HOUGHTON -- Daughter of the Lake, a documentary film about the human and environmental costs of gold mining and about indigenous resistance in the Peruvian Andes, will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, in Fisher Hall 135 on the Michigan Tech campus. A panel discussion will follow.
The film shows scenes from the lives and customs of the local population in the Peruvian Andes and the leading role of women in the defense of the environment. The events portrayed center around the resistance to the Conga mining project, a project managed by Yanacocha Mining Company -- owned by Newmont Mining, headquartered in Denver, and Buenaventura Mining in Peru.
Yanacocha is guilty of serious environmental crimes, including water contamination affecting crops, livestock and drinking water of the native population. Protests against the Conga project started in 2011, followed by a regional work stoppage in 2012 and peasant and student protest marches in 2013.
Following the screening, the director of this documentary, Ernesto Cabellos, will join the discussion live via Skype from Lima, Peru. Ken Fish, a representative from the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin, will also be joining the panel discussion. The Menominee tribe is presently facing a fight against the Back 40 open-pit gold mining project in the Upper Peninsula -- planned for an area only 150 feet from the Menominee River, which forms the state line with Wisconsin.*
This event is sponsored by The Indigenous Peoples' Day Campaign. It is free and open to the public.
* Editor's Note: For some background on the Back 40 mine, see this recent article: "Wisconsin residents push back against mine looming just over state line."
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