Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

Dadanawa in 1977, has a Wapishana membership that is growing in both numbers and
activity. It may be that this alliance will become crucial if the increasing intrusion of
the outside world starts to threaten the culture and way of life of the people of the
South Rupununi. The history of the Makushi in the north savannahs demonstrates a
stark contrast: their lifestyle and culture were reported to have been tragically
undermined by the relationship with the ranching industry (Baldwin 1946: 55-56;
Myers 1944).
The balata industry appears to have been the major source of wage labour for
Wapishana people for much of the 20th century (Baldwin 1946: 44; Amerindian
Lands Commission 1969: 75). Even in the earliest years of the century, surveyors
working on the demarcation of the Brazilian border reported difficulty in finding
sufficient workers, due to the number of people away working balata (Anderson
1907: 21). More recently, informants in Maruranau report the vast majority of men in
the village to have been employed in the industry, either as bleeders or in providing
support services, in the years prior to the closure of the balata company. Former
balata bleeders report this work to have been easily reconcilable with the
maintenance of subsistence activities, particularly agriculture, partly because of its
seasonal nature (also see Baldwin 1946: 45; Amerindian Lands Commission 1969:
75), and the closure of the industry is much lamented. Many Wapishana, in fact,
lobbied politicians visiting their villages prior to the 1997 general election for the re-
opening of the industry.
The earliest missionary work among the Wapishana was that of the Jesuit Priest,
father Cuthbert Cary-Elwes, whose diaries have been published and form an invaluable
historical record of the South Rupununi in the early decades of the twentieth century.
Following an initial visit to the South Rupununi in 1909, he began evangelising in the
villages of Potarinau and Sand Creek during the following two years (Bridges 1985: 4-
6, 21-23). Undeterred by the dismay with which his presence was initially received,
he eventually managed to gain converts, and succeeded in persuading these two
villages to build churches by 1918. By 1919, he had baptised children in the more
remote villages of Shea and Sawaramanirnao, in both of which churches would later
be built under his instruction, and the first Christian marriages among the Wapishana
were conducted in 1922 (Bridges 1985: 114-6, 134-7, 140, 157, 162).
Cary-Elwes' legacy in the South Rupununi is huge: of the major settlements, in all
but one the vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic. The exception is
Awarewaunau, where Seventh-Day Adventists form a numerical majority. In more
recent times, Christian missionaries representing US-based churches have made their