BU & Beyond 2012 - Bournemouth University

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David Hather completed HND Business
Studies in 1972 and is now a successful
photographer in Bolivia
Bolivia – a strange reality – one
day I was tear-gassed and
squirted by a water canon
whilst photographing a peaceful
protest against the building of a
highway through part of Amazonia. I
always was an environmentalist, and
Amazonia is especially important as
40% of the world’s oxygen comes from
these rainforests.
Now that this week has passed, we
are all looking forward to the next
folkloric entrada (parade); this one
staged by Universidad Mayor de San
Andres, the local university which
seems to have an endless number of
students. Participants are donning
their folkloric costumes (I think Bolivia
has 160 or so different dances),
practising their steps and then taking
to the streets.
Photographing the entradas can be
hazardous too! At times I have been
mowed down by Thinkus Warriors,
knocked out of the way by Morenada
dancers in their masks and barrelshaped
skirts and whacked by
Tobas Jungle Warriors with their
skull headed spears. It’s all good fun
though!
I love to photograph the entradas as
they are so vibrant and colourful but
to really get the adrenaline going put
yourself in the middle of the protest
march – of which there seems to be
one every day in the capital, La Paz.
I was last tear-gassed in 1995,
but Black October 2003 left 50
protesters dead, killed by government
marksmen. It has been relatively
quiet since then but the Tipnis
demonstration illustrated how
democracy is in Bolivia. In July, I
and many Pacenos (people of La
Paz) signed a letter to Dag Terje
Andersen, President of the Norwegian
Parliament in Oslo, nominating that
these indigenous peoples be awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for their
defence of children and the planet.
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