Campaigning for the Nukak's rights has already made a huge difference. After campaigns led by Survival and local Indian organisations, the Colombian government created a reserve for the Nukak in 1993 and then enlarged it in 1997. What the Nukak want now is for the boundaries of their reserve to be respected.
<strong><a href="/actnow/writealetter/nukak" onclick="new Effect.BlindDown('embedded_letter_nukak'); new Effect.ScrollTo('embedded_letter_nukak_container', {offset: -24}); return false;">Please write to the Colombian government</a></strong> to ask them to enter negotations to ensure the Nukak can return to their land.
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Suffering and suicide as Nukak plead to go home
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The Nukak have fled their land after becoming caught up in the violent conflict of Colombia’s drugs war. Their remote rainforest has been overrun by colonists growing coca for the lucrative cocaine trade.
Last year the Colombian government tried moving the Nukak to a new part of the rainforest, but the area chosen was far too small and poorly resourced. After a flu epidemic and the suicide of leader Mao-be, the Nukak abandoned the area.
The Nukak have fled their land after becoming caught up in the violent conflict of Colombia's drugs war. Their remote rainforest has been overrun by colonists growing coca for the lucrative cocaine trade.
<strong>How
do they live? </strong>Although the stereotype of the Amazonian
Indian is of a nomadic hunter-gatherer in the depths of the forest,
nearly all Indians in the Amazon actually live in settled communities
on the river-banks. The Maku, however, are one of the very few
societies which do conform
to the stereotype. They live in small family groups, prefer the deep
forest to the rivers, and are constantly on the move. As they are so
mobile it means that they can have very few possessions, and what they
have must be easily portable. At a minute's notice, therefore, they can
wrap up their fibre-string hammocks (which are their only real
furniture), put their pots and few remaining items in home-made
rucksacks, and move on.<br />
<br />
Maku houses tend to be very light structures made of wood and
palm-leaves, just enough to provide a roof to sling a hammock under.
Each family has its own hearth. This is used not just for cooking and
warmth, but certain plants can be burned on the fire at night to keep
mosquitoes away. The Maku eat fish, game, turtles, fruit, vegetables,
nuts, insects and honey. The men hunt using blowguns, with darts coated
with curare, a poison made from up to five different plants.<br />
<br />
<strong>What problems do they face? </strong>The Nukak have
already suffered the
devastation of their population by malaria and flu since their first
contact with outsiders in 1988; now their lands have been occupied by
coca growers, left-wing guerillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the
Colombian army.<br />
<br />
Both Colombia's main left-wing guerilla army, the FARC (Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia), and the right-wing paramilitary army, the
AUC, have large numbers of forces in the Nukak's territory. Both groups
seek to control the lucrative coca crop, and sometimes force the
Indians to work in the coca fields. The Indians have therefore become
embroiled in Colombia's quasi-civil war, and some have been forced to
flee their land.<br />
<br />
<strong>How can I help?<br />
</strong>Click <a target="_self" href="http://www.survival-international.org/how_to_help.php?howto_help_id=1">here</a> to donate to
Survival.<br />
Write a letter of concern to the president of Colombia - click <a href="/related_material.php?id=363" target="_self">here.</a><br />
Click <a target="_self" href="http://www.writetothem.com/">here</a> to write to your
MP or MEP (UK).<br />
Click <a target="_self" href="http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/">here</a> to
write to the President, your senators, congressmen or other elected
officials (US).<br />
Write to your local Colombian embassy, click <a target="_self" href="http://www.embassiesabroad.com/">here</a> to find out
the address.<br />
<br />
<strong>How does Survival help? </strong>After an intensive
Survival campaign
dating from 1991, the Colombian government protected 95% of the Nukak's
territory in the form of a <em>resguardo</em> - an area of
land titled to the
Indians. Since the influx of coca growers and armed groups into their
territory, Survival has lobbied the Colombian government, urging it to
enter into negotiations with all the parties to the conflict to exclude
the Nukak's territory from any armed operations, to suspend the aerial
spraying of coca inside the Indians' territory, and to implement a
proper policy to resettle the colonists on lands where they can grow
legal crops.<br />
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The Nukak Indians live between the Guaviare and Inírida rivers, on the fringe of the Amazon basin. They are just one of six groups who together make up the Maku peoples, all nomadic hunter-gatherers living in the headwaters of northwest Amazonia.
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2009-09-04T15:54:22+01:00