Peru & Brazil's Indigenous People Join Forces To Combat "Genocide Bill"
Wednesday, 14 June 2023, 6:35 am
Press Release: Survival International
An Indigenous delegation from Brazil has flown to Peru to join forces with Indigenous organizations there in a desperate bid to stop a Congressional bill known as the “Genocide Bill.”
The bill, being pushed by Congressional allies of Peru’s oil and gas industry, would:
- Make it possible to revoke the official recognition of any uncontacted tribe’s existence.
- Make it possible to revoke already-established Indigenous reserves for uncontacted and recently-contacted tribes (who are collectively known in Peru by the acronym PIACI).
- Open the territories of uncontacted tribes to oil and gas drilling, logging and mining.
- Block the creation of desperately-needed reserves for uncontacted tribes whose territories currently have no protection.
A key Congressional committee, the “Decentralization Committee,” is due to debate the bill on Wednesday June 14. Indigenous organizations fear that if the Committee votes in favor of the bill, a full vote in Peru’s Congress could happen shortly after.
A delegation from UNIVAJA, the organization of Indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley in Brazil, is now in Peru to lend support to Indigenous efforts to stop the bill. They will join AIDESEP and ORPIO in a joint meeting in Congress today. The Javari Valley contains more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else on Earth, and many are related to other uncontacted tribes across the border in Peru, who would be devastated if the bill is passed.
Shipibo people protest in the Amazonian town of Contamana against the Genocide Bill. © ORAU
The bill has generated enormous worldwide concern. More than 10,000 people have sent protest emails to the Peruvian authorities, while the Ambassadors of Britain, Canada and Germany have written a joint letter to the Committee expressing serious concerns at the bill’s consequences for uncontacted Indigenous peoples and Amazon deforestation.
More:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2306/S00100/peru-brazils-indigenous-people-join-forces-to-combat-genocide-bill.htm
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– The Shipibo People and Tradition –
The Shipibo are one of the oldest and largest tribes of the Western Amazon basin with a population of ~35,000 and an ancestral territory that runs north and south of Pucallpa, along the Ucayali River. They were never conquered by the Inca Empire and resisted colonization by Spanish priests, and today the Shipibo people still maintain a strong connection with their language and their rich and mysterious culture and traditions. Most speak Shipibo as a first language, and Spanish as a second.
For hundreds, and potentially thousands of years, the Shipibo people have been highly respected by other tribal peoples throughout the Amazon – not only for their strength as warriors, but also for their knowledge of rainforest plant medicines and the high degree of spiritual attainment of their Shamanic Maestros and Maestras. Their deep connection with the nature of the rainforest infuses all aspects of their life – physical, cultural and spiritual.
More:
https://www.cayashobo.com/shipibo-people-tradition/