March 23, 2022
12:03
Yusseff Abrahim – from Cenarium Magazine
BRASILIA – The affirmation and encouragement to political participation were the highlights of the public hearing with the theme “Indigenous Women in Politics: Advances and Achievements”, held this Tuesday morning, 22, by the Women’s Secretariat of the House of Representatives.
The meeting was part of the agenda of the ‘March Woman’ campaign, which celebrates the 90 years of electoral justice and the female vote.
The event was opened by the first indigenous woman elected federal lawmaker, Joenia Wapichana (Rede/RR), who proposed the meeting to celebrate women’s social, economic and political achievements, in addition to raising awareness about ethnic and gender inequalities. Victim of violent speeches by some fellow lawmakers, Joenia shows willingness to assert herself as an elected candidate.
“We, women, Brazilian citizens, originated from the native peoples of this country, have the right to be and remain in the positions that are incumbent upon any Brazilian, whether in the National Congress, public office, or profession”, she commented.
Willing to present an Amazonian vision for politics, the congresswoman criticized the lack of feeling of collectivity in Brazil and in the rest of the world.
“We value our politics of the “Malocão”, which is done there in the indigenous community, in a collective and democratic way, which we try to bring to this Congress in an educational way, as a way to incorporate the indigenous values that are missing today in many parts of the world; that is why there is war, greed in relation to indigenous lands, because there is a lack of responsibility for natural resources and, mainly, the feeling of humanity that is being lost and women will bring it back again”.
Politics needs women
Veralice Lima de Oliveira, vice-mayor of Normandia, in Roraima, has been running for a place in representative politics since 2004, as a councilwoman candidate, and she conveyed a message of motivation for women to enter politics and feel able to compete and honor the spaces they have conquered.
“Don’t give up, do whatever you want, because we are capable, we are mothers, grandmothers, housewives, farmers, city councilors, vice-mayors, mayors, and deputies.
While pointing out that Normandia has long had at least two female city councilors, the vice-mayor extolled the difference in politics from a female perspective.
“I know several indigenous women in Normandia who are very capable, we need to motivate them to continue in politics by advocating for us. It has been proven that we women do politics better, even in quality, because women are sweeter, have a different look, more honest, and we are showing this to society.
Indigenous women and electoral justice
Another guest at the event, the president of the Inclusion and Diversity Center of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Superior Electoral Court, Samara Pataxó, remembered the almost non-existent participation of indigenous women in the 90 years of the Brazilian Electoral Justice, but she already identifies institutional efforts for advances.
“There is a movement of the institutions, little more significant. At the TSE there are several commissions, on gender, racial equality, where I am inserting the indigenous culture and planting a seed”, said the lawyer, who is a native of the Pataxó village in the South of Bahia.
Even with the conquests of full citizenship, acquired since the 1988 Constitution, Samara commented on the barriers that should have already been overcome, but still persist, such as the difficulty of recognition of the indigenous identity by the population, incurring in a double discrimination against women.
“Besides dealing with structural racism, we have to act in a way to decolonize our bodies and the idea that others have about us, wanting to dictate where we should be. We participate, politically, in many ways, from how we vote, being voted, exercising citizenship in a full way, under the right to exercise mandates free of discrimination, harassment, and violence,” she explained.
The lawyer concluded her speech with a call for indigenous women to be alert to invitations for candidacies in opportunistic groups that only want to make electoral use of representation.
“I want to warn relatives to be careful with candidacy proposals, so as not to serve as ‘oranges’. Unfortunately, many indigenous women and women in general are co-opted. So let’s be vigilant so that we can exercise protagonism and that our voice and our struggle prevail over any kind of unethical and anti-indigenous proposal.”
Geographic space challenges representativeness
Participating in a collective that currently articulates the construction of candidacies in Amazonas, the indigenous leader Vanda Ortega Witoto pointed out the challenge of the geographic space in the path of representativeness.
“Because of the distance from the capital, the only people who can reach the territories are those who have been in the political scene for a long time and have resources, these differences make it difficult for us to walk together with the young, the elderly, the leaders, and all the communities”, said Witoto.
For her, this is one of the structural factors that explains the occupation of political mandates by white men to represent the Amazon at the municipal, state and federal levels.
“We have the largest indigenous population in the country and we don’t have an indigenous political representation to demand the defense of their territories, that dialogues with the State in favor of these populations, of this region and, above all, in defense of the Amazon, in this important historical moment.”
Witoto, who is a pre-candidate for federal lawmaker, considered that being represented in the spaces that build politics is what makes the difference between the establishment of rights in the 1988 Constitution and their effective implementation in society.
The social worker and chief Ô-é Kayapó also participated in the event, highlighting the internal female representativeness among the Kayapó, with the beginning of the caçicado in 2012, which raised women to head political positions inside and outside the territory.
Lawmakers Érika Kokai (PT/DF) and Ângela Amin (Progressistas) were the parliamentary presences.
LEARN MORE
In the 2020 election, a survey by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), based on data from the Superior Electoral Court, indicates that 234 indigenous representatives from 71 original peoples were elected, being 10 mayors, 11 vice-mayors and 213 councilors. In all, only 31 indigenous women were elected, which corresponds to only 13% of this segment of representatives.
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