Regions One, Seven residents turn up heat over mining at Chinese Landing

(Kaieteur News) – After decades of carrying their grievances in quiet resilience, some Indigenous communities of Guyana’s interior have broken a long silence. In an unprecedented wave of coordinated, peaceful action, villages across Region One (Barima-Waini) and Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) took to their titled lands and riverbanks in a display of collective resolve not seen in generations. From the dense forests of Chinese Landing and Tassawini to the riverine settlements of Kangaruma, Phillipai, Kamarang, Warawatta, Kako, and Isseneru, residents stood united to demand an immediate end to systemic neglect, environmental destruction, and unconsulted resource extraction.

For decades, remote communities faced encroaching illegal mining, environmental threats, and safety failures largely in isolation. That isolation dissolved on Wednesday as communities separated by vast distances joined in a single, organised movement. In Kangaruma, Region Seven, the atmosphere was solemn as Toshao of Kangaruma Raphael Joseph stood alongside his village council and residents to voice the core issues driving the national mobilisation.

“I stand firm today as a Toshao of Kangaruma Village, with my village council and my people, in a peaceful protest,” the Toshao declared. “We are not making noise- we are making a cry for justice. We march for four wounds that have not healed: We remember our daughters of the Mahdia dorms fire, we demand justice for the MV Barima, we stand with Chinese Landing, and we say no to uranium on our traditional lands. We are peaceful, but we are firm. We are the guardians of these forests. For generations we protect them. We will not be silent while our children burn in locked dorms, drown in old boats, and lose their lands to mining.”