Cultural Survival will host a series of forums on the subject of big dams and indigenous peoples on Wednesday, November 3 at the Geological Lecture Hall, Harvard University. The first forum, "What is the Greater Common Good? The Indigenous Struggle in India's Narmada Valley," will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The second forum, "The Politics of Forced Resettlement: Social Engineering Or Garbage Disposal" will run from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Arundhati Roy, author and Booker Prize winner for her novel The God of Small Things, is Cultural Survival's featured guest speaker. Roy has startled Indian civil society and aroused a great deal of debate with her impassioned new essay, "The Greater Common Good," which describes the unfolding tragedy in the Narmada Valley.
Other notable guests for the forums include Patrick McCully of the International Rivers Network, Eulalia Yagire and Gerardo Jumi Tapisa from the Organizacion Indigena de Antioqia of Colombia, members of the Innu and Cree nations of Canada, and representatives from the World Bank and the World Commission on Dams.
Roy, Yagire, and William Fisher will be the featured speakers of the Cultural Survival November Student Conference, "Hydroelectric Dams and Indigenous Protest: The Human Tragedy of Narmada." This conference, aimed at middle and high school students, will focus on the Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada Riven Students will explore the ramifications of forced relocation-what it means to lose one's home, land, and way of life -- and will be provided with both pro-dam and anti-dam perspectives to empower them with the tools to think critically about the human and environmental costs of development.
Article copyright Cultural Survival, Inc.
