Protecting our Lifeways

Lushness and Complexities

 In Jan and Feb 2012 I visited the Zamora river basin for two months, to live with and learn from the indigenous Shuar people lifeways of sustainability.  While I was there, the peace, stillness, and incredible biodiversity of the region melted into my heart.  Going through my life there with a canopy above me, banana trees beside me - laughing at my size, the river rushing below me, the clouds about my shoulders, and the insects in my ears I found that a path of balance is possible.  In the beauties of the lifeway there, I encountered divinity.  In the hardships of the life, I encountered my human self.  People have been living in this land for thousands of years, and yet it remains as thus for me today, an incredible concept for someone from Europe.  

During my stay the quiet strength of the place became regularly interrupted by helicopters surveying the area in development of plans for an open pit copper mine (though I didn't know that's what they were for at the time).  The sound of the helicopters could be heard far off, and then they would arrive, flying so close you could almost see the people in the cockpit, back and forth across the valley.  The old ones would look, bow their heads, and get more quiet.  The young ones would run about yelling and pointing.  There was general ill at ease.  And then, without any explanation, the copter was off, another one to come again a few days later, and a few days later....

There are complexities at play in the developing world, where the race to join a global economic community demands product or industry for export, and where a lack of developed industry leaves nothing but raw materials to offer a hungry and impatient market.  While local communities love and appreciate the earth they live in just as I did while I was there, they also want access to schooling, technology, and opportunity just as we have in the West.  What I have come to feel from my time there is that different knowledge bases and lifeways have much to offer each other.  As we in the West seek to re-green our living spaces, to move into sustainable housing and energy production, and to redevelop ourselves in relationship to the land, the indigenous peoples have much to teach us.  As the indigenous peoples seek to share their knowledge with the world, they require effective tools for doing so, and the same opportunity to re-imagine new lifeways. 

The sort of industry of the past, which exploits the earth for raw materials in order to build and profit, is industry which is dirty, harmful, and without a long term future.  If we can set precedent with the mining industry in Ecuador, that exchange must honour first the earth and her peoples, then a model for future exchange has room to grow.  As the treasures of the Amazon are sought out more and more, we can say no to corporate pillaging, and yes to shared creation of new sustainable models for housing, schooling, healing/healthcare, community, and work.

Raping the Land

From my time in Ecuador, these photos show the beauty and richness of The Cordillera de Condor.  This land sits in the vicinity of the proposed mine and will be directly affected by it.   

This is what it's like to live inside this land.  

This is how an open pit copper mine ravishes the land.

Bingham Canyon Mine, Arizona

The Mirador Open Pit Copper Mine is set to be the deepest open pit copper mine in the world. The Bingham Canyon Mine, pictured above, is the largest open pit copper mine so far at a depth of at 1.2 kilometres deep. Mirador is set to be 1.25 kilometres deep and 4 kilometres across.

Bingham County Mine - Ariel View- Ren Shore

This is an ariel view of the Bingham County Mine - note the perspective of the site to the fields around it.  As a mine of this size the Mirador Mine would most assuredly displace the local population, permanently damage the 5,000 acres of land required to build the mine, and poison the water sources of not only the locals, but many more as The Cordillera de Condor is at the headwaters of the River Amazon.  

More on open pit mining.    The Mirador Mine factsheet.

Against the wishes of the Ecuadorian people and the Shuar Nation who inhabits El Cordilliera de Condor, the government of Ecuador signed a contract with investors Corriente Resources of Canada and mining co. CRCC Resources Tongguan of China to move ahead with the mine. 

In March of 2012 the indigenous people of Ecuador marched over 400 kilometres from the mine site in Zamorra to Quito, over two weeks, to show protest to this decision. This autumn, concerned members came together to push for legal action and bring international awareness to the situation.  At this time legal action has been filed in Quito.  On Tuesday the case was submitted to the courts re The Rights of Nature and the decision whether or not to proceed is now in the hands of the courts. We will get an answer within the week. 

The second case will be held in Zamorra on Feb 4th and this one is against the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples. If it is not accepted then the case will go to the International Court in Costa Rica who ruled against the Government this last April. 
We aim to get our petitions to the appointed judges and government officials before Feb 4th.

A call from the Shuar was put out this summer.  These people are ready to put their lives on the line for the earth and their community.  Let's not allow another corporate travesty in our developing world.  Let us stand with them.

  

Activism and Linked Communities of Power

Here I would like to speak to activism as clearly embedded in local ecology.

The ecology of a community organism includes the emotional health and happiness of individuals in the community, connection of the community to the land and her resources, and flow between the community and the world's global sites - ecological concerns.  

When we fall deeply in love with any local manifestation, we become woven into the lifeways of that system, and as such share a responsibility for its total ecology.  Demonstration and petition by the developed West is vital to the health of local communities in all developing nations, in this way we form linked communities of power.  

Speaking to the global stretch toward modernity and progress, it is important to be out about our collective fears of being pushed back to the tribe - where life is simpler, harder, slower, where our access to change, communication, and the wider world can feel limited.  In short our fears of the natural world, of being confined to local spaces, and all that indigenous belonging represents.  These fears are false.

Love is not limited.  Our new lifeways must necessarily emerge in harmony with the land. Our technologies will not be abandoned, but will be put to better use.  People will continue to travel the world in communities small and large, and as individuals between communities, as they have always done. Do not be afraid of falling in love with communities again and again and again, of attending to the ecology of all that you love, and of championing the local wherever you may find yourself.  My life, your life, here in the West, is intimately tied to the local life of all indigenous peoples, and for me especially, the Shuar in Ecuador.  

From my heart to yours -  sign the petition started by local communities in Ecuador
And the Avaaz petition here.

And keep a look out for further action to take.  More petitions are to come.  A film is being produced to heighten awareness at the international level.  The people of Ecuador are marching and preparing for war.  And hundreds of light workers are in a constant state of meditation on this matter.  

These things together will pressure the governing bodies of Ecuador to protect the Nature within her boundaries and the people who inhabit that Nature.  

Thank you for being hearts in action.  

Protect Ecuador

The Council of Canadians supports the protection of Earth and her peoples in Ecuador.
Solidarity supports the protection of Earth and her peoples in Ecuador.
The International Federation for Human Rights supports the protection of Earth and her peoples in Ecuador.
CONAIE supports the protection of Earth and her peoples in Ecuador. 
The Citizens of Quito support the protection of Earth and her peoples in Ecuador.