Georgetown: The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the National Toshaos Council (NTC) on Friday, concluded a three-day Joint Meeting to discuss priority issues of which the Amerindian Act 2006 Revision was one.
This activity took place between December 16-18, 2020 at the Regency Suites Hotel with representatives from several Indigenous bodies.
These included: The Moruca District Council (MDC) Region 1; Hinterland Affairs Committee (HAC) Region 2; Upper Mazaruni District Council (UMDC) Region 7; North Pakaraimas District Council (NPDC) Region 8; North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), Kanuku Mountain Community Representative Group (KMCRG), South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) all of Region 9; and the Region 10 Regional Toshaos Council (RTC).
Also present were, representatives from the Mabaruma sub-region, Matarkai sub-region, Middle Mazaruni, Lower Mazaruni and the Potaro region where there are no district council bodies.
As part of the meeting, the Indigenous leaders engaged in extensive discussions on recommendations for the proposed revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 done previously and submitted to the Ministry in 2019. Among these recommendations are amendments to existing provisions that fall under land titling, Free, Prior and Informed Consent and village governance.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, President of the APA, Lemmel Benson Thomas reminded participants that as indigenous peoples they are responsible for their way of life, as such, they must charter their own ways to do so.
He also noted that meetings of this kind are the aspirations of other indigenous groups in other countries. Therefore, they must make use of the opportunity to continue to focus on the protection of our rights and lands.
“Our political landscape is changing; our economies are changing, socially our lives are changing but, we have to adapt to it,” Thomas said.
Meanwhile, Toshao Mario Hastings of Kako Village, said, “As indigenous peoples, we are here to represent our district, our councils and regions, plan strategies and identify next steps for the process and submit these recommendations to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs.”
In March 2017, the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) and the National Toshaos Council (NTC) jointly facilitated activities aimed at jumpstarting the revision process of the Amerindian Act 2006.
The need for this activity was further motivated by the public commitment from the former coalition government to have the Amerindian Act 2006 revised.
As a result, the APA and the NTC had also trained resource persons to conduct work on the revision of the Amerindian Act, rights of Indigenous Peoples and other human rights treaties and conventions.
These persons then went into villages to conduct cluster villages and district level meetings and capacity building sessions in understanding the provisions of the current Amerindian Act 2006 and to work towards arriving at specific recommendations for revision.
After the training sessions and discussions, rounds were made to clusters of villages in Regions 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9, to receive recommendations for revisions.
With support from networking organizations, the draft recommendations emanating from these sessions were further validated at the cluster and district council meetings, and then put into matrices, with a summary of the recommendations included.
Around the same time, the then government of Guyana also conducted some national consultations on the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 even though they later reported that they were unable to go into all of the regions.
However, the representative grouping was able to make a joint presentation of these recommendations to the Junior Minister of Indigenous Affairs in the presence of their advisors in June 2019.
It was also decided that once the government had concluded its consultations, they would meet with stakeholders to discuss the next steps. However, this meeting never took place. Additionally, there were limitations on what the government could have done after December 2018 because of the implications of the vote of No Confidence that effectively rendered Coalition government a “caretaker government”.
The result was severe setbacks in conducting any work with regards to high-level decision-making, for example, the tabling of motions and/or passage of legislation in the National Assembly, all of which limited any legislative action on a new bill.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Progressive Party/ Civic, before their subsequent election to office, had also made public promises to have the Amerindian Act 2006 revised; This was also included in their manifesto in the run-up to the general elections of March 2020.
However, with there being a five-month lapse before the final declaration of the 2020 General and Regional Elections results in August 2020, legislative action was, once again delayed.
Added to that, like the rest of the world, Guyana suffered and continue to suffer the effects of the global COVID 19 pandemic. With restrictions on movements and meetings, not much could happen community-wise, regionally, nationally or internationally.
The indigenous peoples understand that the passage of an emergency budget by the new government could not see budgetary allocation made for work on the revision of the Amerindian Act. This is not taken as an unwillingness of the government to do anything about it.
Instead, it is more seen as a delay until the new budget is passed, and so the new government is called upon to show its commitment to its promise that revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 is a priority.
To this end, several organizations including the APA, NTC, UMDC, NPDC and SRDC have since met with the current Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Hon Pauline Sukhai, and have discussed the revision of Act as part of their general discussions with her. Among other things, this has seen a general response that the revision can take place once there is a call from a wide cross-section of villages and once it adds to the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
As it relates to their next steps, the consortium of Indigenous leaders will present a joint statement to the Minister of Amerindian Affairs, indicating their collective decision that the revision of the Amerindian Act 2006 is of highest priority. Additionally, they will also seek a meeting with the Minister to submit their proposal.
The revision of the Amerindian Act continues to be a high priority for Indigenous peoples in Guyana as many, including the members of the APA are of the firm belief that the Amerindian Act 2006, does not thoroughly recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and does not meet international standards and the provisions of our own constitution.
