The jurist Alexis Toukia, Native American Guyana, joins the European list of the ecologist Yannick Jadot. A first for French indigenous peoples who have been fighting for decades for the recognition of their rights and the protection of their lands.

"I am Kali'na, Amerindian, Guyanese, French and European". Alexis Toukia, 59, likes to decline his "identities" to introduce himself. A diversity as wide as the 8,000 km that separates Alawa-Yalimapo, his native village on the west coast of Guyana, and Brussels, the European capital. Between the two, the story of a man, a lawyer by training, who spent his life making the voice of indigenous peoples heard.

Agreeing to join Yannick Jadot, head of Europe Ecology-The Greens for the May 2019 poll, "is a logical continuation of my commitment to the movement for the recognition of the rights of the Amerindians of Guyana". Aluikawaï, "little warrior" his name in the local language, was notably their representative at the UN during the discussions on the rights of indigenous peoples in the nineties. " We must also bring to the front of the European scene the difficult reality of the territory, the environmental, social and cultural threats. "

The presence of a Native American is unpublished

The presence of a Native American on a European list is unpublished. A rarity in the image of national and local political bodies where "we have never arrived higher than a vice-presidency of Regional Council. Alexis Toukia's decades of struggle and his mobilization against the current project of the Montagne d'Or industrial gold mine seduced the candidate Jadot.

After a first meeting last June in French Guiana, the elected representative then invited him to Paris with members of the Indigenous Youth to sensitize politicians and civil society actors to the dangers of the mine: "He embodies with force and expertise this urgency. to protect the Amazon basin, its biodiversity and its cultural heritage. " Guyana, a department with more red lights than green: " Europe and its financing are very present, adds Alexis Toukia . Through environmental regulations, support for fishing or agriculture, but nobody knows it! We are a part of Europe in South America with powerful neighbors like Brazil. The stakes are enormous. "

Alexis Toukia, on the right, with two leaders of the Indigenous Youth, very mobilized against the Montagne d'Or mine. Here at a meeting in June in Guyana. | Valérie Parlan

But along the Maroni river, in villages that are only accessible by canoe, promoting the European question will not be an easy campaign: "We have to make things happen. For example, in the village of Camopi where I worked, it is to explain to the inhabitants that tap water has been made possible thanks to European funding. This is yet to explain how to fight against the use of cyanide, the poison of gold miners to extract gold. "The ban on cyanide is a current fight in Parliament," says Yannick Jadot. The development of new economic sectors in this forgotten territory of the Republic will also pass through the support of Europe. "

The bridge between the two continents, the time of this electoral companionship, will also be for the Amerindian and the head of the list the opportunity to remind France that, ten years after the adoption by the United Nations of the Bill of Rights indigenous peoples, the recognition of the Amerindians lacks the support of Paris. "Let's remember, for example, that we are still waiting to advance on the surrender of 400,000 hectares of land decided during the Guiana Accord following the great social mobilization of 2017".