Parliamentarians need to assess how their actions affect Indigenous peoples- Toshao

The need for parliamentarians to take a step back and look at how they affect the Amerindian land titling process is among the issues which will be raised at the upcoming National Toshaos Conference.

The National Toshaos Conference is scheduled for the 21st to the 26th of this month.

Vice Chairman of the National Toshaos Council (NTC), Lennox Shuman told media operatives that it is hoping to move away from individual village issues to overall topics affecting Guyana’s Indigenous population.

Shuman thinks there is more which can be done.

“You have for example, Members of Parliament who owns blocks and plots of land in proposed indigenous areas, I think the Government…all of them need to take a step back and look at how their engagement in hinterland communities negatively affect Indigenous peoples, so to try to remove themselves from the equation in that sense, and really take an objective look at indigenous land titling,” the NTC Vice Chair said.

He explained that Government includes the Opposition as they represent a large section of the voting population as well.

He added that government also needs to do more to ensure that policies include this section of the population.

Shuman was at the time speaking to reporters at the launch of Indigenous Heritage Month on Wednesday at the Umana Yana.

Indigenous Heritage Month 2017 was today launched under the theme “Guyana’s First People: Sustaining a Rich Cultural Environment”

Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe told the gathering today that the Governments, both past and present continue to work to ensure Amerindians receive their titled lands.

Indigenous Heritage Month is hosted annually to share the culture, food and history of the first people.

A list of items which will be hosted from August 31 was shared with persons gathered at today’s launch.