![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/StandUpForTribalPeoples.png\" "\\"StandUpForTribalPeoples\\"")
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International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is August 9 \u2013 we\u2019ll feature a different article on that day, but in the meantime, given the urgent nature of what we\u2019ve learned, we\u2019re kindly asking you to take action to protect the Mats\u00e9s and uncontacted tribes of Peru by supporting the work of Survival International.<\/em><\/p>\n We\u2019ve featured the great work of Survival International on this website before. In Canada, the organization has advocated on behalf of the Innu Nation, who are still reeling from the effects of colonialist attitudes.<\/p>\n But, Survival International is indeed a global organization \u2013 and one that advocates on behalf of tribal people everywhere.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really want people to understand and respect that tribal people should be free to make their own choices about their land and the way they live,\u201d explained Survival International Spokesperson Kayla Wieche. \u201cWe help them protect their lives, land and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Tribal societies around the world are facing many threats: theft of land, violence and racism, resource extraction and the inevitable contamination of land resulting from that activity.<\/p>\n Thus, Survival International\u2019s position is that companies must refrain from working on tribal peoples\u2019 lands unless they have their free, prior and informed consent.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tribal people have to agree with what they\u2019re doing and they have to be fully informed,\u201d said Wieche. \u201cAnd if they don\u2019t want companies to work on their lands or they don\u2019t want loggers to take their forests, then they have the right to say no.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s precisely this type of encroachment \u2013 from the logging industry and oil exploration \u2013 that is so damaging for tribal people \u2013 especially in the case of uncontacted tribes.<\/p>\n In 2008, Survival International was thrown into the spotlight when it released some amazing photos<\/a> of isolated tribes \u2013 tribes that have no contact with industrialized societies.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople were just so\u2026 taken by the idea that there were still isolated peoples throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n But just because they live outside mainstream society doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t know about the industrialised societies, Wieche cautions.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the time, especially in the Amazon, these people have suffered real wrongs at the hands of industrialized society. They do not want to participate in it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a real conscious choice.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Survival International<\/a>, 90% of the Indian population in western Amazonia was wiped out during the 19th<\/sup> century rubber boom. Even today, contact with industrialized societies would be devastating for these tribal people.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have immunities to the cold or the flu \u2013 and that can and does wipe out about half of uncontacted populations when they encounter people from industrialized societies.\u201d<\/p>\n And a threat to those very communities has a home in Canada: a Canadian-Columbian company called the Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation. It\u2019s listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as PRE<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re exploring for oil on a block of land that is located on a proposed uncontacted tribe\u2019s reserve,\u201d said Wieche.<\/p>\n The nearby Mats\u00e9s people believe that these uncontacted people are their relatives and that they\u2019re living in the land that is being explored by Pacific Rubiales.<\/p>\n Survival International is calling on the energy company to stop oil exploration on that land. They also have oil exploration planned for the contacted Mats\u00e9s\u2019 land.<\/p>\n \u201cAlready, they\u2019re doing seismic testing.They have helicopters flying over the area and it\u2019s really disrupting the tribe\u2019s way of life. It\u2019s scaring away animals,\u201d said Wieche. \u201cIt\u2019s really jarring.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mats\u00e9s have appealed to Pacific Rubiales\u2019 shareholders to divest from the company if they decide to continue to explore on the territory.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re asking people to write to Pacific Rubiales,\u201d said Wieche. She added that people should also call on the Peruvian government to cancel their contract with the energy giant.<\/p>\n