4th UPDATE
Monday 5th April
Today was originally designated as a rest day, in between the two crazy rodeo days and the tiring trip to the south savannahs. However, as we all know, work always expands to fill the available space, so we found ourselves in Lethem with a fairly hectic filming schedule. We began with an interview with Sharla, who in addition to being a part of the GSMP is also a key player in the Weavers Society. We then interviewed Tommy Kenyon, a rancher who has been in the Rupununi for a long time. We should note here that this interview had to be lubricated by a quantity of rum. Tommy is a colourful, charismatic and slightly crazy guy who looks as though he has escaped from a Western movie.
Our final stop for the day was an interview with the touchau of St. Ignatius, Ernesto Farias. The touchau spoke passionately about the difficulties facing Amerindians in the Rupununi and other parts of Guyana. Ernesto stated that their main problem is a lack of legal land titles; indeed, recognised Amerindian lands have diminished since British rule came to an end in 1966. According to the touchau, under the British there were 42,000 square miles of land recognised as Amerindian land. At the end of the PNC’s (Peoples National Congress) dictatorship, land titles shrank to about 24,000 square miles and today, under the PPP (Peoples Progressive Party) administration, Amerindians have only 6000 square miles of land officially granted as their land. In September 1998 the government issued a revised Amerindian land demarcation that the Amerindians have refused to accept: because it was done without consultation with the communities concerned, it includes forest land that the Amerindians wished to leave untouched in order to secure hunting and fishing stocks, and it excludes large areas of land that are currently used for farming. The Government’s failure to deal adequately with Amerindian land titles stands in marked contrast to their enthusiasm for issuing mining, logging and exploration leases to transnational corporations. The touchau expressed serious dismay and concern about the most recent Guyanese Land Give-away, a five-million acre exploratory lease issued to Vannessa Ventures, a Canadian mining firm. He noted that St. Ignatius, like many Rupununi Amerindian communities, has not been consulted before the lease was granted, even though it falls within the concession area. The touchaus of villages affected by the Vannessa lease have written a joint letter to Vannessa, raising several of their concerns. To date, they have not received a reply.
We finished the day with a very nice dinner at Elaine’s. Tomorrow, we head south to the ranches and communities lying beyond the Kanukus. Let’s hope that Lena the Lucky Landrover keeps going!
Saturday 3rd—Sunday 4th April: Rupununi Rodeo
The air at the Lethem Rodeo site was heavy with anticipation and possible rain as the GSMP team arrived in Lena (Jason’s trusty Landrover) at 10 in the morning, unsure of what awaited us: because we had failed to negotiate in advance, we had to meet with the Rodeo Committee to discuss filming permission. As the rest of the GSMP team wandered around the site watching the preparations, Ray and Terry went over to the Officials’ Tent to present our case to the committee. For a while, it looked as though Rodeo filming would come to a crashing halt: initially, the Committee requested a fee of one thousand US dollars for filming the event. Ray and Terry explained that the project was short of funds, and a non-profit venture. It seemed a good sign that the committee did not dismiss the case at this point, but agreed to confer further among themselves. GSMP sat back to wait. After an hour of nervously watching the discussion in the Officials’ Tent, the whole team was summoned back. This time, things began to smooth themselves out: Duane de Freitas, and Mohammed Khan, representing the Committee, agreed to construct a deal whereby they would waive the fee, but we would provide them with rights to use the material for their own purposes. Finally, we could begin!
Fortunately, we had missed very little during this interregnum. Quickly, we got ourselves and equipment ready and headed out to the main paddock, where most of the action would take place. By this time, the rain clouds had cleared, and the sun was shining. A crowd had gathered and serious drinking had begun in the various concession tents scattered around the site. Vaqueiros milled around, getting ready for the events and looking after their livestock. It was very interesting to see the reversals at work: the vaqueiros were dressed in typical Western cowboy attire: Stetson hats, leather leggings, waistcoats, denim jeans and bandannas (they lacked only boots: Rupununi vaqueiros ride barefooted). Yet these vaqueiros were for the most part of Amerindian descent: Indians turned cowboys! Aside from this, one might well have been in a dusty Texan corral.
The day’s events began sedately enough, with the Best Dressed Vaqueiro and Rodeo Queen competitions. These were followed by the Wild Cow Milking event, in which participants, working in pairs, were required to rope, restrain and milk very reluctant cows. The winning pair was determined according to how much milk they managed to coax into a bottle. If everyday milking were like this, the world would be rather short of dairy products.
Events were progressively more exciting and dangerous after this; it was unbelievable to watch the vaqueiros jump up smiling after being pitched from bucking bulls and broncos. It was surprising that there were not more injuries. Ray spent much of his time perched precariously on top of the corral fence, which he had decided was a good vantage point to film the riding events. One false move and he could have impaled himself on steer horns. Jürgen scurried around the paddock, taking still photographs of the action from the ground level; Sherwin was a sort of mobile unit with the small video camera, capturing details as they came into view. Sharla took a lot of the pictures you see with the digital still camera. Silke and Terry did their best to co-ordinate these movements and arrange interviews. At lunch time, Terry tried rather unsuccessfully to interest the team in passoc, a mixture of farine and tasso (dried beef) which is a typical travelling food for vaqueiros. By the end of the day, the team was exhausted. We staggered home for a shower and ended the evening at the Double Wheel, a disco in Lethem. Here, we drank some well-earned rum and cokes and generally unwound.
The next day looked very problematic: it rained heavily through the night, and we were fearful that this would continue to literally dampen the proceedings throughout the rest of the day. However, the weather gods were smiling, and the skies cleared, leaving the place hot and humid, but sunny. We filmed many more exciting events: Saddle Bronco riding and horse races over various distances. Then, we moved around the rodeo site, trying to capture some of the ambience on film: people eating, drinking, chatting. It was interesting to see how ranches are really small communities: for example, the large Bedford truck owned by Dadanawa Ranch was like a village. Vaqueiros and their families used the truck as a base, storing their belongings there, eating there and snatching little rests in the shade underneath. We were all very tired by this time, and looking forward to finishing the rodeo project.
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