In settler societies across the world, Indigenous people are at the forefront of resistance to environmental destruction. While this resistance happens in many countries around the world, The Daily looked at three different countries – Ecuador, Bolivia, and Australia – and their experiences of Indigenous resistance.
There are about 4 million Indigenous people in Ecuador, and the country is widely regarded as having the largest Indigenous movement in Latin America. Politically subversive, Ecuador’s Indigenous population has fought for decades to win rights and concessions from the government. Chief among these concessions was the approval of a new constitution in 2008 to safeguard environmental rights. The constitution now states that nature has the “right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution,” and that the government must take “precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems, or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles.”
This success is complicated by the fact that Ecuador has large oil reserves, primarily located in the Amazon basin, home to much of the Indigenous population; and that under Ecuadorian law, these resources belong to the state. The current president Rafael Correa has ended the moratorium on oil drilling in previously protected areas, and much like in Canada, Indigenous groups are demanding consultation before oil exploration begins in their territories. Correa’s government has responded with a crackdown against Indigenous organizations, attempting to criminalize protesters and jailing Indigenous leaders.
Correa’s government has responded with a crackdown against Indigenous organizations, attempting to criminalize protesters and jailing Indigenous leaders.
The fight against big oil in Ecuador is not new – it has been going on for decades. U.S. oil company Chevron has been working in the country for years. However, according to the Cultures of Resistance Network, an organization that promotes groups fighting for social justice around the world, Chevron’s operations have led to “cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, and skin defects” among the affected population. In 2012, a court ruled that Chevron owed affected Indigenous groups $18 billion in damages – the company has yet to pay out. Now, some hope that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will serve as a new tool for Ecuadorian Indigenous groups to protect their lands from environmental destruction. The struggle in Ecuador is ongoing, and it remains to be seen whether the Indigenous movement will be successful.
Australia is home to the largest uranium reserves in the world, most of which are on Indigenous territory. The country also has one of the world’s most aggressive pro-resource extracting governments. The Australian government currently supports expansion of the mining activities, despite opposition from Indigenous and environmental activists. Uranium mines are highly polluting, leading to the contamination of local water supplies and thus to damaging agriculture in the area. Where there are uranium mines, Indigenous Australians’ livelihoods are under attack.
“It’s my country. I’m going to win.”
In the early 1980s, Rio Tinto, the British based mining company opened the Ranger Uranium mine in Kakadu National Park, in Australia’s Northern Territory. This mine is in the middle of the land of the Mirrar people, who fiercely opposed the project - it is now one of the largest uranium mines in the world. That uranium mines are dangerous for the immediate environment was proven when in 2004, large amounts of radioactive water spilled out from the site. Again in 2006, radioactive water contaminated streams used for agricultural irrigation. When plans were made for yet another uranium mine in Mirrar territory in 1999, Jacqui Katona, and Yvonne Margarula, from the Djok and Mirrar people respectively, led the struggle to stop uranium extraction on their lands. The two fought back with demonstrations, protest marches, and blockades and were helped by nearby Indigenous activists such as the leaders of Mirrar Erre, Bunitj and Manilakarr peoples. In the end, their struggle succeeded and they stopped Kakadu from gaining another uranium mine.
However, demand for uranium is on the rise once more, and the Australian government is determined to sell its resources on the world market. Yvonne Maragula effectively sums up the sentiment of the struggle against resource extraction on sacred land: “It’s my Country. I’m going to win.”
The Indigenous population of Bolivia accounts for roughly 60 per cent of the population, giving it the highest proportion of Indigenous peoples in any colonial society. In 2005, President Evo Morales, himself an Aymara (an Indigenous people in Bolivia) came into office. This was the first time that Bolivia had an Indigenous president and a government committed to Indigenous rights. Nonetheless, Bolivia’s economy is reliant on mineral and natural gas exports, and Morales has chosen to expand extraction rather than limit it. There has been widespread backlash.
The lack of consultation with Indigenous groups flies in the face of the Bolivian government’s stated policies, as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The government supports a major highway construction project through the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory, both to facilitate hydrocarbon exploration and extraction in the area and to improve the country’s infrastructure by linking the two cities of Trinidad and Cochabamba. However, the park is the current and ancestral home of three separate Indigenous communities. The communities living there strongly object to the project, as it will lead to more settlers on their territory as well as the destruction of the environment. In August 2011, Indigenous and environmental activists marched 526 kilometres from the park to La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, to protest outside Morales’ office. The demonstrators faced police violence and repression along the way, but decided to march the same route again in 2012.
Still, Morales has stated the project will go ahead “whether it is wanted or not.” The lack of consultation with Indigenous groups flies in the face of the Bolivian government’s stated policies, as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The president seems to have forgotten the 1990 March for Dignity that demanded Indigenous land rights and sparked Indigenous political activism in Bolivia – the very same activism that eventually led Morales to power.