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| Nukak mother and child having fled Colombia's civil war. © David Hill/Survival |
Colombia’s national indigenous organisation, ONIC, has warned the United Nations that the Nukak, the country’s last hunter-gatherers, are in danger of extinction.
The warning was made in a report to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, who has recently visited Colombia. The Nukak are one of twenty-eight Colombian tribes considered by ONIC to face extinction.
ONIC’s report estimates the number of Nukak alive today to be 490, 40% of whom are living displaced from their traditional territories on the outskirts of a town called San Jose del Guaviare in Colombia’s south-east rainforest. In the twenty years since the Nukak’s first sustained contact with outsiders, half of the population has died.
‘The Nukak’s history demonstrates how indigenous people can very quickly see their numbers reduced and their culture eroded,’ says ONIC’s report.
Mr Anaya’s visit to Colombia was carried out between 23-27 July. ‘The situation of indigenous peoples’ rights in Colombia is serious, critical and deeply concerning,’ Mr Anaya said. ‘That was what the former Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, said after his visit to Colombia in 2004. The same can be said today, notwithstanding a number of important initiatives taken by Colombia’s government in the last few years.’
Act now to help the Nukak
Campaigning for the Nukak’s rights has already made a huge difference. After campaigns led by Survival and local indigenous organisations, the Colombian government created a Nukak reserve in 1993 and enlarged it in 1997.
What the Nukak want now is for the boundaries of their reserve to be respected and for them to be able to live there in peace.
Please write to the Colombian government to urge them to ensure the Nukak can return to their land.
