Following are the treatments for the first set of Video News releases to be produced by GSMP. These will be shoot in early April 1999. The productions will also serve as a training for a regional crew. The GSMP will deliver a camera to the region for local production.

The stories below will be made into 3 short items of 3 minutes and 10 minutes to be distributed as Video News Releases. Also a 30 minute programme to be released in the Guiana Shield region as well as to international broadcasters.

CONTENTS

1. Part One: Rupununi Weavers Society
2. Part Two: Cowboys and Indians
3. Part Three: Vannessa's Rupununi Venture

Part One: Rupununi Weavers Society

Background

The Rupununi Weavers Society was founded in 1991 as a Non-Governmenta Organisation oriented towards providingincome-generating opportunities to Amerindian communities of the Rupununi District. The Wapishana of thesouth savannahs are renowned for the quality of their hand-woven cotton hammocks, and the RWS programme was designed to consolidate these traditional skills and deploy them in the production of high-quality hammocks for sale on local and international markets. Regarded by textile experts as the finest examples of hammocks available anywhere in the world, these textiles are prized by enthusiasts and collectors, including the British Museum. Direct beneficiaries of the project include the weavers themselves, as well as the 'spinners' who grow and hand-spin the cotton.

Like all Guyanese Amerindians, the Wapishana traditionally base their domestic economy upon the cultivation of bitter manioc (cassava, Manihot esculenta), which is detoxified and processed into staple starches, drinks and condiments. This is supplemented by hunting, fishing and limited animal husbandry. Prior to the establishment of RWS, the main points of engagement with the monetised economy were waged labour on the larger cattle ranching concerns in the area, some migration to the labour markets of Brazil, small-scale gold mining and very limited market agriculture with a concentration on peanut cultivation. The RWS project was designed to circumvent the problems associated with these activities (exploitative labour practices and detrimental environmental impacts, for example), and to offer an avenue for sustainable, environmentally-friendly economic activity based upon the consolidation, enhancement and reproduction of existing textile manufacturing skills.

RWS hammocks are made purely of locally-grown cotton, in natural brown or white forms, unadulterated by chemical dyes. The cotton is cultivated on existing farming plots in the abutting forest lands (although a pilot savannah cotton project is now underway).

In 1998, the Guyana Telephone and Telecommunications company agreed to provide support to the RWS, in the form of modern communication technology. Specifically, the company trained a young Wapishana woman in the use of Internet technology and installed a state-of-the-art computer facility in the RWS centre in Lethem (the administrative capital of the Rupununi District). Over the past few months, this has led to the development of an RWS web site, with the capacity for online marketing. This has revolutionised RWS' ability to market its products internationally.

The Rupununi Weavers Society is also associated with the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown. This association is designed to promote and enhance awareness of Guyanese indigenous cultures. To this end, RWS maintains a museum within its compound on the outskirts of Lethem. The museum houses Amerindian artefacts and antiquities, as well as archival materials and other intellectual resources. .

VNR Treatment ( 3 minute and 10 minute edited stories with 10 minutes B roll )

This programme will trace the activities and processes associated with hammock manufacturing, from the cultivation and harvesting of the raw cotton, through to the point of Internet marketing. Key segments of the programme will be:

Cotton planting. In Potarinau, a Wapishana village in the south savannahs, a small cotton plantation has been established to cope with the increased demand for hammocks. The programme will focus on cotton cultivation and harvesting by village residents.

Cotton spinning. Cotton is spun at various villages throughout the savannahs. This work is done primarily by women, using traditional manual methods to manufacture the thread needed for hammocks. Each hammock requires between five and six kilograms of spun cotton.

Hammock weaving. At present, hammock weaving is carried out at St.Ignatius, a small settlement outside Lethem. This is highly specialised work; each hammock takes approximately three weeks to weave. The programme will demonstrate the weaving techniques, and also document the pedagogical dimension of the project, wherein novice weavers are taught the techniques by more experienced weavers.

Internet marketing. In Lethem, the programme will document the technological aspect of the RWS project, showing how the Internet is used as a communication and marketing tool.

RWS Museum. The programme will conclude with an exploration of the Wapishana aesthetic which underlies the design and execution of hammocks. By focusing on the ethnography of Guyanese Amerindian societies, the programme will demonstrate the relationship between these societies and aspects of their material culture such as the hammock.

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2. Portrait of the Rupununi Savannahs

Part Two: Cowboys and Indians

Background

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, settlers from Scotland and the United States arrived in the expansive grasslands of the Rupununi Savannahs of southern Guyana and established a tradition of cattle ranching which has continued to this day. Large ranches, with open-range grazing, were built throughout the savannahs. Each year, cattle would be driven at great peril overland through the forests of the Demerara watershed to the Berbice River, where they would be transported by river to the markets and port in Georgetown. Over the years, a distinctive culture developed around the ranching industry and it became a powerful social and economic force in the remote region. This remains true today, in spite of a gradual decline of the industry, and vaquero (cowboy) work, is still the primary source of employment for many of the Wapishana and Macushi Amerindians who inhabit the Rupununi district.

Rustling, disease and over-grazing have all wrought changes upon the ranching industry. Additionally, gold mining has become increasingly important in the Rupununi, and many young Amerindian men prefer this to the hard (and frequently exploited) life of the vaquero. Some ranchers are now turning to other possibilities, such as eco-tourism and nature safaris.

In spite of these changes, the Rupununi Rodeo is held around Easter each year. Like its North American counterparts, the Rodeo is a celebration of traditional vaquero skills such as bronco and wild horse riding and roping. It is now marketed as a major tourist event in the Rupununi. In this film, we centre our attention on the highly telegenic Rodeo, and use this as visual and thematic core for explorations of wider questions facing inhabitants of the Rupununi.

VNR Treatment ( 3 minute and 10 minute edited stories with 10 minutes B roll )

The Rodeo itself, in Lethem, the capital of the Rupununi District. While we will film the Rodeo as an event in itself, we will also focus on one or two Wapishana or Macushi vaqueros, and work closely with them throughout the story.

Visits to Dadanawa and Karanambo ranches. These ranches, established by the Scotsmen Melville and McTurk respectively, are among the oldest and most important in the district. Both are exploring the possibilities ofeco-tourism and nature safaris. Karanambo is also the site of aconservation project run by Diane McTurk to protect the endangered Giant Otter. We will focus on the new ethos of conservationism and the move towards eco-tourism.

Continuing from the Rodeo, we will follow the vaqueros home to their villages and through in-depth interviews, explore the relationship between contemporary Amerindian life and the ranching industry. As the industry declines, what economic choices face Amerindians in the modern Rupununi? We are particularly interested in the role of women in the domestic economy, and will direct considerable attention to women's activities in this section.

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3. Portrait of the Rupununi Savannahs

Part Three: Vannessa's Rupununi Venture

Background

On November 2nd 1998, Prime Minister Sam Hinds, representing the Government of Guyana, signed an agreement granting Vannessa Ventures Ltd., a Vancouver-based Canadian mining company, exploration rights over 5.1 million acres of land in the southern part of Guyana. The company will be seeking commercially viable gold and diamond deposits. If such deposits are found within the concession, Vannessa will exploit them alone or in a joint-venture with another company.

This exploratory lease, covering the Rupununi Savannahs from the Brazilian border in the west to the Surinamese border in the east, represents approximately ten percent of Guyana's total land area. This in itself is alarming merely in terms of size. More frightening, however, are the humanrights implications of these arrangements. The area of land contained within Vannessa's concession is not empty land. It is land occupied and regularly used by Macushi, Wapishana and Waiwai indigenous peoples.

VNR Treatment ( 3 minute and 10 minute edited stories with 10 minutes B roll )

In this film, we will focus on the Vannessa grant, although we will ensure that this is properly situated in the context of wider debates about extractive industries in the Guiana Shield region. The film will be organised around a series of interviews, interwoven with images of the lands under the concession, and the traditional uses of these lands by their indigenous inhabitants. We aim to pose serious and hard questions about the implications of this exploratory lease for land rights, land useand social and ecological impacts. Interviewees will include:

Prime Minister Hinds, who holds the portfolio for mining in Guyana.

Leaders and residents of indigenous communities falling under the concession.

Representatives of the Vannessa company.

Representatives of Amerindian interest groups (for examples, GuyaneseOrganisation of Indigenous Peoples; Amerindian Peoples Association; The Amerindian Association of Guyana).

Other stakeholders in the Rupununi: ranchers, small-scale miners,eco-tour and safri operators.