Well.. now, a lot of the amazing panels that happened at this year’s mining injustice panel are available on our own Blip.tv channel. Check out the channel here.

Someone Else's Treasure

Someone Else’s Treasure is an ongoing multimedia project which brings to light some of the experiences of indigenous communities around the world that have been impacted by the global mining industry – including communities in the Philippines, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Chile, Canada, and Guatemala.

This multimedia piece focuses on communities in San Marcos, Guatemala, living next to the Canadian-owned Marlin Mine. The first two songs are by Grupo Kotzic, who are from San Marcos, singing about the peoples’ resistance to the mine. The third song is a live recording from inside the Church of San Miguel Ixtahuacan, San Marcos, where  community members were singing a song they wrote about their experiences with the mine.

In an effort to better understand the true cost of an industry that shapes the world around all of us, the focus of Someone Else’s Treasure is on the externalized – the men, women, and children, that have been left out of the equations and are therefore forced to pay the price for someone else’s treasure.

Someone Else’s Treasure – Guatemala from allan lissner on Vimeo.

Six weeks ago, Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines announced that it was “indefinitely suspending” the exploration activities of a Canadian mining company inside the sacred territory of the Awajun and Wampis Peoples.

AMAZONIA FOR SALE
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The announcement was curiously timed just a few days before a new mobilization was supposed to be launched in the Amazon. In part, the mobilization was going to be aimed at the Canadian company, Minera Afrodita (Dorato Resources) , who is believed to be contaminating the Cenepa and Maranon rivers with mercury and cyanide waste. As many as 13 thousand indigenous people depend on these two rivers.

Nevertheless, the Awajun and Wampis couldn’t take the chance of ignoring the Ministry’s words. But as the days went by, it became clear to the Awajun and Wampis–along with the international community–that Peru had no intention of actually halting the company’s work.

Looking back now, February 17 was just another day in Peru’s legacy of betraying Indigenous Peoples.

A new report by ODECOFROC (the Organization for the Development of the Border Communities of El Cenepa), a group that represents 56 Awajun and Wampis communities reveals a number of other government betrayals central to the Indigenous Peoples’ territory. This is also the subject of a new film by ODECOFROC and the IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs) titled, Amazonia for Sale.

While the film provides viewers with an introduction to the Awajun and Wampis struggles, their 68-page report, A Chronicle of Deception, provides the details.

Most importantly, it demonstrates how “the Peruvian government acted in bad faith” by modifying the original proposal to create the Ichigkat Muja National Reserve and ultimately secure the Indigenous Peoples lands.

The proposal was supposed to include the area Minera Afrodita claims to own; that is what the Awajun and Wampis understood when they agreed to the proposal. However, the government unilaterally cut down the proposed protection area, specifically, but not exclusively, for Afrodita.

The betrayal was “in open violation of Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the American Convention on Human Rights,” says ODECOFROC.

Overall, ODECOFROC continues, “This situation serves as a basis for the claims made by the indigenous movement that led to massive demonstrations in 2008 and 2009, in addition to a prolonged strike, which culminated in the bloody events of Bagua (June 5, 2009), when the government violently intervened to evacuate the Awajun and Wampis contingents that had blocked a highway.”

Sadly, with the government’s continued push to gut the Amazon of it’s precious resources–and remove any communities in its way–there will be more protests and maybe even more bloodshed before the government finally agrees to act in good faith for all of Peru, South America and the world.

• Download “A Chronicle of Deception” at http://www.iwgia.org/sw40930.asp

Taseko Mines Ltd. is seeking to prevent a federal panel reviewing its proposal for a gold and copper mine in northern British Columbia from showing a public hearing a documentary it says is biased in favour of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, who are opposed to the project.

The Tsilhqot’in National Government had requested the film, Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake), be shown during a public hearing on Taseko’s proposal, according to a message sent today to review panel participants by the panel’s chair Robert Connelly.

watch film here:

Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot’in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from Susan Smitten on Vimeo.

A lawyer acting for Taseko, Keith Clark with the Vancouver firm Lang Michener, outlined the company’s concerns in an e-mail to the review panel yesterday. “It is not evidence,” he wrote. “It is a propaganda film, produced to influence the opinions or behaviour of people, by providing deliberately biased content in an emotional context. By its nature, there is no opportunity for Taseko or anyone else to challenge it. When it is finished it is done. There is no one to answer questions or clarify any of the assertions.”

An e-mail distributed through the Friends of the Nemaiah Valley, one of the groups that funded the documentary directed by Susan Smitten, says Blue Gold is an important film. “It documents the voices of the Tsilhqot’in people themselves,” it said. “These voices are not filtered . . . They are the honest and deeply sincere voices of people who are defending their traditional territory.

“Taseko continues to trivialize these voices by labeling the film ‘propaganda.’”

The panel intends to consider Taseko’s objection during its first day of hearings in Williams Lake on March 22, Connelly wrote.

The mayor Maria Shopova explains why she supports the protests by the people of Popintsi against mining by the Canadian company Euromax Resources Limited.

Baba Rajna tells the story of the fierce protests against Canadian company Euromax Resources in 2006.

Hristina Daskalova explains why people in her village do not have faith in future mining activities by Canadian company Euromax Resources.

Pavlina Dimitrova explains how the protests by young people and mothers led to a cancellation of the cyanide mining project by Canadian company Dundee Precious Metals.

Friends of the Earth International’s community testimonies let people speak for themselves. Visit www.foei.org to hear more testimonies and to find out how you can get involved!

Produced by Friends of the Earth International

Gregoria Crisanta Perez explains why she fears the mining company will take away the land of her community in San Miguel, Ixtahuacan, Guatemala.

Francisca Angelica Aguilar Cinto talks about the impacts of mining activities of the Canadian company Goldcorp Inc. on her water sources, her animals and her house and what she did to protest.

Crisanta Hernandez talks about the way her community has been seeking redress for the damage to their houses caused by the mine, and how the company responded.

Clementa Marcelino Cinto talks about the involvement of mine workers from the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc. in the death of her father and the insecurity in her community.

Margarita Bamaca talks about how the contamination of water sources caused by mining activities of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp Inc. is affecting her crops and cattle and people’s health.

Brendys Bamaca talks about the effects of mining on the environment and on people, and what she has done to protest.

Julia Bamaca talks about how the contamination of water sources caused by the mine is affecting her food crops and cattle and peoples health and how she has tried to seek redress.

Friends of the Earth International’s community testimonies let people speak for themselves. Visit www.foei.org to hear more testimonies and to find out how you can get involved!

This testimony was filmed by CEIBA, FOE Guatemala.

From Al Jazeera English:

People & Power speak to native and environmental groups, as well as government and oil industry spokespeople about the impact Alberta’s oil sands development is having on the environment.

Alberta’s oil sands now make Canada America’s major oil supplier, but the billion-dollar industry extracts a terrible price: some of the cleanest water on earth is used to make the dirtiest oil in the world, with catastrophic results.

For centuries the American West has been the realm of cowboys, miners and frontiersman. Since 1872 mining companies have been reaping the benefit of an antiquated law allowing mining companies to purchase land at bargain prices, such as the recent acquisition of an entire mountain for only 875 dollars. Wild Chronicles follows what happens when 19th century laws are faced up against 21st century sensibilities.

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