The Story of the Indigenous Ishír People of Paraguay
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When I was travelling in Paraguay, I went on a 4-day journey with a local freight and passenger boat travelling up the Rio Paraguay. On the boat, I met a documentary filmer who had been invited by an indigenous community living close to Bahia Negra, the final stop of the boat, to witness and film a traditional indigenous ceremony. Members of the tribe invited me to stay with them as well and this is how I got to spend 5 days in this remote indigenous community.
75mm, f5.6, 1/125; Click on image to enlarge
In the Ishír community, I met a couple of lawyers from Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. They were part of the NGO "TierraViva" supporting the Paraguayan indigenous communities in their fight for their land. What happened is, that during the past decades, the Paraguayan government has sold "state-owned land" to private investors ignoring that this land is and has been inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years. This now results in many conflicts, since the new landowners who have legally purchased the land want to push out the indigenous population, while they want to get the legal ownership of their land. The Paraguayan government refuses to buy the land back from the private land-owners and in many cases, they also refuse to sell it.
With the support of the NGO activists I met, some of the indigenous communities of Paraguay were able to win lawsuits against the Paraguayan government at the Inter-American court of human rights, but the fight is not over yet as for each community new lawsuits have to be fought.
135mm, f5.6, 1/160; Click on image to enlarge
The ceremony where I captured this photos had previously been closed to the public (well, there is no "public" in this remote place!), but the tribe decided to invite government representatives and journalists to witness their active culture and heritage. In their faces, you can read their story: The hope they put into this lawsuit and their desperation over their current situation.
110mm, f6.3, 1/200; Click on image to enlarge
Camera Gear
The camera I used to capture this photo is a Sony A37 (APS-C) with a Sony DT 18-135mm F3,5–5,6 SAM lens.
Incredible post Julian! I guess sometimes we need a positive concatenation of circumstances to experience opportunities like the one you described. Great photography as always and thanks for sharing the story behind your trip. Have a great weekend!
Thank you! I certainly was very lucky to have this opportunity, my whole time in Paraguay was amazing, maybe because I didn't really have any plans or expectations. Paraguay is not visited by many tourists and people were all super nice. Enjoy your weekend!
Paraguay is from the country I love and I am happy to join the Travelers' Stimet thanks to the competition
Cool! Have you already joined our Steemit Travellers Discord?
actually no
Interesting post processing you have. I typically go super contrasty. You've inspired me to think differently next time I shoot some black and white. Here's one of my black and white portraits.jpg)
Love it! There are many different B&W styles so there is no "right" or "wrong", but playing around with different post-processing settings is fun!
@jpphotography what an amazing adventure that must have been, really lovely photos you took. I cant upvote its day 8 but will upvote your other work. I dont know if you are aware that I am doing weekly write-up's on all the different photographers, and if you are interested to take part please let me know.
Hey @claudiaz, sorry for the late reply, I'm traveling at the moment and was so busy with launching our travel curation project @travelfeed that I didn't find the time to reply to you earlier. I love your photographer spotlight series and would love to take part!
Greetings from Morocco,
Julian
great, I'm glad you like it. I will add you tom y list and contact you as soon as its your turn. Thanks, and enjoy Marocco, hope to see lots of photos
You certainly have had some adventures Julian. Great post! I just got back to Guayaquil from the Galapagos. Will be working my butt off on steemit for a week, then heading south to Mancora Peru......I think, that is the plan. Hope you are well! -Dan
Thanks for your comment, Dan!
Mancora is a nice beach town, but take care with the sun, I got a horrible sunburn there!
Further South, I can recommend Chiclayo as a stopover for its impressive museum (Royal Tombs of Sipán) and the coast town Huanchaco near Trujillo (check out the ruins!) as well as Huanchaco for some amazing Andean landscape and hiking. If you need any more tips for Peru, let me know!
Thanks buddy. Really appreciate the info!
There seems to be a lot of conflicts with Indigenous cultures in South America, which is shit. Cool experience for you though.
True, there seem to be some conflicts in every country. In Bolivia, there actually is an Indigenous majority and the current president is Indigenous as well; he even changed the country's name from "Republic of Bolivia" to "Plurinational State of Bolivia" to include all the indigenous peoples (some people say he only changed the name to be able to be reelected as president though).
In the rest of South America, Indigenous people are mostly a minority and often discriminated against. In Paraguay, the Indigenous language Guarani is now an official language and officially the indigenous people have the same rights as anyone else, but reality looks different..
Almost Always indigenuos population which should affect by such decision of the government like that ! That's shame!! Well thanks for sharing this information and beautiful photos
The never-ending battle over the land even when land belongs to people (initially it always belonged to people and that's how it always should have been)! I feel that the only way to dispute the situation is for those in power to stay with the communities for some time and learn about people! It is a sad story but at the same time very empowering! I am sure that those communities that won the battle were so thrilled! Happy for them! And it is happening not only in Paraguay but around the world!
Beautiful photography Julian!
Nice post @jpphotography. I hope you're lucky and win the challenge :)
Thanks for your comment! I hope so too :D
Wow what an experience! You're one of the few travellers who can ever immerse into an indigenious community.
But their plight makes me sad. We have similar cases here where tribes are also forced out from lands they have lived in since time immemorial. And also due to self interests of government and private businesses. I hope for the best for them!
I was super lucky to have had this opportunity. It is the same problem all around the world..
I tried to find some news online about how their fight is going, but I couldn't find any new information..