A clash of civilisations at the ends of the world

Grigorii Anagurichi

Contents

    Ulla Lehtinen: "Indigenous peoples and oil" events in Finland 1999 
    Olli Tammilehto: A civilised world or a bloodsucker of the earth? 
    Background information on oil 
    Russia's oil production 
    Florian Stammler: Where does our oil come from? 
    Yeremei Aipin: Russia's oil industry and the development of rights of indigenous people 
    Agrafena Sopochina: "We Live on what the earth carries on itself" 
    Yuri Vella: Kogalym-Lor - the lake where a man died 
    Bruce Forbes: Industrial development in the Yamal-Nenets Area 
    Lidia Okotetto: I no longer understand the tundra that has loved me 
    Grigorii Anagurichi: A clash of civilisations at the ends of the world 
    Charity Nenebari Ebeh: The Ogoni experience 
    Magda Lanuza: Oil production in Central America 
    Ecuador and oil 
    Arturo Yumbai Iligama: The war against the poor 
    Colombia, the U'wa and oil 
    Roberto Afanador Cobaria: Oil is blood of the earth 
    Workshop 1: The strategies of oil industry and the responses of indigenous peoples' movements 
    Workshop 2: Networking of indigenous peoples threatened by oil and gas exploration 
    Workshop 3: Northern Dimension
    Communique of the participants in the seminar "Indigenous Peoples and Oil" 
    Internet links

 

 I am Grigorii Anagurichi from the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. The Khanty-Mansi Area is the southern neighbour of the Yamal Area. The representative from our neighbouring area spoke quite well of the legal solutions in the recent past. Petroleum and gas are also produced in our area and it has been very interesting to listen to others speaking on the issue. Unfortunately from a legal perspective the situation elsewhere is worse than in our region. I would like to add that unlike in the Khanty-Mansi Area, in our area gas and petroleum resources are exploited only in two southern districts. In five other districts petroleum and gas have been discovered but due to the economic crisis in Russia exploitation has not yet begun and perhaps it is a good thing. Preparation for oil and gas exploitation has been slowed down. It has given us a breathing space, which is lucky in an otherwise unfortunate situation. Since Russia is at the moment going through a crisis, the inhabitants of the Yamal-Nenets Area can search juridical and social solutions and mechanisms with which to improve relations between indigenous peoples, the government and oil companies.

The biggest reindeer herding area in Russia is located in our autonomous Area in Yamal. Our reindeer herder Lidia Okotetto said more about that. She has been herding reindeers for thirty years in the tundra.

I represent the Nenets indigenous people. I represent the section of the people who have shifted into densely populated areas, away from the traditional way of life. We have moved closer to the new civilisation. I am a state civil servant and handle the social issues of the Yamal Nenets. I am therefore a local inhabitant but a civil servant. So I view the situation that has developed in the northern region of the indigenous peoples from a slightly different perspective.

Oil companies' use of natural resources has generated some negative effects in our region. Certain consequences may have even been catastrophic. The indigenous peoples of the Yamal Peninsula have long pursued their traditional sources of livelihood in the area. They have their own culture, values, a unique psychological make up, and their own way of life. Then suddenly there appears another civilisation, a different kind of culture that has its own morals and different values. Geopolitically, it has given birth to a clash of civilisations. In this confrontation indigenous people have often been like under the tracks, squeezed underneath the tracks of technical civilisation. This civilisation tramples everything underneath it. It breaks the human soul. It breaks their will. I have an experience that this civilisation oppresses indigenous peoples and in accordance with it produces very unfortunate side phenomena. The peoples suffer a decline and alcoholism increases among them.

During the communist era the state did everything to raise people, including the indigenous peoples, to a certain, so-called level of civilisation. But these attempts did not achieve the desired goals. It was not achieved what the state desired, and not what we wanted either. Indigenous peoples have got to a situation in which they no longer know what they want. Do we want to preserve our traditional means of livelihood, our traditional way of life, abandon western civilisation and live on natural products? Geographically we can no longer move forward: blocking us is the Arctic Ocean. Or should we join the new civilisation and shift to a new qualitative level, to a new cultural form, and bring into it all the best parts of our former lifestyle?

Indeed, it can be asked, why are there so much mineral reserves precisely in the regions of the indigenous peoples? It was mentioned here that the question is about racism and discrimination by the state. What is happening in other regions of Russia? Why are such things happening just in the regions of the indigenous peoples? In Russia juridical issues have not yet been resolved at the regional level. Our situation differs from the one of the Khanty and Mansi but the questions have not been resolved in our region in a satisfactory manner to the indigenous peoples either. For instance, there are only six representatives from our area in the Russian Duma. There is not a single representative of indigenous peoples in our local administrative organs. In the Yamal district, which is only slightly smaller than Finland, all representatives are outsiders. Their targets of interests are different from ours. That is why I suspect if we could find quick solutions to the problems of indigenous peoples.

There is one school in the Yamal district that has 1000 pupils from different nationalities. There are only eight pupils in the last grade of the school who master the four basic arithmetic rules of addition, multiplication, division and subtraction. Some conclusions can be drawn from this. Qualified indigenous workers can hardly be educated for the region in this manner. It has also happened that when a representative of an indigenous people acquires a possibility to derive a benefit he is unable to defend this right. We have no national cadres who could defend us. Neither do we have our own specialists nor representatives in the administrative organs. In the Russian parliament people other than indigenous people take up our interests. For instance Gazprom is making preparations for the Yamal Peninsula and trying to woo the local elite to its side. I think the opposition is living in a hut.

As a representative of the local labour office, I feel that we have very many problems. Seventy-eight per cent of the indigenous population is unemployed and would never probably find any jobs. They do not have sufficient education with which to secure a job or proper vocation. As someone from the labour office I could organise training for them but since they have not even gone up to seventh grade in school, I cannot organise further education for them. Since there is no foundation, there is no starting point, so it is difficult to move forward.

This is our situation in the Yamal. The roots of the situation of course also touch on similar regions. This was all I had to say.

A question from Agrafena Sopochina:

Why, in spite of the legislation oil is still being drilled on indigenous peoples' lands?

Answer:

We have had a very good law passed but we do not want to interfere into the most important, which is the land ownership issue but instead we beat about the bush. We are all of the same opinion that there are laws. We hold similar opinions about natural laws: they exist and influence us. But when it comes to the issue of human social development, for some strange reason everyone who wields power thinks that he is the only one with the solution to a specific problem.

I am speaking of the Russian State, of which I am a citizen. One does not have to circumvent things when it comes to the state, instead one has to be straightforward and say these are stolen lands. This is colonialism. If these are Russian regions then we have nothing against that. But at the same time this area should be under the control of the indigenous people. It should have the right to decide on issues in this area. The indigenous peoples should have some real benefits from the gas and petroleum production.

Grigorii Anagurichi is tundra Nenets. He works as a civil servant in a small village in the Yamal Peninsula but has never lost touch with the traditional culture of his people.