About Us

History

The Amerindian People’s Association (APA) was formed in 1991 at a conference for Indigenous leaders in Georgetown. These leaders had met to discuss various problems affecting their communities and felt that there was the need for an independent organization to represent their issues especially as these were not being addressed by the government. Such issues included natural resources exploitation on traditional Indigenous lands by large mining and logging companies and various forms of human right abuses including police brutality.

The APA was therefore formed to actively support community initiatives to address human rights violations and to work towards improving the general conditions of the Indigenous Peoples of Guyana. The organization was first led by a Steering Committee which later became the Executive Committee.  The APA held its First General Assembly in Georgetown in 1992 and has since held seven others, the last at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara, in 2011.

The organization was registered under the under the Friendly Societies Act (Laws of Guyana) in January 1998.

The APA first opened its office in 1993 with part time voluntary assistance. In 1994, the organisation employed its first paid member of staff and from this time onward began taking more sustained actions in working with indigenous communities to deal with the various issues confronting them. Since the first Assembly, the APA has grown, increasing the membership of the Executive Committee, extending its programme and outreach and enhancing its capacity to respond to the requests for support by indigenous communities throughout Guyana.

Who We Are

The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) is a non-governmental Indigenous Peoples organization in Guyana. It is primarily an advocacy organization that seeks to promote and defend the rights of the Indigenous Peoples of Guyana.

Membership of the APA is made up of Units throughout the country, currently amounting to close to eighty such units. The Association is led by an Executive Committee comprising the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer, thirteen regional representatives, a women’s representative and a youth representative.

The APA has a central office in Georgetown which is staffed by persons from interior communities who carry out the daily functions of the organization and who provides the link between what is happening in the communities and at the national and international levels.

Lemmel Benson Thomas

President

Junisha Johnny

Vice-President

David Wilson

Secretary

Earl Thomas

Treasurer

John Campbell

Assistant Secretary

Reynold Hutson

Assistant Treasurer

Mission

The mission of the APA is to promote the social, economic, political and cultural development of Indigenous communities in solidarity with each other and to promote and defend their rights.

Goals

The long term goal of the APA is to secure legislative and policy changes to protect indigenous rights in all instances, to promote representation of indigenous peoples by indigenous peoples themselves, to provide information to indigenous communities about their rights under national and international law, to promote the sustainable use of the natural resources by indigenous peoples and to ensure the protection of the environment, to secure participation in development activities and decision making processes that affect the lives of the indigenous peoples of Guyana, and to ensure that the state fulfill its obligations in providing basic services to indigenous communities such as health, education, transportation and communication services.

Objectives

  • Promoting, asserting and defending the rights of the indigenous peoples of Guyana to self-determination, to exercise autonomous control over their institutions, ways of life, intellectual and cultural heritage and economic, social and cultural development, and to maintain, develop and strengthen their identities, cultures, languages, religions and relationship with their land territories and resources historically occupied and used.
  • Promoting and pursuing recognition of and respect for the traditions, customs and laws of the Indigenous peoples, including those pertaining to resource and land management and the transmission of land and resource rights among their members.
  • Safeguarding, asserting, defending and promoting, by all legal means including the courts and international fora and tribunals, the rights of Indigenous peoples and their members to ownership, possession, use and control of lands, territories and resources historically occupied and used by them.
  • Promoting, defending and ensuring, by all legal means including the courts and international fora and tribunals, the full and free exercise of all the internationally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including economic, social and cultural rights, pertaining to indigenous individuals and peoples.
  • Promoting the compliance of domestic legislation and policy with international human rights standards and ensuring that Indigenous individuals, communities and peoples benefit on an equal footing from the rights and opportunities which national and international laws and regulations accord to other sectors of the Guyanese population.
  • Promoting the establishment and maintenance of mechanisms for meaningful dialogue and equal partnership between Indigenous peoples and the State based upon mutual respect, cooperation and consent.
  • Promoting respect for the value and dignity of all aspects of Indigenous cultures, languages and ways of life.
  • Promoting, asserting and defending the right of Indigenous peoples to individually and collectively define themselves as Indigenous and to be recognized as such and the right to freely determine their own membership in accordance with Indigenous customs, traditions and laws.