Amerindians fight Guyana gold miners in key land dispute

(17 May 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4435017
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chinese Landing, Guyana - 17 April 2023
1. Drone shot of Chinese Landing village
HEADLINE: Amerindians fight Guyana gold miners in key land dispute
2. Drone shot of Chinese Landing village
ANNOTATION: One of Guyana’s smallest Amerindian villages has lost control of its ancestral lands, where villagers used to mine gold for community development.
3. Villager house at Chinese Landing
ANNOTATION: The 225 residents of Chinese Landing are now considered unwelcome on their own land after foreign miners took over.
4. Various of villager Emelda Fernandes cooking
5. Muddy creek water
ANNOTATION: Increased mining activity is also contaminating the water they use daily.
6. Emelda Fernandes standing by the bank of the creek
ANNOTATION: Villager Emelda Fernandes says mercury in the water is making her stomach ache and is giving children skin rashes.
7. Various of Emelda Fernandes, 66, Chinese Landing village elder and miner, standing next to creek running behind her home. UPSOUND (English) “You see what we are bathing with? Dirty water. That’s why at night time we get scratching, all the children scratching.”
8. Various of drone shots of mining site
ANNOTATION: Mining companies are excavating for gold on 3,400 acres around Chinese Landing.
ANNOTATION: Villagers say the operation has caused unprecedented environmental damage.
9. Orin Fernandes, Chinese Landing community leader known as “Toshao”, riding 4-wheel motorcycle through their legally recognized territory now occupied by mining company
ANNOTATION: Village leader Orin Fernandes fears the mining industry will continue to expand.
10. Fernandes speaking while riding. UPSOUND (English) “These are all woods that they are cutting... of our land”
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Orin Fernandes, village’s indigenous leader known as “Toshao”
"It's like a part of us taken away and you know, it's been destroyed to some extent, knowing that we will never get back whatever been removed and whatever poisonous substance been left there, we will have to deal with it. It's hard, really, really hard."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Georgetown, Guyana - 19 April 2023
12. Michael Mc Garrell, map specialist, working on computer
13. Mc Garrell showing map on computer
ANNOTATION: Michael Mc Garrel, also an Amerindian, works as a map specialist documenting gold mining activity on Indigenous territories.
14. Mc Garrell showing on map the mining concessions granted on Indigenous territories
ANNOTATION: He says mining permits are often granted within Indigenous lands because they are based on wrongly outlined maps.
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Mc Garrel, map specialist:
"Us Indigenous people take only what we need because we know we'll have to go back there to get more again. There has been a change in terms of how people treat our forest because they go to the source of things and they take everything. After that, what happens?"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chinese Landing, Guyana - 17 April 2023
16. Rusty sign of Guyana Government
17. Houses at Chinese Landing
ANNOTATION: Chinese Landing secured its land title in 1976. But companies are still getting permits to dig in that area.
18. Village leader Orin Fernandes looking up at trees
ANNOTATION: The village is currently fighting in court to regain full control over its ancestral land.
19. Drone shot of Chinese Landing village
ANNOTATION: The case is being closely watched by activists and Amerindian leaders who hope it sets a precedent for other Indigenous lands.
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