How a river became a person—with help from UVic environmental lawyers

A Peruvian-Canadian film that helped convince a Supreme Court judge that a river is a legal person will screen Monday night at UVic where a non-profit law clinic played a supportive role in the recent environmental victory for the Amazon.

Karuara, People of the River chronicles the compelling labour of Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari—an Indigenous woman and one of the film’s producers—and her Kukama plaintiff supporters as they work to rescue their culture, their river, and their revered “spirits” (or “Karuara”)  that live below the water’s surface.

“We’re disseminating our ancestral culture through this documentary,” Murayari says in a release.

“The film allows us to send a message to people who don’t know our cosmovision, to allow them to see our reality, our culture and in a way, us too, the Kukama people.”

One of those messages is about the perseverance and triumph of the little guy—or woman.

There's a river in the Amazon

The Marañón River is Peru’s second longest. It’s the main cable plugging water into the Amazon River. It splits Peru in two but also unites the area as home to hundreds of Indigenous communities where clean water to many is only a memory.

Mining companies and the troubled state-owned oil concern Petroperu—one of several defendants in the court case—have exploited the Marañón for its minerals to the detriment of those who live on its banks.

Between 1997 and 2019, Petroperu was responsible for more than 60 oil spills.

With her Kukama Indigenous Women’s Federation (KIWF) supporters in tow, Murayari went to court to stop the seemingly endless string of spills, the illegal mining for gold, and the construction of hydroelectric power dams and other developments on a key water source of the Amazon Basin—which holds 20% of the world’s freshwater and filters out much of its carbon.

The legal stuff

Here’s where there’s a little Island flavour to this international case.

Lawyers and academics from UVic’s Environmental Law Centre (ELC) presented an amicus curiae—Latin for ‘friend of the court’—in support of the Kukama women and their case. An amicus curiae references a person or group with an interest and proven knowledge of the proceedings, while not a party to any action.

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In its submission, the ELC presented information on how various provincial governments in Canada recognize the right of Indigenous people to manage their own resources and the importance of Indigenous law when it comes to environmental impact assessments.

“This is a great example of people working together across borders to help save the world’s largest rainforest—a region that is crucial in mitigating the devastating impacts of climate change,” Stephanie Boyd, the Ontario filmmaker who co-directed and co-produced the doc, tells Capital Daily.

Boyd says presentations made by the ELC at both hearings provided key support.

Calvin Sandborn, then-director of the ELC, brought considerable experience working on environmental struggles and with Indigenous communities, she said. “The amicus drew on his extensive knowledge.”

Film still : Miguel Araoz

Boyd also credits Charis Kamphuis, a Victoria-based lawyer, who has worked extensively with communities in Latin America. He co-authored the amicus and made a key presentation at the hearing—"sending a message to the Peruvian judge that the eyes of the world were upon her,” Boyd tells Capital Daily.

This March—following a three-year legal battle—Judge Corely Armas Chapiama, the Superior Court of Justice of Loreto, Peru ruled in favor of recognizing the Marañón River “as an entity with inherent rights, including the right to exist, flow, and remain free of contamination.”

The verdict is seen as a big deal

“The case marks the first time Peru has legally recognized the so-called rights of nature, which is the idea that certain ecosystems, individual species or the Earth itself possess inherent rights to exist, regenerate and evolve,” Inside Climate News wrote on its front page on March 20.

Two months later, the film—which supported the women’s case and was used as evidence in the Peruvian court—was released in its world premiere at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. Back in South America, a hearing was being held. Peru’s government had filed an appeal.

On Oct. 25, a Peruvian court of appeal upheld the March ruling that declared the river a legal person and left Indigenous groups including the KIWF, and the defendant government as the river’s legal guardians.

The ruling will stand because under Peruvian law, the defendants are out of appeals. That’s left an unanswered question in Peru: Will the government follow through?

As an aside, the Marañón is not the first river to be extended legal rights for its protection. There’s even one in Canada. Quebec’s Magpie River is both sacred to an Innu First Nation and a beacon to aficionados of whitewater rafting.

Drawing where the spirits live

Parts of Karuara, People of the River are animated, taking viewers underwater where the Karuara—or spirits—live in a parallel universe deep in the Amazon region’s waterways, helping to keep it clean.

Animation from the film Karuara, People of the River. Photo: Miguel Araoz

Each of the film’s 10 animated shorts is comprised of roughly 2K images, each hand-painted, photographed, and computer-edited—so it took one year for every short to be completed. Call it a decade.

“We did a lot of research before we started,” Boyd tells Capital Daily.

“We did workshops in eight different Indigenous communities where the elders told stories and the children painted illustrations to go with the stories.”

Those stories were collected and published in a book that’s been widely available since 2016. Boyd—who promises to bring copies of Karuara: People of the River: The Book to UVic on Monday—says there was much relief when the filmmakers finished the documentary in time to be able to show it in Peru “to whip up public support around the lawsuit and raise public attention,” she said.

Film well-received

The film won two prizes at the Lima International Film Festival (top audience choice and best Peruvian film) and was named Best Amazon Film at the recent Amazon Film Festival in Pucallpa, Peru.

“Every phase of production brought Indigenous artists, elders, and journalists together with experienced filmmakers,” Boyd says.

“This is revolutionary in Latin America where most films are still made about Indigenous communities, and not with and by them.”

Monday night’s screening caps off a mini-tour of the film which was shown in Williams Lake and Vancouver.

Boyd says students at UBC’s forestry department have put together a petition calling on the Peruvian government to implement and enforce the laws, already.

“In Peru, there are a lot of laws that aren't respected,” she says. “So just because a law has been passed doesn't mean that the government's going to act on it.”

One of the components of the ruling is for the water management committee overseeing the river to be made up of Indigenous and government representatives.

“If they don't implement that, then the law is going to be a nice set of words on paper,” Boyd says.

Audience members are encouraged to stay after Monday night’s screening. Mariluz Canaquiri Murayari and Stephanie Boyd will field questions in a Q&A session.

Watch a 2-minute trailer here.

https://vimeo.com/quiscaproductions/trailer

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