Sharing Stories in Indigenous Communities

Jo Tito, Aotearoa - Facilitator

Introduction

Jo introduced herself in Maori, according to her indigenous tradition. Then in English: She gave her whakapapa (geneology): the waka (canoes) in which her ancestors arrived in Aotearoa, down through the land she comes from, her mountains and her rivers and lakes, her iwi (tribes) and hapu (subtribes).

Jo greeted the land here at Tanakita. For Maori it's important to acknowledge the land of other people, and it is an honor to be on someone else's land.

Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Jo comes from Parihaka, where her ancestors practiced passive resistance when the British military came and invaded their lands a generation before Mahatma Ghandi. Their battle line was children first, then women, then men in the back. When the military came they did not resist with violence but continued their work cultivating the land, and the British took out the whole of their village. Today at Parihaka

Parihaka is a small part of Taranaki where she comes from, on the west coast of the north island. All the land in the area was taken away from her ancestors. The land is part and parcel of the Maori culture, so when their land was taken it was as if everything had been taken away. They lost their language. They were colonized through religious conversion as well. Language, land, and arts, anything that was a part of their culture was denied or taken away from them. They have an international peace festival to celebrate their ancestors and the passive resistance movement, and to promote peace amongst the people of the world.

A lot of the issues Maori face today are similar to those faced by other indigenous cultures: alcoholism - she believes is caused by lack of identity (because cultural identity was taken away) gangs - (again, a way to identity) health issues: diabetes, obesity (from introduction of foreign foods, whole diet changed), also smoking (high cancer rates - lung, breast)

Within last 20 years they have worked to revive language.

Land being taken affected them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Europeans don't understand their connection to the land the issues behind their problems. They have a continuing struggle to educate others about these issues, get back their land and reclaim who they are.

At the moment the government has set up a system to give out money to tribes as compensation for their loss of land. But in their view, the land is priceless. No amount of money can repay what they have lost, or the generations of suffering of their people.

Maori language immersion schools have been set up, where teaching occurs exclusively in Maori. In addition to standard academic subjects they learn about their own culture and arts. Their moko (skin art / tattoo) is a form of storytelling, as are their other arts. Moko tells stories about ancestry and where they come from.

They have set up their own health organizations to address their unique health issues.

So, Jo, with her art and photography is also responding to these issues. She is setting up an international exhibition of indigenous peoples arts.

Jo would like to hear from other indigenous people, share stories, what are people doing in their own communities to empower people, address issues, make things better.

Japan

... talked about indigenous population in Japan. Local newspaper has a page for Aino people. There have been revival movements. Recently there have been videos of Aino people having weddings or other ceremonies in their traditional language. Also mentioned Bolivia's indigenous president - movement in Japan to see Bolivian indigenous film. In their culture the heaviest punishment is to be ostracized from your community - have to leave your village - movie is long, slow - you can feel how the time runs for indigenous people. Leader of tribes gave new president rights to be the president. Indigenous movement to separate their land from Bolivia.

Malaysia

Kris spoke about Malaysia, the Orang Asal, which means natural people. Govt. has a Dept. of Orang Asli (politically incorrect but more common term) which takes away land. But according to constitution the Orang Asli have the right to take the land back, but they don't always... Each community is about 700 people. Many tribes. Most tribes speak own languages. Poplulation in peninsula share characteristics, pop. in Borneo share characteristics. Only abt 25% have secondary education. No phone lines. Hard to get medical service. Cable TV provided by govt (for purpose of brainwashing/assimilation). There are a few leaders trying to awaken their communities, but generally the communities vote for the ruling coalition. Lack of clean drinking water, health care, education. Center for Oran Asli Concerns is trying to expose cultural exploitation and other issues. Musicians have exploited by changing traditional music but presenting it as traditional performance. The Oran Asli have been in Malaysia since pretty much the beginning of mankind. By the constitution they own the land, but since the land is managed by the DOA the land is contracted to commercial interests and the Oran Asli get barely any of the profits. Some community have delivered themselves by demanding their land back and hiring lawyers and then doing the contracting themselves they have earned up to 10 times more. His group advises them on their legal rights, tries to accommodate their immediate needs, tell them they have rights to get their land back, compare their village with a liberated village in order to educate them. They bring in VCDs and books - video can play a big role in education. They also teach them how to use GPS and to map so they can take their land claims to court. Over next few months they will have some workshops on women's role in community building, because generally at meetings no women come. They want to educate the men about women's roles, & bring women in to educate the men. Tricky - trying to get them to preserve their culture and way of life by getting them to adapt....

Jo pointed out that Maori women play a large role in bringing men back to who they are, they are strong and work to educate their men who have been jailed or who have turned to alcohol/drugs or gangs and bring them back, help them regain sense of identity and pride in being who they are.

Chris: Important to practice activism rather than charity.

Zetty: Definite problem in creating people who are dependent on aid. That creates problems in itself. There is complete idleness in the refugee camps. Women still have to look after kids and fulfill some their traditional roles, so they tend to retain sense of identity better than the men, who are just completely removed from any role they had (hunting, farming, etc).

Chris: some groups are doing charity work in Malaysia - but they're Christian or Muslim. They bring in food to get the people to come in, but turn them away if they won't pray there (ie be colonized).

Indonesia

In Indonesia there are also many ethnic communities. The government maintains many of them but only for the purpose of tourism. The government gives them money in exchange for being a tourist attraction. Sooner or later indigenous people have to live together with others from outside their culture. Her anthropology class goes to an indigenous community in W Java - so then the community is an object of anthropological research. Objective seems to be to make indigenous community isolated from the rest of Indonesia including economic system.

Thailand

Zetty talked about issues in Thailand - some communities are split in two over the Burmese border, and these ethnic groups get squeezed/oppressed by both sides. They outlawed ethnic language in schools, have to get permission to publish books in the ethnic languages. Land has been taken. Attacks often come on the day of cultural celebrations, so that the celebrations cannot be held since everyone has to flee. Her group is producing children's story books in ethnic language and in Burmese, so that people can still read them. They have a newspaper in ethnic language. People are beginning to start libraries. Much is happening on the Thai side and going into Burma, but that's under threat.

China

The government made a dept for "taking care of" aboriginal rights which instead interferes with aboriginal rights movements. Many move to inner city because they can't survive on their traditional land any longer. Govt trying to evict them from squatting (creating their own urban villages). Govt doesn't want them in the city where the rich people are and tries to convince them to move to a "cultural place" where the govt builds a big, hospital type building for housing where they can only stay 2 years. 3D jobs = dirty dangerous (don't remember other one). Movement for them getting smaller & smaller. Also they are not very open for outsiders to come in and assist, so it's hard to organize them to fight for their rights. They have 5-6 words in their names. Chinese govt forced them to change their names to be like other Chinese names (only 3 words in name) - this inhibits their ability to remember their ancestry... Govt is consuming their art for resale but sweatshop style, not letting them reap the profits. National parks are in the forest, so people are evicted from their homes because people aren't allowed to live in the national parks.

Chris: Global Coalitions are important because you can share resources.

(notes by Cheryl)