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Indigenous Women Peer Exchange - Building a Global Indigenous Network

 

 

group discussing

 

Ruth Serech, Josefina Miculax, and Andrea Bo, Mayans from Guatemala

May 3-13, 2009|Honduras

Indigenous women have played a crucial role in preserving their traditions and ancestral knowledge to develop strategies to overcome poverty in their communities, yet their efforts often go unrecognized.  Due to persistent social, political, economic marginalization and legal discrimination, which continue to make indigenous women more vulnerable to a wide range of human rights violations, a peer exchange was held to address their needs and priorities, identify resources and develop strategies to improve their livelihoods and scale up their capacities, in the first Indigenous Women’s Peer Exchange held in Honduras from May 3rd through the 13th.

This exchange,facilitated by the Huairou Commission (HC) in collaboration with its partner Horizons of Friendship and its member network GROOTS International/GROOTS Canada, focused on building an Indigenous women network to strengthen women’s ties across regions. The Garifuna Emergency Committee of Honduras (CEGAH), a GROOTS International network member, hosted the event. The Exchange’s overall goal was to provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between issues affecting indigenous women in the North and South, and to initiate a discussion about the problems and solutions affecting their respective communities.

The exchange was a peer learning forum where participants exchanged good practices, and discussed both their successes and challenges in securing participation in political processes. Moreover, it was an advocacy venue to strengthen the importance of women’s leadership, and address language and cultural preservation, land tenure, access to housing and basic services, climate change, HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health and economic empowerment. Preparatory meetings were also held for the 8th Session of theUN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) from May 18-29th 2009.

The Peer Exchange included indigenous women from Mohawk, Ogibwe, Tlicho, Métis from Canada; Chortis, Pech, Garifuna from Honduras and Mayans from Guatemala who have experiences in organizing and leading communities to respond to community needs and to develop local initiatives to better their life conditions. Besides being an enriching ten-day Exchange demonstrating good practices among a total of 40 participants within the various meetings, the Indigenous women strategized to bring a strong voice at the UNPFII.

The overall planning developed by Horizons of Friendship and the local host CEGAH, for the Peer Exchange consisted of a series of round-table discussions and visits to many indigenous communities, including:

On May 4th and 5th Aboriginal Canadian women representing the Mohawk, Ogibwe, Tlicho, and the Metis nations participated in a round-table discussion with members of CONIMICHH
(Mayan Chorti Indigenous National Council of Honduras) and the Mayans Chorti Women’s Association in the municipality of Copan Ruins. The Mayan Chortis, one of the seven indigenous groups of Honduras with a population of 40 000, shared their organizing strategies to redress social exclusion, ensure access and ownership of land.

CONIMICHH is a non-governmental organization working with 52 Mayan Chorti communities (48 in Copan state and 5 in the Ocotepeque state) to build the capacity of Mayan Chortis to gain access to land ownership and ensure their cultural rights. Their main goal is to recover their ancestral land and to promote cultural preservation based on indigenous human rights through workshops and trainings, negotiations with local and national authorities, mass demonstration in the capital Tegucigalpa and mass occupation of the Copan Archaeological Park, well known as the Mayan ruins of Copan. CONIMICHH functions based on the belief that the land is vital to the Mayan Chorti family due to its relationship to food security, livelihoods and community development. 

In 2005, CONIMICHH established the Regional Women’s Council and the Women’s Association, whom have jointly developed actions to promote family integration, self-esteem, and gender equality within Mayan Chorti communities. As a result they have created CONIMICHH ‘s organizational statute and gender policies to ensure gender equity through increased women’s participation in decision making processes, women’s access to land, increased participation of women in training and capacity building activities. In 2005 they established the Land Committee where women have decision making role and lead negotiation on land issues.

The high level of commitment and organizing of the Mayan Chortis have had significant impact. After 15 years of fighting for land and the organizational strengthening of CONOMICHH, the Chortis have recovered 3.415.86 hectares of land, which correspond to secure ownership and communal land title by 18 Mayan Chorti communities.  In addition to the round-table discussion held, the delegation attended a Spiritual Ceremony to thank Mother Earth, for their achievements and their harvest. 

On May 8th, participants were taken to meet the indigenous Pech community. In Trujillo, there are a total of 312 Pech living in two communities; Silin established in the 1920s, and Moradel established in 1998, which hold  56 and 15 Pech families, respectively. The Pech people have experienced ethnic, economic and social discrimination and only through strong organizing were they able to gain recognition in 1985 by the national government as an indigenous group of Honduras. This strong community has secured land tenure and ensured that bilingual education exists within these communities in Trujillo, Department of Colon.

Our delegation had a round-table discussion with the Tribal Chief, Aparicio Monte, members of the Tribal Council, and the Parents Association representatives. With a total of 23 participants including community members, theyshared experiences between Aboriginal Canadians, Garifunas and the Pech delegation for the visit on several issues including land rights, cultural preservation, food security, sustainable agriculture, ancestral knowledge, and access to basic services. The Pech shared their ancestral practice to cultivate corn and storage methods to keep their harvest on a space built on top of the homemade stove, a type of wood burner. Ruth Serech, an indigenous Mayan leader from Guatemala also brought her insights and experiences in the cultivation of corn and discovered that Pech’s storage method could be replicated in her community, Comalapa. Within the small scale agricultural production, the Pech also focus on diversification of crops with the technical assistance from CEGAH.

In addition to the round-table the participants visited the Pech Bilingual School, where children are taught Spanish and Pech from the age of 6 to 12. The children performed the Honduras anthem in Pech. The Pech people have also successfully organized to develop a small business based on ecotourism, where they provide cabins and excursions through the forest.  One of the greatest achievements of the Pech was to secure land tenure to develop their communities where 70% of the land is pure forest.

During our visit to the Pech community, it was also important to witness the strong Indigenous networking strengthening CEGAH is developing through its ability to transfer their good practices on sustainable agriculture, including preservation of traditional seeds with the creation of seeds bank, tool banks and organic fertilization.

On May 9th, Exchange participants took a two-hour bus ride to Mira Monte, and a boat trip to Santa Rosa de Aguan and La Planada. Santa Rosa de Aguan was one of the communities devastated by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and during the field visit the delegation was able to witness the remnants of broken buildings and abandoned houses and the changed landscape as a result.  Mira Monte and La Planada are both newly formed communities where Sta. Rosa de Aguan’s residents have been relocated and working collectively through several organizing strategies on community resilience building.

Welcomed by Tita Ruiz, a grassroots leader, and 20 more Garifunas, our visit in Mira Monte gave the participants the opportunity to share experiences on issues, such as land tenure, livelihoods, food security and sustainable agriculture. We learned the process of relocation, community construction and development initiatives lead by the Women’s Group for the Development of Mira Monte. With support from CEGAH, women in Mira Monte have been able to preserve traditional seeds, such as plantain, yams, yucca, and malanga by setting up their own seed banks and tool banks and diversification of crops.  Women from Mira Monte also shared with us their yucca mill where they work collectively to produce cassava for consumption and commercialization in the local market. This provides them a level of income for each member of the group.

Our next stop, the relocated community of La Planada, further upstream and away from the sea, where 190 houses have been constructed, provided interesting insights most notably, how the community has organized to ensure that an action plan will be developed by the Mayor of Aguan to improve communities’ infrastructure. As Dona Amada shared with us, “We can’t live here without drinkable water and access to a road.” 

The final day of our ten-day exchange focused on learning experiences from the organization New Dawn on the issues of HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health. The round-table discussion had the active participation of 29 men, women and youth representing the Garifuna communities of San Martins, Cristales, and Rio Negro. New Dawn is a self-help group of people and families affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. The group was created in 2001 and today has 250 women and 95 men members. In addition, the network counts with the volunteering support of 750 people including facilitators, educator, coordinator, nurse and home-based care givers. The group works in 5 communities in Trujillo and it has supported them to create a self-help group in each of these communities. During our discussion, participants shared experiences and organizing strategies that helped them develop initiatives and implement activities, such as the home-based care program and education/ awareness campaigns through workshops and training on human rights HIV/AIDS law, anti-stigma and discrimination, organizational development, community mapping advocacy. Collectively, New Dawn has been strengthening their advocacy platform with the Community Cristales and Rio Negro Project and Youth for the Future Network.  

The final day of the visit culminated in a cultural session organized by CEGAH, where the Garifuna Spiritual guide led a traditional ceremony to honor our ancestry. This ceremony was followed with traditional drumming and dance.

The exchange was a rich discussion of the issues relevant to all Indigenous women as well as the importance of organizing and advocacy building to ensure women have increased participation in decision making processes at local, national and global levels. Impressed with Garifunas, Mayans, Pech and Chortis’ efforts to sustain livelihood, ensure access to land and food security through the various practices discussed, the Indigenous women proposed a set of activities to strengthen their ties and develop together as a network within the Huairou Commission.

Aboriginal Canadian participants in the exchange were:

For more information please contact Katia Araujo at katia.araujonatt@huairou.org

 





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