Deusdedit Ruhangariyo
Special to Indian Country Today
Around the world: Colombia’s Indigenous Amazon communities inch closer to self-governance, Indigenous leaders face threats and violence in Brazil and Venezuela, Australia’s Aboriginal people generally die younger than the general population, and a Papuan woman is turned away from a bar because of facial tattoos.
COLOMBIA: Amazon territories move toward self-governance
Indigenous peoples from Colombia’s Amazon regions are a step closer to gaining recognition as Indigenous Territorial Entities after a court ordered the government to accept the applications of 14 territories, Mongabay.com reported on June 29.
The 14 proposed ITEs are home to 43 Indigenous peoples speaking 40 languages in some of the most culturally diverse parts of Columbia. They include the departments, as they are known, of Amazonas, Guainía and Vaupés.
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An ITE is similar to a municipality with Indigenous control and would allow communities to receive direct funding from the national government. The Constitutional Court ruled in September 2021 that the government must accept the applications of 14 such territories, Mongabay.com reported.
“We have our own regulations, and our culture and way to preserve biodiversity are a bit different than the state’s, our politics are a bit different,” said Javier Gutierrez Camico, of the Kankuamo people and a legal representative for the Río Atabapo-Inírida Reserve in Guainía.
“That is why it is important for us to govern ourselves as Indigenous peoples, according to our vision and our culture, thanks to which we have been protecting everything that we see today,” he said.
In 1991, Colombia amended its Constitution in 1991, acknowledging for the first time the country’s ethnic and cultural diversity and the importance of honoring Indigenous lands. But more than a third of Colombia’s Amazon region has remained uncertain, with Indigenous lands requiring administrative status.
Last year, a United Nations report acknowledged Indigenous and tribal communities in Latin America and the Caribbean are the finest guardians of forests in the region.
AUSTRALIA: Life expectancy of Aboriginal people lags
The life expectancy of Indigenous Australians has increased by about nine years in the last 20 years but still falls short of the wider population, National Indigenous Times reported on June 27.
A new study by the Northern Territory Department of Health and the University of Melbourne, published online in the Medical Journal of Australia, looked at trends in life expectancy and causes of death among Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations from 1999-2018.
The life expectancy for Indigenous men grew from 56.6 years to 65.6, while rising from 64.8 years to 69.7 years for Indigenous women, with fewer deaths from cancer, cardiovascular and kidney diseases and accidental injuries, the study found.
The life expectancy for non-indigenous Australians, however, grew from 77.4 years to 81.0 for men and 84.3 years to 85.1 years for women.
In a combined response to the report, University of New South Wales research fellow Ian Ring and Yawuru woman Kalinda Griffiths said additional reform is needed to increase life expectancy for Aboriginal peoples.
“Closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous people and other Australians is not a utopian dream, but an achievable aim,” they said.
BRAZIL: Amazon rainforest activist plans to flee his home
An Amazon rainforest activist who has been the target of death threats, ambushes and attempts on his life is planning to flee his home, in the state of Pará, Mongabay.com reported on June 30.
Erasmo Theofilo, a 34-year-old agroecologist, has received threats after starting a farmers’ cooperative in the city of Anapu, in the state of Pará – the same state where American nun Dorothy Stang was killed for her activism in 2005, Mongabay.com reported.
The farmers’ cooperative of Volta Grande do Xingu, created to protect landless and poor rural workers and promote sustainable farming practices, now includes more than 300 families.
Theofilo told Mongabay.com that he fears he will never be safe in Anapu, even if the land conflicts are resolved, and that he is planning to leave for good with his family.
Land conflicts and deforestation in the Amazon have surged since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019. A recent report singled out Pará as the most dangerous state for land rights defenders.
VENEZUELA: Indigenous activist gunned down
An Indigenous defender of the Venezuelan Amazon was fatally shot by a gunman in the city of Puerto Ayacucho after reportedly receiving threats related to his work, The Guardian reported on July 1.
Virgilio Trujillo Arana, a 38-year-old an Uwottuja man, who opposed illegal mining in the Venezuealan Amazon, had set up community groups to act as guardians of the Autana municipality of Amazonas.
He was shot in the head three times on June 30 by a gunman who then fled to a waiting vehicle, The Guardian reported.
The Uwottuja people announced last February their decision to defend their territory against a “silent invasion” by criminal groups, refusing illegal mining exploitation and the use of their land for unlawful activities.
AUSTRALIA: Club turns away Papuan woman over face tattoos
A 23-year-old Papuan woman was turned away from a bar because of her reva reva – a cultural face tattoo that has been used to mark Indigenous women in Papua New Guinea for centuries, National Indigenous Television reported on June 30.
Moale James, 23, was turned away by the security guard at a popular bar in Fortitude Valley, Queensland, where she had planned to celebrate her partner’s birthday.
“He looked at it, then looked at me and said, ‘I’m not going to let you in because of your face,’” she told NITV. “I thought, ‘Ok, this is the moment.’ I explained they were cultural, and he still said no, because of my face.”
She said her family warned her there could be repercussions for getting the traditional face tattoo.
“My family said that I would probably experience a bit of backlash,” she said. “I knew there were stories of people not being able to get into nightclubs, so I told my friends that that could happen … I hoped that if I explained that they were cultural tattoos, it would be ok.” Moale James, 23, was turned away by the security guard at a popular bar where she had planned to celebrate her partner’s birthday.
Her reva reva signify her graduation from university, she said.
“This marks a point in time where I am stepping into my career,” she said. “All of my marks, they signify a specific moment in time … We mark our faces because we want to acknowledge our ancestors and our Old People.
“It’s a symbol of love for your Old People.”
Final thoughts
My final thoughts are with Moale James, the Papuan woman who was denied entry into a bar because of her facial tattoo. This is so disheartening and should stop. We all need to practice cultural tolerance. The world is big enough to accommodate all of us, we cannot continue being mean to each other like this. We are in the 21st century! What is the purpose of the current civilization?
Lastly, let me share Article 45 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Article 45
Nothing in this Declaration may be construed as diminishing or extinguishing the rights Indigenous peoples have now or may acquire in the future.
Global Indigenous is a weekly news roundup published every Wednesday by Indian Country Today with some of the key stories about Indigenous peoples around the world.
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