off-road vehicles can wind their way through farmland and wilderness with little fear of being stopped.

Consequently, this Mohawk territory is considered one of the most vulnerable stretches along the 4,000-mile northern border of the United States.

08 August 2006

In Memoriam: Dr. Mary Bruce Becker

On behalf of the Newberry Library's D'arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, I submit the following:

Dr. Mary Druke Becker, passed away in June 26, 2006 in Munich, Germany of a sudden heart attack. She is mourned by friends and associates at the Newberry and across the country.

Mary Druke Becker's association with the Newberry began in 1978 when she was appointed Associate Director of the Documentary History of the Iroquois Project. This project, underwritten by a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (and subsequently supported by the Library), is a comprehensive compilation of all treaties and agreements entered into by the Iroquois Nations, with various colonial and imperial states. Originally projected at some 2,000 documents, its size and scope grew dramatically and ultimately reached a total of 9,255 documents. This dramatic expansion was due in no small measure to the efforts of Mary Druke Becker, who, working closely with Center Director Francis Jennings and Project Editor William Fenton, coordinated activities, conducted research in archives and repositories, and consulted with members of Iroquois communities on matters of interpretation and presentation. These contacts drew Chief Jacob Thomas (Cayuga) of the Six
Nations Reserve in Canada, to the Library as a consultant. In 1980 Thomas presented the Center with his reproduction of an Iroquois Condolence Cane.

In 1984, Syracuse University Press published The History and Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy: An Interpretative Guide to the Treaties of the Six Nations and their League, edited by Jennings, Fenton and Druke. This publication is a companion to Iroquois Indians: A Documentary History, the 50-reel microfilm record of the documents collected and reproduced through this massive project.

Dr. Becker's association with the Center continued after she had left for subsequent academic postings. In 1991, the Center distributed her Recent Books and Articles in American Indian History," as well as a 1992 supplement.

In keeping with Becker's determination to share the fruits of her considerable labors, the Newberry Library transferred paper copies of the Iroquois documents to the Iroquois Museum, Howes Cave, New York. The Newberry holds a microfilm copy, and administrative records from the project.

A seminal figure in the long history of the Newberry Library's McNickle Center, Mary Druke Becker is remembered fondly by staff, scholars, librarians and associates, and on their behalf, I extend my condolences to family and friends.

Brian Hosmer, Director

Panamanian Indians Sail to Meet American Indians

Primitive past, fragile future
Across a vast distance, two tribes share a bond

Friday, August 04, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

HAMPDEN - The two narrow dugout canoes wobbled in the deep water, but didn't tip as the paddlers approached their brothers sitting afloat in traditional, handcrafted birch bark canoes.

In the rear of each dugout, a tattooed man of the Chocoe tribe, wearing a loincloth, stood and paddled, while a Chocoe woman, dressed in a bright cloth skirt and bandeau top, crouched in each bow.

The Chocoe Indians are used to maneuvering the canoes, also known as piraguas, or pirogues, in the shallow waters of their village, Mogue, in the Darien rain forest of Panama, not the deeper water of the Penobscot.

As the Chocoes and Penobscots met in a historic moment on the dark water of the river, the canoes and dugouts turned and headed toward a large vessel.

The members of the Chocoe tribe were paddling alongside the Pajaro Jai, a 92-foot wooden ketch that they handcrafted, to meet members of the Penobscot Indian Nation who were paddling downriver in two of their own traditional birch bark canoes.

The crew of the Pajaro Jai, whose name means "enchanted bird," has traveled from Panama and is meeting with indigenous people all over the world. In addition to the Penobscots, tribal historian Donald Soctomah of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Pleasant Point also went on board the ketch Thursday and presented the Chocoes with traditional gifts.

The purpose of the Chocoes' voyage is to bring attention to conservation efforts and the dilemma of the region's indigenous people to create a self-sustainable future for themselves.

The Pajaro Jai will be moored at the Waterfront Marina in Hampden today and is expected to be in Maine for the next few days. The tribal members have no set plans for touring the state.

The sound of traditional drums being played by both tribes echoed across the water as the Penobscot Indian Nation Boys and Girls Club girl drummers chanted and sang from a nearby pontoon boat and the Chocoes sang and drummed on the Pajaro Jai's deck.

Listening to the drums and watching the two tribes meet in the river, Jim Brunton of Westport, Conn., founder of the Pajaro Jai Foundation, searched for a way to describe the moment.

"Does this get you in the gut?" he asked. "It gets me in the gut."

There was something primitive and extraordinary about the meeting of the two tribes, who live thousands of miles from each other but have much in common.

"We never thought we'd find other indigenous people like ourselves so far from home," Brunton said, translating for Chocoe member Nilsa Caisamo when members of both tribes met Thursday afternoon at Indian Island.

The two tribes talked about their environmental concerns, and the Penobscots shared ways that they themselves monitor the water quality of the area.

"We try to keep an eye on the companies that are discharging toxins into the water," Penobscot Chief James Sappier said.

"They are hoping to gain that kind of control of their area," Brunton said of the Chocoes. "They did have it, but it's slipping away."

Most important, Sappier stressed the importance of working with other tribes in the area.

"We have to work together," Sappier said. "If we don't work together, the government will suppress us."

One of the Chocoes' main goals is to create a marketplace for themselves, where they can sell baskets and hand-carved furniture that they make in Mogue.

Brunton's plan for the future includes bringing satellite equipment to the area to give the tribe Internet access.

"If they can build this boat," Brunton said, referring to the Pajaro Jai, "does anybody really think they can't use the Internet?"

The Web would provide an outlet where Chocoes could sell their products at fair market value, subtracting the middleman from the equation.

"They have to do something, or accept a miserable future," Brunton said.

Chocoe Indians Land In New England

Panamanian ketch arrives in Bucksport
Chocoe Indians land after 3,000-mile sail

Thursday, August 03, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

BUCKSPORT - The tremendous white sail billowed on the 108-foot main mast of the Panamanian wooden ketch Wednesday as it made its way up the river and under the Penobscot Narrows Bridge that's now under construction.

Traditional drums being played on board by members of the Chocoe Indian tribe, crew members of the 92-foot vessel, could be heard along the riverbank.

Jim Brunton was a speck on the deck of the boat as he waved to his sister, Alice Keen, of Belfast, who was standing on shore to see the boat in person for the first time. Burton had called her a few hours before to let her know when he could be expected to arrive in Bucksport.

The $1.4 million Pajaro Jai, which means enchanted bird, was the brainchild of Brunton, a software entrepreneur from Westport, Conn. He financed the boat and his Pajaro Jai Foundation through his software business and the sale of 180 acres of oceanfront property in Maine.

"This has been years in the making," Keen said as she watched her brother sail closer. "This really looks beautiful."

The purpose of the voyage, which started June 4 in Colombia, is to bring attention to conservation efforts and the dilemma of the region's indigenous people to create a self-sustainable future for themselves.

The crew docked the vessel at the Bucksport town dock for the night before continuing up the river to meet today with representatives from the Penobscot Indian Nation.

They are planning to anchor near the Waterfront Marina in Hampden because the main mast is too tall to make it under the bridges any farther up the river.

"The great things is, she's fast for a wooden boat, and comfortable," Brunton said.

Once one is on board, the detail of the completely handcrafted boat, which dwarfed the other boats dotting the Bucksport town dock, is remarkable.

"It's very minimalist," Brunton said while standing on the deck. "That's the classic beauty. Nothing extra."

But hand-carved details in the areas below deck are intricate and meaningful to those on board from the village of Mogue in the Darien rain forest of Panama.

The crew, some of whom have never seen the ocean, weathered stormy 10-foot seas near Jamaica kicked up by Tropical Storm Alberto.

"These people are inspirational," Brunton said. "[They want to] find a way to try and make the future brighter for their kids."

Chile, Mining Company, Plan to Devastate Glacier

For more information on this tragedy in the making, see:
From an e-mail alert received this week:
In the Valle de San Felix, the purest water in Chileruns from 2 rivers, fed by 2 glaciers.

Water is a most precious resource, and wars will befought for it. Indigenous farmers use the water, there is no unemployment, and they provide the second largest source of income for the area.

Under the glaciers has been found a huge deposit ofgold, silver and other minerals. To get at these, it would be necessary to break, to destroy the glaciers -something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, each as big as awhole mountain, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. The project is called PASCUA LAMA. The company is called Barrick Gold.

The operation is planned by a multi-national company, one of whose members is George Bush Senior. The Chilean Government has approved the project to start this year, 2006. The only reason it hasn't started yet is because thefarmers have got a temporary stay of execution. If they destroy the glaciers, they will not justdestroy the source of especially pure water, but they will permanently contaminate the 2 rivers so they will never again be fit for human or animal consumption because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process. Every last gram of gold will go abroad to the multinational company and not one will be left with the people whose land it is. They will only be left with the poisoned water and the resulting illnesses. The farmers have been fighting a long time for their land, but have been forbidden to make a TV appeal by a ban from the Ministry of the Interior.

Their only hope now of putting brakes on this projectis to get help from international justice. The world must know what is happening in Chile. The only place to start changing the world is from here. We ask you to circulate this message amongst your friends in the following way. Please copy this text, paste it into a new email adding your signature and send it to everyone in your address book. Please, will the 100th person to receiveand sign the petition, send it to


to be forwarded to the ChileanGovernment.

No to Pascua Lama Open-cast mine in the AndeanCordillera on the Chilean-Argentine frontier.

We ask the Chilean Government not to authorize thePascua Lama project to protect the whole of 3 glaciers, the purity of the water of the San Felix Valley and El Transito, the quality of the agricultural land of the region of Atacama, the quality of life of the Diaguita people and of thewhole population of the region.

UN Press Release: International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples


PRESS RELEASE


Activists to celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on 9 August at the UN

Living with dignity, human rights and meaningful development to be highlighted; Indigenous Hollywood actress to take part

New York, 7 August – The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People will be celebrated around the world on 9 August. At United Nations Headquarters, core issues and concerns of indigenous peoples will take centre stage in day-long events in New York.

Along with an art exhibition by Kichwa artist Inty Muenala from Ecuador and a film screening, a panel discussion on “Indigenous Peoples: human rights, dignity and development with identity” will be held. Speakers include Q'orianka Kilcher, lead actress in the 2005 Hollywood film, The New World. The young actress is a descendant of the Huachipaeri and Quechua people of Peru and will speak about her recent trip to the country. Phrang Roy, Assistant President, International Fund for Agricultural Development; Wilton Littlechild (Cree Nation-Canada), Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; and Romy Tincopa, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the UN will also speak at the event.

Messages by Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, José Antonio Ocampo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Coordinator of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues will be delivered at the event.

This year’s observance coincides with a number of landmark events for indigenous peoples around the world. A significant achievement has been the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in June this year at the inaugural session of the newly elected Human Rights Council. Indigenous peoples are looking forward to the final adoption of the Declaration by the General Assembly before the end of 2006. Advocates believe that the Declaration, once adopted by Member States, will serve as a crucial international instrument to protect and ensure indigenous rights. Celebrations and discussions this year will also draw upon the theme of “Partnership for Action and Dignity”, the central focus of the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, which runs from 2005 to 2015.

Estimates point to more than 370 million indigenous peoples in some 70 countries worldwide. While they are from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds, they share common difficulties which include lack of basic healthcare, limited access to education, loss of control over land, abject poverty, displacement, human rights violations, and economic and social marginalization.

Another issue of concern for indigenous communities, that of development, is also likely to be discussed this week. Experts say development programmes often ignore the needs of these communities and their traditional knowledge. For development programmes, including the Millennium Development Goals, to truly have an impact on indigenous peoples, their participation in decisions that affect their lives and their visions of development need to be incorporated effectively into national plans.

The International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is commemorated each year on 9 August in recognition of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva in 1982. This year’s observance at the UN is being organized by the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; and the NGO Committee on the Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

For more information of the Day’s events, please visit http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/
news_internationalday2006.html

For media enquiries or interviews, please contact:
Oisika Chakrabarti,
Department of Public Information,
tel: 212.963.8264,

For Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, please contact:
Mirian Masaquiza,
Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues,
tel: 917.367.6006,

MEDIA ADVISORY
Hollywood actress, activists and artists to celebrate International Day of the World’s Indigenous People on 9 August at the United Nations

WHAT: International Day of the World’s Indigenous People observance at the UN Headquarters.

HIGHLIGHT: A panel discussion “Indigenous Peoples: human rights, dignity and development with identity” will be held. Speakers include Q'orianka Kilcher, lead actress in the 2005 Hollywood film, The New World. The young actress is a descendant of the Huachipaeri and Quechua people of Peru and will speak about her recent trip to the country.

BACKGROUND:

A significant achievement has been the recent adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the Human Rights Council in June. Indigenous peoples are looking forward to the final adoption of the Declaration by the General Assembly before the end of the year.

The Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People runs from 2005 to 2015. The Day’s events will draw upon the Decade’s theme of “Partnership for Action and Dignity”.

WHEN: Wednesday, 9 August, 2:30pm

WHERE: Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters, 1st Avenue & 46th Street

MEDIA ARRANGEMENTS: Journalists without UN accreditation who wish to attend the event should send a request on company letterhead signed by a supervisor to Mr. Gary Fowlie, Chief, UN Media Accreditation Unit, United Nations at fax (212) 963-4642. Media accreditation forms and general information for the media can be found at www.un.org/media/accreditation
For further information on accreditation and media access questions, contact: +1 (212) 963-6934

For more information or interviews, please contact:
Oisika Chakrabarti, Department of Public Information, tel: 212.963.8264, e-mail: mediainfo@un.org
For Secretariat of the Permanent Forum, please contact:
Mirian Masaquiza, Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, tel: 917.367.6006,
e-mail: IndigenousPermanentForum@un.org

PROGRAMME:
(2:30pm, Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, United Nations Headquarters)

2:30 p.m. Film Screening: Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations

3:05 p.m. Messages for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

Welcome and Spiritual Ceremony

Secretary-General, Kofi Annan;
Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Coordinator of the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, José Antonio Ocampo;
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

3:30 p.m. Panel Discussion: “Indigenous Peoples: human rights, dignity and development with identity”

Speakers include Phrang Roy, Assistant President, International Fund for Agricultural Development; Wilton Littlechild (Cree Nation-Canada), Member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Romy Tincopa, Counsellor of the Permanent Mission of Peru to the UN; and Q'orianka Kilcher, lead actress in the 2005 Hollywood film, The New World.

4: 30 p.m. Indigenous Cultural Performances

Art Exhibition by indigenous artist Inty Muenala (Kichwa)

The event is organized by the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues DSPD/DESA and the NGO Committee on the International Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. For more information of the Day’s events, please visit: http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/
news_internationalday2006.html



New Book from Caribbean Studies Press

Revolutionary Freedoms: A History of Survival, Strength, and Imagination in Haiti

Foreword by Kamau Brathwaite
With the paintings of Ulrick Jean-Pierre

Edited by Cécile Accilien, Ph.D., Columbus State University, GA; Jessica Adams, Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley; and Elmide Méléance, Montgomery County (MD) Schools.

This new perspective on Haitian history features essays that augment the historical paintings of renowned contemporary Haitian-American artist, Ulrick Jean-Pierre. Poet, playwright, and scholar Kamau Brathwaite has written the powerful Foreword to this volume, which combines scholarship, experience, and inspiration to reveal the complex history of the island of Hispaniola. Chapters cover pre-Columbian and colonial history; critical events and people of the Haitian Revolution; the tangle of U.S.-Haitian relations, including the special relationship with Louisiana; Haitian connections to South America; and the contested border with the neighboring Dominican Republic. Revolutionary Freedoms also includes an interview with the artist, a section on women in the nation's history, and suggested reading.

May 2006
265 pp., hardcover
45 color reproductions
$49.50
ISBN: 1-58432-293-4

Available from:
Caribbean Studies Press
7550 NW 47th Avenue
Coconut Creek, FL
33073
954 725-0701
www.caribbeanstudiespress.com

06 August 2006

Reminder: "Indigenous Resurgence in the Caribbean"...TODAY

A reminder to e-mail subscribers to The CAC Review: tonight at 8:00pm EST, Join us live on WPFW Pacifica Radio, 89.3 FM. Jose Barreiro, Lynne Guitar, and Maximilian Forte will be hosted by Jay Winter on The Nightwolf Show, to speak about issues arising from the recent publication of Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival.

Internet listeners can follow the show live by clicking on: http://jazzstream.us/wpfwlive.ram).

Hopefully more shows will be dedicated to the issues arising from the book, Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean, the first and only book of its kind.

01 August 2006

"Indigenous Resurgence in the Caribbean," WPFW Pacifica Radio, 89.3 FM, THIS SUNDAY

Join us live on WPFW Pacifica Radio, 89.3 FM, this Sunday, August 6, at 8:00pm EST.

Jose Barreiro, Lynne Guitar, and Maximilian Forte will be hosted by Jay Winter on The Nightwolf Show, to speak about issues arising from the recent publication of Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival.

Internet listeners can follow the show live by going to http://www.wpfw.org/, and clicking on Listen Online (one can use Real Player or alternately one can simply click: http://jazzstream.us/wpfwlive.ram).

We will be speaking about a range of issues, from the myth of Taino extinction, to struggles for cultural survival and recognition by a variety of indigenous communities in the Caribbean. This promises to be the first in a series of interviews on The Nightwolf Show dedicated to the indigenous resurgence in the Caribbean and we certainly hope you will listen in.