We are
introduced to:
·
Erasmo taylor
·
Roberto Francis, Territorial Judge
·
Uriel Davis, Secretary
·
Gil Coleman, Technician
·
Samuel Feliciano
·
Rosalinda Dixon
There
were nine communal counselors there.
Opening
song and prayer
Welcome
from the elder council
Welcome
to our international friends, applause to welcome you. What is your mission?
Presentation
of the communal leaders
Francisco
Manuel Castro ( guy in striped shirt) – President of the Territorial
Government, Territorial Chief
Kathy
introduced Nicaragua Network.
Music
by a Mayangna man in traditional dress sang about nature and the BOSAWAS
reserve. Moskitu music – last month I
went to the poetry festival in Managua.
There are no funds to improve the lives of artists and musicians. I have two CDs – one of just me, and another
of me with others. They are on radio and
the internet. He showed us his jacket and
hat made of the bark of the rubber tree, saying that the grandparents used this
type of cloth. He sang about the Tiwi
tiwi, which is a little bird that stays along the river.
BOSAWAS
is an acronym for three natural resources – the Bocay
River, the Saslaya Mountain, and the Waspuk River, all of which are
Mayangna names of places. The first
people to populate Nicaragua were Mayangna.
Next, the Spaniards, and later the Miskitu. Today we reclaim our rights for the defense
of Mother Earth. We claim that the
Nicaragua government must listen to our petition. We call on our friends and neighbors to come
to the defense of nature.
Our
elders took care of the forest and they are now at rest. Now only the youth are making claims for
Mother Earth. We are going to try as the
Muytambak Territorial Government. I, as
a singer, went into the BOSAWAS and saw where it was deforested, with no
tigers, no peccaries, because of Mestizos who are invading our territories.
Presentation by Technician Gil
Coleman
I am
happy about the alliance we are making.
Mayangna Sauni Arungka Matumbak has 48,000 ha of area, with population
of 4700 in nine communities with elected leaders.
The
Vision and Mission of Matumbak:
Apolitical indigenous people in defense of the rights of the nine
communities in the territory. Mission is
development of community, maintain our identity, maintain conditions of life
for the population. Objectives: Norms in agreement with traditions, identify
the situation of the colonizers. Our
structure is a General Assembly, Officers, nine Territorial Councils each with
Judge/Chief/Sindico, and technicians for health, and security. We want our land, sports, and culture.
Recent
history – we had our own laws, before Nicaragua, and these were recognized by
Law 445 in 2003. We put out images of
our territory to try to protect it and attend to the urgent needs of our poor
and vulnerable people. We work to
protect our resources. Sixteen km SE of
Bonanza, we have 485 sq km in our title.
(Note – was means river)
Our
communities are Pansuhwas, Mukuswas, Wassah, Ispayulina, Wiunaku As, Ibanwas,
Mahalwas, Wihilwas, and Yapawas. We
speak Mayangna, Miskito and Spanish and are multi-cultural. There is one more community, Kal Mata.
Massive
invasions started in about 2000, although there were some starting in the
1990s.
Now
there are about 1500 colonizing families with 8000 people. 15 of their colonies are in the Wala As Ang
reserve and three are in the Banakwas reserve.
36,000 Mz (1 Mz is about 1.7 acres) are affected, with indiscriminate
logging and the agricultural frontier.
He
showed a map of Mayangna.
What do
colonizers cause? Insecurity for people,
threats, conflict, environmental damage, climate change. Cattle pollute the rivers, there is food
insecurity, and a loss of ancestral heritage.
Men must go further to hunt, and women get water from contaminated
rivers. There is just one last area that
has not been logged. If it is logged,
the earth will not have oxygen.
Most of
our territory is in the buffer zone, we have only a small part of BOSAWAS.
Obstacles
to the saneamiento are that the governments of Nicaragua and RAAN/RAAS don’t
have funding or the political will.
A group
of children did the Tiwi Tiwi dance
for us. They were dressed in rubber tree
bark pounded into cloth and made into traditional clothes.
Plan for 2014
*
Achieve saneamiento through a legal framework that will protect our people and
recover forests, rivers, plants, and animals.
The goal is for 50% of the colonizers to be cleared out. We have a budget of $45,000 USD to get a
register of all of the colonizers.
*
Demand and make claims for our land and get a lawyer. This is budgeted at $180,000 USD. We did most of our work without a lawyer,
giving a negative result, so we need legal advice moving forward. Also, we need actions, lobbying, and
coordination with other indigenous territories to have a greater impact at
higher levels. We need radio, TV, and
written messages – to make our demands public.
*
Clearing an area to show our territories so the nine communities can clearly
see their boundaries. We need 230 border
markers and paths to connect them. A German
company is helping with this.
The
colonizers who are allowed to stay will pay rent to the indigenous people.
Jazelle
has a recommendation – Agricultural reform titles are not valid in indigenous
territory. Harrison – Altimarano Treaty
of 1905 said that the territories would be divided based on the number of
children, but Mestizos marry indigenous people and have lots of children, then
extend their land – be careful of this – you could limit the amount of land
they keep based on the number of children (?).
This plan
doesn’t have funding, so we’re looking for larger international organizations
for help. Mestizos that came a long time
ago who choose to leave may not sell the land, lease it out to others, nor pass
it to their heirs.
We had
some money from Denmark to register colonizers, but Ortega said to stop that. We’ve done 20% of the registration and only
two of those families have titles from before the Agrarian Reform time. When we start charging rent, we will need a
lawyer. Our people need to get together
to decide who can stay and what rental terms we would offer them. If we don’t get results at the regional and
national levels, we will ask for international help.
Territorial judge – When we talk about Law 445
and the five stages, we’ve done the first four stages but the fifth has serious
problems. Our main needs now are a
cartographer and a lawyer. We need to
present reports at the regional and national levels. For the past 6 years we have gotten through
the four stages – we need these last two elements. Titles after 1987 are not valid and very few
people have valid titles.
Health,
culture and sports, planting and production, education:
Education
– in the nine communities we have three primary and secondary schools. All are bilingual in Mayangna and
Spanish. From the mid-1980s where
children learn in Mayangna – before that, the children were punished for not
speaking Spanish. We have men and women
teachers in primary schools where education is bilingual, but secondary schools
are only in Spanish. Some of us are in
Universities, but this is at great cost to us.
Now our children are learning Mayangna and the adults are learning
Spanish. This helps them not be cheated
in the cities and markets. Are there
textbooks? Yes, first through fourth
grade, but not 5th or 6th grades yet. After Hurricane Felix, of 2007, we have some
aid to get 5th and 6th grade texts. Texts we do have are old and need
updated. The national government pays
the salaries of our teachers. Schools
need libraries and computers and school building maintenance.
Medicine
- We survived in the past with traditional medicine. We are trying to get help to document our
traditional medicines – the knowledge is being lost. The ambulances can’t cover this whole area,
so we need to provide transportation ourselves.
I’ve
only been president for six months.
Regarding
the saneamiento – there are government agencies that should help us – CEDID,
MARENA, INAFOR, The Attorney General of the Republic, the Ecological Battalion,
The ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, SERENA, National Institute for
Territorial Studies, Mayor’s offices, and RAAN.
The colonizers have guns, but we
don’t. We have no weapons to resist
their violence. We feel threatened and
insecure. Help us defend our land and
protect Mother Earth. We need to patrol
our area by vehicle because it’s too large to do on foot. Even on buses into cities, people threaten us
and might kill us. This hurts our
ability to talk to the regional government.
How can you help move this process forward?
We have
students in University to become lawyers, but there are no scholarships.
Can you
get money from your resources? In an
environmental municipal committee in Bonanza – no Mayangna is a logger – we are
conservationists.
50% (?)
of the people live off of the forest. We
have reforested to benefit future generations.
This is
the place where the two Mayangna were killed by Mestizos. We kept vigil for two months after that. Then the police chief came and decided to
build a police station here, so it is better.
We
border with the Mayangna Sauni As people.
Some of
the resistance to the Sandinistas planted guns in the forests and now they dig
them up to use against us.
The
invaders steal our cattle.
There
is an abandoned gold mine, it’s complicated for us to get papers to use it, but
the illegals use it. Same with the
forest.
Jazelle
proposed again, for those that are allowed to stay, that they pay rent.
Is the
Territorial government paid? Yes, by the
Ministry of the Treasury for the Territorial Government from the resources of
our area. Jazelle suggested that they
could get more or all of that money.
Rio
Tonki is now polluted by the HEMCO Company gold mining activities (We later saw
this company in Bonanza). Many years of
cyanide have gone into the river. People
have lung problems and bathing in the river causes severe itching. Even small creeks are contaminated. There is also mercury being used by the
smaller gold panners. The community does
seem to have well water that they can safely drink.
___ We
took a break for lunch, eating Guarda Tinaka, also known as Tepes Quintle,
which tastes like pork. This is a very
large rodent, about 20 pounds. Parlca? Parlcu? Paka?
This
group is going to go to court tomorrow in Bonanza against the intruders.
___
Back in the conference room, we learn the history of Matumbak, by Arasma Taylor
and one other person.
The
Mayangna were the first people to populate Nicaragua. Many of the place names like Matagalpa are
Mayangna. We have many territorial security
problems. In previous centuries our ancestors
lived near the Pucalaya River and we have lost many of our rights.
There
was a King who reigned over the 100,000 ha at the Kolawaka Hill, which is now
in the BOSAWAS reserve.
In
later years, since 2009, we only have 48,000 ha with all of the different
things that have happened on the land.
The political institutions of the government don’t support our land
rights. There are several problems.
The
Kiing of Kukalaya had a land grant from the government of Belize and our
ancestors survived on plants and animals of that area of large
biodiversity. In the 1930s the Spanish
regime killed many of us, and our population was greatly reduced. As original peoples, we see the political
parties take away our rights.
Since
1977 the real invasion began and affected our natural resources and access to
the land. (We get our 3rd
small rainstorm of the day) Sincde then
we believe 970 families are now here.
We
thank the National government for Law 445 and the four stages and our title,
but the last stage is what we are asking for now. We see how they fulfilled Law 445 and 169 of
ILO, but they appear not to have the political will for the saneamiento. Just as we respect the Nicaragua laws, we
expect the Nicaragua government to comply with these laws. We follow the law, are not afraid of this
conflict, but if tey do not comply, will go to the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission and other international organizations.
We have
had processes for meeting with the community chiefs and we thank you for
meeting with us. We hope you can take
our message to your people; an alliance of cooperation could fund our kind of
project.
Another speaker. I will try to wake you up. Birth of Matumbak: Before, we didn’t talk about a territorial
government, we talked about an association.
In the time of the association, we didn’t have a basis in law to discuss
our rights. In 1994 we became an
organization in which I served for eight years.
Under Armando Schmidt we assumed the role as the Indigenous Territorial
Government. Then we approved a Magna
Carta (charter) to allow us to function.
In September of 2013 Francisco Miguel Castro was elected as our first President. He has been involved in the organization
struggle since 1994. Before 1979 there
was not an organization. Before the war,
there were seventy-nine communities.
When
Sukawala stopped functioning, the community did not have the same rights as
now. Now we have legal title to 48,000
ha but are not yet free. We still need
the saneamiento. We have decided that
2014 is the last year that we will fight locally. After that, we will go to the world court for
international assistance.
We look
back to another Mayangna people who won in international court.
A
territory needs many professionals in a variety of professions to function
properly – we need scholarships. I was a
teacher, and have been studying law at Martin Luther University in Rosita.
A woman speaker who does not speak Spanish
(Louise Boling?). I am from an
organization of women called Mayaka.
Welcome. We need help to get
legal as an organization. We have a
project for educating women in sewing to help support our families. We want to make things from this bark
cloth. We also need sewing machines (12
of them were requested). We need offices
where women can work for their advancement.
(Paulette, Susan, and Helen were interested in this project, and also
powering them with solar power.)
Women
aren’t included in meetings – I want women to be invited. Men don’t hurt us, but don’t think we are
important. We need someone who knows the
business side of this – to get to Managua, and who to sell to, and how much to charge. Question – if this is funded, who would
manage the funds? The Territorial Government?
The Women’s Organization? A: A
person who works with the women’s association, a woman.
They
didn’t want to talk about the abuse of children. The women say it doesn’t happen, but the
President says yes, it happens. The
president hopes that in the future that women will be welcome and can
participate in government.
A woman chose to talk: A judge here is working for three months. The young women want to study but lack a
father, and there are no funds available for girls to continue their
education. The eighty high school
graduates have not been able to continue their education. We need a University for this territory. Some orphans can’t even finish primary
education. They presented a proposal to
us for a bi-lateral accord.
We said
that we can carry their concerns to Managua and the media and look for funding
sources.
We
dropped everything to speak to you. We
are in a grave situation and losing our land.
I am very worried about what’s going on here – we seem to be pushed
aside regarding the BOSAWAS and the National Government. We would like more visits in the future. We would like a sister agreement with you and
organizations. Good travels. He gave me an email address, jilcoleman589@yahoo.es, but no version of it that I
tried worked.
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