Argentina's Kolla Native Title

The Aboriginal People Of Argentinia, The Kolla, Fight For Recognition Of Native Title And Indigenous Customary Rights

Jul 30, 2006

The Kolla, whose sovereignty has never been broken, whose Native Title is part of Argentina's constitution, still only have provisional Aboriginal Land Rights.

The Kolla people of Argentina, descendants of the Incas comprising 4 percent of the country's population, hold native title in 120 Kolla communities on the Quebrada de Humahuaca and the Puna plateau, which is a World Heritage area.

Mining companies are pushing to exploit gold and mercury deposits there, while entrepreneurs seek to "develop" the land for tourist ventures. Additionally, corporate agribusinesses are currently trying to take the land, in a bid to extend agriculture from central Argentina to the west.

Funding was provided ten years ago by the national government to regularise the native tenure status, which is part of the country's constitution, but still today the local government has done nothing to secure this. Where did the money go?

A court ruling also determined that the Kolla must be asked permission for any non-Indigenous economic activity on their land, and yet investors have built hotels, and mining companies continue to evade Kolla requests for legal title deeds securing their children's future tenure on their land. The mining companies also refuse to stop using cyanide in mining activity near Kolla communities.

The Kolla economy is based on subsistence agriculture. The Kolla complain that wherever there is mining activity, their llamas, goats and sheep die of poisoning.

The Kolla have fought hard for their rights for over a century, and have raised their economic status from serfs to landowners. However, although last century's feudal system may be gone, the greed of the government, corporations, mining companies and entrepreneurs remains a relic of the past.

Kolla native title is really just an illusion. Although it is enshrined in the constitution, reinforced by court rulings and funded by the national government, for some reason the aborigines still only hold provisional title to ancestral lands.

Why the delay? Perhaps the government is waiting for all the Kolla to die of cyanide poisoning, before finally ratifying the native title that is upheld by colonial law - not to mention the unbroken sovereignty of untold generations of the Kolla, stretching back to the legendary Incas.

The copyright of the article Argentina's Kolla Native Title in Latin American Indigenous Peoples is owned by Tyson Yunkaporta. Permission to republish Argentina's Kolla Native Title in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.