Three Activists Remembered

Cankú Lúta Remembers Three Activists for Indigenous Rights

On March 5, 1999, the bodies of American Indian activist Ingrid Washinawatok, Native Hawaiian Lahe’ena’e Gay, and their colleague, environmentalist Terence Freitas, were found in a field on the Venezuelan side of the Arauca River, which separates Venezuela and Colombia. They had been shot several times with 9 mm weapons.

Ingrid Washinawatok was executive director of the Fund for Four Directions in New York City and co-chairwoman of the Indigenous Women’s Network. Lahe’ena’e Gay was president and chairwoman of the Pacific Cultural Conservancy, an organization dedicated to the preservation of traditional and endangered Indigenous communities throughout the Pacific Rim and other parts of the world. Both women were in Colombia at the invitation of the U’wa People in a humanitarian effort to assist with an educational cultural preservation program aimed at the children. Terence Freitas, an environmentalist, had worked closely with the U’wa.

Cankú Lúta joins their families, friends and colleagues in mourning the deaths of these courageous individuals who dedicated themselves to bettering the lives of Indigenous Peoples of the World.