A struggle to retain Veddah heritage - Veddah Chief

By Shanika SRIYANANDA

Veddah chief UruwarigeWannielaththo said he is doing all he can to preserve the Veddah heritage and identity - although it is a struggle. In addition he is struggling to protect the dwindling forest cover to maintain the traditional way of living of the veddahs.

The Veddah population has faith that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government would not mete out step motherly treatment to the Veddah folk in Dambane, said the Veddah chief.

"Mahinda maha hura mee eththanta porondu thanak ahukalawa, ee eththo mee rata pojje nayakaleththo manda unoth ape prashna pojjeta visadum pojje ahu kaledanawa kiyala (President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised me when he became the President that he would solve our problems)"Wannielaththo recalled.In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Observer he said the Veddahs have faith in this government that they would be granted their lost freedom in the jungles. "We thank President Rajapaksa for developing the country after eradicating the 30-year-old scourge.

Development

Now the country is on the path to prosperity. Development has reached Dambana under the Gama Naguma", he said.Explaining how the political leadership, beginning from the late Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, looked into the grievances of the Veddahs, Wannielaththo, said most of them gave them broken promises and nothing concrete was done to protect their 'vanishing trail'. 'We are restricted to limited land.

Due to the dwindling land area for us to continue our age-old lifestyle by hunting and gathering food from the forest, the younger generation keeps away from veddah traditions and means of living. This resulted in most of the youth seeking greener pastures", he said adding that his father, Tissahamy, the former Veddah Chief had no faith in some politicians.

Following are excerpts of the interview:

During the late Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake's time my father had discussions about our issues relating to the diminishing forest cover and illegal timber felling.

I was a small boy and can't remember very well, but my father used to relate what had happened during D.S. Senanayake's regime.

My father commended some of the measures taken by him for the betterment of the Veddah population. During his time, the government had sent a group of officials to develop our villages with new roads, houses and boutiques. But this affected the veddah people as people from outside Dambana had settled down here.

Alien ideas

Their living styles had greatly influenced our people. The younger generation in our villages including - Pollebedda, Ratugala - gradually welcomed those alien ideas and traditions, which were affected our culture.D.S. Senanayake once said that there was no need of a Parliamentarian for Mahiyangana since my father was there. My father is a man who didn't see any value in material things. He wanted people to be happy and live a free life.

One day Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake had invited my father to meet him when he was in Mahiyangana.

He accompanied a famous mudalali called Jamis. After the discussions the Prime Minister, who was happy, had gifted his gold ring to my father. My father didn't know it was made of gold and how valuable it was. On their way to Dambana Jamis mudalali had given him betel leaves and tobacco and had taken the ring.

He told me this incident a few days before his death and asked me not to get trapped to 'political middlemen'. During D.S. Senanayake's regime, the government didn't take action to acquire land in Dambana for development projects or to extend forest cover. Previous governments gave us promises and were concerned about the Veddah folk at the beginning of their tenure.

Issues

When Dudley Senanayake was the Prime Minister he came to Mahiyangana and invited my father to see him. As a small boy my father took me and introduced me to him. He told the Prime Minister that he needed to protect the forest as felling of trees was going on at an alarming rate.

Whenever he came to Dambana for his election campaigns my father to discuss with him the issues that affected us.

My father's only request was to allow the people of Dambana to live a free life to continue our traditional occupations - fishing, hunting and farming. As a last resort he agreed to create a separate area for the Veddahs'.

Following his instructions the then government took steps to set up a village with 28 houses. Once the late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, when she was in Mahiyangana, had sent a vehicle to my father to meet her.

He had requested her to take measures to stop the thriving business of illegal timber felling and outsiders clearing forest land for chena cultivation. But these discussions were not fruitful and they continue to destroy our lands.

The next leader who visited Dambana was the late President J.R. Jayewardene, who promised to solve the problems of veddahs. He tried to develop the only school with only eight students and a teacher Dambana.

But my father rejected the idea as he didn't want children from Dambana to study but he wanted them to maintain our culture and traditions and not lose our special identity.

During J.R. Jayewardene's era, lands belonging to the Veddahs were acquired by the government to open the Maduru-Oya sanctuary.

This has affected the day- to- day living pattern of our people. Since then our freedom is restricted and we have lost our rights to the forest. A barricade was installed, prohibiting the Veddahs from entering Kotabakiniya, where my father's house was. Then my father filed a case against the Government in the Badulla courts. Finally the Court ordered to remove the barricade.

During President R. Premadasa's time, my father refused his invitation to meet him during the 'Gam Udawa' held in Mahiyangana as he was dissatisfied with the broken promises given by political leaders.

He said that he would not participate in any of the State functions but during the Gam Udawa held in Pallekelle my father was again invited by President Premadasa.

He asked him to withdraw the case filed at the Badulla Magistrate's courts. The President agreed to release 1500 acres of land in Maduru Oya back to the Veddhah people.

Prohibited

On June 16th, 1990, President Premadasa and other high-level officials met a delegation of Wannilaththo leaders in Kandy including chief Tisahamy to discuss long-standing grievances and measures required to address these grievances.

He ordered officials to demarcate an area of approximately 1500 acres covering Kotabakiniya, Keragoda, Buluganhadena and Kandeganwila villages.

Under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, all traditional occupations including hunting, honey-gathering and chena cultivation are prohibited within national parks, but 'limited human activities' were permitted within other areas defined as 'sanctuaries'.

However, my father told him that he was unaware about acres or miles but he had seven villages so if the Government could release those seven villages he would agreed to withdraw the case.

After that President Premadasa never invited my father for discussions.My father repeatedly requested discussions from the then government led by Chandrika Kumaratunge. But she didn't give him a date to meet her.

As the government was reluctant to take action to solve our plight, I had nothing other than to go to the international Summit, where indigenous people from 136 countries participated, to raise our plight.

There all the participants signed a letter to the Sri Lankan government on behalf and sent it to the government.Then the President's Secretary and 11 other high officials visited our house following this letter.

They promised to solve our problems saying our demands are not serious issues and that they would take immediate steps to give us solutions. After a few months time my father passed away and I became the Veddah Chief. Then I was invited to President's House in Kandy for a discussion.

The officials gave us Identity Cards, houses and government jobs. As a result four youth got government jobs, 26 were given IDs and 117 received tiles for their roofs.

They wanted me to have modern house with tiles on the roof and cement floors but I refused saying 'the mud and thatched house in Dambana' was enough for me. The discussions to solve our problems then came to a standstill.

I was discouraged and didn't have any faith in the government. But after President Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President the situation has changed and we can see a positive response from the government.

I know him since he was the Prime Minister and had discussions since 2004. He is interested to preserve the Veddah heritage. When he was the Prime Minister he said that when he became the President he would gradually solve our problems. After becoming the President he instructed the Wildlife Department to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with us to facilitate our traditional living of being hunters.

I believe President Mahinda Rajapaksa is doing a lot of work for the development of the country. No one can deny this fact as they can see the development process.President Rajapaksa has sent several official delegations to discuss with us about our problems and to find solutions. Minister Basil Rajapaksa has taken initiatives to develop villages in Dambana under Gama Naguma.

No one can fulfil all the aspirations of the people. They are not satisfied with what they get. But when compared to other governments, this government is developing the country after eradicating terrorism.

I am confident that President Rajapaksa can turn this country into a prosperous nation. Every area in the country is under development. Sri Lanka was a country which fed some of the Asian countries. But today as people are lazy we have to depend on other countries and have to wait till they send us food.

Under this Government we can reach self-sufficiency if the people contribute their might to develop the country by developing the agricultural sector.