Today, in honor of Earth Day and indigenous communities around the world, I am using my white, American privileged voice "shouting out" to Steemit (and the interwebs) to my over 1100 followers to whomever is listening about this tragic event in a long line of devastating actions.
This Earth Day, I will be focusing my spirit and prayers on the life and community of these Shipibo people in Peru and many like them throughout South America. Many of these protectors of our earth are brown and live in countries far removed from our cozy suburbs, malls, megachurches and stock markets, yet our lives, consumption, "wants and needs" and ideologies directly effect their lives. It is our demands on the environment which feed the exploitation of these communities and this is our problem as well as theirs. We need to take a stand.
It is nothing new to read of indigenous leaders in the Amazon killed over resource wars.
According to the Daily Kos,
In 2017, The Guardian wrote that 2016 was the most perilous year ever for people defending their community’s water, land, natural resources and wildlife, with “new research showing that environmental defenders are being killed at the rate of almost four a week across the world”. They note that over 200 activists, wildlife rangers and indigenous leaders were murdered.
This has been going on for a long long time, but recently an indigenous Shipibo Traditional Healer Olivia Arévalo Lomas was assassinated in the Peruvian Amazon and I want you all to know. I want to use my voice to share this specific issue.
From a press statement from her fellow community leaders
Olivia Arévalo Lomas will continue to be a living symbol of wisdom, ancestral knowledge and the feminine strength which contributes to the reaffirmation of our cultural identity, in addition to establishing an equitable communication between the Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo people, medical science, and Western society writ large. However, an attack was made against her and everything that we as indigenous peoples defend, violating our human rights and ending the life of one of the women who represented the inexhaustible strength of our culture.
Olivia Arévalo Lomas
She was likely killed by the forces of exploitation that she stood against, but her voice and her cause cannot be silenced through her death. We will stand on and spread her message with the countless others who are doing so. (It is reported that Sebastian Paul Woodroffe, a Canadian citizen, shot her 5 times in the heart in front of her family. He has since been killed by the community. I haven't found any further details of this tragic event and the motive is unconfirmed.)
Resources and the greedy people who extract them at all costs, destroying indigenous ways of life and habitat for countless species (increasing endangered species lists and contributing to untold biodiversity loss), have long taken precedence over diversity, health of ecosystems or LIFE!
Yanacocha then and now (as a result of devastating mining practices) source
Whether it is for oil, gold, trees or plant matter, room for grazing cattle or water wars, the Indigenous people who have inhabited and tended the Amazon Rainforests for generations are a vulnerable people due to the multinational corporations, greedy government entities, or money & power thirsty prospectors who come to their regions to take at all costs.
As Pinar of @queernature on instagram says (from whom I originally heard of this news):
If you work with ayahuasca and other traditional medicines, you have a responsibility to acknowledge where this medicine comes from and the stewards of the medicine you benefit from. Blood is literally being spilled on their ancestral lands where the plant medicines grow from. You cannot be neutral here if you psychospiritually benefit from them as they are being assassinated. One cannot be neutral in nature-connection work on stolen lands. She was shot five times at her heart in front of her family.
A note was also left for two other indigenous healers in her community that read:
"Señora y Sr Magdalena Florez Agustín, Bernardo Murayari Ochavano: You have 48 hours to flee. One bullet for each of you and if you don't do as told there will be the consequence that more bullets will rain down on you"
Maestra Arévalo Lomas
I had the opportunity to sit in a sacred ceremony this Maestra holds in Peru and it changed my life. The amount of light and heart-opening these powerful elders hold is a blessing to the entire world and it indeed is the medicine so many of us need.
Here is one of her ikaros or sacred medicine songs. It opened my heart right away and enlightened my mind as I listened to it just now.
If you have sat in an ayausca ceremony, I ask you to join me in sharing the word of this wrongful killing. Please share this post or write your own. How can we learn from and share in the medicine of these cultures, which is sometimes referred to the Rainforest University, and yet not do our part to support or to spread awareness around the constant threats these communities face?
Justice for Olivia Arévalo Lomas
You know what the Lorax says,
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
Support
If you want to donate please consider the following organizations
Saphichay
Saphichay is a charitable organization founded and organized by indigenous identified peoples located in the central Andes in Peru. Saphichay supports indigenous rights and cultural survival. Our projects and collaborations preserve and revitalize ancient/ traditional wisdom to ensure their continuance for future generations. Indigenous wisdom and its traditions continue to be threatened, a key focus of our work is in supporting rural and urban indigenous communities/peoples. Our commitment to these communities are manifested through projects that involve – food sovereignty, bio-cultural conservation, bio-diversity management, reclaiming and reconnecting to our indigenous identity, language, wisdom and practices.
Temple of the Way of Light
This is where Olivia shared her medicine with other traditional healers. They've created an institute that gives back to the community: The Chaikuni Institute
The Chaikuni Institute is a grassroots collective which investigates, promotes and protects equitable, inclusive, interrelated, and abundant living systems. By honouring indigenous wisdom and enacting the principles of permaculture, we support a form of life known in Spanish as buen vivir, and in Quechua as sumak kawsay. It is a mindful approach of good living which emphasizes community focus, harmony, and social responsibility to the Earth and her people.
Visit their website for more information.
Also, Click here to read further about Powerful Indigenous Women who are protecting their culture and lands. Education is key!!
Also, Click here to read a story of how oil contamination has changed a local river's health.
Front Line Defenders is another you can follow/support
While many human rights defenders (HRDs) can operate freely in Peru, those working on the environment, in particular on the environmental and human rights impact of the extractive industry, face harsh repression, including intimidation, smear campaigns, death threats, surveillance, and judicial harassment. Environmental rights defenders who work in the defense of the rights of indigenous or campesino communities have been the direct target of judicial harassment, physical attacks, police brutality, smear campaigns, and surveillance.
This Earth Day, I will be focusing my spirit and prayers on the life and community of these Shipibo people in Peru and many like them throughout South America. Many of these protectors of our earth are brown and live in countries far removed from our cozy suburbs, malls, megachurches and stock markets, yet our lives, consumption, "wants and needs" and ideologies directly effect their lives. It is our demands on the environment which feed the exploitation of these communities and this is our problem as well as theirs. We need to take a stand.
One way you can stop this cycle as suggested by the AMAZON WATCH is to: