At Mining Conference, Indigenous Groups from North and South Trade Tactics

Posted: 11 October 2007

by Coco McCabe

Activists drawn to a Tuscon, Arizona conference on mining share strategies and find strength in numbers.

They speak different languages. They come from different hemispheres. But indigenous peoples from North America and South America have a lot in common when they get together to talk about mining and its effects on their communities and cultures: massive pits that displace families, pollution, destruction of sacred sites—the list goes on.

More of that cross-regional dialogue—and the lessons they can learn from each other—is what participants at a recent conference in Tucson, Ariz., are hoping the event has set the stage for. Sponsored by the Western Mining Action Network, the conference drew members from Oxfam America offices, and their partners, on both sides of the equator.

“Oxfam’s extractive industries team wants to facilitate connections between indigenous groups working on mining in the United States, Central America, and South America,” said Laura Inouye, a senior program officer for Oxfam’s US regional office who attended the conference. “They have started to make connections with people dealing with similar issues and they have started to see common tactics used by mining companies. This can spark ideas about how to work together. There is strength in a united front.”

For Javier Aroca, the regional coordinator for Oxfam America’s extractive industries program in Lima, Peru, one of the central challenges he faces in trying to build that united front is how to keep local communities apprised of federal mining regulations that could have dire consequences for indigenous peoples and the land on which they depend.

“Governments keep changing the rules that allow foreign companies to invest in extractive industries but don’t pay attention to community rights,” said Aroca, who attended the conference. “We need to keep strengthening community organizations so they have the tools to fight for their rights.”

Using New Tools

One way to do that is by adapting tactics that other indigenous groups have used successfully. The Western Shoshone’s battle with the United States over ancestral land rights is a case in point. They took their fight all the way to the United Nations, and last year scored an important victory. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, or CERD, issued a strongly worded finding calling on the US to halt the destructive land-use practices it has allowed on some of the 60 million acres the Western Shoshone claim as theirs until a settlement is reached on the status of that land. The area stretches across most of Nevada and parts of Idaho, Utah, and California.

When Miguel Palacin learned at the conference about the Western Shoshone’s success with the UN, he began hatching plans for a workshop about CERD that the Western Shoshone could give to mining activists in South America. Palacin is the coordinator of the newly formed Andean Federation of Indigenous Organizations, or CAOI, a six-nation group that Oxfam helped to organize.

“CAOI wants the Shoshone to share their experience presenting their case to the UN. Many indigenous groups in South America are thinking of asking the international system to help them exercise their rights,” said Aroca.

The CERD tactic was just one that conference-goers learned about. Aroca came away with several other good ideas, too.

“It was interesting to get the chance to see research and papers about how mining can affect the quality of water. This information can be useful for us and our partners when it comes time to investigate environmental issues,” Aroca added. “Another tool is to follow up on how the extractive industry companies finance themselves and how to dig that information out of the internet.”

Tips from Tintaya

Aroca, in turn, offered conference participants some insight into Oxfam’s work with the Tintaya copper mine near Espinar, Peru. Oxfam helped to broker a dialogue between the mining company and local residents, who had accused it of unjust land takings and human rights violations. The end result included an offer of compensation for the land as well as investment in long-term community development.

“He talked about the lessons learned so other groups and communities could engage with companies and address their needs and learn successful strategies for dealing with mining companies,” said Inouye.

And those strategies are critical, particularly when communities understand the true implications of having a mine in their backyards. A visit to the Sierrita copper mine in southern Arziona made that point very clear for conference-goers.

“The mine was enormous,” said Inouye. “When we were by the mine pit, it’s all you could see. It didn’t feel like being on earth at all. There was not one living thing.”