Trinidad & Tobago Celebrates First Peoples Heritage

Trinidad & Tobago (UCTP Taino News) – Under the theme “exploring heritage, consolidating traditions, and creating a legacy” First Peoples Week was celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago from October 11-19, 2013. The celebrations raised the visibility of Trinidad’s Indigenous Peoples, as well as other Indigenous Peoples from around the Circum-Caribbean region. 

The events began with an international conference held at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UCTT) and continued through the week with several cultural events in Arima, home of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community. The activities were co-sponsored by the Santa Rosa First Peoples Community, the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), the Ministry of National Diversity and Social Integration.

Invited participants to this year’s celebrations included delegates of Indigenous Peoples of Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Venezuela, Dominica, St Vincent, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Canada and the USA. Among the various issues presented during the week, the Santa Rosa First People’s Community is calling for a national holiday to honor the island’s Indigenous Peoples. 

The final day of the scheduled activities included a meeting of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (COIP). The meeting was held at the newly expanded Santa Rosa First Peoples Community Center in Arima. During the historic proceedings COIP officially welcomed its newest member, the United Confederation of Taino People. 

 UCTPTN 11.01.2013

Global Indigenous Climate Summit Concludes in Alaska

Naniki Reyes Ocasio (Boriken Taino), UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, and Hariette Vreedzaam - Joeroeja (Galibi - Suriname) express their solidarity at the Global Indigenous Peoples' Summit on Climate Change in Alaska.

Anchorage, Alaska (UCTP Taíno News) - The Global Indigenous Peoples' Summit on Climate Change being held in Alaska concluded on Friday. The Summit was held at the Dena-Ina Center in the city of Anchorage over a span of five days; from April 20th-24th 2009. Over 400 Indigenous Peoples representatives from over 80 countries around the world participated - including a very visible Caribbean delegation.

Many statistics were presented at the Summit such as the fact that there are approximately 400 million Indigenous People on Earth, which translates to 1 out of every 15 human beings on the planet today as being an Indigenous person.

There were 2 guest speakers of particular note, the first was the famous Catholic Priest turned leftist Guerrilla turned President of the United Nations General Assembly - Miguel d'Escoto Brockman; who was enthusiastically applauded when he stated unapologetically "Now is not the time to pull any punches, we must call a spade a spade, the Third World cannot afford to subsidize the First World any more through unjust debt repayments - while developed countries portray themselves as the 'Charitable donors' coming to the financial rescue & relief of the 'pitiable beggars' - which is how they portray the developing countries".

Bolivia's energetic Foreign Minister Mr. David Choquehuanca received a standing ovation after he declared "We Indigenous Peoples are not the ones responsible for this human induced Climate change, but we are the ones suffering from it first and most severely so far, life is at risk, the non-indigenous have to realize and accept the fact that the Earth is our mother, and all living things are her children - and are sustained by her milk; which is called water. Water is precious, it is sacred, and it is the source of life for everything on this planet. The world has to take a Pro-Life stance now, not just for human life but for all life, for man is not separate from the natural world - he is an inseparable part of it!"

Another important fact revealed at the summit was that the average temperature of the world has already increased by one degree Celsius - and this has caused a world-wide depletion of soil fertility, aquifers, ocean fisheries, and bio-diversity in general - not to mention created severe weather phenomena. If the global temperature increases by only one degree more (and more than that is projected) - this will mean the collapse of ecosystems from coral reefs to polar ice caps, at 3-4 degrees Celsius in increase we will witness massive loss of species (and extinction is forever) and food crops.

Rising temperature is already causing an increase in vector borne diseases such as Malaria and West Nile virus.

Medical research has also shown that Indigenous communities that no longer produce the food they require to feed themselves - but instead rely on an imported purchased diet of processed foods and carbonated beverages - now suffer from Diabetes and a host of preventable diseases hitherto unknown in their communities.

The concerns of the Caribbean region were vigorously represented by 9 delegates including Bartolo Teul and Vincent Palacio (Belize), Naniki Reyes Ocasio (Puerto Rico), Chief Charles Williams and Pearl Williams (Dominica), Melford Pompei (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), Damon Corrie (Barbados), and Cyrilene Francis and Hariette Vreedzaam - Joeroeja (Suriname). Damon Corrie of the Eagle Clan Arawaks noted that "9 is a sacred number for the Lokono and other Indigenous People in the region".

The Summit's executive committee was comprised of Patricia Cochran (Arctic) - Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, Andrea Carmen (North America) - Executive Director of the International Indian Treaty Council, Ben Namakin (Pacific) - Program Manager of the Environmental Education & Awareness Program Conservation Society of Pohnpei, Joseph Ole Simel (Africa) - National Coordinator of the Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organization of the Massai, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Asia) - Chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Executive Director of Tebtebba, and Convener of the Asia Indigenous Women's Network, Tarcila Rivera Zea (Latin America) - Executive Director of the Centro de Culturas Indigenous del Peru), and Cletus Springer (Caribbean) - Director of the Department of Sustainable Development of the Organization of American States.

A Declaration from the Summit will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly by President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann on behalf of the Indigenous Peoples of the World.

The Indigenous Peoples' Global Summit on Climate Change was sponsored by the monetary donations of the Christensen Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Oak Foundation, the Government of Denmark, the John D. and Catherine J. MacArthur Foundation, the Government of Sweden - and 16 other sponsors.

UCTPTN 04.25.2009

Increased access to social services a priority among indigenous women

Guyana - Increasing access to social services is among the priorities identified by indigenous women leaders in the region as key to empowerment, against a backdrop of development.

Participants at the `Conference on Indigenous Women in the Caribbean:Voice, Participation and Influence for Development' that opened last Thursday found that many of their problems were the same. These include poverty, limited access to health, education and other basic social services, while trying to secure recognition of traditional land and rights. Another issue is gender-based violence. One of the challenges facing the conference was creating room for women's rights in the context of the collective indigenous rights. The two-day meeting was organized by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). It attracted across section of government and civil society participants from Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname, Nicaragua and St Vincent.

Read the full story at http://coipnews.blogspot.com/

In Belize, a celebration of liberation

Jonkonnu is a masquerade party observed in parts of the English-speaking Caribbean during the Christmas season.

By Ericka Hamburg, Special to The LA Times

The drummers form a semicircle and settle into their chairs; the rhythm thunders to life. Street dogs scatter like bullets.

A dancer jumps before the drummers like a mad strutting bird and jackhammers the ground with his feet. His tall, feathered headdress spins as he turns; his white shirt becomes translucent with sweat, and bands of shells around his knees rattle and shake. Red lips, a pencil mustache and doll eyes are painted on his mask of pink wire mesh.

Arms outstretched, he arches toward the drummers and dictates their rhythms with his frenetic footwork. Then, in a flourish, he leaps from the circle of attention, and a new dancer replaces him.

He also addresses the drummers with his body, and they shift rhythm in response. With each kick, each strut, tiny shells fly from his knee bands and land in the dusty street, retrieved by eager youngsters watching from the sidelines.

Welcome to Jonkonnu, a masquerade found in parts of the English-speaking Caribbean during the Christmas season. Unlike Carnival, this festival has secular roots; when Caribbean colonial masters loosened restrictions on slaves, the slaves then entertained and parodied them with costumed characters and musical processions.

Last winter, on a sultry Christmas morning, I found myself in Dangriga. This rough-and-tumble town is the cultural capital of the Garinagu, also known as Black Caribs.

In the 17th century, shipwrecked West Africans and aboriginal Arawaks found one another on St. Vincent and intermarried; thus began Garinagu society. Although Spain was the ruler of record, the British arrived with ambitions to farm cotton and sugar, with the unconsenting labor of island inhabitants.

The Garinagu (now known more commonly by their language, Garifuna) successfully fought off the British until 1797, when they were forced into exile, set adrift with a loss of thousands of lives. The survivors landed first on Becquia and Roatán and, in 1823, migrated to the mainland, settling in pockets of Honduras, Guatemala and the southern coast of Belize.

See the full story at:

http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-junkanoo23dec23

See related stories at:

More Junkanoo, Junkanoo & John Canoe celebrations

Photo: A dancer holds the crowd's attention during Wanaragua, or Jonkonnu - a festival during the Christmas season, in Dangriga, Belize. (Ericka Hamburg)

UN Declaration Assists Caribbean Indigenous Peoples

Belize (UCTP Taino News) - The Supreme Court of Belize, on October 18, cites the recently adopted United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples to justify its decision upholding the rights of Mayan People to their traditional lands.

The Supreme Court decision involved the Maya villages of Conejo and Santa Cruz and noted that their customary land tenure practices give rise to property rights that are protected under the Constitution of Belize. The Court found that that the failure of the government of Belize to recognize and protect those rights constitute a violation of the constitutional protections of property, equality, life and security of the person. The judgment, which took approximately two and a half hours to read, affirmed that Belize is obligated not only by the Constitution but also by international treaty and customary law - including the recent United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - to respect and protect Maya customary land rights.

The decision is being hailed as a landmark in Belize as well as throughout the Caribbean region and beyond as it is the first judgment applied specifically to the United Nations' declaration, which was adopted Sept. 13 by the U.N. General Assembly.

The victory is expected to result in more protections and land rights for Indigenous People in Belize and potentially affects more than 40 Maya villages. Community leaders are calling it Mayan Independence Day.

Map Source: www.lonelyplanet.com

Taino Welcomed by Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples

Arima, Trinidad (UCTP Taino News) – On October 16th, 2007 Indigenous leaders from throughout the Caribbean meet in Arima, Trinidad to discuss critical regional issues under the auspices of the Caribbean Organization of Indigenous Peoples (COIP). Hosted by Trinidad’s Santa Rosa Carib Community, delegates attending the COIP meeting represented Indigenous Peoples from Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico.

In an historic affirmation of Caribbean Indigenous solidarity, COIP officially welcomed Puerto Rico’s Consejo General de Tainos Borincanos as full voting members. As COIP is a recognized by Indigenous Peoples, governments, inter-governmental organizations as a Caribbean regional organization, the inclusion of the Consejo General now provides an opportunity for Boriken Taino to officially raise their concerns within this collective.

During the meeting, another important agenda item focused on COIP representation at International Forums such as the United Nations. The increasing visibility of COIP at this level is already evident as a communication from the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was received and transmitted to the participants during the opening ceremony for the meeting.

Held in Arima’s Town Hall, the opening ceremony for the important meeting began with welcoming remarks from the honorable Mayor of Arima, Adrian Cabralis, as well as Government Ministers, Excellencies Penelope Beckles and Joan Yuille-Wiliams.

Funding for many of the delegates to attend the meeting as well as the concurrent activities celebrating Trinidad’s “Amerindian Heritage Week” was made available by the government of Trinidad and Tobago.

Taino and Other Caribbean Indigenous Peoples Engage the United Nations System

United Nations, NY (UCTP Taino News) – After a two week working session from May 14-25, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues came to a close at United Nations headquarters in New York. Over a thousand participants from around the world participated throughout the session, which concluded in the form of a report containing recommendations to governments and United Nations agencies.

Highlighting the session’s theme “territories, lands, and natural resources,” the Permanent Forum recommended that Governments adopt, in relevant national legislation, the principle of “free, prior and informed consent” of indigenous peoples regarding potential development projects or other activities carried out on their lands.

“It is […] clear that most local and national indigenous peoples’ movements have emerged from struggles against policies and actions that have undermined and discriminated against their customary land tenure and resource-management systems, expropriated their lands, extracted their resources without their consent and led to their displacement and dispossession from their territories,” the Forum stated in one of eight sets of draft recommendations and three draft decisions approved by consensus at the close of its sixth session.

The Permanent Forum, a 16-member subcommittee of the Economic and Social Council, is mandated chiefly to provide expert advice on indigenous issues to the Council and the United Nations system; raise awareness and promote the integration and coordination of activities relating to indigenous issues with the United Nations system; and prepare and disseminate information on indigenous issues.

Amid the diverse delegations of Indigenous Peoples highlighting the complex issues associated with land, territories, and natural resources, Caribbean Indigenous Peoples were actively presenting sound advice to Governments and intergovernmental organizations about how to meet their needs for survival. Working together in the form of the Indigenous Caucus of the Greater Caribbean (IPCGC), indigenous representatives from throughout the region presented their collective views on such topics as urban Indigenous Peoples and migration, the Second Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, and future work of the Forum.

Chief Reginaldo Fredericks of the Lokono Arawak Community of Joboshirima noted the importance of the session and looked forward to receiving more Indigenous delegates from the Caribbean at next year’s session, which will focus on climate change. “We need to be at these sessions to support each other and highlight what is happening in our communities” stated Chief Fredericks. “We need to strengthen our ancestral connections and working together as a Caucus can help us achieve these goals.”

Mildred Gandia, a Boriken Taino and a representative of the United Confederation of Taino People (UCTP) stated “We, Caribbean Indigenous Peoples made a big impact on this session and there were Taino here from Boriken, Kiskeia (Dominican Republic), and even Jamaica as well as Lokono Arawaks from Venezuela and Guyana and Garifuna from Honduras .”

Gandia continued stating “Our views were presented at the plenary sessions via the IPCGC, on panel discussions focusing on climate change, our artists were highlighted in the United Nations Art Exhibition, and we stood in solidarity with other Indigenous Peoples in supporting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.”

The Permanent Forum strongly urged the General Assembly adopt during its sixty-first session the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the fate of which remains unclear some six months after it was approved by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The Declaration, which was initially opposed by countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, is now being further endangered by proposed amendments submitted a group of Africa countries. The African Group’s proposal was roundly rejected by Indigenous leaders as “unacceptable and inconsistent with international human rights law”.

With the exception of Dominica and Haiti, countries from the Caribbean region including Guyana, Belize, and Suriname are expressly supporting the African Group’s amendment proposals, which will in fact critically weaken the Declaration adopted by the Human Rights Council after 20 years of negotiation.

Why Caribbean countries that in the past have seemingly been supportive of indigenous rights would promote a proposal inconsistent with international law is related to politics and trade arrangements. Caribbean Community leaders have recently announced that a significant new “Unity Alliance” for trade, economic, and political co-operation between Africa, South America, with Caribbean involvement, has been established. One of the highpoints of the “Abuja Declaration and Plan of Action on Peace, Security, and Development” include the creation of a permanent “Africa-South America Co-operative Forum that is to meet every two years. According to news sources the summit leaders are “anxious to demonstrate the seriousness of their collective commitment”. In light of these relations, it would appear that opposition to the rights of Indigenous Peoples is a pre-requisite for demonstrating Caribbean solidarity with Africa.

“Considering that Indigenous Peoples are mentioned in the Abuja Declaration only in the context of cultural cooperation and tourism, it is clear that Caribbean governments still do not understand the aspirations of the region’s first nations” stated Roberto Mucaro Borrero, the President of the UCTP Office of International Relations. Borrero noted that the IPCGC’s third plenary presentation at the Permanent Forum highlighted the Abuja Declaration and called for the inclusion of Caribbean Indigenous Peoples in its follow-up mechanisms.

Summing up the Permanent Forum’s work this year, Johan Schölvinck, Director of the Division for Social Policy in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs called the Forum a “celebration of the world’s cultural diversity”, in that it had seen extremely rich participation from some 1,500 representatives from indigenous peoples’ organizations, non-governmental organizations and academia, some 30 United Nations system and other intergovernmental organizations, about 70 Member States and some 30 indigenous parliaments. The Permanent Forum was not just an event; rather “a tribute to our human efforts of partnership” that offered the opportunity for inspiration, he said.

As per the recommendation of the final draft report, the Forum’s 2008 session will focus on the theme of climate change and there will also be sessions devoted to the Pacific region and to the protection of the thousands of threatened indigenous languages.

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To review the Abuja Declaration visit:
http://www.africa-union.org/root/au/Conferences/Past/2006/November/SummitASA/doc/en/DECLARATION.doc

To review statments of the IPCGC visit: http://indigenouscaribbeancaucus.blogspot.com/

Editorial: The OAS & CARICOM: Missing in Action*

In prior negotiations with the Organization of American State (OAS) on the draft American Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United States has usually stood alone in its opposition to the advocacy efforts of the Indigenous Caucus. It was sad to see at the recent 8th session on the elaboration of the Declaration that the USA is now playing 'second fiddle' to the delegation of Canada (led by Mr. Paul Gibbard) who now have become the most strident opponents facing the Indigenous Caucus.

I must also take this opportunity to again highlight the fact that despite all of their flowery rhetoric (usually around election time) citing 'deep concern for their Amerindian citizens' - not a single CARICOM government representative participated during the 8th session, which was held in the Simon Bolivar Room at the OAS Headquarters in Washington DC. Caribbean government representatives were in the OAS building however, and I made notes of the times I saw various CARICOM delegates entering and leaving the building, having lunch at the OAS cafe etc.

Seems it was too much trouble to expect them to fill their seats like other OAS member States who were with us every day proving that actions do speak louder than words. I applaud the Latin American countries who were the staunchest allies of the Indigenous Caucus yet again.

At the very least I expected to see Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Dominica and Trinidad represented officially, for they all use the Amerindian component of “their” societies to promote various national tourism efforts. It is interesting to note however that here, amidst a discussion on an issue of the direst importance to the present and future generations of their “beloved” Amerindian populations - they show no interest in the process whatsoever.

This is an unfortunate but very revealing development indeed, especially when less than one month ago with the exception of Dominica, these same CARICOM States helped to essentially block the passage of the most important Indigenous Rights Declaration in the history of the United Nations. These states mimicked the clearly dishonest argument that African states flaunted, which was that 'they needed more time to review the Declaration". Let us all bear in mind that this Declaration process at the UN has been in existence for over 20 years!

With that in mind, Indigenous Peoples rigthtly ask 'What is it exactly that the CARICOM diplomats do besides draw large salaries from the taxpayers and live in luxury abroad?' Please give us an answer as it relates to the Indigenous Peoples on whose lands your Neo-Colonial States exist.

Submitted by Damon Gerard Corrie (Lokono Arawak)
Member of the Indigenous Caucus working Group
on the Draft American Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples.

*The Caribbean Community and Common Market or CARICOM was established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas[8] which came into effect on August 1, 1973. The first four signatories were Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

CARICOM STATEMENT AT UNITED NATIONS

UCTP Taino News - DINA SHOMAN (Belize), speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said that the Second International Decade of Indigenous People had brought the situation of indigenous people onto the international agenda and had resulted in growing awareness of the obstacles they faced in preserving their cultures, livelihoods, and communities. One of the greatest achievements of the Decade had been the establishment of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which was a valuable meeting point between States, indigenous organizations and the United Nations system and other inter-governmental bodies. The Forum could play an important role in facilitating development initiatives for indigenous people of the Caribbean region, including through advocacy for greater coordination of efforts of United Nations agencies and by encouraging those agencies to help collect reliable data on indigenous people of the region so that their problems could be more precisely addressed.

Acknowledging important advances made during the first Decade, she also recalled the High Commissioner’s report pointing out that indigenous peoples in many countries continued to be among the poorest and most marginalized. Much remained to be done to protect them from human rights violations, to alleviate the poverty they faced, and to safeguard against discrimination.

CARICOM noted that after almost two decades of debate, the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples had been adopted by the Human Rights Council with a view to being adopted by the General Assembly during this sixty-first session.

UCTPTN 10.18.2006

Mitochondrial DNA and the Carib People of Belize

UCTP Taino News Editor's Note: This article summarizes an analysis of the Mitochondrial DNA of 28 Carib People of Belize . The study focuses mainly on the high instance of West African origins found but gives an historical overview as well. The article supports the historic accounts of the “Amerindian” and African add-mixture as well as pointing to a close relationship between the “Caribs” and Yurubas.

Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphisms in Carib People of Belize , by M. V. Monsalve; E. HagelbergProceedings: Biological Sciences © 1997 The Royal Society

*Thank you to community member John Ayes for finding this article.