ML161672
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Subject: (Interview). Subtitle: Rupert Isaacson. Timecode In: 00:00:34. Timecode out: 00:09:25. Notes: Kalahari Bushmen; Indigenous peoples' rights. Equipment Notes: Stereo=1; Split Track. Show: Bushmen of the Kalahari - CJ/ Rupert Isaacson interview Log of DAT #: 3 Engineer: Leo Del Aguila Date: September 9, 2004 At The Gathering: An Alliance Of Elders, Healers And Wisdomkeepers Alpine Meadows Camp, Big Bear, California September 9 - 12, 2004 CJ: (00:40): So when we speak about Bushmen, who are we talking about, who are the bushmen? RI: (00:45): Well the Bushmen are, according to a lot of scientists the oldest people on the planet. Where they live is in Southern Africa. And if you can imagine the bottom end of Southern Africa being like a big V, the interior end of that V is a high, dry, arid grassland that covers large chunks of about six countries, that's the Kalahari, that's where they live. CJ: (01:15): There are two groups of Bushmen that have come to the United States for a journey around the country, the Bushmen of South Africa and the Bushmen of Botswana, who are the Bushmen from South Africa? RI: (01:26): The Bushmen from South Africa are from a group called the Khomeini, it was thought that there were no Bushmen left in South Africa. It turned out there were when Mandela came to power. They surfaced again, they had been living more or less as vagrants by the side of the road. They hired a human rights lawyer, and by hook and by crook, managed to win the largest land claim in southern African history in 1999. The traditional leader of that group, a guy called Daweed Krepa, looked at the rest of the Kalahari and saw that the same process of dispossession was happening up in Botswana. He said to me, okay Rupert, you've written this book now, your next task is to use this book as a platform to help the Bushmen remind the west that they exist. So, we put together a trip on Daweed's orders, of which is partly represented by the Khomeini of South Africa and partly represented by the Ganakwe in Botswana who are currently facing the same dispossession process that the Khomeini faced 25 years ago. CJ: (02:40): And where are you going on this trip? Where did it begin and where does it end? RI: (02:44): Well we're going coast to coast, we're going to end up at the United Nations in New York, and on the way we are going to hit up as many sides of America as we can partly to spread the message as widely as we can, and partly also so that the Bushmen can understand something about the diversity that is here. So we began in Hollywood, no in fact we began at a charity polo match, there is a group of women polo players who play polo for indigenous groups around the world and they raised some money through polo matches to help get the Bushmen over here, so we went to one of their matches. Then we went to a party in Hollywood which was thrown by Amnesty International for us, and they met celebrities like Dave Matthews and Jackson Brown, then we did some events in South Central LA so the African American community wanted to meet them and offer support. Now we are up here because one of the other things the Bushmen wanted to do was to meet with leaders, healers and elders from other indigenous groups around the world. That happens right here in Big Bear every year. From here we then travel through the South West, we are going to be guests of the Hopi tribe of the Navajos, hopefully the Pueblo. We'll be in Santa Fe briefly doing another fundraiser, then we fly to DC. In DC we go up to Capital Hill, talk to law makers in the situation in Botswana, then we go up finally up to the United Nations in New York where they will put their case. And then they fly to Europe and do it all again. CJ: (04:29): It's a little awkward because we will be using this interview with you on the hike, and we won'... (Notes truncated)
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- Cataloged
- 14 Jul 2010 - Ben Brotman
- Digitized
- 14 Jul 2010 - Ben Brotman
- Edited
- 14 Jul 2010 - Ben Brotman