Saweto is an Asheninka village on the Alto Tamaya river in Peru, near the Brazilian border. It is understood that Saweto’s inhabitants arrived in the region after being forcibly taken there during the rubber boom of the early 20th century, and communities along the Tamaya river generally trace their arrival there to the 1940s. Traditionally the Asháninka lived more dispersed than at present, however in the past decades the Saweto community has joined together in order to gain legal recognition, protect their territory from the threats of illegal logging, and secure school educatione
The Massacre at Saweto
On 1st September 2014 Edwin Chota and three indigenous Asheninka leaders were murdered while defending their forests. They had been denouncing the increasingly violent illegal loggers operating on their ancestral lands for over a decade with little recognition from the government. Their widows, family and friends have taken up the fight for land titles. This story is one of many examples of Indigenous Peoples defending their forests and paying the ultimate sacrifice.
TMAC are heading to Peru in October to visit the Ashaninka people and discuss opportunities to work together to help them create sources of income to enable them to continue to fight for their land rights.
If you want to find out more about the massacre at Soweto, this film is exactly where to begin https://ifnotusthenwho.me/films/illegal-logging-murder-peru/
The cooperative of women we are going to visit make beautiful beaded jewelry. Sign up to our newsletter to be one of the first to hear about the new collections.