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Setting Cain against Abel: The Plight of Sri Lanka’s Indigenous People
Chief of the Vedda community, Uru Warige Wannila Aththo[/caption]
Voice of the Vedda community
For more information about the issues faced by the Vedda community, The Morning spoke to a spokesman for the community, Gunabandiyale Aththo. He said that the Vedda community is facing a multitude of issues, mainly due to the laws imposed in recent times.
He added that among the challenges faced by the Vedda community currently, the right to traditional lands, and the freedom to carry out hunting activities being curtailed by newer laws were pressing issues. He further added that the freedom to freely range in forests, especially to collect bee’s honey and traditional medicine, have also been blocked under the existing laws.
He added that after 1983, various regulations that restricted their freedom concerning the aforementioned activities as well as their traditional lands, started affecting their lives. He also noted that before that year, they had the freedom they needed.
It is important to note that it was in 1983 that a large number of families belonging to the Vedda community were compelled to abandon their traditional habitats to be relocated to lands offered by the Government.
The Chief of the Vedda community, Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, and the CEJ, earlier this week, filed a petition before the Court of Appeal against alleged deforestation by the Mahaweli Authority at the Rambakan Oya Reservoir near the Pollebedda village area, which is said to be a traditional habitat of the Vedda community. CEJ Chairman Ravindranath Dabare told The Morning that the Mahaweli Authority, the Central Enrichment Authority (CEA), the Minister of Environment, and the Minister of Wildlife and Forest Conservation, have been named as respondents in the petition.
Gunabandiyale Aththo added that the Vedda community has lost most of its traditional lands due to many reasons, including some of these lands being identified as Forest Reserves, where hunting and entering without permission amounts to breaking the current laws.
He also told us that even though discussions are being held regularly with the authorities with regard to their perpetuating issues, thus far, the authorities have not come up with any concrete solution to be of help to them. He added that even though a major event called the “Adiwasi Dinaya” (The Day of the Indigenous Community) and other awareness raising activities are being held regularly, a lot of their issues remain unaddressed.
Adding that currently almost all of their hunting activities have been prohibited, Gunabandiyale Aththo stressed that the freedom to continue their traditional practices was one of the most important requests they have.
Speaking of the present situation of the Vedda community and how they assimilate into today’s general society, he added that the younger and modern generations of their community tend to assimilate into general society and seek job opportunities, as they have lost their rightful freedom in their original habitats.
“If the younger generations of the Vedda community had more freedom and rights, they would not want or have to assimilate into general society,” Gunabandiyale Aththo stressed, adding that when mixing with general society, they have had to adhere to the general laws that are applicable to others (people who do not belong to the Vedda community).
He added that, owing to the newer restrictions that have been imposed by the Government, the Vedda community has been rendered unable to find suitable jobs within their environments, engage in chena cultivations, and hunt and enter forest areas freely. He added that this situation in turn had caused the younger generations of their community to assimilate into the so-called developed, modern society.
Authorities’ response
In a bid to look into the legal aspect of the rights of the Vedda community as far as Sri Lanka’s wildlife and forest resources are concerned, The Morning spoke to the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC).
Wildlife Conservation Officer Indika Laksiri said that the Vedda community has been granted permission to carry out their traditional hunting activities, subject to several restrictions.
Speaking of the limits pertaining to the hunting activities, he added that even though the use of bows, arrows, and hand axes is allowed, the use of firearms for hunting activities is strictly prohibited. He also said that the permitted hunting activities are limited to a certain area, mostly in and around the habitats of the Vedda community.
Also, according to Laksiri, hunting activities can only be conducted by the members of the Vedda community who have been issued an identity card by the DWC, and that not everyone in the Vedda community is allowed to engage in such.
He also added that this permission does not allow the Vedda community to carry out hunting activities regularly, and that it was only granted taking their traditions into account. Also, hunting for business purposes will not be allowed, he noted.
“However, despite having in place somewhat relaxed laws for the Vedda community, in the event someone acts outside the parameters of the stipulated legal framework, the regular law will be enforced against them,” he added.
Laws, regulations, and international recommendations
In 2016, when the previous United National Front-led Government’s plans to form a new Constitution were in progress, the Vedda community based in the Eastern Province put forward a request that their traditional rights be protected through a new Constitution. They told the relevant committee that was collecting the opinions of the public for the formation of the Constitution that their right to live in jungle villages and forests should be protected. One of their representatives pointed out that a proper plan was needed to ensure their survival in their traditional habitats while protecting wildlife resources, in addition to protecting their right to engage in hunting and agricultural activities.
In addition, they pointed out that since many members of the Eastern Province-based Vedda community speak the Tamil language, despite having their own language, a new Constitution should give due recognition to their community as a minority indigenous community. Another demand was that the Government take steps to see to it that their educational and job opportunities are protected.
A publication issued by the Law and Society Trust in 2015, titled The Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Sri Lanka, pointed out that indigenous people are widely different from mere ethnic or religious minorities, and have a separate set of inalienable rights. It added: “Due to immigration and colonisation, the Vedda community has lost their distinctive character, because when they translocate from their native place to other government-allocated areas, they gradually adopt the other communities’ cultures and practices (in dress, language and lifestyle). Today, only a few remaining Wanniya-laeto still manage to preserve their cultural identity and traditional lifestyle despite relentless pressure from the surrounding dominant communities.”
Sri Lanka voted in favour of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted in 2007.
According to the factsheet of the third cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2017 – Sri Lanka, over two UPR cycles, Sri Lanka had failed to mention the indigenous communities in any recommendations.
It further said that despite Sri Lanka having voted for the aforementioned UN declaration, there is no special legislation or mechanism to protect the rights of the Vedda community. It added: “Wildlife Conservation laws and regulations (Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, the Forest Ordinance, and the National Heritage and Wilderness Areas Act) have deprived them of hunting grounds and criminalised their livelihoods. Large development projects have led to their forced resettlement, a majority of whom are socially isolated, and economically and politically marginalised. Development projects and urbanisation undermine their culture, for example patriarchal rules of inheritance are displacing matrilineal ones.”
The factsheet also identified a number of challenges faced by the Vedda community. It said that the existing laws have prevented hunting and cultivation in forests, which the Vedda community had been engaged in for generations, resulting in the criminalisation of their livelihood without any consideration toward their cultural circumstances.
It added that, due to resettlement projects, the Vedda community has had to assimilate into outside Sinhalese and Tamil communities. This situation had, according to the said factsheet, compelled the Vedda community to give up their unique traditional lifestyle, and that consequently, their language and matrilineal inheritance tradition was diminishing.
Another issue mentioned in the UPR factsheet was that the Vedda community had been denied a hearing in development policies and plans that affect them. “This exclusion, coupled with development that has been alienating in nature, has left the community struggling to cope with changes, and has left the Veddas economically deprived as well as socially and politically isolated,” it noted.
Elaborating on the lack of school education for the children of the Vedda community, it said that around 20% of the children do not attend school, and that their tradition of children getting married before the age of 18 (60% of girls and 15% of boys), had hindered access to primary and further education.
It pointed out that the continued failure to change this situation through a comprehensive engagement with the Vedda community is indicative of the larger failure on the part of the State to ensure inclusion and protection of the community’s broader interests.
When it comes to providing education to indigenous children, Canada takes a special place due to the manner in which it attempted to systematically separate them from their culture. The Canadian Government introduced a boarding school system known as the “Canadian Indian residential school system”, with the aim of separating indigenous children from their cultures while assimilating them into mainstream society and culture.
Subsequently, in 2008, then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper publicly issued an apology to the former First Nations students of this school system, calling it a sad chapter in their history.
Among the recommendations included in the factsheet were: amending the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, the Forest Ordinance, and the National Heritage and Wilderness Areas Act to recognise the cultural rights of Sri Lanka’s indigenous peoples, and to ensure due recognition and protection of, and access to, the traditional forest habitats of the Vedda community; drafting and passing a specific legislation recognising the cultural practices and rights of indigenous peoples in Sri Lanka; signing and ratifying the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on indigenous peoples and to formulate, in consultation with the Vedda community, a time-bound plan of action to ensure adherence to the Convention and the realisation of the rights in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; taking concrete legal and administrative measures to ensure recognition of the distinct identity of the Vedda community in law and policy, including their separate enumeration in the census; and establishing an independent authority in full consultation with, and participation of, the Vedda community, to guide and co-ordinate law and policy, with a view to safeguarding the interests of the Vedda community.
It is tragic that the Vedda community – believed to be the earliest or the very first inhabitants of Sri Lanka – has come to the attention of today’s society more due to the issues they are faced with, than their importance as a community.
The matter of their traditions and practices conflicting with contemporary traditions, is not at all a new issue, and it has been discussed many a time. However, what did not happen is the authorities taking measures to address these issues in a manner beneficial to all parties involved.
The Vedda community is now seeking the assistance of the law – and perhaps this can be the start of a new movement for their freedoms and rights.