Back in 2001, Tom Goldtooth wrote about the power of creation and human transformation. In his essay In the Native Way, published in Yes! magazine, Goldtooth described how some are finding their way back to sacredness. Back in 2001, Tom Goldtooth wrote about the power of creation and human transformation. In his essay In the Native Way, published in Yes! magazine, Goldtooth described how some are finding their way back to sacredness.
If you live in a community that has been or may be impacted by mountaintop removal, fracking, or a coal-fired power plant, you may like to know that Working Films has fourteen mini-grants available to bring the Reel Power Film Festival to your community! The deadline to apply for a mini-grant is March 2nd, 2012. Films participating in the Film Festival include: Cape Wind, Cooked, Deep Down, Dirty Business, Gasland, Green Shall Overcome, Solarize This, Split Estate, Sun Come Up, and When Two Worlds Collide. For more information, please visit workingfilms.org/reelpowergrants. You can also contact Reel Power director Kristin Henry at khenry [at] workingfilms.org if you have additional questions. Bring the Reel Power Film Festival to your community! Do you live in or know a community that has been impacted or likely to be by mountaintop removal, fracking, or a coal-fired power plant? Do you know or Are you in a community where alternative energy [...] If you live in a community that has been or may be impacted by mountaintop removal, fracking, or a coal-fired power plant, you may like to know that Working Films has fourteen mini-grants available to bring the Reel Power Film Festival to your community!
The deadline to apply for a mini-grant is March 2nd, 2012.
Films participating in the Film Festival include: Cape Wind, Cooked, Deep Down, Dirty Business, Gasland, Green Shall Overcome, Solarize This, Split Estate, Sun Come Up, and When Two Worlds Collide.
For more information, please visit workingfilms.org/reelpowergrants. You can also contact Reel Power director Kristin Henry at khenry [at] workingfilms.org if you have additional questions.
Do you live in or know a community that has been impacted or likely to be by mountaintop removal, fracking, or a coal-fired power plant? Do you know or Are you in a community where alternative energy solutions are being implemented? Or, have you already hosted one of the Reel Power films and would like to explore the related issues around coal, gas, climate change and renewable energy solutions with your community? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then the Reel Power Film Festival may be for you.
When Two Worlds Collide and Working Films is pleased to announce the launch of the Reel Power Film Festival and a Grassroots Mini-grant Opportunity. Reel Power is a collection of films that tell stories from the frontlines of our energy crisis and into our energy future and have the power to get your community talking and taking action. When Two Worlds Collide is proud to be one of the 10 collaborators. While anyone can host a Reel Power Film Festival, organizations and grassroots groups that are impacted by natural resource extraction, climate change or are tapping into renewable energy solutions are invited to apply for one of fourteen mini-grants to support their event.
We’ll offer mini-grants to frontline groups that are interested in bringing two or more of the films to their community this Spring or Summer. These grants of $250 cash with $500 additional in-kind will cover screening fees and other resources needed to put on a stellar event (such as venue rental, get the word out materials, etc.). Two to four of these events will receive a higher level of in-kind support valued at an additional $2500.
For more information on the Reel Power Film Festival, mini-grants and how to apply, please visit workingfilms.org/reelpowergrants. Contact Reel Power director Kristin Henry at khenry [at] workingfilms.org if you have additional questions along the way.
Joyce Silverthorne, a citizen of the Salish Nation, discusses the fundamental conflict of living in two worlds and the struggle to revitalize traditional culture and language. Joyce Silverthorne is the former Director of the Tribal Education Department for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is now a policy advisor at the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI). In 2007 she was interviewed by the University of Montana's Regional Learning Project to discuss the OPI's "Indian Education for All" program and the challenges of putting it into action. This particular segment, admittedly, focuses on the bigger picture. Joyce Silverthorne, a citizen of the Salish Nation, discusses the fundamental conflict of living in two worlds and the struggle to revitalize traditional culture and language.
Joyce Silverthorne is the former Director of the Tribal Education Department for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is now a policy advisor at the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI).
In 2007 she was interviewed by the University of Montana's Regional Learning Project to discuss the OPI's "Indian Education for All" program and the challenges of putting it into action. This particular segment, admittedly, focuses on the bigger picture.
A Nyoongar Tent Embassy was established on Perth’s Heirisson Island this month in response to a Billion dollar proposal by the Western Australia government that would force the Nyoongar to surrender their land title, permanently. For elders like Uncle Richard Wilkes, surrendering his custodianship of land is unthinkable, as the proposed deal, he says, won't provide all the supposed benefits that the government promises. Many of those involved in the Embassy are local Indigenous activists who just finished commemorating the 40th anniversary of the iconic Aboriginal Tent Embassy in front of the Old Parliament House in Canberra. Prominent Indigenous organizer Marianne Mackay said from the embassy last week: “We don’t agree with the SWALSC negotiations with the Barnett government. We don’t want money. We want our land, for our future. We are the custodians [of the land] and we have an obligation to protect it.” The embassy is rejecting any kind of deal with the [...] A Nyoongar Tent Embassy was established on Perth’s Heirisson Island this month in response to a Billion dollar proposal by the Western Australia government that would force the Nyoongar to surrender their land title, permanently.
For elders like Uncle Richard Wilkes, surrendering his custodianship of land is unthinkable, as the proposed deal, he says, won't provide all the supposed benefits that the government promises.
Many of those involved in the Embassy are local Indigenous activists who just finished commemorating the 40th anniversary of the iconic Aboriginal Tent Embassy in front of the Old Parliament House in Canberra.
Prominent Indigenous organizer Marianne Mackay said from the embassy last week: “We don’t agree with the SWALSC negotiations with the Barnett government. We don’t want money. We want our land, for our future. We are the custodians [of the land] and we have an obligation to protect it.”
The embassy is rejecting any kind of deal with the government that involves ceding land rights.
"Elders, activists and local Nyoongar people have camped at the site every night" since February 12, explains Green Left Weekly; "The island is an important traditional meeting place."
Indigenous Activist Iva Hayward-Jackson speaking about the meaning and goals of the Nyoongar Tent Embassy established on February 12, 2012.
The City of Perth, however, considers the Nyoongar Tent Embassy to be illegal. On at least three separate occasions they have tried to shut it down.
On February 16, some council officers arrived with eviction notices; but they quickly left after being told that they weren't welcome. The following day, City of Perth CEO Frank Edwards approached the Embassy on his own--and then tossed the eviction notices on the ground.
Speaking to AAP, Tent Embassy spokesperson Robert Eggington responded: “My message to the Perth City Council is move on yourself... This is not a camping ground. This is us practising our culture and our ceremonies on our traditional land of our ancestors.”
Eggington added that the police had no right to take the Tent Embassy down. “They'll probably have to arrest the babies and the elders,” he said. “They'll probably have to arrest every single person."
“The jails are already chock-a-block full of Aboriginal people, so where are they going to fit us all?”
On February 19, more than 50 police officers arrived to carry out the eviction, leading to a false impression that the Tent Embassy was officially a thing of the past; however, as the Green Left Weekly noted two days later, that just wasn't the case.
On February 23, the police arrived once again--this time, with a group of rangers to do the dirty work.
"When the protesters refused to dismantle their tents," reports Adelaide Now, "rangers moved in to take them down as dozens of police officers stood by to prevent them being hindered."
"The tents were packed onto a flat-bed truck and as it was driven off under police escort. Protesters chanted ``shame, shame'' and accused officers of being racist.
"An angry confrontation occurred when rangers next moved in to extinguish the main campfire as 30 police officers stood around them.
"Protesters jostled with police and shouted abuse as the rangers finished their job.
"Officers on horseback then moved in to escort the rangers and officers from the site."
Despite the dismissal of the Nyoongar Tent Embassy, the Nyoongar have no intention of giving up.
In a 2005 interview with Raymundo Sanchez Barraza, In Motion Magazine looked at A University Without Shoes. In discussing the indigenous intercultural system of informal education developed by the Mayan culture of Meso America, Barraza describes the key components of democracy, self-learning and reciprocity within the panorama of the Zapatista struggle. Emerging from the margins of prophetic critique, to transform the nation state consistent with indigenous world vision, free and open learning that serves the interests of their students and communities is at the heart of what this struggle hopes to accomplish. As Barraza observes, “We too can think great thoughts.” Hope belongs to the resistance. In a 2005 interview with Raymundo Sanchez Barraza, In Motion Magazine looked at A University Without Shoes. In discussing the indigenous intercultural system of informal education developed by the Mayan culture of Meso America, Barraza describes the key components of democracy, self-learning and reciprocity within the panorama of the Zapatista struggle.
Emerging from the margins of prophetic critique, to transform the nation state consistent with indigenous world vision, free and open learning that serves the interests of their students and communities is at the heart of what this struggle hopes to accomplish. As Barraza observes, “We too can think great thoughts.”
Hope belongs to the resistance.
Several viewers have asked about resources on the concept of netwar. Some have asked if the term refers to networks or to the Internet. In the following papers, you'll see that it implies both the organization of people and the use of information. One supports the other. There's also a lesson plan for college level instructors, but whether you're a student, scholar, activist, or simply a human being concerned about our dynamic world, I think you'll enjoy these well-written stories and articles. RAND First Monday Fathom Monitor USC Public Good Wikipedia Several viewers have asked about resources on the concept of netwar. Some have asked if the term refers to networks or to the Internet. In the following papers, you'll see that it implies both the organization of people and the use of information. One supports the other.
There's also a lesson plan for college level instructors, but whether you're a student, scholar, activist, or simply a human being concerned about our dynamic world, I think you'll enjoy these well-written stories and articles.
What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis?" Discover the emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry & the people most impacted. Information Release Date: Spring 2012 Studio: Wide Open Exposure Directed By: Amy Miller Produced By: Byron A Martin, Amy Miller Website: www.thecarbonrush.net Facebook: facebook.com/pages/The-Carbon-Rush/180740178694714 Twitter: twitter.com/thecarbonrush Synopsis Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Incinerators burning garbage in India. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up? THE CARBON RUSH takes us around the world to meet the people most impacted. They are the least heard in the cacophony surrounding this emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry. From indigenous rain [...] What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis?" Discover the emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry & the people most impacted.
Information
Release Date: Spring 2012
Studio: Wide Open Exposure
Directed By: Amy Miller
Produced By: Byron A Martin, Amy Miller
Website: www.thecarbonrush.net
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/The-Carbon-Rush/180740178694714
Twitter: twitter.com/thecarbonrush
Synopsis
Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Incinerators burning garbage in India. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil. What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?
THE CARBON RUSH takes us around the world to meet the people most impacted. They are the least heard in the cacophony surrounding this emerging "green-gold" multi-billion dollar carbon industry.
From indigenous rain forest dwellers having their way of life completely threatened, to dozens of Campesinos assassinated, to the livelihood of waste pickers at landfills taken away, THE CARBON RUSH travels across four continents and brings us up close to projects working through the United Nations, Kyoto Protocol designed Clean Development Mechanism. This groundbreaking documentary feature asks the fundamental questions "What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis? Who stands to gain and who stands to suffer?"
In the old days of the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), official US Government organizations were more candid about overthrowing governments that did not succumb to domination by US corporate or military misadventures. Then Wikileaks happened upon US State Department cables and our view of international diplomacy changed forever. Today, CIA-sponsored rainbow revolutions -- financed by National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) -- use puppet NGOs to destabilize non-compliant foreign regimes. Thanks to whistle-blowers and Wikileaks, we now know how US embassy diplomatic pouches are used to smuggle currency to these Trojan horses. In an ironic twist of fate, we also get a glimpse of how the US State Department strategically undermines the world indigenous peoples' movement and human rights in general. To put it mildly, it isn't a pretty picture. In the old days of the CIA and National Security Agency (NSA), official US Government organizations were more candid about overthrowing governments that did not succumb to domination by US corporate or military misadventures. Then Wikileaks happened upon US State Department cables and our view of international diplomacy changed forever.
Today, CIA-sponsored rainbow revolutions -- financed by National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) -- use puppet NGOs to destabilize non-compliant foreign regimes. Thanks to whistle-blowers and Wikileaks, we now know how US embassy diplomatic pouches are used to smuggle currency to these Trojan horses.
In an ironic twist of fate, we also get a glimpse of how the US State Department strategically undermines the world indigenous peoples' movement and human rights in general. To put it mildly, it isn't a pretty picture.
As shocking as this may be to the average Canadian, for Indigenous Peoples it's par for the course. Since the earliest days of Confederation, Canada has worked endlessly to undermine and divide us, if not through economic sanctions and bribery, then through residential schools, enforced segregation, violence and overt psywar. Always it was in the name of 'business'. "Mixing interviews, photographs and front line amateur video with rare archival footage, the controversial and provocative BUSINESS AS USUAL literally pulls no punches while examining allegations made by the Canadian government towards First Nations protestors as being terrorists and ignorantly comparing them to the likes of Islam extremists." Following the official attempt to grossly mis-characterize native activists as 'terrorists' in the Canadian army's draft counterinsurgency manual--as examined in Jay Cardinal Villeneuve's short film Business as Usual--in April 2007, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced that the final draft would "not make comparisons between aboriginal groups and any insurgent [...] As shocking as this may be to the average Canadian, for Indigenous Peoples it's par for the course. Since the earliest days of Confederation, Canada has worked endlessly to undermine and divide us, if not through economic sanctions and bribery, then through residential schools, enforced segregation, violence and overt psywar. Always it was in the name of 'business'.
"Mixing interviews, photographs and front line amateur video with rare archival footage, the controversial and provocative BUSINESS AS USUAL literally pulls no punches while examining allegations made by the Canadian government towards First Nations protestors as being terrorists and ignorantly comparing them to the likes of Islam extremists."
Following the official attempt to grossly mis-characterize native activists as 'terrorists' in the Canadian army's draft counterinsurgency manual--as examined in Jay Cardinal Villeneuve's short film Business as Usual--in April 2007, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor announced that the final draft would "not make comparisons between aboriginal groups and any insurgent groups"; nor would it include any references to "current aboriginal organizations".
Quite a few of us were on the edge of our seats over that one, so we were more than a little relieved to that activists weren't going to be nailed down as terrorists. But as it turned out, Canada was already in the throws of something far more sinister: a vast surveillance network that explicitly targeted First Nations.
As the Toronto Star explained in December 2011, the mandate of this new network "was to collect and distribute intelligence about situations involving First Nations that have 'escalated to civil disobedience and unrest in the form of protest actions.'"
"An annual Strategic Intelligence Report from June 2009", continued the Toronto Star, "indicates the surveillance at the time focused on 18 'communities of concern' in five provinces across the country. These included First Nations in Ontario like Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI), Ardoch, Grassy Narrows, Six Nations and Tyendinaga, which have made headlines over the last few years for road and railway blockades or opposition to mining and logging on their territories."
RCMP briefing on "hot spots" PDF
INAC's presentation on "hot spots and public safety"
Documents that were obtained through access to information requests revealed how the intelligence unit has "reported weekly to approximately 450 recipients in law enforcement, government, and unnamed 'industry partners' in the energy and private sector," the Toronto Star continues. (One can only wonder if those industry partners include the likes of Chevron, Exxon Mobil, British Petroleum, Total, Korea National Oil, PetroChina and Sinopec, all of whom are neck-deep in the oil sands. )
A month before this was revealed, in October 2011, we also found out that the Canadian military counter-intelligence unit has been keeping its own tabs on Native groups.
DND intelligence reports on native groups, Compiled since January, 2010
Shortly after the story broke, the Drum reported, "The Department of National Defence in a gauche attempt to squash the whole affair has now denied they had anything to do with spying on First Nations. The DND has stated that information received on Native organizations was supplied by government agencies and not the military. Such a stupid statement, a blatant lie with all evidence pointing right at them. It is reminiscent of the CIA, black is white and white is black, truth is only admissible under emergent situations. At the end of the day, the Department of National Defense has a rotting omelet on their military mugs."
"The intelligence units were started in the nineties, and they report to the head of Defence Intelligence. Their success rate will never be known, but the fact that they can free up time to watch over First Nation organizations opens the door to skepticism. The mandate of these units is 'identifying, investigating, and countering threats to the security of the Canadian Forces from foreign intelligence services, sabotage, terrorism, and criminal activities.' So far, the reports have looked closely at Native protest groups, especially the ones who show up on Parliament Hill. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is also under scrutiny, which is strange since the AFN exists under the umbrella of Indian Affairs."
With its vast surveillance network firmly in place, the Canadian government has been working overtime since January 2012 to frame indigenous peoples as well as environmental and conservation groups as adversaries and enemies of Canada, some of whom are allegedly being funded by foreign "radicals" who want to undermine Canada's economy.
If that's not bad enough, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has also just announced a brand new anti-terrorism strategy that lumps together "eco-extremists, animal-rights radicals and anti-capitalists, as well as white supremacists and foreign terror groups".
Jane Dollinger, a spokeswoman for PETA, responded to the new so-called "multi-issue extremist" strategy in the Globe and Mail, stating "If it is extreme to oppose bashing in the heads of baby seals, anally electrocuting chinchillas for a coat collar, scalding chickens to death in defeathering tanks, and poisoning cats in cruel lab experiments, then so be it."
The same reasoning surely applies to NGOs like Greenpeace and ForestEthics--who can hardly be considered radicals--not to mention the tens of thousands of Indigenous activists across Canada who are simply trying to protect their lands and generate a decent quality of life without sacrificing their arms and legs for the glory of Canada.
Having said that, the biggest concern right now is not so much about this very Canadian psywar. Rather, it's about what comes after it?
In his article, Why Canada Is Starting to Feel like Peru, Arno Kopecky suggests that it's "hacked email accounts, bugged phone lines, spies posing as volunteers, cars following them at night." However, the odds are good the surveillance network is already doing most of this. How else are they going to gather intel?
I the case of Peru, What came next was machines guns, helicopters, martial law and the arbitrary arrest of anyone the police could get their hands on.
Thankfully, the anti-native lunacy in Peru eventually subsided and the courts (and the congress) did an admirable job restoring reason AND protecting the rights of the Awajun and Wampis Peoples; but not before many lives were lost, because the government mulishly failed to do its job.
That said, it's worth noting that, since 2006, Intercontinental Cry has observed similar programmes against Indigenous Peoples and non-governmental organizations in: Bangladesh, India, Burma, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, and, of course, Peru.
In each case, the respective governments asserted one or more of the following:
These same Nation States also frequently went out of their way to label Indigenous Peoples as: terrorists (Peru, Indonesia), extremists (Ecuador, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Panama), maoists (India), communists (Cambodia, Canada), lunatics (Ecuador), savages (Botswana, Tanzania), barbarians (Botswana), heathens (Botswana, Zimbabwe).
And always it was in the name of business. After establishing such a climate, they would place an enormous amount of pressure on the local Indigenous populations to force them to accept industrial projects that they would in no way benefit from, save a few short-term jobs (which is like trading a can of tuna for a lake full of fish!). Or, in true colonial form, the government would simply push forward by militarizing indigenous land (Burma) and violating or re-writing any law in their way.
Occasionally, they have also tried to engineer 'consent' to a project, for the public's benefit. For instance, in the Philippines, a mysterious “Brooke’s Point Tribal Leaders Federation” came forward last year to endorse the mining interests of China's MacroAsia Corporation. No Customary Indigenous leader in Brooke’s Point has ever heard of the Federation. In the case of Canada, majority opposition to the Enbridge pipeline has been framed to appear as if it's just a few inarticulate "troublemakers" scattered across the landscape; while a minor group of inaudible supporters are championed as representing "the all".
In some cases, paramilitary groups (Peru), employees and entire settler mobs (India, Bangladesh) would also 'lend a hand' by issuing death threats, carrying out assassinations and kiddnappings, burning down villages and terrorizing entire communities. Some have even been known to throw homemade bombs into the houses of community leaders.
It's hard to say if we're headed down this road here in Canada, but it sure feels like it. Or perhaps that's just what the government wants us to think? After all, if they can keep everyone off-balance long enough, they'll be able to wiggle their way forward, like usual, at the expense of the land and its people.
While new techniques of hydrocarbon drilling, such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in new areas are lauded by some as a solution to Argentina’s energy imports, the indigenous communities who live in areas where these resources can be found argue the activity is a threat to their communities. Members of the Mapuche community say the Argentine government’s aggressive push to increase energy supplies by allowing oil companies to explore in their lands will cause irreversible environmental and social damage. According to Argentina´s Energy Secretariat, close to 87 percent of Argentina’s energy is generated from fossil fuels. The government agency said that in 1988 Argentina had enough gas supplies for 36 years. But by 2009, this outlook was slashed to seven years. Oil supplies fell from 14 to nine in the same period. Additionally, starting in 2003, when the economy was stabilizing after its financial collapse two years earlier, consumption of fossil fuels increased sharply. A [...] While new techniques of hydrocarbon drilling, such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in new areas are lauded by some as a solution to Argentina’s energy imports, the indigenous communities who live in areas where these resources can be found argue the activity is a threat to their communities.
Members of the Mapuche community say the Argentine government’s aggressive push to increase energy supplies by allowing oil companies to explore in their lands will cause irreversible environmental and social damage.
According to Argentina´s Energy Secretariat, close to 87 percent of Argentina’s energy is generated from fossil fuels. The government agency said that in 1988 Argentina had enough gas supplies for 36 years. But by 2009, this outlook was slashed to seven years. Oil supplies fell from 14 to nine in the same period.
Additionally, starting in 2003, when the economy was stabilizing after its financial collapse two years earlier, consumption of fossil fuels increased sharply. A report of the US Energy Information Administration said that the use of oil and oil products increased more than 37 percent between 2003 and 2010 in Argentina, while gas consumption increased 23 percent in the same period. To cover its energy needs, Argentina’s fuel imports, mainly of liquefied natural gas, gasoil and fuel oil, increased more than seven times, from US$549 million to US$4.5 billion, according to Argentina’s Economy Ministry.
In December 2010, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales, or YPF, owned by the Spanish firm Repsol, announced it found a large shale gas reserve, in Loma de la Lata in the southern Neuquen province, and then it found an even bigger one in the same site.
Now other oil companies, including the US-based Chevron, Exxon and Apache, and the France´s Total, are exploring in Neuquen.
According to the US Department of Energy, Argentina is home to the world’s third-largest potential reserves of unconventional gas, with a potential 774 trillion cubic feet, behind only to China with 1.28 trillion cubic feet and the United States with 862 trillion cubic feet.
There is also hydrocarbon exploration in Rio Negro province. The provincial governments of Mendoza and Chubut are evaluating whether to allow for exploration there, too. The Entre Rios province, which has no history of gas exploration, signed an agreement with Repsol-YPF in 2009 for unconventional hydrocarbon exploration, and established an agreement with Uruguay for cross-border exploration with the state oil company Ancap.
New conflicts emerge
But there are consequences for the indigenous groups who live in the path of the expansion.
“There is no doubt that all of the official announcements about these mega-fields are a direct and clear threat to the life and culture of the affected Mapuche communities,” said Jorge Nahuel, a member of the Xawvnko Area Council of the Neuquen Mapuche Confederation.
Last November, members of the Gelay Ko community in Neuquen blocked work on a gas well on their land that US oil company Apache had been drilling, saying that they were not previously consulted of the project. They demanded that the provincial government create two commissions, one to evaluate the social, cultural and environmental impact, and the other for control and monitoring.
Fracking uses millions of gallons of water mixed with chemicals and sand at high pressure, to break through rock like shale to free natural gas and oil.
“There is no policy in place to measure the impact of this new technology,” said Nahuel. “That is what the communities are reacting to, in Loma de la Lata and in the central part of the province.”
Oil and gas exploration began 60 years ago, and indigenous residents estimate that there are 200 wells there and they have been demanding an end to the activity in the area for the last decade.
Mapuche community authority Cristina Lincopán of the village, said the government brings water each month in trucks to the area from Zapala, a city 60 kilometers (38 miles), because the water is so contaminated from the oil industry.
She said that community members are suffering from blindness, skin diseases and diarrhea.
“The truth is the company Apache is killing us day after day,” she said.
In September 2001, German consultancy Umweltshutz provided the Kaxipayiñ and Paynemil communities an environmental impact study that found 630,000 cubic meters of soil contaminated with chromium, lead, arsenic, naphtaline and pyrene, as well as other heavy metals in the water above legally accepted levels.
Gabriel Cherqui, a werken, or spokesman from the Kaxipayíñ community, said that since early 2011, they blocked YFP from exploring in the region because local government officials failed to clean up the current environmental damage. In 2002, his community, along with the neighboring Paynemil village filed a lawsuit against Repsol-YPF for social-environmental and cultural damage. Back then the cleanup cost was estimated at US$445 million, and is now at US$1.6 billion, according to Cherqui.
Even though Argentina ratified Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization on indigenous peoples, one of whose main points is the previous consultation of indigenous groups, the state has not ensured this.
Now it is an issue local courts are evaluating. In February, Judge Mario Tommasi in Cutral Có town in Neuquen rejected an injunction request by Petrolera Piedra del Águila to do seismic testing in the Huenctru Trawel Leufú Mapuche community. Meanwhile, in March, the provincial Supreme Court approved an injunction against Chinese company Emprendimientos Mineros for copper exploration in the Mellao Morales community.
James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, who visited Argentina in late 2011, said the country’s institutions need to do more to defend indigenous peoples’ human rights.
In a press conference, he said the government needs to regulate the consultation process before extractive industry projects can receive a green light.
Other encroachments on indigenous lands
According to figures from the Neuquen Observatory on Indigenous Peoples’ Indigenous Rights, there are 59 Mapuche communities in the region, 19 of them affected by the oil industry or on the radar of companies looking to expand exploration.
Five of them – Logko Purrán, Gelay Ko, Antipan, Kaxipayiñ and Paynemil – are home to gas exploitation. Oil is being extracted from Wiñoy Folil, Maliqueo and Marifil; and in 11 others, there are concessions for exploration of either.
Salta, in northern Argentina, is also the scene of conflicts over extractive industry in or near the lands of indigenous peoples. In October and November of 2011, the Wichí Lewetes Kalehi and Lote 6 communities in the municipality of Rivadavia Banda Norte tried to stop seismic testing on their lands and reported being harassed by the company Wicap, which was contracted by the Unión Transitoria de Empresas Maxipetrol, as well as by police.
In the Chubut province, in Patagonia, an exploration/exploitation concession in Ñirihuau Sur, in June 2011, put Mapuche Tehuelche communities on alert. In mid-October, they held a trawun, or parliament, to evaluate the impacts of the industry, in which Neuquen Mapuche also participated.
It was a similar story in Chaco, where the province was divided into 12 blocks, some of them including Wichi, Qom and Moquit lands. In mid-2011, the Servicios Energéticos del Chaco-Empresa del Estado Provincial and Argentina Energy Service, a state-owned company, started exploring for hydrocarbons.