"mnl.meet"
and orginally posted by the E-Mail Center, The Philippines.
Those wishing to send messages of solidarity and support are encouraged to
do so, posting to the conference (mnl.meet@conf.igc.apc.org from Internet
or Bitnet systems) or directly to the address:
==================================================
COUNTRY REPORTS
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Papua New Guinea
I was raised in the Netherlands. My father was forced to flee West Papua
when he was 14.
Long ago, the Dutch colonized the island of New Guinea, also the
English. The western part was a Dutch colony until 1963 after which
Indonesia claimed it. During this time, the Dutch were already preparing
the Papuans for independence. In 1962 the Indonesians and Dutch signed
an agreement which did not involve the Papuans. In 1969, Indonesia held
a fake referendum where only about one thousand were allowed to vote,
out of a million population. Officially to Indonesians, it is Irian Jaya
but Papuans prefer to call it West Papua.
The Papuans have always led a self-sufficient way of life. They have
their own agricultural systems. The Indonesian authorities
do not show any respect for the Papuans and are only interested in its
minerals and other natural resources. They say West Papua has little
people and is practically empty. The multinationals are being allowed to
come in. Papuans have no place in this development process. They are
considered backward and primitive, and they become second-class citizens
in their own country.
There is a big mining company in West Papua which is a joint venture
between Americans and Indonesians, the Freeport McMoran.
There are 240 languages in West Papua, and even more tribes. The people
try to defend their land. For instance, the Moi people are very
strongly resisting a logging company in their area. There is also the
transmigration policy in Indonesia. A lot of immigrants come to West
Papua, and the Papuans are being pushed aside for the immigrants, who
have better education opportunities. There is a lot of discrimination
going on. At the moment it is difficult to get exact figures becuase the
Papuans are not allowed to call themselves Papuan, and everyone is
supposed to call themselves Irianese. But there are estimates of a 3.5%
population growth in West Papua but only 0.2% among the Papuans, so in a
few years, the Papuans may become a minority in their own country.
There are also a lot of military in West Papua.
Papuans have no right to their own culture. They are not allowed to
practice their own culture except when they are forced to practice
it for tourism, like in woodcarving, where they are forced to do
woodcarving all day and then these are sold for a hundred times more
than they were paid for it.
It is difficult to organize for indigenous peoples because they are not
recognized. There are supposedly no Papuans in Papua so they are not
allowed to organize. We are struggling for a right to
self-determination. Our aspiration is for a free and independent West
Papua one day. We hope we can involve the women of West Papua in some
networks so that they can empower themselves someday.
- Ms. Inaria Kaisiepo
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Burma
The Karen people have been fighting against the Burmese dictatorship
since 1949.
Karen women are forced to become porters for government troops and are
gang-raped at night. Karen people have no permanent place to live;
never enough to eat. Many children have no chance for real education.
many of them die.
Because of this desparate conditions, we formed the Karen Women's
organization. We do our best but the situation is so hard it is
difficult to make a big difference.
The Burmese dictators have declared war on ethnic nationalities.
Women are tricked into Thai brothels. Many of them are now sick with
AIDS.
We ask you to condemn the SLORC military dictatorship. Stop trading with
them. Stop giving them arms and military aid. If the world stops
supporting Burma's dictators, perhaps we can finally free ourselves of
their brutality.
- Ms. Rebecca Naw
(More complete report later.)
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Vietnam
It is a great honor for us to be invited to this great conference. On
behalf of Vietnam's union and the indigenous women of Vietnam, we would
like to thank the organizers of this conference.
- 52% are women in Vietnam
- 50+ inigenous peoples
The ethnic tribes, indigenous peoples and other Vietnamese people are
unified.
Urbanization is spreading. new technologies are taking root.
Children of indigenous peoples are being trained. Commodity economy is
not fully developed. Women still suffer a hard life.
Vietnamese program for indigenous peoples include:
- health programs
- educational programs
- communications facilities
- literacy campaign
- professional skills
(More complete report later)
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India:
I am very happy to share with you our experiences.
- southern part of India; Bengalore state
- we work with indigenous people women who live in slums of Bengalore
India is multi-linguistic, multi-religious, multi-cultural
Majority are the Hindus; there are 4-5 dividing groups
- Brahmins
- Vyshiyas (business class)
- Kashtriyas (soldiers)
- Sudras (menial workers)
- Daliths (untouchables)
The scheduled caste and tribes belong to the untouchables.
Many problems have been launched to eradicate this practice (caste
system), but it exists until today.
Many of the poor in rural areas have moved to the urban areas, because
their land have been taken away by rich landlords, the government (for
building dams and plants), and also when they met with natural
calamities, i.e., drought, floods and communal riots.
- work in the construction industry; others as domestic workers.
No place to live in the cities so they live in slums under very
dehumanizing conditions; they expected to work like machines; the
indigenous people are like petrol to the engine. They are not considered
human beings. No clean drinking water, no electricity, liquor shops are
spreading everywhere, with the gov't tacit consent. This is a ay of
weakening their thinking capacity so they cannot think about their poor
situation. Very insecure life; very little women's education; as
for government programs for indigenous people, the money goes to
official's pockets instead of the people.
Since 10 years back there was no organization in the city to concentrate
on the people in the slums. Only in rural areas. The government throws
some programs to the people like throwing bread to the dogs. we are
trying to bring about legislation to improve the life of the indigenous
peoples. Welfare legislation bill for construction workers and minimum
wages for domestic workers.
- recently there have been disputes and riots against the indigenous
peoples, and the police even help out.
We would like in this conference to make an appear for support for the
Indian indigenous peoples.
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Bangladesh
I welcome all the participants from different countries. We have 23
cultural communities who are deprived of their mother language in
schools. they are forgetting their language. we demand that gov't law be
changed; we should be allowed to use our mother language, so we will
learn our history and culture.
Because we can't learn in our mother language, we can't enter in high
government positions, because the language we learn is not our own
language. The system discriminates against us; the indigenous peoples'
rights over the land is being taken away. The rights are being given to
Bengalis.
>From their submitted paper:
1. Through the struggle of the "indigenous' communities and the people's
movement around the world, the question of the "indigenous" people has
become a major issue in our time. We are in full solidarity with the
struggle in general and fight for all oppressed communities and cultures
anywhere in the world. To avoid stigmatised expression and the cliche of
the notions suchas "ethnic", "tribe", "adivashis", etc. we sometimes
prefer the word oppressed "cultural minorities" over the term
indigenous. We fully appreciate the political significance of the
expression "indigenous people".
2. While we strongly stand for all opressed culture around the world, we
do not believe in cultural nationalism. Racism is in essence an arrogant
form of cultural nationalism.
3. We strongly believe in cultural diversity where economic, social,
political, ideological and cultural conditions reveal that no culture is
superior over others and where the dynamism of change, transformation
and interaction are not hindered or blocked in the name of "tradition"
or in the name of the preservation of a presupposed "glory" of the past.
4. Global econ. processes and the logic of the power relation of the
world constantly disunites the communities and cultures causing eruption
in the form of ethnic and communal conflicts and violence. Diversity of
cultures must not be a process to generate sectarian interest, rather it
should be the principle of unity of all the oppressed cultures of the
world in their struggle against racism, neo-colonialism and the
corporate capitalism that are centralizing and controlling the world
resources at the global scale for a selected race.
5. The major threat of the indigenous people of Bangladesh is the
development policy dictated by multilateral agencies like World Bank,
IMF and ADB as well as the Western donors. These policies have eroded
the resource base of the community and destroyed the social fabric upon
which the life of the community thrived. The construction of dam, the
forestry programme of WB and ADB for forced introduction of monocultural
species of rubber plants, eucalyptus and acacia has irreversibly
destryoed the forests of Bangladesh and the genetic resource base. This
has created the condition for the grabbing of the communal lands by the
plan land people. The forest communities have been systematically
delinked and deskilled from the forests. UBINIG believes that struggle
for indigenous people's right is intricately linked with struggle
against destructive development policies.
Campaign issues:
- immediate halt of all military operations against the hilltract
communities of Bangladesh
- Any new settlement of plain-land people in the land of the forest
communities must be stopped. All settlement of plain-land people in the
land that traditionally belongs to the hill-tract and other forest
communities must be declared as violation of the communities right over
land and should be renegotiated on the basis of this recognition.
Sovereign right of the community over the traditional communal land must
be the principle of political negotiation.
- Bangladesh constitution is basically racist in the sense that the
country is recognized as belonging to the people who speak Bangla
language. It therefore excludes all other language and culture. On the
other hand, the constitution has been Islamized on recent years by
inclusion of some Islamic principles. This has excluded the right of
citizens who belong to different religion. We want a constitution that
ensures equal right of all the cultures and communities of Bangladesh.
- Stop destroying our forests by the introduction of monoculture and
implementation of the policies of WB, IMF and ADB.
- Ms. Ma Saw Nyunt and Ms. Natasha Ahmad
UBINIG
Bangladesh
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Taiwan
Amis tribe of Taiwan:
Taiwan is 240 miles long, 98 miles wide. Unlike Chinese, the Taiwan
aborigines are believed to be related to the Austranesian stock and show
influences from the Philippines or other regions to the south. For
example, the Yami who live in the Botel Tobago in the south of
Taiwan, are linguistically close to the Philippine group Ivatan
(Batanes).
There are about 340,000 indigenous people in Taiwan.
The nine different ethnic groups occupy most of the Central Mountainous
region and a large portion of the southeastern Hilly Region -- the
Tungtai Rift Valley, the East Coastal Mountainous Area, and Orchid
Island, totallling 15,800 sq.km. of 44% of Taiwan's land area. However,
the Taiwan indigenous peole constitute only 1.7% of the total population
of Taiwan. The Amis and Puyuma have lived in the east coastal plains for
generations; the Yami live on the offshore Botel Tobago; and the other
six ethnic groups are settled in mountain areas.
Present situation of Taiwan indigenous people: during the first 4
decades of rapid economic development, we suffered from serious social
and cultural disintegration. Many of our young left our communities for
a better opportunity in the cities. There are 80,000 who live in urban
areas; 50,000 in Taipei alone. Because of low education, they end up
doing manual labor and construction work. 17,000 are in deep-sea
fishing. They are often exploited and discriminated against by
the Han people. Many native women become prostitutes because they are
sold by parents, tricked into it, they can earn money much faster, etc.
Alcoholism is becoming a problem of indigenous peoples; it is an escape
from maladjustments of modernity. Young people who remain in the
mountain communities or venture into the cities also suffer from
breakdown of social bonds, and many struggle with alcohol addiction.
Thank you for being patient in listening to my presentation.
- Ms. Hsiang-mei Cheng
Taiwan
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Japan
I'm an Ainu woman from Ainu-Moshiri, what is now called Hokkaido. The
Ainu people had depended on hunting, fishing, and gathering. But they
get from nature only what they actually need, because they respect
nature. For the Ainu people, nature should be shared with all living
things.
The life of the Ainu prohibited activities which destroyed nature.
The Meiji restoration declared the Ainu Moshiri (homeland) as no man's
land and turned it into the emperor's land.
In 1869, the Japanese renamed the Ainu Moshiri into Hokkaido
and started a migration policy to develop it. And the land where the
Ainu once got all their means for life was totally destroyed by the
intrusion of the Japanese. It was declared as public land, open to
agriculture.
The Japanese government adopted intensive assimilation policies towards
the Ainu. The Ainu language and culture was banned. As a result, the
Ainu's life was destroyed.
The Japanese gov't adopted a new law to "protect the miserable backward
Ainu" -- encourage the Ainu into lowland-type agriculture. But most of
the fertile land was already in the hands of the Japanese, so the land
offered to the Ainu was not suitable for agriculture.
The Ainu struggles are continuing until now.
One of our challenges is to rewrite our history from the Ainu point of
view. The Japanese always desbribed the Ainu resistance to Japanese
invasion as 'riots'. Another struggle is to develop our cultural
heritage; to fight against discrimination, and to restore the Ainu
language.
At present, there are 10 Ainu language classes in the Ainu homeland.
Through this year 1993, the int'l year of the indigenous people, we are
watching how the Japanese gov't will respond to our proposals.
This proposal, the New Ainu Law, was adopted by the Hokkaido Ainu
Association, with 56 branches and 4000+ households. The Ainu people want
to abolish the Japanese "protective" law and want their own law. The new
law states that it is its purpose to recognize the Ainu people with
their own distinct culture, and to guarantee the basic rights of the
Ainu people.
Since then, the Ainu have demanded the enactment of this law. The
Japanese government remains reluctant to acccept this law. The
government still does not recognize the Ainu people as the indigenous
people of Japan. It has not announced its activities for the int'l year
of the indigenous people. In this year of the indigenous people, we will
try to strengthen our cultural heritage and pass it to the next
generation.
I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to attend this conference.
- Ms. Toko Midori, Ainu
Japan
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Korea
We are involved with environment and development issues. I am hesitant
to make a Korean report because we have no indigenous people in Korea.
But I see many things in common. The history of the Korean people
also reflects a constant struggle for independence and to keep their
cultural heritage. We had tribes before, but they were all united into a
single kingdom, which lasted for 5,000 years. We are still trying to go
back to learn the traditional wisdoms of old.
We had a Chosun dynasty, with Confucian ideology. It was a feudalistic,
patriarchal society. The young woman has to obey her father. When she
gets married, she has to obey her husband. When her husband dies, she
has to obey her son. Virginity is life to Korean women. She is given a
knife; when she is raped she is supposed to kill herself because she has
become "dirty".
We have raised the case of Korean "comfort women" in the Japanese army.
They were taken all over in Manchuria, and Asia. They were forced to
serve 100-200 men a day. Many were simply massacred near the end of the
war. Some stayed where they were brought. A few came back.
In the last 30 years, Korea has experienced rapid development. But at
the sacrifice of women: long hours, low wages, inhuman conditions.
Rural women leave the countryside; end up in prostitution: for the US
army, Japanese sex tours, and Korean bars that the gov't purposely
allows to grow. Young people leave the countryside for the cities,
so older people are responsible for countryside work. Patriarchal system
is even stronger in rural areas. When the Japanese lost war, the US
came in and killed off many people who fought for independence and
who wanted a unified gov't. Subsequently, war broke out; it
was a combination of a struggle for independence and
capitalist-communist rivalry. There are still 43,000 US troops in 42
bases; most of these have no families, so they usually want Korean
women.
Korean women in bars suffer terribly socially, under the American
troops, etc.
Korean women's movement issues:
- sexual violence
- reunification
- development/environment
- Japanese "comform women"
- others
- Ms. Youngmee Moon
Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice
My Sister's Place
Seoul, Korea
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Indonesia
Dayaks occupy Kalimantan, spreading over 4 provinces of Kalimantan.
Dayaks are known as rural "primitive" people. We are considered unique,
because we have hundreds of sub-tribes with different languages but
similar culture. There are 3.5 million Dayaks.
Our main occupation is farming. We have a close relationship with
nature. We see nature as our life, so we respect nature very much. In
some sub-tribes we have celebrations for respecting nature or land.
However, we are accused as forest destroyers because of our farming
methods. We cultivate land, leave it for a few years --usually 6 or 7 to
farm other lands, then go back again. Our ancestors have been doing this
for hundreds of years.
Large companies, on the other hand, undertake large projects like
logging, that really destroy the forest.
The more educated Dayaks have begun to organize themselves. One
example is the Institute of Dayakology. Its programs include
- research/studies
- trainings
- conscientization
- cultural development
- women's participation
Other foundations support indigenous girls and boys to get good
education, or indigenous rights.
- Ms. Regina
Indonesia
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Sri-Lanka, Sarawak and East Timor indigenous peoples were unable to send
participants. Some of them faxed in their statements for the conference.
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Center for Indigenous Environment and Development
4224 University Way
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: (206) 547 2361
Fax: (206) 547 1666
E-mail: pdh@u.washington.edu
phardison@igc.org