CJ rules Akawaio and Arekuna people do not have exclusive rights to Upper Mazaruni lands

Dec 17, 2022 News

24-year land rights legal battle…

Kaieteur News – Chief Justice (Ag.) Roxane George-Wiltshire on Friday ruled in a decades-old Amerindian land rights case – stating that while the Akawaio and Arekuna people have rights to the land in dispute – their rights are not in exclusion to others.

Acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire

The Indigenous people of the Upper Mazaruni District have long sought legal title for recognition of their rights to traditional and ancestral lands.

The CJ’s ruling has brought the curtains down on the 1998 case, which was before the Demerara High Court.

The land dispute case was filed against the State by the Akawaio and Arekuna Indigenous peoples who were represented by Nigel Hughes. The State was represented by the Attorney General.

The two groups approached the court seeking declarations that they not only have rights to the land they deem ancestral land but exclusive rights to the lands in question.

On Friday, the Chief Justice confirmed that the Indigenous groups have rights to the lands in dispute. However, she made it clear that those rights were not to the exclusion to all others.

The Akawaio and Arekuna people argued that that from time immemorial they continuously occupied the Upper Mazaruni lands and by virtue of this, they have inalienable rights to the lands.

However, the Chief Justice found that while the groups have communal and aboriginal rights to the lands, meaning they do have land titles, those rights are not to the exclusion of others.

In her explanation, Justice George-Wiltshire said that she could not declare that the Indigenous Peoples have rights exclusive to the lands because those rights are subjected to the State.

Further, the Chief Justice said while traditionally, from the 1800s and onwards, there was a practice by the Akawaio and Arekuna people to occupy the disputed lands evidence presented to the court shows that non-indigenous persons have been occupying the lands.

The two Indigenous groups were awarded $250,000 in costs.

Friday’s ruling by the Chief Justice ended the 24-year legal battle. Kaieteur News understands that in 1967, the Government instituted an Amerindian Lands Commission (ALC), tasked with mapping and suggesting titles to be issued to Indigenous communities.

But in 1991, titles were granted individually to each community; though the request was for holding collective title to their traditional territory— the collective title would give the Akawaio and Arekuna tribes’ control of the entire Upper Demerara Region.

The villages of Paruima, Waramadong, Kamarang (Warawatta), Kako, Jawalla and Phillipai in the Upper Mazaruni have long sought legal title over the area defined by the 1959 Amerindian District as one Akawaio/Arekuna district.

Being dissatisfied that their wishes weren’t granted, the Arekuna and Akawaio people had sought relief in the Court.