Gira Polinizando Ríos Vivos en la Isla Tortuga (Norteamérica): Primer Capítulo: El río Grande, el Río Castor, el territorio del río Paz

Esta publicación es una colaboración entre Polinizaciones, la Asociación Ambiental del Valle Paz, y otras personas luchando en contra la Represa Site C. Las fotografías del lobo, alce y cultivo de melones son propiedad de Don Hoffmann.   

Como la mayoría de las cosas, inicia con las ganas, una necesidad, una idea... algún tiempo después, un polinizador del proceso Polinizaciones, también parte del Movimiento Ríos Vivos, colaboró con otros polinizadores y se organizó una gira de presentación que cruzara una parte importante de la Isla Tortuga, el continente norteamericano. La idea que se convirtió más tarde en la Gira de Polinizando Ríos Vivos, tuvo como meta cumplir tres objetivos principales. El primero, compartir las experiencias de los procesos de defensa de la tierra, como el Movimiento Ríos Vivos, la Fuerza de Mujeres Wayuu, Yalayalamaana y la Escuela de Comunicación Intercultural de Putumayo a través de historias, imágenes, mapas, videos y la campaña gráfica del Colectivo la Colmena, Mesoamérica Resiste!. El segundo, fue construir vínculos con otros procesos de defensa de la tierra dentro de los territorios que se transitaban, especialmente en el caso de los indígenas, inmigrantes y otras comunidades. Y por último, la gira funcionó como una estrategia de recaudación de fondos para mantener los proyectos de Polinizaciones relacionados con los procesos de los movimientos antes mencionados.

Mucho antes que iniciara Polinizando Ríos Vivos, ya otra gira en el territorio compartido entre Haudenosaunee, los Missisaugas y los Huron estaba iniciando. Dos polinizadores que salieron de Toronto hacía el oeste, iniciando la primera Gira de El Arte de la Resistencia. Uno de ellos fue el artista Hip-Hop, Testament del duo Test their Logik, que compartió liricas sobre temas como los sistemas alimentarios, la guerra contra las drogas, la descolonización, la minería de oro, y sobre tener a seres queridas encarcelados, junto a las campañas graficas de Mesoamérica Resiste! y el Verdadero Costo del Carbón que relatan muchas de las mismas historias. La combinación entre la música y el arte gráfica de resistencia permitió que la Gira El Arte de la Resistencia entrara en más espacios que una gira tradicional del Colectivo La Colmena.

La gira Polinizando Ríos Vivos inició más o menos seis semanas después de la Gira El Arte de la Resistencia en Amiskwaciwâskahikan, la ciudad de Edmonton, un territorio de diferentes Naciones Originarias, tales como como los Cree, Blackfoot, Dene, Nakoda y Salteaux. En la primera noche, la actividad fue organizada por la Asociación ESPA- Edmonton Small Press- en el salón Brittany, donde hubo una variedad de artistas musicales que se presentaron finalizando con Testament. 

Al día siguiente se compartió en un espacio comunitario increíble conocido como la Sociedad de Jóvenes iHuman, un lugar grande en el centro de Edmonton abierto y dirigido a los jóvenes, la mayoría habitantes de calle, que cuenta con instalaciones para la pintura y el arte, un taller de carpintería, diseño de moda, estudio de música y baile, cafetería, el acompañamiento de personas mayores, curación tradicional y actual, por no hablar del personal comprometido y afectuoso que trabaja con los jóvenes. Colgamos brevemente los telones de Mesoamérica Resiste y el Verdadero Costo del Carbón en el corredor para que las personas que transitaban por el espacio las pudieran observar, posteriormente compartimos en la cena del Día de Acción de Gracias canadiense.

De Edmonton nos aventuramos hacía el noroeste dejando las llanuras para la ciudad del Fuerte San Juan, situado en las tierras altas del valle del río Paz y a dos horas de las Montañas Rocosas. Llegamos al Fuerte San Juan específicamente para compartir con la gente de la Asociación Ambiental del Valle Paz y las comunidades  de los Pueblos Originarias locales del Tratado 8 (comunidades predominantemente de las Naciones Originarias Dane- zaa, Cree y Saulteau). Ninguno de los polinizadores en la gira había estado aquí antes o conocía a alguien personalmente. Sin embargo, como parte del Movimiento Ríos Vivos y las experiencias posiblemente compartidas de lucha contra las mega represas como el Proyecto Hidroeléctrico el Quimbo y el Proyecto de Represa Site C, hicimos un esfuerzo para ir a esta región.

El río Paz nace en las Montañas Rocosas del norte de Columbia Británica y fluye hacia el noreste por el norte de la provincia de Alberta. El río Paz desagua en el río Esclavo, un afluente del río Mackenzie que finalmente desemboca en el Océano Ártico. Su nombre original en Dane-zaa como WpchiigÍi  (que significa " río grande ") o Tsadu (que significa "río de los castores" ), " Unjegah " y " Unchagah "se hace referencia a estos nombres a menudo en los libros de historia locales y en los libros de nombres provinciales. Estos dos últimos nombres se refieren a la realización de la paz, ya que hubo décadas de hostilidades entre los Dane-zaa y los Cree; en 1781 el Tratado de Paz fue celebrado fumando la pipa ceremonial, definiendo el río Paz como la frontera con los Dane-zaa al norte y los Cree al sur.

Los comerciantes europeos de pieles estaban ya en la región desde finales del siglo XVIII. En 1794 fue construido el primer asentamiento comercial no nativo en Columbia Británica sobre el río Paz, el Fuerte de San Juan. Históricamente, y aún hoy en día, el territorio del río Paz es un mar de bosques de árboles gigantescos como el abeto, el abedul, el álamo y el sauce. Este es además, el hábitat de una gran variedad de especies tales como, pero no limitado a: el águila calva, alces, ciervos, el oso pardo, el  caribú, lobos, el glotón, la trucha, la nutria y el castor para nombrar unos pocos. El comercio estas pieles y carne, con el conocimiento experto de las personas de las Naciones Originarias, fue lo que mantuvo vivos y prósperos a los comerciantes europeos y primeros colonizadores.

Hoy en día, este territorio ha sido profundamente afectado por una larga historia de saqueo desenfrenado por la búsqueda incesante en manos de las industrias extractivas de materias primas. No muy lejos de las famosas arenas bituminosas en el norte de Alberta, la región del río Paz también está atravesada por una creciente red y parches de extracción de petróleo y gas, carreteras, líneas sísmicas y tuberías. Es tan alarmante el tamaño de este desarrollo que un estudio de la Fundación David Suzuki calcula que si todas las actividades de petróleo y gas que se han registrado fueran colocadas de extremo a extremo darían la vuelta al mundo 4.5 veces.

Recientemente, la industria fracking, o fractura hidráulica, ha entrado en la región cubriendo así la tierra con una nueva manera de destrucción. Se eliminan más bosques y se utiliza el agua para fracturar las capas de tierra debajo de la superficie sin conocer los riesgos. La industria y el gobierno han admitido que la actividad reciente de un terremoto en la región se debe a la actividad de la fractura hidráulica.

Además de la extracción de hidrocarburos, el río Paz cuenta actualmente con dos represas que ya existen, la represa WAC Bennett en Hudson's Esperanza construida en la década de 1960 y la represa Peace Canyon terminada en 1980. Tanto la represa Bennett como la Peace Canyon se hicieron con la inundación de grandes extensiones de bosques y el desplazamiento de muchas personas de las Naciones Originarias de sus territorios de caza y  pesca. Estas represas son propiedad de la Corporación provincial, BC Hydro, que es la entidad responsable de la represa Site C que se está adelantando a lo largo del río Paz.

El gobierno ha denominado como el "Proyecto de Energía Limpia Site C " pero como es ya ampliamente conocido, estas mega-represas no son ni verdes ni limpias. Esta hidroeléctrica relleno por tierra tiene un costo de $8.3 mil millones de dólares canadienses y estará ubicado río abajo de las represas Bennet y Peace Canyon, y que inundaría más de 100 km de los ríos (los tres más grandes siendo el río Paz, el Mitad de camino (Halfway en inglés) y el Moberly) y afluentes con su embalse. Perdida por debajo del embalse estaría una gran cantidad de tierra fértil, el ecosistema de bosque boreal, así como los sitios culturalmente importantes comolas tierras sagradas para las Naciones Originarias.

La represa C ha visto rechazada su propuesta ya una vez por la Comisión de Servicios en la década de los años ochenta y recientemente, las comunidades de Naciones Originarios de West Moberly y Río Profeta han puesto en marcha retos legales contra la represa en los tribunales provinciales y federales. Desde el año 2010 la BC Hydro ha estado presionando el proyecto y a mediados del año 2015, el registro expansivo y la construcción para el proyecto se ha iniciado y desde entonces se han destruido miles de hectáreas de bosque, incluyendo árboles milenarios y árboles que albergan nidos de águilas.

La topografía única del valle permite particularmente una larga temporada de cultivo agrícola de la cual no disfruta ninguna otra región dentro de estas latitudes, en donde durante muchos meses del año, la calabaza, el fríjol, el maíz, las verduras de hoja verde, las zanahorias, las papas, el trigo, la canola y otros cultivos han crecido. Los defensores de la agricultura local afirman que el valle del río podría alimentar a un millón de personas. El Río Paz es una fuerza definida en términos de soberanía alimentaria en una región que no es propicia para la agricultura durante la mayor parte del año. La soberanía alimentaria por un lado, la relación de las personas Dane-zaa y Cree a su territorio, la relación con el lugar, la memoria y la identidad como pueblos está ligada a sus montañas, sus valles, sus bosques, todos los bienes de agua y este río. ¿Se parece a otro río y  represa que hemos cubierto extensivamente en Polinizaciones?

El primero de enero del año actual los Guardianes del Territorio del Tratado 8 establecieron la Fuerte Montaña Rocosa en el sitio histórico donde se ubicó el primer poblado de comerciantes establecido por exploradores Europeos a finales de los 1700s como un lugar de encuentro y comercio con las Naciones Originarias de la parte alta de la cuenca del Paz. Desde entonces indígenas, campesinos, ganaderos y otros aliados han estado defendiendo el territorio que nunca dieron consentimiento para que fuera destruido para una represa hidroeléctrica.  

Los dos bandos han usado diferentes estrategias, la Fuerte Montaña Rocosa y asumiendo defensa territorial ha creado un espacio donde jóvenes y mayores, indígenas y no indígenas, han podido practicar sus tradiciones y fortalecer relación con su territorio, profundizando las prácticas como la siembre, la cosecha y las actividades culturales. La Fuerte Montaña Rocosa es un espacio que ha consentido no solamente estas estrategias de vías de hecho por la defensa de la tierra, sino también las estrategias culturales y espirituales por la defensa del territorio. 

Sin embargo BC Hydro y las personas que apoyan la represa Site C han sido implacables, los Guardianes del Territorio han sido acosados en La Fuerte Montaña Rocosa y también en sus vidas cotidianas. Tácticas de intimidación han incluido acoso verbal, quebrar ventanas de automóviles, llamadas telefónicas e intimidaciones por medio del internet, que han sido en gran parte dirigidas a Helen Knott, una defensora de la comunidad Originaria de río Profeta y la tátara nieta del Cacique Makenachę “Pie Grande”, el último en firmar el Tratado 8 en el año 1911, estableciendo derechos territoriales para los indígenas de la región a 84 millones de Ha de tierra en la cuenca alta del río Paz.

Cuando Polinizaciones compartió con Helen Knott nos contó historias de su río, el río donde se firmó la paz, y como ir al río es una práctica de auto cuidado, para ella y para otras personas también. El río también ha servido como un lugar para retornar a las tradiciones, recorrer el territorio y realizar ofrendas.    

Knott habló de lo inmenso de esta pérdida y también como se desconoce, explicando que “la tierra está conectado a nosotros como Pueblo, hoy y también históricamente por medio de la memoria sanguínea, cuando vas a estos sitios recuperas las memorias de tus ancestros al nivel celular. Como un Pueblo hemos perdido tanto que no podemos permitir perder nada más que nos brinda eso”.

El 29 de febrero la corte suprema de la provincia Columbia Británica sin tomar en cuenta los derechos de las Naciones Originarias del Tratado 8 dio el mandato a favor de BC Hydro y en contra de los Guardianes del Territorio, fallando que los defensores tenían que ir de su propio territorio.  Los Guardianes del Territorio fueron sacados de la Fuerte Montaña Rocosa y los bosques primarios de la zona fueron talados en el mes de marzo. Ahora más que nunca los habitantes del alto del río Paz necesitan apoyo y solidaridad.  El 6 de marzo Kristin Henry inicio una huelga de hambre que duró 20 días cuando se tuvo que hospitalizar por problemas de salud. Kristin y las personas que la apoyaban establecieron un campamento enfrente de las oficinas de BC Hydro en la ciudad de Vancouver del territorio no sedado de la Costa Salish. El campamento urbano de solidaridad aún se mantiene activo y continúa educar a personas en las calles sobre la amenaza de Site C y sus múltiples violaciones, diariamente se envían cartas al Primer Ministro Trudeau y algunos activistas en el campamento siguen realizando huelgas de hambre.

Durante nuestra visita al territorio del río Paz llegamos casi dos semanas antes de las primeras nevadas del invierno de 2015 y aunque el territorio nos recibió con frío y cielos grises las personas nos recibieron con un calor como si fueran familiares que uno no ha visto he en mucho tiempo. En el Fuerte San Juan  pudimos realizar el primer taller de Polinizando Ríos Vivos compartiendo las experiencias del gráfico de Mesoamérica Resiste y también de diferentes procesos como el Movimiento Ríos Vivos y la Asociación de Afectadxs por el Proyecto Hidroeléctrica el Quimbo (ASOQUIMBO) en el Centro Cultural del Paz Norte.

Después del taller fuimos invitados a un mirador sobre el Valle del río Paz donde la tala de bosque ya había iniciado y los propietarios sobre la falda de la loma del mirador escribieron en piedras blancas “No Represa C”. Esa noche compartimos música, palabras, comida, experiencias y objetos con una variedad de personas bonitas, todxs defensores de territorio, de todas las edades y comunidades la cual aún mantenemos en nuestros pensamientos mientras que luchan la misma lucha que hemos peleada en el Huila…. los Guardianes del Territorio del Tratado 8, la Fuerte Montaña Rocosa y sus aliados son iguales a nuestros defensores de territorio, las calles de Fuerte San Juan o Dawson Creek son las de Garzón o Gigante y las oficinas de un gobierno colonial en Vancouver y Ottawa son las mismas que Neiva y Bogotá.

Esa noche recibimos muchos mensajes de las personas del río Paz. Uno de esas fue de un joven muy activo en la defensa territorial del Fuerte Montaña Rocosa, Waylon Fenton envió un mensaje a los niños y niñas impactadas por represas en Colombia: “No tengan miedo en usar su vos, como niñxs es una de nuestras armas más poderosas que tenemos para defender lo nuestro”.

Verena Hofmann de la Asociación Ambiental del Valle Paz también envió un mensaje de solidaridad; “a todas las comunidades en Suramérica y de todo el mundo que están viviendo la misma historia que nosotros, la lucha en contra las represas y la minería…ustedes me inspiran, por medio de tus fotos e historias. Como personas tendremos nuestra victoria si nos unimos todos, con nuestra tierra, con el agua, y movernos con el ritmo de nuestros corazones. Puede aparecer que estamos muy lejos unos de los otros, y muy diferentes, pero si examinamos para que estamos luchando, veremos que es muy similar y muy cercano, siguen peleando la buena lucha, manténgala, porque nosotros ahora estamos conectados y yo quiero verlos a todxs prevalecer.”

Como uno podría esperar estar de gira no permite estar y absorber los lugares por donde uno pasa por mucho tiempo, madrugando el día siguiente lxs tres polinizadores continuamos pero no antes de visitar las juntas de los ríos Por la Mitad y Paz para dar gracias a los ríos y el territorio de poder estar, sentir este sitio en silencio. Con permiso, intercambiamos elementos de este territorio con otros elementos del territorio de los ríos Magdalena y Suaza en La Jagua, Huila. Antes de volver al carro para todo un día de viaje, dos águilas calvas  danzaron en el aire arriba de nosotrxs antes de aterrizar en unos árboles observándonos partiendo hacia el oeste a otras regiones donde el amor que las personas tienen para su territorio los ha llevado alzarse ante todos los desafíos para defender sus territorios de destrucción y desplazamiento. 

Por mayor información (en ingles) sobre la lucha por el valle del río Paz visita:

Peace Valley Environment Association Brochure

Paginas de Facebook

Hunger Strike for the Peace River Valley – STOP SITE C

Rocky Mountain Fort Camp: Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land

Peace Valley Environment Association

Turtle Island Pollinating Ríos Vivos Tour: Chapter One: The Big River, The Beaver River, The Peace River Country.

Co created by Polinizaciones, Peace Valley Environmental Association & others fighting Site C Dam. The Beaver, Bear and Garden photo are copyright of Don Hoffmann.   

Like most things it started with an urge, a need, an idea… some time later a pollinator from the Polinizaciones process, also part of the Ríos Vivos Movement was able to reach out to other pollinators and put together a presentation tour that would cross a significant portion of Turtle Island, the North American continent.  The idea that developed into the Pollinating Ríos Vivos Tour was to fulfill three main objectives; to first share the experiences of land defense processes such as that of Ríos Vivos Movement, The Strength of Wayuu Women, Yalayalamaana and the Intercultural Communication School of Putumayo through stories, pictures, maps, videos and the Beehive´s Mesoamérica Resiste graphic. The second purpose was to build ties with other land defense processes within the territories being journeyed, especially in the case of indigenous, immigrant and racialized communities. Finally the tour did function as a fund raising strategy to maintain the projects associated with the Polinizaciones process with the above mentioned movements.

Long before the Pollinating Ríos Vivos started, another tour kicked off from the shared territory of the Haudenosaunee, the Missisaugas and the Huron wendat. Two pollinators departed from Toronto making their way west on what was the first Art of Resistance Tour. One of these pollinators, is the Hip-Hop artist Testament, of the duo Test their Logik, who helped combine lyrics about food systems, the war on drugs, decolonization, gold mining and having loved ones incarcerated alongside the Mesoamérica Resiste and True Cost of Coal graphic campaigns that relate a lot of the same stories. The combination of musical and graphic arts of resistance allowed for the Art of Resistance Tour to enter into a wider diversity of spaces than a traditional Beehive Collective graphic campaign tour.

The Pollinating Ríos Vivos tour initiated close to six weeks after the Art of Resistance Tour in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, the city of Edmonton, a territory of different First Nations such as the Cree, Blackfoot, Dene, Nakoda, Salteaux. The first night was a lively artist line up with Testament headlining organized by ESPA- Edmonton Small Press Association at Brittany´s Loungue and the following day being able to share with the incredible space and community at iHuman Youth Society, a large center in downtown Edmonton open to youth and geared to homeless youth that has facilities for painting and art, wood shop, fashion design, music studio, dancing, cafeteria, Elder accompaniment, traditional and current healing, not to mention a committed and loving staff who work with the youth.  We briefly hung the banner in the hall way for folks to observe and later shared in a Canadian ThanksTaking  meal ;).

From Edmonton we embarked northwest leaving the plains for the city of Fort St. John, located on the uplands of the Peace River Valley and within two hour of the Rocky Mountains. We came to Fort St. John specifically to share with people from the Peace Valley Environmental Association and the local Treaty 8 First Nations (communities predominately from Dane-zaa, Cree, and Saulteau backgrounds). None of the pollinators on the tour had been here before or knew anyone personally.   However, as part of the Ríos Vivos Movement and the potential shared experiences and struggles against mega dams, the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and the Site C Dam Project, we made an effort to go to this region.

The Peace River originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River flows into the Slave River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River that ultimately flows into the Arctic Ocean. It´s original name to the Dane-zaa as WpchiigÍi (meaning “big river”) or Tsadu (meaning “river of beavers”), “Unjegah” and “Unchagah” are names often referenced in local history books and provincial place name books.   These last two names refer to the making of peace as there were decades of hostilities between the Dane-zaa and the Cree First Nations; in 1781 the Treaty of the Peace was celebrated by the smoking of a ceremonial pipe, making the Peace River a border, with the Dane-zaa to the north and the Cree to the south.

Since the late 1700s European fur traders were in the region and in 1794 a trading post was built on the Peace River at Fort St. John; the first non-native settlement on the British Columbia mainland. Historically and even today the Peace River country is a sea of Boreal forests, made-up of spruce, birch, and poplar, cottonwood, and willow.  This is the habitat for a large variety of species such as, but not limited to: Bald Eagle, Moose, Deer, Grizzly Bear, Caribou, Wolves, Elk, Wolverine, Trout, Otter and Beaver to name a few.  Some of these animals´ skins and meat were what the initial Europeans fur traders and early settlers to this territory prospered from and kept them alive, with the skillful knowledge and help of the First Nation people. 

Today, this territory has been deeply wounded by a long history of rampant pillaging of extractive industries’ relentless search for raw materials. Not far from the infamous Tar Sands in northern Alberta, the Peace River country is also crisscrossed with a growing grid and patch work of conventional oil and gas well sites, facilities, roads, seismic lines, and pipelines.  An alarming amount of development, so much in fact, that a David Suzuki Foundation study calculated that if all the existing oil and gas activities recorded were laid from end to end, it would circle the earth 4.5 times! 

Recently, the fracking industry has entered the region and this will blanket the land with an entire new layer of destruction;  eliminating more forests, taking of water for fracking, and rupturing the earth below the surface without knowing the risks.  The industry and government have admitted that recent earth quake activity in the region is because of the fracking activity.

In addition to fossil fuel extraction the Peace River currently has two dams that already exist, the W. A. C. Bennett  Dam at Hudson´s Hope built in the 1960s and the Peace Canyon Dam completed in 1980.  Both the Bennett and Peace Canyon Dams resulted in the flooding of large areas of forest and displaced many First Nations people from their hunting, fishing, and trapping territories. These dams are owned by the provincial corporation, BC Hydro, which is the entity responsible for the proposed Site C dam along the Peace River.

The government has dubbed it as the “Site C Clean Energy Project”, but as widely known, mega dams are neither green or clean!   It is an $8.3 billion earth filled hydroelectric dam that would be located down river from the Bennett and Peace Canyon Dams that would flood over 100 kms of the rivers (the three largest being the Peace, Halfway, and Moberly Rivers) and tributaries with its reservoir. Lost, underneath this reservoir, would be a large amount of fertile land, boreal forest ecosystem, as well as important spiritualand cultural sites for local First Nations peoples.                 

The Site C Dam was already proposed once and turned down by the BC Utilities Commission in the early 1980s and recently the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations have launched legal challenges and are still fighting against the dam in the provincial and federal courts.  Since 2010 BC Hydro has been pushing the project through and in the middle of 2015 the expansive logging and construction for the project commenced and since then has destroyed thousands of hectares of forest including old growth and trees harbouring eagle’s nests.  

The unique topography of the valley allows a particularly long agricultural growing season not enjoyed by any other region within these latitudes where for many months of the year, squash, beans, corn, leafy greens, carrots, potatoes, wheat, canola and other crops are grown. Proponents of local agriculture claim the river valley could feed a million people. The Peace River is a definite strength in terms of food sovereignty in a region that is not hospitable to agriculture for most of the year. Food sovereignty aside,  the relationship of the Dane-zaa  and Cree people to their territory, the relationship to place, memory and identity as a peoples is tied to their mountains, their valleys, their forests, all the waterways and this river. Sound like another river and dam we have covered extensively in Polinizaciones?

On January 1st this year the Treaty 8 Land Stewards established the Rocky Mountain Fort at the historic site of the original trading settlement established by European explorers in the late 1700s as a point of first contact and trade with the First Nations of the upper Peace River Basin. Since then the local First Nations, farmers, ranchers and other allies have been defending the land that they have never consented to having destroyed  for a hydroelectric dam. 

The strategies on both sides have been many, the Rocky Mountain Fort and taking up land defense helps create space for local Native and non-Native youth and elders to nurture traditions and their relationship to their territory, to help deepen their relationship through participating in harvesting and cultural activities, similar to when the Fort was in operation, and supporting the land and all of its inhabitants. The Rocky Mountain Fort is a space that has fostered strategies of direct action for the defense of the land, as well as cultural and spiritual strategies.

None the less BC Hydro and Site C supporters have been relentless, land defenders have been harassed both at the Rocky Mountain Fort and in their everyday lives. Outside intimidation tactics have included verbal assault, car windows broken, phone calls, cyber threats against people, namely Helen Knott, a land defender from Prophet River First Nations and great-great granddaughter of Chief Makenachę “Bigfoot”, last co-signer of the Treaty 8 in 1911 establishing Native rights to 84,000,000 Ha of land including the Upper Peace River Country.

When Polinizaciones shared with Helen Knott she told stories of her river, her people´s river, the river where Peace was signed, and how going to the river is a practice of self-care both in her life and in that of many others. The river has also served as a place of returning to traditions, territorial runnings and offerings.   

Knott spoke also of how huge and unacknowledged the loss is by explaining that; “land is connected to us as peoples, both today and historically through our blood memory, and how when going to these places you regain the memories of your ancestors on a cellular level. We as a people have lost so much that we can´t just afford to lose anything else that can give us that.”

On February 29^th, the colonial British Columbia Supreme Court with no regards to the Treaty rights of the Treaty 8 Nations granted BC Hydro an injunction against the land defenders ruling for their withdrawal from their own territory. The Land Stewards have since been ordered away from their camp and the old growth forest wiped out.  Now more than ever, they could use support and solidarity.  March 6^th, Kristin Henry started a hunger strike for 20 days until she was hospitalized. Kristen and supporters set-up camp in front of BC Hydro’s corporate headquarters, in Occupied Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territory.  The urban solidarity camp still remains active and continues to educate people on the streets about the impending Site C Dam and its many violations – letters are sent daily to Trudeau and hunger striking remains as an action by some campers.

Our visit to the Peace River Valley was nearly a couple of weeks before the first snows of the 2015 winter and even though we were met with cold and clouds, the people who received us were as warm as family members not seen in a long time. In the time we were there we were able to hold the first Pollinating Ríos Vivos works sharing the Mesoamérica Resiste graphic as well as experiences of the different processes such as Ríos Vivos and the Association of Affected Peoples of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project- ASOQUIMBO at the North Peace Cultural Centre.

Afterwards just before sun set we were invited to a lookout point over an area of the Peace River Valley where the logging had already commenced and the land owners had created a sign on the hillside using rocks that clearly read “No Dam C”.   That night we shared music, words, food, experiences and items with a variety of beautiful land defender family including people from all ages and communities that we still think about and keep in mind as they are fighting the same fight as we are in Huila.... the Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land and their supporters who occupied the historical Rocky Mountain Fort site are our land liberators, the streets of Fort St. John or Dawson Creek are the streets of Garzón and Gigante and the Colonial Government halls of Vancouver or Ottawa are to those of Neiva and Bogotá.

That night we received many messages with peoples of the Peace River. One of the youth most active with the Rocky Mountain Fort land defense is Waylon Fenton who sent a message to children impacted by dams in Colombia by saying; “not be afraid to use their voice, one of the most of powerful weapons in defense of what is ours as kids”. 

Verena Hofmann of the Peace Valley Environmental Association sent a message of solidarity by saying; “to all communities in South America and globally in the same story as us, fighting mega dams and big mines… you inspire me, through your stories and pictures. We as people will prevail if we come together, all of us with our land, our water and move with the beat of our hearts. We may seem very far apart, and very different but if we see what we are fighting for we will see it is the similar and close and keep the good fighting going because we are now connected and I want to see that you all prevail.”

As one could expect, tour life is not exactly fit for soaking into places, early the next morning the three pollinators continued on our way but not before a brief stop at the confluence of the Halfway River and the Peace River to thank the rivers and the territory, to experience and feel the place in silence and with permission, to exchange elements of this territory with those from Magdalena and Suaza rivers in La Jagua, Huila. Before rushing back to the car for another full day of driving, two bald eagles danced in the air above us before landing on some large trees watching us as we headed west to other regions where peoples' love for their land has brought them to stand up against all odds to defend their territories against destruction and displacement. 

For more information about the campaign to protect the Peace River Valley, go to:

PeaceValley Environment Association Brochure

Facebook Pages

Say “NO” to Site “C” Dam!

HungerStrike for the Peace River Valley – STOP SITE C

RockyMountain Fort Camp: Treaty 8 Stewards of the Land

Peace Valley Environment Association

Take Me Water Radio Program:

Desangramiento del Huila / Huila´s Bleeding

In southwest Colombia, rural communities have begun using direct action in their struggle against the privatization of natural resources by multinational corporations. This video focuses on inhabitants whose way of life has been threatened by the construction of a major new hydroelectric project on the Magdalena River. 

ORIGINAL SOURCE 

Communities of Huila Continue to Defend Mother Earth from Mega-development Projects

Original: Upside Down World

The New Year in Huila started as 2012 finished, with the National Authority of Environmental Licenses’ (ANLA) refusal  to hold the energy company Enel-Endesa-Emgesa accountable for failing to comply with the environmental license for the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project.

The Comptroller's Office has continually studied the information put forth by Association of Affected Peoples of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project (Asoquimbo), and has backed the local communities’ demands that the environmental license be respected in regards to resettlement, compensations and environmental mitigation.  Meanwhile in Huila, local media have falsely reported that nothing is wrong in the region and have irresponsibly reduced their reporting to nothing more than public relations on behalf of the company’s image.

Nonetheless, throughout Huila, the resistance has not only manifested from the communities affected by the Quimbo Dam, but also from the communities in Gigante and Garzón affected by petroleum company Emerald Energy, as well as communities in southern and central Huila resisting the Master Advantage Plan of the Magdalena River which would hand over the country´s largest and most important river in concession to the state-owned company HydroChina. In addition to the invasion of extractive industries to Huila, the regions large amount of coffee growers have been impacted by the falling price in coffee which has progressively gotten worse since the signing of the US free trade agreement. As a result, Huila and all of Colombia's coffee growers have also started pressuring the Colombian State that has resulted injuries in recent days as coffee growers have had clashes with the riot police (ESMAD).

In the coffee lands, fruit orchards, and vegetable fields maintained by the campesinos around the Miraflores Peak, members of the Inter-sectoral Association Garzón & Gigante (ASIEG), continue to fight to have the environmental license that would permit Emerald Energy, a subsidiary of the Chinese chemical company, Sinochem to drill for oil in the Paramo of Miraflores ecosystem. Currently AISEG along with the Regional Autonomous Corporation of the Upper Magdalena (CAM) along with CORPOAMAZONIA from the Department of Caqueta, are pushing the Office of National Natural Parks to declare the 122,000 HA of the Paramo de Miraflores Peak a National Natural park to help create a stronger legal mechanisms for protecting this area and effectively excluding it from any form of oil extraction.

The Magdalena River, born in south Huila, flows north some 1,528 kilometers to its delta in the Caribbean Sea. Its drainage basin is nearly a quarter of the country´s national territory and two-thirds of the nearly 46 million Colombians live in this region which produces about 86% of the country´s GDP.  This year, the Magdalena River will be handed over in concession to the company HydroChina whose plans for the river are to turn a living ecosystem that supports human and nonhuman communities into the country´s most important transportation corridor for cheap goods.

The plan will include dredging the river from Honda, Tolima all the way to its delta to allow large barges to enter that far up-river from the caribbean delta within Colombia. Honda will be connected via high-speed railways to the Pacific-coast port city of Buenaventura as a connection between eastern and western markets.  For the upper area of the Magdalena River Valley the concession involves a total of 11 medium to large hydroelectric dams to generate electricity for use elsewhere. Communities in southern Huila such as Oporapa, San Agustín, and San Jose de Isnos have all become active in the local resistance since the plans for the river were announced last year.

The Impacts are being felt

With sadness, members and allies of the Asoquimbo paid farewell to Sain Pedrazo, a farmer and day laborer from Veracruz, Gigante. Don Sain, known by all who knew him as a sweet, loving and noble man, was an elder and steadfast warrior of Asoquimbo. He joins at least seven other older adults from the affected population that have passed due to the physiological trauma that the place where they were born, grew up, raised their families and have lived in always, might possibly be erased. In his own words he said that he would pass before the Dam could be completed. "If everyone thinks like me, I am leaving before it is my time. I´d rather that no one mention that Quimbo to me, because God does not want it. Though based on what I feel, I am leaving here early. I will not wait for this disaster to happen. Me with my 72 years of birth and life here, I do feel it and it hurts me hard."  Don Sain is greatly missed though his legacy of his fight and struggle for the love of our territory till the very end accompany those that continue to struggle for the liberation of Mother Earth in Huila.

On January 16, Moises Sanchez, a sharecropper on the Chagres Farm in Gigante, along with his family and cattle, was forcibly removed from his home by the ESMAD by order of the Gigante’s mayor Ivan Luna.  Brutalized during the process, this is another example of how laws are applied when they favor Emgesa-Endesa-Enel, though when it comes to the sanctions placed against the company and making sure they are adhered to, the necessary State institutions are nowhere to be found. To date there is still an open investigation by the Comptroller´s Office of the ANLA for the violations of social and environmental rights caused by the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project and damages totaling an amount over $175 billion (USD) that the company has yet to respond to and the Ministry of Environment has also been silent on.

In mid-February a massive die-off of Tilapia and Bass occurred in the floating aquaculture cages in the Betania Reservoir that belong to local elites. Over 300 tons of fish destined to export to foreign countries died due to anaerobic conditions in the reservoir found down river from the Quimbo construction site. A local aquaculture business owner who asked to remain anonymous accused the National Fishing and Aquaculture Authority (Aunap) of doing nothing. “The uncontrolled growth of aquaculture in Betania threatens the ecological balance as well as industrial aquaculture,” said the business owner.

In 2005, according to the Plan of Fish and Aquaculture Order, there were 1,686 cages, eight years later there are 7,000 cages. This overproduction along with pollution and higher sediment content in the water lowered the water quality and caused the water to lose Oxygen provoking the massive die off.

Regional Political Corruption and a Challenge

On January 9th, 2013 Cielo Gonzalez was finally removed from her position as governor of Huila and her former Secretary Julio César Triana, was appointed by President Santos as the new interim governor in early February. Prior to Triana, Luis Guillermo Vélez Cabrera was serving as interim governor when he visited the construction site of the Quimbo telling local media the “Quimbo must happen, but the right way.”  He also noted that while there had been progress, the company´s delay in the creation of the irrigation district Paicol-Tesalia was especially worrying. Since Triana has come into office as interim-governor, he has only mentioned that Vélez Cabrera would be the “point person” to continue working on the project.

On April 14 there will atypical elections held in Huila to pick the new governor. Asoquimbo is calling on the people of Huila to vote in blank and for the Defense of the Territory.  Currently all the candidates from the different parties support and helped create the Departmental Plan of Development 2012-2015 “Making Change,” which seeks to use extractive industries as part of President Santos “Mining-Energy Locomotive” as a major force in regional and national development. On the ballot, listed as a viable option is the “Program of Unity for Territorial Defense” that is registered with the National Civic Registry. The outlined platforms the make up the “Program of Unity for Territorial Defense” were created through open assemblies in the communities of Agrado, Garzón, Gigante, Hobo, La Plata, San josé de Isnos, Tarqui and San Agustín, Huila from February 9-17 that focus on protecting the local communities, economies and the environment.

The Constant Hypocrisy of the National Authority of Environmental Licenses 

The lack of consistency of the Director of the ANLA, Luz Helena Sarmiento, has only made evident that her role is that of a puppet for transnational companies more than a true authority who absurdly has been delegated the responsibility of protecting the needs of the human and nonhuman communities in Colombia.  In late December yet another resolution was passed modifying the Quimbo´s Environmental License through Resolution 1142 attempting to help Enel-Endesa-Emgesa remain unaccountable to the demands placed on it by the comptroller´s Office. As a result, Comptroller Sandra Morelli has declared that the ANLA was deepening the country's environmental crisis that it had already brought on by its faulty policies. This critique helped eliminate an eco-tourism hotel known as “Los Ciruelos” that was planned for the Tayrona National Park on the Caribbean Coast by the ANLA through Resolution 0024.

The critiques of Sarmiento´s hypocrisy is that the environmental impact of the Quimbo is much greater than that of Los Ciruelos taking into account the over 800 Ha of dry-tropical forest will be destroyed (the same ecosystem that Los Ciruelos would affect) and large portions of the Amazonian Protection Forest Reserve.  Since early February the ANLA has denied licenses for numerous companies including Drummond, CCX, Prodeco and Goldman Sachs, who all had plans for coal mining in the Department of Cesar. ANLA denied these solicitations citing these companies did not follow regulations. This incoherence that directly impacts communities is what is pushing so many to take more direct actions after more than four years of internationally recognized evidence of countless violations of the Quimbo´s environmental licenses even after the licensing has been changed no less than four times always in benefit of the company.

Huila, won't take it no more

On February 25, a national strike was organized by coffee growers in Antioquia, Huila, Quindío, Risaralda and other coffee growing regions. Tens of thousands of campesinos throughout Huila blocked roads to pressure the government to take action in helping coffee growers as a result of the falling prices. In Garzón, clashes led to over 25 people being injured and curfews being called; meanwhile in Neiva and the roads connecting Huila with Caqueta and Putumayo, all transportation is paralyzed in the region as a result of the strikes. Asoquimbo and AISEG are in solidarity with the coffee growers strike and participate, as well as prepare for more upcoming mobilizations. Mercedes Ninco, a resident of La Jagua, explained “we are supporting the coffee growers and striking as well. The State´s policies that hurt them are also hurting us.”

What continues to be apparent is that the Quimbo and other extraction projects in Huila are only the tip of the iceberg.  Regionally and globally, the methods that governments are using to disguise corporate land grabs, resource extraction, environmental destruction and forced displacement as a minor part of “progress” and “development” has never been akin to the worldviews of most communities affected by these projects. In fact, the struggle of movements like Idle No More in Canada against the Tar Sands and other extraction projects on indigenous lands, the efforts in the US against the Keystone Pipeline, or the incalculable amount of communities standing up against mines, dams, pipelines, agro-industry throughout the world are the same fight.

Since the uprisings led by the Gaitana in the 1530s against Pedro de Añasco and the invading Spanish forces, the people of Huila have never been Idle.  While the Coffee Growers Strike is building strength and shows no sign of subsiding anytime soon, throughout Huila communities are gathering forces and preparing for the regional strike to be initiated on March 14, the International Day against Dams and For Rivers, Water and Life. The Communities affected by the Quimbo Dam and other extractive industries in Huila call for international direct actions in solidarity with the people of Huila with a simple message, “extractive industries out of the territory, repeal the free trade agreements and land reform now”. Just like last year when there were numerous international solidarity actions, the peoples of Huila are asking for all others in struggle for the Liberation of Mother Earth to “flood” Colombian Embassies, Consulates and the facilities of the companies Enel, Endesa, Emgesa, Emerald Energy and HydroChina.