April 20, 2022

09:04

Marcela Leiros – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS (AM) – For centuries, indigenous people in Brazil have been fighting for basic rights such as demarcation of territories, health and quality education, as well as to break the stereotypes that place them in “boxes” and attempts to standardize the more than 896.9 thousand indigenous people – a number indicated in the last census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 2010.

This month, when we celebrate the Day of the Indian, a date that still uses a pejorative term, CENARIUM MAGAZINE listens to contemporary voices of indigenous peoples and shows that, if in another time it was necessary to leave the corners of Brazil to claim rights, today, technologies provide opportunities for the echo of these voices reach the other side of the world. Communication has opened doors for the conquest of the most diverse spaces of representation.

Regarding the spoken language, the 2010 Census identified 274 indigenous languages in Brazil. With so much diversity among native peoples, the breaking of stereotypes has been happening for some time, but the will to be able to represent is something that motivates indigenous people like Tukumã Pataxó, 22 years old. Born and raised in the city of Santa Cruz Cabrália, in the extreme south of Bahia, Pataxó is studying Gastronomy at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), has more than 180 thousand followers on the social networks, and seeks to produce content with the purpose of breaking stereotypes.

“When we go to the ‘big city’, to the capital, it is another world. There, I could see the issue of prejudice that is very deep-rooted. Then, I started to bring this content, I posted on Facebook a picture of myself, dressed up, and another picture with my normal clothes, and I said that I could be in the village or in the city, dressed up or with normal clothes, and I would still be indigenous, because this is in our blood, and this went viral. Several other Indians contacted me because they identified themselves. For me, it was only me that this was happening, but no,” Pataxó told CENARIUM MAGAZINE.

The influencer also highlights that the attempt to standardize the indigenous people is one of the thoughts that must be broken. “The Indian, for those who don’t know, is the one that the Portuguese saw when they didn’t get to India. It was a name given to the indigenous people and the Indian is something pejorative. When you talk about the Indian it is as if you were talking about all the peoples in one person, but we are several nations. Currently, there are more than 300 indigenous peoples,” he emphasizes.

The cell phone becomes a fighting tool

Tukumã Pataxó also points out that indigenous peoples have made their voices heard beyond their communities, and smartphones and the Internet are the main tools that enable the rapid dissemination of what is shared anywhere in the world. 

“I remember that the elders used to say that they would leave here in the extreme south of Bahia and walk, without knowing how to get to Brasilia to fight for the demarcation of their territory. Nowadays, we are evolving with time. We have internet and this helps a lot in the fight. The cell phone became a fighting tool, it’s not a luxury”, he shares.

In Amazonas, the concentration

The IBGE’s 2010 Census also indicated that the North Region concentrates most of the indigenous localities: there are 4,504, 63.4% of the total, followed by the Northeast (1,211), Midwest (713), Southeast (374) and South (301). Only Amazonas has 2,602 indigenous localities and of the ten municipalities with the highest concentration, seven are in the state. The city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira had 429 localities at the time of the Census and is considered the most indigenous city in Brazil.

Leaders such as Beto Marubo and Samela Sateré-Mawé are located in the Amazon. Beto, an indigenous Marubo, from the Kumãnya village, in Alto Rio Içá, and member of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Unijava), is a reference in the fight for the preservation of isolated groups in the Javari Valley, in Amazonas. To CENARIUM MAGAZINE, he recalls the main advances achieved by the indigenous people over time, and the main challenges to be overcome. 

“The advances, first of all, are the two constitutional articles that mark the rules regarding indigenous rights, in line with international laws, such as Article 169 of the ILO [International Labor Organization] and the rights of indigenous peoples of the UN [United Nations], recognized in Brazil. Having the issue of quotas for indigenous people, as well as black people, was fundamental for this achievement,” he explains.

“The main challenge, in my opinion, is to give total autonomy to the indigenous collectivity to say how they want to survive in the current context of changes related to the environmental issue, with the inclusion of minorities in the national scenario, both economically, socially, and professionally. But, respecting the experience. That we don’t lose our specificities, our culture, in this overwhelming process of technology in the modern world,” emphasizes Beto Marubo.

Possibilities and opportunities

Samela Sateré-Mawé is 25 years old and lives in the Association of Sateré-Mawé Indigenous Women, in Manaus. Studying Biology at the Amazonas State University (UEA), the young environmental activist and indigenous communicator emphasizes that the main definition of indigenous peoples in Brazil in the 21st century is the conquest of spaces.

“I think that we, indigenous peoples, are in all spaces. In universities, we are occupying spaces in politics and medicine, and we continue to maintain our culture,” she emphasizes, also pointing out that education is what has most enabled the conquests. “We are conquering representation, but what needs to be guaranteed is quality education, so that we can enter higher education and graduate in the most diverse areas. We need possibilities and opportunities.

Speaking about occupying these spaces, Samela recalls two important events led by indigenous people in 2021, which had the Internet as their driving force: The COP (26th United Nations Climate Change Conference), in Glasgow, Scotland, where she participated in panels to discuss preservation and was present at the Youth Climate March, the General Climate March, and the mobilization against the Temporal Framework, in Brasilia (DF). 

“The indigenous cause and the environmental cause cannot be separated, because the environmental cause has everything to do with indigenous territories, which are great protectors of environmental issues, because we are in the territory and we are the main defenders. As a woman, an indigenous woman, a young Amazonian, leaving here to speak on another continent that people’s actions affect our daily lives was very important, but it’s also sad, because we shouldn’t be playing this role for people to do the obvious”, she explains.

“The internet is a tool of struggle and resistance that we use to fight for our rights. We are appropriating and demarcating spaces, occupying screens,” she concludes.

From the Amazon to the world

Just like Samela, the Amazon has also been heard by the world through the indigenous activist of the Paiter Suruí people in Rondonia, Txai Suruí. At the age of 24, she attracted the world’s attention when she spoke at the opening of COP26, and her speech drew criticism from President Jair Bolsonaro. Currently, the indigenous woman serves as coordinator of the Association for Ethnoenvironmental Defense (Kanindé) and the Indigenous Youth Movement of Rondônia.

“Today, communication is also an instrument to guarantee our rights. It is through the social networks, the internet, that we are able to denounce, demystify racist stereotypes, that we are able to recount our history. And this involves not only being on the social networks, but also being the protagonist of those who are telling our story, for example: being the one who is filming, producing the content, not only being the characters of this content,” she points out. 

Txai also recalls that, despite the advances, the indigenous struggle must continue, especially with regard to the constant attacks on the territorial rights of indigenous peoples. “One of the challenges that we are currently going through is to fight against the attacks that we have been suffering from the Legislative Branch, such as PL 490, which wants to end our indigenous territories, PL 191, which wants to allow mining within our territories, even though we say we don’t want it,” she concludes.