By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, Staff Writer
According to Amnesty International, there are nearly 500 million Indigenous people around the world, comprising over 5,000 different Peoples. Indigeneity, and the struggles of Indigenous people go far beyond the shores of Turtle Island. Wanniyala-Aetto (වන්නියලැත්තෝ) are the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka. For me, as a Sri Lankan settler on the unceded territories of Turtle Island, it is often apparent how the struggles, experiences, and resilience of the Wanniyala-Aetto are intertwined with the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island.
Wanniyala-Aetto arrived in Sri Lanka around 16,000 years ago, and typically resided in the island’s various caves, subsisting on hunting and gathering. Despite arriving about 1,500 years ago, significantly after the Wanniyala-Aetto, the Sinhala became the majority population through aggressive settler colonization methods. Various rulers pushed the Wanniyala-Aetto population to increasingly smaller parts of the island, and targeted their culture and language. During the colonial period and the modern era, the government took possession of Indigenous land.
For instance, the 1949 construction of the Senanayake Samudraya reservoir displaced large swaths of Indigenous people from their historic villages, even if they opposed it. The central government has increasingly encroached on traditional Wanniyala-Aetto lands to create Sri Lanka’s forest and lake reservoir system. Large irrigation projects like “the Gal Oya in the 1950s and the Accelerated Mahaweli Development Scheme in 1977” continue the land dispossession of Wanniyala-Aetto.
Similarly, the Canadian government enabled the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion through Pípsell despite opposition from the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation Chief and Council. Through their geopolitical decisions, both the Canadian and Sri Lankan authorities continuously show a violent disregard for Indigenous self-determination and a lack of commitment to reconciliation.
As a consequence of colonial violence, the Wanniyala-Aetto now only comprise less than 1% of the population and experience social and legal ostracization. As a Sinhala person myself, I have seen how Wanniyala-Aetto are often talked down to and how their issues tend to be pushed aside in the national political agenda.
Sri Lanka and Canada clearly have a long way to go to ensure the protection and prosperity of Indigenous communities.
A lot of the challenges Wanniyala-Aetto face can be seen in the struggles of Indigenous people not only on Turtle Island, but throughout the world. Non-Indigenous people like myself must put pressure on the governments, hold the people in power accountable, and advocate for the rights and agency of Indigenous people. Sri Lanka and Canada clearly have a long way to go to ensure the protection and prosperity of Indigenous communities.
