Video / Audio - Women's Rights and Organising
The Land Question
Loliondo Land Conflict - Tanzania - Land, it's been said, is the only thing worth working for, fighting for and dying for - because it's the only thing that lasts. That said, across Africa people remain dispossessed of their land, with governing parties seemingly more interested in talking about it than returning it.
Brazil’s Warrior Women - A Women’s Grassroots Movement for Access to Babassu Oil
The humble babassu palm provides a livelihood for communities of women across North Eastern Brazil. Bread, charcoal, oil and soap are produced from the nut and husk; the surplus is sold on. But production has not always been so peaceful. Babassu: Brazil’s Warrior Women tells the story of the hard battle to maintain these communities’ way of life. In the face of intimidation and threats from farmers for years, Babassu women have negotiated their own terms; creating a grassroots movement and establishing the ‘Free Babassu Law’ in seven states. The law gives landless coconut gatherers rights to collect from palm groves. These inspiring women are now able to plan for the long-term, diversifying their business and securing their future. They fight for their families, their forests and the Amazon as a whole.
Women Champions of Buffalo River
This video is about a powerful women-led movement for indigenous land rights, from Loliondo, Tanzania. Without the community’s consent a large part of their lands were occupied. When the women in the community realised that the efforts to defend their territory were failing, they decided to take matters into their own hands. The women used awareness-raising, protests and political pressure to lead a movement in defence of their territory.
West African women defend traditional palm oil
West and Central Africa. This video provides a window onto the reality of women-led artisanal palm oil production, a reality often rendered invisible in narratives of global industrial palm oil. This model is under threat by the rapid advance of industrial plantations, free trade agreements and corporate-controlled value chains at the expense of community-based food systems. (To activate the English subtitles in the video below, click on "CC" at the bottom-right.) (Grain / 2016)
The Munduruku Indians: Weaving Resistance
The Brazilian government is planning to build a vast number of big dams on the rivers around the Amazon Rainforest, destroying biodiversity and disrupting the way of life of thousands of Amerindians and local populations. Now that the work is well under way on the huge Belo Monte dam, on the Xingu river, the government is pushing ahead with its next big project - a series of dams on the Tapajós river. But 12,000 Munduruku Indians, long feared as warriors, live here and are fighting back. This documentary, filmed in late 2013 and early 2014, looks at life in a Munduruku village, where traditional skills are practised and children are brought up with remarkable freedom. It documents the growth of resistance, even among the women, not traditionally fighters, some of whom are emerging as guerreiras (woman warriors). This video was produced independently, with the support of some organizations in the UK, such as LAB and Lipman Miliband Trust, Munduruku leaders and their local supporters. The post-production process was made thanks to collaborative and solidarity work. (Nayana Fernandez 2014)
The Amazonian tribespeople who sailed down the Seine
The Kichwa tribe in the Sarayaku region of the Amazon in Ecuador believe in the ‘living forest’, where humans, animals and plants live in harmony. They are fighting oil companies who want to exploit their ancestral land. A delegation of indigenous people are at the Paris COP21 climate conference to make sure their voices are heard. Can they win their battle? (The Guardian, 2015).
Speaking out: Indigenous women leaders in Peru
In this video, Nery Zapata speaks about the difficulties of being a woman from a minority group in Atalaya, leading the indigenous local organization. As President of CORPIAA and Coordinator of the Veeduría, she has an important role. Reaching and remaining in her position has required self-confidence and determination, as is evidenced from her words. The video also features Patricia Cachique, an indigenous leader from the native community Boca Apinihua. Patricia emphasizes the importance of training women as well as men in issues related to forest management and climate change, and points out the importance of shared knowledge between women and men if there is to be shared decision-making (Helvetas Perú, 2015).
Our Land, Our Life
"Our Land, Our Life" presents the struggle of Carrie and Mary Dann, two Western Shoshone elders, to address the threat mining development poses to the sacred and environmentally sensitive lands of Crescent Valley, Nevada (Oxfam America, 2008).
MELIKIN
It was their native customary land until palm oil companies came and claimed it as their own. This is the story of Melikin. The story of many indigenous peoples in Sarawak, Malaysia. A short film from PANAP showing grassroots resistance by the indigenous peoples of a small community, who were joined by their neighbours, to protest against company control of their lands. (www.panap.net)
Keep the Oil in the Ground
To national, local, and international leaders: The Amazon rainforest is critically important to the survival of our planet and the indigenous peoples that call it home. The International Energy Agency is unequivocal: two-thirds of fossil fuels need to be kept in the ground to avoid climate disaster. Given the science mandate to keep oil in the ground and the demands of our indigenous allies, the Amazon Basin is the perfect place to start. Leave the oil in the ground! (Amazon Watch, 2014)