U’wa Oil Resistance – 8’

August 2001

0.09 The land of the Uwa in the remote Colombian Andes.

0.12 Ora Cuma and her grandchildren have lived in this jungle for generations. She’s one of the elders and she’s become one of the most respected tribal leaders in the area.

But the UWA like the exotic cloud forest which is their home are under threat.

0.30 Their way of life and their culture have survived the centuries practically intact.

They have a unique relationship with their surroundings – a relationship that some environmentalists hold up as an ideal of man’s interaction with nature.

All their knowledge has been passed from generation to generation.

Now is the time to show her grandsons what their ancestors passed down to her.

0.56 They gather mushrooms from the forest. The fruits they eat are rarely found anywhere else.

In the forest nearly everything has a use.

1.16 It may not be to everybody’s taste – but bubbling in the pot today- it's rat and potato stew.

1.28 There are only five thousand UWA left in their homeland - Ora Cuma is convinced modern life is the real threat to her grandchildren.

1.35 ORA CUMA, IN UWA WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

“The future looks very difficult, our god did not leave us here for this. This was not our destiny. We are here because our mission is to protect the plants, the animals and the human being. But the white man is destroying everything and that is why the sun is getting hotter and hotter. I do not understand how the white man has managed to destroy so much land.”

2.01 The Uwa consider themselves guardians of the forest and the species in it.

They have protected large tracts by prohibiting all human access, even their own.

They survived the Spanish conquistadors but now there’s a new and more dangerous threat to their future.

2.18 Occidental Petroleum known as OXY has acquired oil exploration rights in partnership with the Colombian government. But in Colombia oil brings violence. The military have increased their forces in the drillsite in case of guerrillas attacks. Despite national and international pressure drilling is underway in Cedeno. OXY doesn’t like cameras and wouldn’t say anything about this site.

2.45 Several Indians have been forcibly removed by helicopter. Now they are barred from entering by military forces on patrol.

2.54 Uwa leader Riruhua is now living a few metres away from the drilling site. It's difficult living so close to the enemy.

3.04 She’s powerless - the only thing she can do is wait to be resettled.

3.10 Recently, the Uwa grabbed international headlines when they vowed to commit collective suicide if Occidental's Petroleum drilling continues. They would rather die than witness the brutal violation of the future of their children and their native territory.

Despite the threat, life has the semblance of normality. But they live there every day with constant reminders that it's only a matter of time before they’re forced to move from their ancestral land. For them oil is the blood of the earth and sucking it out will bring catastrophic consequences to their country. This Uwa leader says that Occidental Petroleum will have to kill her before she moves anywhere else.

3.58 RIRUHUA, UWA LEADER, IN UWA WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

“This has always been Uwa territory so I am not going to leave this place, I do not understand why do we have to leave if this is ours. We have always been here and now they want us to leave. Where are we going to go? If they want me to leave they will have to take my dead body because I am not going to leave. I am part of here so I will stay until I die.”

4.32 Bogota, the capital of Colombia, easily its biggest city and the country’s economic hub.

Here many people think a tribe of just a few thousand Indians is holding a country of 40 million people to ransom. The Colombian government is desperate to re-ignite interest in the oil sector. Investors have been increasingly worried about their money after a series of insurgent attacks on oil installations.

5.00 For most Colombians oil means jobs. It's the country’s top export bringing in some two-point-five billion dollars a year into the foreign reserves.The Uwa territory is thought to contain some of the most important oil reserves in Colombia. A 40 year ongoing civil war with leftist rebels has left the country practically in misery. And Colombians cannot afford not to exploit their natural resources.

5.32 Here at the National Organisation of Indigenous communities, or ONIC, they’re convinced drilling for oil will effectively drain the lifeblood from the UWA community.

5.45 Armando Valbuena, president of ONIC, says the Government is on the verge of destroying the UWA people and their lands and that they’re doing it for only short term gain. He says the reserves in UWA country will only feed the insatiable appetite for oil, in the United States particularly, for a matter of months.

6.03 ARMANDO VALBUENA, PRESIDENT OF THE INDIGENOUS ORGANISATIONS, IN SPANISH WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

“For the last 200 hundred years the politicians of this country have assassinated the indigenous people with the intention of staying with their territories and all the natural resources of those territories. This is going to continue for a long time and now more than ever because of the globalisation of the economy and the politic mess which is going through this country.”

6.49 Suhataro continues to hunt for food in the way handed down by his ancestors – his bow made of wood from the forest and the arrows tipped with poison.

7.07 He misses but he has other ways if stalking his quarry.

7.23 Suhataro’s been taught since he was boy how to pad almost noiselessly through the undergrowth – man the hunter slowly becoming man the hunted .

7.38 The UWA have lived this co-existence with nature here for countless years – Suhataro’s song is now a lament for a way of life about to be snuffed out within the blink of eye.

7.53 ENDS