The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' desires to keep their ancestral lands. Survival International calls these peoples socially vulnerable, and aims to eradicate what it calls 'misconceptions' used to justify violations of human rights. It also aims to publicize harm caused to tribes by corporations and governments. Survival International states that it aims to help foster tribal people's self-determination.
Survival International is in association with the United Nations Department of Global Communications and in consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. To ensure freedom of action, Survival accepts no government funding. It is a founding member and a signatory organization of the Accountability Charter (INGO Accountability Charter). Survival has offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, and San Francisco.
"We decided that an organisation should be created to oppose these short-sighted policies; that it should be based upon principles which take into account the Indians' own desires and needs rather than our society's prejudices; that it should strive to protect the rights of Indians to their lands, their cultures and their identity; that it should foster respect for and research into their knowledge and experience so that through being recognised as experts they should be allowed to survive and we should learn from them and so contribute to our own survival. Thus the concept of Survival International was born. When, a few months later, exposure in the European press of the atrocities perpetrated in Brazil against the Brazilian Indians by the very agency created to protect them, roused public opinion, we were ready to join in the slow process of raising money and building an organisation."
—Robin Hanbury-Tenison - President and co-founder of Survival International[8]
It was the first in this field to use mass letter-writing, having orchestrated several campaigns in many different places throughout the world, such as Siberia, Canada, and Kenya. Several campaigns were able to bring change to government policies regarding the rights of local Indigenous people. In 2000, this form of struggle was successful in driving the Indian government to abandon their plan to relocate the isolated Jarawa tribe, after receiving 150-200 letters a day from Survival supporters around the world. Shortly before that, the governor of western Siberia imposed a five-year ban on all oil licences in the territory of the Yugan Khanty within weeks of Survival issuing a bulletin.[2] Survival was also the first organisation to draw attention to the destructive effects of World Bank projects – now recognised as a major cause of suffering in many poor countries.[2][9]
Survival is the only international pro-tribal peoples organisation to have received the Right Livelihood Award, as well as the Spanish "Premio Léon Felipe" and the Italian "Medaglia della Presidenza della Camera dei Deputati".[2][10]
Structure and aims
Survival International works for tribal peoples' rights on three complementary levels: education, advocacy and campaigns. It also offers tribal people a platform to address the world, while connecting with local Indigenous organisations, with focus on tribal peoples under more urgent threat from contact with the outside world.[2][11] The educational programs are aimed at people in the Western world, aiming at "demolishing the myth that tribal people are relics, destined to perish through 'progress'". Survival seeks to promote respect for their cultures and explain their relevance today in preserving their way of life.[12]
"If we want to help societies our first job is to listen, rather than to dictate what we think they need, and we must be prepared to be surprised. This is not just to do with remote tribal peoples: it's of vital relevance to all in a world where ideas of multiculturalism are misunderstood and under attack and where some increasingly want to force their views on others."
—Stephen Corry, former Director of Survival International, April 2007[13]
Survival has supporters in 82 countries. Its materials are published in many languages throughout the world. It is a registered charity in the United Kingdom and the equivalent in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United States, and can receive tax-free donations in the Netherlands.
Survival refuses government funding, depending exclusively on public support, in order to ensure freedom of action.[2] All the people sent into the field belong to Survival International staff, none are sponsored volunteers or visitors of any kind. Overseas projects are carried and managed by tribes themselves.[14]
Tribes
There are more than 150million tribal people worldwide, including at least 100 uncontacted peoples in 60 countries. Survival International supports these endangered tribes on a global level, with campaigns established in America, Africa and Asia.[15] Most of them have been persecuted and face genocide by diseases, relocation from their homes by logging and mining, and eviction by settlers.[16]
"The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode and the Bushmen and the Jarawa live in totally contrasting environments across three continents, yet the racism and threats they face are startlingly similar ... Unless these tribes are allowed to live on their own land in peace, they will not survive."
Survival believes that Indigenous rights to land ownership, although recognised by international law, are not effectively respected, with tribes being invaded by activities such as oil and mineral mining, logging, cattle ranching, private or government "development" schemes such as building of roads and dams, or for nature reserves and game parks. Beyond these economic causes for exploitive invasions, Survival highlights ignorance and racism that sees tribal peoples as backward and primitive. Survival believes that in the long-term, public opinion is the most effective force for change.[2][18]
The impact of the outside world on the existence of Indigenous peoples and their cultures is described as being very dramatic. In Siberia, only 10% of the tribal peoples live a nomadic or semi-nomadic life, compared to 70% 30 years ago.[19] In Brazil – where Survival believes most of the world's uncontacted tribes, probably more than 50, live – there are about 400 speakers for 110 languages.[20] For authors such as Daniel Everett, this phenomenon represents a fundamental assault on the existence of peoples, as language expresses the way a group of people experience reality in a unique way, and it is a part of our common heritage. Ranka Bjeljac-Babic, lecturer and specialist in the psychology of language, describes an intrinsic and causal link between the threat of biological diversity and cultural diversity.[21] The assault on Indigenous customs and traditions is described as part of a larger assault on life, with its historical roots in colonization. Survival's report Progress can Kill highlights that the invasion of the Americas and Australia by Europeans eliminated 90% of the Indigenous population on these continents.[22] The threat of genocide continues.[23]
Most fundamentally, Survival believes that it is the respect for the right to keep their land that may allow them to survive. The issues of human rights and freedom depend on the land on which they can subsist and develop according to their own culture. Interference with this basic need endangers their capacity to live sustainably.[18]
In January 2019, the newly elected president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro stripped the Indigenous affairs agency FUNAI of the responsibility to identify and demarcate Indigenous lands. He argued that those territories have very tiny isolated populations and proposed to integrate them into the larger Brazilian society.[24] According to the Survival International, "Taking responsibility for Indigenous land demarcation away from FUNAI, the Indian affairs department, and giving it to the Agriculture Ministry is virtually a declaration of open warfare against Brazil's tribal peoples."[25]
Campaigns
Survival International campaigns for the uncontacted tribes in the territory of Peru, many unidentified Indigenous people in Brazil, Russia, West Papua, and about 30 tribes in several countries in South America, Africa, and Asia.[15] They select their cases based on a criterion the organisation has established, which depends on a wide range of factors, such as the reliability and continuity of the information, the gravity of the situation the tribe in question is facing, the degree to which they believe their work can make a real difference, the degree to which improvements in this area would have a knock on effect for others, whether any other organisation is already working on the case, and whether they are sure of what the people themselves want.[18]
A common threat to the tribes for which Survival campaigns is the invasion of their lands for exploration of resources.[15][18] This invariably leads to forced relocation, loss of sustainability and forced changes in their way of living. Usually, this is accompanied by diseases from the contact with the outsiders for which they have an unprepared immune system – this threat alone can wipe out entire tribes.[23] Logging and/or cattle ranchers have affected most of these tribes, from South America, Africa, to Australasia. The Arhuaco, in Colombia, have drug plantations, associated with crossfire from guerilla wars between cartel and government interests. The Ogiek, in Kenya, have tea plantations, and the Amungme in Indonesia, the San in Botswana, the Dongria Kondh in India, and the Palawan in the Philippines have mining fields.
Countries which have Indigenous peoples for whom Survival campaigns. This map represents about 5 million Indigenous people. There are over 300 million Indigenous people in the world, with an estimated over 100 uncontacted tribes.
Survival international has also pointed out in their campaigns against the assault on their way of living the effect of the work of missionaries.[23] The Arhuaco, Ayoreo, Aborigines, the Innu, and several tribes in West Papua have all suffered direct attacks on their culture from what, in the perspective of Survival, may constitute good intention, but nevertheless is destructive to their lives.[15][17] The children of the Khanty and Wanniyala-Aetto have been kidnapped to be raised in foreign religions and culture. In the long run, these practices are successful in assimilating and destroying a group of people.
Besides suffering the genocide brought about through disease and hunger (which is the result of losing their natural environment and having fertile soil stolen from them), Survival says some tribes have suffered campaigns of direct assassination.[15] Most tribes in South America, such as the Awá, Akuntsu, Guaraní, and the Yanomami, have been murdered on sight by multinational workers, ranchers and gunmen for hire, while tribes in Africa and Asia have suffered waves of murder at the hands of the government. Survival International has pointed to the tribe Akuntsu, of which only five members still remain, as an example of what this threat represents: the eventual genocide of a whole people.[26][27]
Survival International has called attention to the rise in suicide in tribal peoples such as the Innu, Australian Aborigines, and the Guarani, as a consequence of outside interference with the tribes' cultures and direct persecution. Suffering from the trauma of forced relocation, many tribal people find themselves in despair living in an environment they are not used to, where there is nothing useful to do, and where they are treated with racist disdain by their new neighbours. Other social consequences from this displacement have been pointed out to alcoholism and violence, with campaigns reporting the cases of the Innu, Mursi, Bodi, Konso, and Wanniyala-Aetto. Tribal peoples are also more vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Among the tribes with whom Survival International has campaigned, there has been reported rapes of girls and women by workers of invading companies in the Indigenous tribes of Penan, West Papuan tribes, Jummas, and Jarawa.[15]
The government role in these territories varies. Most Brazilian tribes are protected under law, while in reality there has been resistance in policies and strong support for enterprises that carry out these threats on their existence. In Africa, the San tribes and other tribes have been persecuted with beating and torture to force relocation, as well as murder in the Nuba, and in the Bangladesh, Asia, with the Jummas.[15][28] Sometimes governments offer compensations that are believed by Survival to be unwanted alternatives for the tribes, portrayed as "development".[29]
In April 2012, Survival International launched a worldwide campaign, backed by actor Colin Firth, to protect the Awa-Guajá people of Brazil, which the organization considers to be the "earth's most threatened tribe".[30]
In late 2015, Survival International started the Stop the Con campaign, which seeks to raise awareness about negative impacts of traditional conservation policies on tribal peoples.[31] This campaign is part of Survival International's larger campaign on conservation.[32]
Media attention
Survival International has received attention in the media over the years with the campaigns and work of volunteer supporters. Celebrity endorsements include Richard Gere, who has spoken up for the Jumma of Bangladesh, Julie Christie, who gave a Radio 4 appeal on behalf of the Khanty of Siberia, Judi Dench, who warned of the events surrounding the Arhuaco of Colombia, and Colin Firth, who spoke out against the eviction of the San tribe,[33][34] and in favour of the Awa-Guajá people.[30]
However, the media have not always been sympathetic towards the organisation. In 1995, the Independent Television Commission banned one of Survival International's advertisements, citing the Broadcasting Act 1990, which states that organisations cannot advertise their work if it is wholly or mainly of a political nature.[35] The ad was broadcast on the music cable channel The Box and the MTV satellite offshoot VH-1. It featured Richard Gere urging viewers to help to stop the slaughter and exploitation of tribal people.
Another controversy ensued after an article in The Observer cast doubt on Survival International's reporting of an uncontacted tribe in Peru, which included a picture with tribesmen firing arrows up at an aircraft.[36][37] After a heated confrontation that dragged for a couple of months, with threats of taking Survival International to court for libel, The Observer ended up conceding in August 2008 that it had got the story wrong. In a clarification, the newspaper stated: "While The Observer cannot be responsible for content of other media it does have a duty under the Editors' Code not to publish 'inaccurate, misleading or distorted information'. It failed in that duty here."[37]
The Government of Botswana, with whom Survival International has had a long-standing disagreement over the government's treatment of the San people in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, has complained about uneven coverage in the mainstream media.[38] The San have challenged the government in court several times regarding their right to remain on their land without interference.[39]Ian Khama, President of Botswana, stated that Survival International is "denying them and especially their children opportunities to grow with the mainstream", forcing Indigenous peoples into maintaining "a very backward form of life".[40] It has been alleged that the Botswana government "has instructed all departmental heads in the state media to ensure that any negative reporting on the controversial relocations from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) should be contrasted strongly with freshly-sought government statements."[37]
In May 2013, Survival International accused the government of plans to evict San from their homes in Ranyane. Government representative Jeff Ramsay denied this allegation and described Survival International as a "neo-Apartheid organisation".[41] Survival International subsequently reported that on May 28, Botswana's High Court had ruled that the eviction be suspended until mid-June.[42] A Survival International campaigner was quoted as saying: "I don't know how the government can say there is no case, and that they are not planning to evict them when the Ranyane Bushmen are taking the government to court to stop from being removed."[39] The director of Khwedom Council, Keibakile Mogodu, said, "We have been deliberating on the issue with government officials, yes I can confirm that government was due to relocate [six hundred] Basarwa on Monday, [May 27th]."[43] A case has been filed on the San's behalf.[43]
In 2005, Survival published the book There You Go![44] (Oren Ginzburg), which depicted a tribal society being harmed by development. In the book's foreword, Stephen Corry wrote: "The 'development' of tribal peoples against their wishes – really to let others get their land and resources – is rooted in 19th century colonialism ('We know best') dressed up in 20th century 'political correct' euphemism. Tribal peoples are not backward: they are independent and vibrant societies which, like all of us always, are constantly adapting to a changing world. The main difference between tribal peoples and us is that we take their land and resources, and believe the dishonest, even racist, claim that it's for their own good. It's conquest, not development. If you really want to understand what's going on, read this book."
Survival International encourages supporters to use multiple media to spread awareness on Indigenous rights issues. In the guide Walk Your Talk, the organisation gives tips on a variety of actions, from writing letters to governments, to spreading the word through sponsorships, leaflets, demonstrations, film shows, and collecting money from a variety of events.[45]
The Awá are an Indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon rain forest. There are approximately 350 members, and 100 of them have no contact with the outside world. They are considered highly endangered because of conflicts with logging interests in their territory.
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil are the peoples who lived in Brazil before European contact around 1500 and their descendants. Indigenous peoples once comprised an estimated 2,000 district tribes and nations inhabiting what is now Brazil. The 2010 Brazil census recorded 305 ethnic groups of Indigenous people who spoke 274 Indigenous languages; however, almost 77% speak Portuguese.
The San peoples, or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. Their recent ancestral territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and South Africa.
Debswana Diamond Company Limited, or simply Debswana, is a mining company located in Botswana, and is the world's leading producer of diamonds by value. Debswana operates four diamond mines in the eastern and central parts of Botswana, as well as a coal mine. Debswana is a joint venture between the government of Botswana and the South African diamond company De Beers; each party owns 50 percent of the company.
The Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas or FUNAI is a Brazilian governmental protection agency for Amerindian interests and their culture.
Uncontacted peoples are groups of Indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Groups who decide to remain uncontacted are referred to as indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Legal protections make estimating the total number of uncontacted peoples challenging, but estimates from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the UN and the nonprofit group Survival International point to between 100 and 200 uncontacted tribes numbering up to 10,000 individuals total. A majority of uncontacted peoples live in South America, particularly northern Brazil, where the Brazilian government and National Geographic estimate between 77 and 84 tribes reside.
Ethnos360, formerly known as New Tribes Mission (NTM), is an international, theologically evangelical Christian mission organization based in Sanford, Florida, United States. Ethnos360 has approximately 2,300 missionaries in more than 20 nations.
The Kawahiva, formerly called the Rio Pardo Indians, are an uncontacted indigenous tribe who live near the city of Colniza in Mato Grosso, close to the Rio Pardo in the north of Mato Grosso, Brazil. They are usually on the move and have little contact with outsiders. Thus, they are known primarily from physical evidence they have left behind – arrows, baskets, hammocks, and communal houses.
Conservation International (CI) is an American nonprofit environmental organization headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, in Arlington County, Virginia.
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, name also written Davi Kobenawä Yanomamö, is a Yanomami shaman and Portuguese-speaking spokesperson for the Yanomami People in Brazil. He became known for his advocacy regarding tribal issues and Amazon rainforest conservation when the tribal rights organization Survival International invited him to accept the Right Livelihood Award on its behalf in 1989. In 2019, Yanomami and the Hutukara Yanomami Association were also awarded the Right Livelihood Award. Yanomami spoke to both the British and Swedish parliaments about the catastrophic impact on Yanomami health as a consequence of the illegal invasion of their land by 40,000 garimpeiros. Prince Charles publicly called the situation ‘genocide’. In the seven-year period from 1987 to 1993 one fifth of the Yanomami died from malaria and other diseases transmitted by the miners.
The Akuntsu are an indigenous people of Rondônia, Brazil. Their land is part of the Rio Omerê Indigenous Territory, a small indigenous territory which is also inhabited by a group of Kanoê. The Akuntsu were victims of a massacre perpetrated by Brazilian cattle ranchers in the 1980s and currently number just three individuals. It is unlikely that the Akuntsu language or culture will survive after their deaths, leading several observers to describe them as victims of genocide.
John Qace Hardbattle (1945–1996) was one of the best-known Bushman activists in Botswana. "Son of a half-Bushman mother, Khwa, and an English father, Tom Hardbattle". His father was a retired policeman who traveled to South Africa and then Botswana. There he married "Kawi", John's mother. John Hardbattle co-founded and became leader of the First People of Kalahari (FPK).
The Nomole or Cujareño people, also known as the Mashco Piro, are an indigenous tribe of nomadic hunter-gatherers who inhabit the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest. They live in Manú National Park in the Madre de Dios Region in Peru. They have actively avoided contact with non-native peoples.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006, is a key piece of forest legislation passed in India on 18 December 2006. It has also been called the Forest Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill, and the Tribal Land Act. The law concerns the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other resources, denied to them over decades as a result of the continuance of colonial forest laws in India.
Indigenous rights are those rights that exist in recognition of the specific condition of indigenous peoples. This includes not only the most basic human rights of physical survival and integrity, but also the rights over their land, language, religion, and other elements of cultural heritage that are a part of their existence and identity as a people. This can be used as an expression for advocacy of social organizations, or form a part of the national law in establishing the relation between a government and the right of self-determination among its indigenous people, or in international law as a protection against violation of indigenous rights by actions of governments or groups of private interests.
The genocide of indigenous peoples in Brazil began with the Portuguese colonization of the Americas, when Pedro Álvares Cabral made landfall in what is now the country of Brazil in 1500. This started the process that led to the depopulation of the indigenous peoples in Brazil, because of disease and violent treatment by Portuguese settlers, and their gradual replacement with colonists from Europe and enslaved peoples from Africa. This process has been described as a genocide, and continues into the modern era with the ongoing destruction of indigenous peoples of the Amazonian region.
Ancestral land conflict over the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) arose in the 1970s between the government of Botswana and the San people (Bushmen), and is ongoing, resulting in one of the most expensive court cases in the history of Botswana.
James Suzman is an anthropologist and the author of Affluence Without Abundance: The disappearing world of the Bushmen published by Bloomsbury in 2017. He is the nephew of Janet Suzman and great-nephew of Helen Suzman. He is based in Cambridge, UK.
Fortress conservation is a conservation model based on the belief that biodiversity protection is best achieved by creating protected areas where ecosystems can function in isolation from human disturbance.
The Piripkura are an indigenous tribe who inhabit the Piripkura Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso, Brazil. They are one of the last isolated Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest, with only three known survivors. Violence and deforestation have led to significant losses, with many tribe members killed by illegal loggers in the 1980s.
References
↑ Lewis, Norman (23 February 1969), "Genocide", Sunday Times Magazine, pp. 34–59.
↑ International, Survival. "Stop the con". www.SurvivalInternational.org. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
↑ International, Survival. "Tribal conservationists". www.SurvivalInternational.org. Archived from the original on May 19, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
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