As Guyana marks Amerindian Heritage Month, Indigenous rights activist Laura George is challenging the country to look beyond the colourful celebrations and cultural showcases and confront what she says are the deeper realities affecting Indigenous peoples.
George is not calling for an end to Heritage Month celebrations.
Instead, she is questioning whether Indigenous heritage can truly be celebrated for one month while Indigenous communities continue to fight for the land, rights, safety, services and protections necessary to preserve their way of life throughout the rest of the year.
“I’m not saying we should not celebrate our heritage,” George said. “But our heritage is not limited to only September month.”
For George, heritage is not simply traditional clothing, beads and feathers, music, dancing, storytelling and ceremonies.
It is the land Indigenous peoples occupy, the water they depend on, the food systems that sustain their communities, their languages and culture, and their right to determine and protect their own way of life.
“Our heritage, Indigenous heritage goes far beyond” cultural displays, she said.
George argued that the significance of September and the legacy of Guyana’s first Indigenous parliamentarian, Stephen Campbell, are often celebrated without enough attention being paid to the issues Campbell advocated for, particularly Indigenous land rights.
She pointed to Article 149G of the Constitution, which provides for Indigenous peoples’ right to the preservation, protection and promulgation of their languages, cultural heritage and way of life.
But according to George, that way of life cannot be separated from Indigenous peoples’ relationship with their territories.
“If we were to talk about our food, our food systems come from the land,” she said.
She argued that when Indigenous territories are damaged or contaminated through mining and other extractive activities, the consequences go far beyond environmental degradation.
Food security, biodiversity, traditional practices and the ability of communities to maintain their way of life are also placed at risk.
George pointed to ongoing struggles surrounding mining and other activities in Indigenous territories as examples of what she considers inadequate protection of Indigenous rights.
She specifically referenced the situation at Chinese Landing, where she said Indigenous land rights and protections were not adequately respected in the community’s dispute with a miner.
For George, protecting Indigenous heritage therefore requires more than preserving cultural traditions. It requires protecting the physical and social conditions in which those traditions can survive.
That includes access to clean water, healthy ecosystems, education, healthcare, security and justice.
George said Indigenous peoples themselves also have a role to play in ensuring that their rights are protected.
Custodians
As custodians and rights-holders of their heritage, she said, Indigenous people must continuously advocate for their rights and demand accountability from policymakers and the government.
“We have to continuously advocate for rights and protections,” she said.
George said this means demanding that decisions affecting Indigenous communities are made through meaningful consultation and that Indigenous peoples have a genuine place in the decision-making process.
She stressed that Indigenous people have a right not only to be heard, but to be included in decisions concerning policies, programmes and development projects that may affect their communities.
That responsibility, she said, extends across issues such as land rights, food security, social services, education, healthcare, security and access to justice.
“We have a right to be heard,” George said.
Her concerns extend particularly to hinterland communities, where she said distance and inadequate infrastructure can leave Indigenous citizens at a disadvantage when seeking essential services.
George questioned why Indigenous people should have to repeatedly fight for access to services she believes should be guaranteed to every Guyanese.
She also raised concerns about the justice system.
According to George, serious crimes occurring in remote communities can present additional challenges because investigators, detectives and pathologists may have to travel from Georgetown, while victims and accused persons may have to leave their communities to access aspects of the justice system.
She described this as evidence of systems that do not always adequately account for the realities of Indigenous and hinterland communities.
MV Barima
But the issue of safety and the value placed on Indigenous lives has become particularly painful in the aftermath of the MV Barima tragedy.
George questioned whether the disaster and its aftermath adequately demonstrated the value placed on Indigenous and hinterland lives.
She argued that the tragedy exposed longstanding concerns surrounding transportation safety in communities where residents depend heavily on rivers and aircraft to travel.
For Indigenous communities, she said, safe and reliable transportation cannot be treated simply as a convenience. It is an essential part of access to education, healthcare, employment, markets and other services.
George said government has a responsibility to ensure that Indigenous peoples can travel safely, particularly given the geographic realities faced by many hinterland communities.
The tragedy has also left families grieving as Guyana enters another Heritage Month.
George pointed to the reopening of schools and the start of a new academic term as a painful reminder that while many parents were preparing to send their children back to school, other families were facing the reality that their children would not be returning.
“There are parents who are grieving because they don’t have a child,” she said.
She said families remain in shock and that some are still waiting for answers concerning loved ones who have not been accounted for.
“There are entire families that were wiped out in the tragedy,” George said.
For her, that reality must not be forgotten amid Heritage Month celebrations.
She called for solidarity with the families who lost loved ones and urged the country to remain mindful of their grief.
“We have to be mindful of them and stand by them in solidarity,” she said.
George argued that the tragedy should also prompt the country into a period of introspection rather than simply becoming another painful event that fades from public attention.
“This should be a time of introspection in which we think: Where did we go wrong?” she said.
That introspection, she said, should involve Indigenous communities as well as government officials and policymakers.
“Did we play our role enough as Indigenous peoples to hold the government accountable?” she asked.
George questioned why policymakers and government officials were allowed to make decisions without sufficient accountability and argued that Indigenous communities must examine how they can become more effective in demanding answers and influencing decisions that affect them.
“Why is it that this has happened? Why did we allow this to happen?” she asked.
For George, the purpose of asking those questions is not simply to assign blame, but to determine how the country can prevent another tragedy.
She said Indigenous communities must consider what they can do better to advocate for themselves, while government must be held responsible for making decisions that genuinely protect the people it serves.
Recipients
George also rejected the idea that Indigenous communities should view themselves merely as recipients of government assistance.
Instead, she urged Indigenous peoples to recognise their collective power and to stand together when one community is threatened.
“We need to stand with the communities. We need to stand with each other,” she said.
She also called on the wider Guyanese society to recognise that problems affecting one Indigenous community should not be treated as isolated hinterland concerns.
“If it happens there, it means that it will happen to us,” she warned.
For George, the struggles surrounding Indigenous land rights, environmental protection, transportation, healthcare, education, security and justice are all connected to the question of heritage.
The preservation of culture, she argues, becomes increasingly difficult when the people who carry that culture are not adequately protected.
Her central question, therefore, is not whether Guyana should celebrate Indigenous culture.
It is what exactly Guyana is celebrating if it does not also protect the people, territories and rights that make that heritage possible.
“Our people are dying,” George said. “Our children perished in that ocean. Our children perished in that fire.”
George said Heritage Month should consequently be treated not only as a period of celebration, but as an opportunity to assess the state of Indigenous rights and the responsibilities of both Indigenous peoples and government.
“Yes, we might celebrate, but don’t celebrate and forget our role,” she said.
For her, that role continues long after the ceremonies end and September passes.
Heritage, she said, is every day of Indigenous life — and protecting it requires Indigenous people to continuously advocate for their rights, demand accountability and ensure that the decisions made today do not threaten the ability of future generations to live and preserve that heritage.
Discussion