Modern Pillage in Ecuador

Early last week a small group of local tribesmen stormed an Ecuadorian oilfield and temporarily took over the facility, halting production and forcing the major oil company to call for reinforcements. Petrobell, a subsidiary company of the larger Brazilian based Synergy, has come in to direct conflict with local Huaorani people for the second time.

Early in 2011 a different Petrobell oil field was occupied by members of the same tribe. This take over shin the international spotlight on Ecuador, the smallest OPEC country producing around 555,000 barrels of crude oil per anum as of 2014, who were forced by public outrage to adopt a plan B.

The attention given to the battle between the Huaonari people and Ecuador for land rights caused Ecuador to launch an international public appeal, essentially asking the international community so offended by the proposed dispersion of Huaonari people for drilling to provide donations to Ecuador in return for the promise of keeping the traditional tribal land out of the hands of major oil companies.

However, this interesting series of exchanges between the Huaonari and Petrobell is simply the tip of a very large, very troubled iceberg. The Huaorani were not discovered by the Western world until the early 1940’s when Shell unwittingly began exploratory drilling for crude oil on tribal land, only to be met with spears and the angry faces of strangers.

After this initial scuffle contact was not attempted again until the 1950’s, this time by Christian missionaries who were drawn to the Huaorani by stories of their intertribal battles causing dwindling numbers, and their inevitable stand-off with major oil companies who had since gathered to collectively chomp at the bit. The missionizing project was not met with welcome and a number of missionary workers were killed in confrontations.

Rachel Saint, a sister of one of the five murdered missionaries, was the next to attempt contact with the Huaorani and miraculously succeeded, living out the rest of her days in their company attempting to learn their language, which remains unclassifiable to linguists the world over.

Saint’s teacher, a young woman named Dayuma, contributed enough linguistic understanding to Saint for the Ecuadorian government to approach the pair requesting assistance in relocating thousands of Huaorani people to make way for a number of new crude oil projects, to which the two women agreed. The Huaorani people were divided; those who were forced to leave, and those who stood their ground, and the effects of this polarisation remain.

Those who were relocated were moved to missionary camps that had been established at the edge of the traditional land margins, and those who remained were pushed to the depths of the jungle. Eventually the Huaorani living in the missionary camps moved to “oil frontier” towns, on the precipice of exploration sites, where capitalism and drug addiction now run rampant through their society.

The Huaorani people who remained in the forests have been reportedly segregated in to two small groups known as the Tagaeri and the Taromenane, both of which have thus far escaped the scourge of the Western “civilising” mission, however their numbers run dangerously low.

The Tagaeri is reported to have as little as 37 members, which has become a concern for conservationists and activists wishing to see the rights of these tribes respected, worrying that the gene pool will soon become contaminated with incestuous relations. The Huaorani people almost definitely lived for many millenniums as simple hunter gatherers whose existence was inherently tied to the rainforest.

There is no evidence of farming or agriculture within the Huaorani culture, and instead they appear to have taken what they needed from the surrounding jungle as it was required, and at sustainable levels.

The recent assault on Petrobell appears to be just the latest in a long line of push back efforts by the Huaorani people who have resisted attempts at colonisation, and insistent trespass on their tribal lands for purposes that the Huaorani people - with their close physical and spiritual relationship to the rainforest - must regard as nothing but the deepest disrespect and cruelty.

Central to reports regarding the January 8th Petrobell incident should be questions as to how the arrest of seven Huaorani will affect the lives of a dangerously dwindling society that has been systematically torn apart for over seven decades.

By Erin Lawson.